Got the Friston Forest ride gallery up - there were a lot of photos on this one! I could have purged a few more, and I did leave some fairly jokey ones in there, but it's a pretty good gallery. Of course, the thing with this ride, is that it is completely waymarked (you'll notice that from the photos), so it's pretty hard to get lost anyway.
Next I'll work on the route guide for the ride for the Routes section, and then the continuation of the Eastbourne to Brighton ride.
Ah.. just an online route map of the rides around Friston on the Cuckmere Cycle Company web site - bargain ; )
Finally managed to get the Friston Forest ride done with the camera - although this is the shortest ride featured on this site, it has the most photo's - go figure.
This was an absolutely wicked ride - it reminded me why it's one of my favourites. It's quite a compact venue; we follow the waymarked MTB Trail, but there are lots more areas to explore. The trail is 7.5 miles long, and has lots of varied riding, and some cool views if that's your bag.
Although the ground was quite soggy in places, it wasn't too bad. Can't complain about the weather really - the wind was quite strong, making it cold, but the sky was very blue and the sun was out - considering it's still February, we were quite lucky.
As there are so many pictures, it'll take a bit longer to build the gallery section for them, but it should be sorted by the end of my lunch break tomorrow ; )
My apologies for the completely off-topic post yesterday - I don't know what came over me ; )
Well, the weather is being a bit schizophrenic at the moment, what with snow this morning and (almost!) a blue sky as I write this, but the weather's unlikely to stop our riding this weekend - just planned a ride to Friston Forest (the joys of corporate email!). One of the good things about forest venues is the shelter they offer from the elements - for the most part, you're protected from the wind, and to an extent, the rain. Of course, I do state elsewhere on the site that I avoid forest venues during bad weather, as this wrecks the trails. But Friston has pretty good drainage and there's no rain forecasted between now and tomorrow so it should be OK.
One of the things about offering route guides is the fact that it's not possible to scan and use OS maps to show routes, due to copyright laws. However, the Cuckmere Cycle company, who are based at Friston, do have their own map of the MTB route that goes around the forest; I'll try to tap them up for permission to use it on the site when we go there tomorrow ; )
May be able to write the ride up on Sunday, but if not, I'll get the graphics stuff for the photos sorted in my lunch break on Monday, and the report live Monday PM / Tuesday lunch.
I purchased a different sort of bike today - a new moped! He he. Admittedly I look a bit of a plonker riding it, being 6' 4", but after a mountain / hybrid bike, it's the ultimate commuter vehicle, with free parking in the middle of town!
I've decided to start writing up the Eastbourne to Brighton bike ride, from memory.. so this is a "follow at your own peril" route! Of course, I wouldn't recommend following any written instructions without a map as backup.
I have ridden (or at least attempted to ride!) this route about four times; the first time, we hadn't left enough time to complete it before darkness, so had to give up, and get the train back from Southease Station.
On the subject of trains, it's always a good idea to get a return ticket; they're rarely much more than a few pounds extra, and can really save you if you get caught in the dark.
On the second ride, the long distance flared up an injury of my riding buddy, sustained playing football, which left him in quite a bit of pain, so again, we cut the ride short, this time getting the train back from Lewes.
By this point, we had started to consider this ride our nemesis, and were determined to complete it, which we did on our next attempt - we weren't getting beaten this time.. we were at the foot of Beachy Head by 9:00 sharp, and were very well equipped with food, drink, warm clothes and tools. I decided at the last minute to leave the kitchen sink at home.
We completed the ride in about 7.5 hours, which was pretty much OK considering we didn't know the exact route the whole of the way, and had to improvise some. We also paced ourselves, ensuring that we had plenty of refuelling stops.
The fourth time, I actually did the ride on my own - my regular riding buddy couldn't make it, but I really wanted to do it. I completed it in just under 6 hours, mostly because I didn't have anyone to chat with etc - it was very lonely, and the bleak conditions on the day didn't help matters! Not something I'm likely to repeat again too soon.
So, I do actually know the route pretty well, hence my deciding to write it up now. The first installment is here.. this will get you as far as Alfriston. I've linked to some maps, which I hope helps.
More to come soon!
Finally managed to go for a ride at the weekend.. only a small one though. It went from Southwick, up on to the Downs.. it was never going to be a big ride, just reconnaissance to see if it could be used as part of another ride, and to get off the South Downs Way for once.
Mostly, it was fun sloshing around in the mud! I've added some new images to the "Kona Dawg" section showing the bike covered in mud from the ride (they're at the bottom of the page!)..
I've now implemented the gallery navigation system on the Brighton --> Lewes --> Brighton gallery.
Planning to do a bike ride at the weekend; I now have my Dawg back from the LBS, although there is now such a defecit of hydraulic fluid that the brake lever hits the gear lever, and changes gear when pulled to its' full travel! Doh..
The weather prediction's not looking great, so don't think it'll be an epic by any stretch of the imagination, but it'll be good to ride, as it's been a while now.
Speaking of epics, I've decided that it'll be a while before I can do the Eastbourne to Brighton ride, purely due to the amount of daylight available at the moment, so have decided to do a write up of the route (potentially in installments - it's a large route!) anyway, and add pictures next time I do the ride. I'm a bit worried that some of the ride needs either photos or a map, but I'll explain it the best I can - the problem is, it's illegal to simply scan in an OS map and use it for the route - copyright infringement or something.. ; )
I've started to implement my new idea for navigation in the gallery sections; now, on each large version of an image, you'll get the "previous" and "next" images in the sequence linked from below the image. This will hopefully make it a lot easier to navigate the gallery for each ride.
So far, this system has been implemented on the Chanctonbury Ring ride gallery, and the Dyke Railway Trail ride gallery.
I haven't decided whether this system will be implemented on the other gallery sections such as the Miscellaneous ride images gallery and the biking accessories gallery, because they are not designed to be seen in any particular order. Should have the Brighton --> Lewes --> Brighton ride gallery sorted soon too.
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