On Sunday, completed a quick loop up to Devils' Dyke from my house; the actual route as described in the Gallery is around 3-4 miles, and starts from the Downsman pub is Hangleton Way (View the location on Multimap), ending at Foredown Tower after heading up towards Devils' Dyke, cutting across a field and down another path which leads directly to the Tower.
It can be done the other round, but I find it better this way because the initial uphill is (or at least feels) a lot shorter, and it's more fun riding down the rutted trail that it is riding down a smooth path.
This was another "I went drinking last night and feel guilty about not riding" kind of rides; I ended up setting off at about 16:00! I actually used the Fire Mountain for this ride; the Dawg is being serviced on Tuesday, but I dropped it off early on Saturday to avoid having to use my lunchbreak to do so during the week.
The wind was absolutely howling, and for about 3/4 of the ride, I was riding against it - not a lot of fun.
Carried out lots of updates on the site this week; I've now got the full text report of the Chanctonbury Ring ride up, in the Routes section, and have also finished the summaries of the larger images from the ride too. Hoping to go riding over the weekend, although Saturday is currently booked up all day, with a drinking session in the evening. So likely to be a fairly short, Sunday ride again.
Thought I'd talk about some of the accessories I use for riding on a regular basis. I tend to stay pretty much unencumbered by anything that I don't consider to be absolutely necessary to me when I ride. I'm not keen on the "all the gear, no idea" types, prefering to concentrate on the riding, rather than pimped up equipment. First off, I always carry my shock pump with me - this is a "Bike Hut" model, from Halfords. I thought that the £20 I paid for it was a bargain compared to others on the market, but as it turns out, there are loads more available for that price and cheaper. I've been pretty happy with it - it does take some grief, banging about in my bag, but is still working good as new.
My helmet is a Giro Skyline - probably one of the lowest down in the model range, but it's incredibly light, fits really well, and looks pretty good.. hopefully I'll never be in a position to test how well it saves my head!
I did have some Kona full fingered gloves; I think these were mismatched to the type of riding I do; although they were full-fingered, they were neither warm enough to stop my hands getting cold in bad weather, or breathable enough to stop my hands from overheating in the Summer. In fact, during an Eastbourne to Brighton ride last year, I actually tried hacking the ends of the fingers of the gloves off with a key (nothing else available!), in order to stop my hands from sweating! I can confirm that they are hard wearing.. I gave up on this after a short time ; )
I currently use some Polaris gloves that I purchased from the Bike Shop at Friston Forest (can't remember the name - sorry guys!) (ah, scratch that, a quick web search sorted it; it's the "Cuckmere Cycle Company") - these are short fingered, with gel in the palms. I've heard that gel padding is actually pretty bad - apparently the gel can get hard, and slide around - not very good for padding. However, these have been pretty good, and riding off-road with *any* gloves is better than no gloves.
I only use one of two tops; these consist of my Kona Team replica T-shirt, which is incredibly bright, or my rather less conspicuous "Dirt Monkey" top.
Apart from that, I don't really use any other bike-specific riding gear; I tend to wear standard tracksuit trousers, and trainers. I do plan to start using proper riding shorts soon (baggies); but as for the shoes, I'll be sticking to trainers. For a start, I'm a size 14 shoe, and I'm not sure if any SPD shoes are made in this size! Secondly, after a pretty bad crash, caused by a taxi driver, just after I’d removed the standard toe straps from my Fire Mountain, I decided I’d rather not be permanently attached to my bike, just in case, regardless of how easy (in theory) it might be to un-attach myself.
Well, it's 18:00 on a Friday, and the pub is officially calling, so that's all for now, folks! Happy riding!
OK, quick update - I've now linked all the thumbnails in the Chanctonbury Ring ride gallery through to large versions. Not many of the large images have summaries.. I think having the descriptions on the thumbnail page is easier to follow. There'll soon be a ride report up anyway.
Sitting at work feeling very sorry for my Kona Dawg.. I haven't washed it properly since the ride on Saturday, so I'll probably get home to a rusty chain ; (
I've now added captions to all the thumbnails on the Chanctonbury Ring ride (below); next, I'll get them all linked through to the larger versions.
Completed the Devils' Dyke / Chanctonbury Ring / Cissbury Ring ride today. It was the first long distance ride we've done in a while, with a total distance of 23 miles. It's quite a simple route, with approximately 85% off-road. We underestimated the extra time that taking photos would add, so ended up going from Truleigh Hill to Devils' Dyke in the pitch black!
The ground was very soggy from the rain yesterday, but it was in a better state than Friston or Tilgate forest would have been in. I've put up all the thumbnails from the ride (a work in progress at the time of writing!) here. A more detailed account will be added soon.
The total ride distance was 23 miles; I somehow remembered it being nearer to just over 30; that's probably accurate including the ride from my house up to the Dyke, and then back from the Dyke afterwards.
Rode my bike to work in the pouring rain today (5 miles) - so nice and saturated by the time I got there. The weather's looking a lot better now, luckily - I have a bike ride planned for tomorrow. Not sure where we're going yet, but should have some pics up in the Gallery section, and a ride report in the Routes section by late Monday evening. Still relying on my camera phone for piccies, but thinking of investing in a proper digital camera.
This is the first post in my mountain bike riding blog. I have two bikes at the moment, both Kona's. My hardtail, a 2003 Kona Fire Mountain, is currently used for commuting. My other is a 2004 Kona Dawg Full Suspension bike, which is my pride and joy, and cost more than the last car I owned
; )
More information about my bikes can be found in the "My Bikes" section.
Didn't have a major ride this weekend - weather wasn't up to much anyway, and a heavy drinking session on Friday night didn't help levels of enthusiasm. So at about 15:00 Sunday, with about 1.5 hours of sunlight left, decided to go for a quick spin - ended up doing three laps of Hove Park - nothing spectacular, but stopped myself feeling guilty about ANOTHER weekend having passed without riding!
I ride all over the South Downs, and further afield when possible, so future ride reports will be a whole lot more interesting than this one; my favourite rides are the Eastbourne to Brighton over the South Downs Way, Friston Forest and various routes starting from Devil's Dyke, such as the Chanctonbury Ring / Cissbury Ring ride. Full details will be added to the Routes section in time.
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