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We left Terry at base camp today. After a late start due to heavy rain we rode Dalbeattie. A really great rocky ride which is 19 miles long although with the diversion in place we covered 22 miles.

After that we headed to Ae to give that a go.

We set out on the 24km Ae trail. Me n Rob rode it last time but I couldn't remember much of it

A more typical trail centre switchback climb thru the woods set us up for the first set of swooping descents and with the sun finally breaking through it was great fun.

This trail is more free flowing and less technical than Dalbeattie but there were still some massive rock gardens and big bermed rocky descents. There is more climbing involved too and some rather high and narrow boardwalk/north shore sections that we all thankfully negotiated.

The problems started when Davebus had his first puncture. A longish change of tube before setting off again and another rocky section led to another pinch flat for him.

We had started at 5pmish and the early evening bought the midges out in hordes as we tried in vain to slap them away.

Another boardwalk section with a largish drop at the end saw Dave W jump it but pinch flatted on the landing.

This led to a comedy of errors as fist off the valve flew out the spare tube just as he finished the repair. He then split the second tube in a hasty attempt at levering on his wire beaded tyres and a third tube lost its valve too in a series of ham fisted repairs caused by clouds of midges swarming all over us.

By the time we set off again only for davebus to flat again on 'The Edge' section the sun was dangerously low in the sky and we were only halfway round the trail.

After consulting the map we rode to the end of the next section which offered us a shortcut home via fireroad and then linking onto the blue trail.

We finally arrived back at the cars at 9pm. Two hours riding 16 miles and two hours spent on repairs.

Not to detract from the trail tho, it was superb and its a shame we coulnt finish it.

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Date: Saturday 6th June 2009
Riders: Richard, Rob, Davebus and Dave
Kirroughtree, 7 Stanes
Weather: 12°C

Well that's Kirroughtree cracked and all agreed the best trail so far.

22 miles of red n black graded trails and they are fantastic. More free flowing than other centres but still plenty of big rock gardens to negotiate.

I also cleaned my nemesis from last time, the steep roll in down the side of Mcmoab.

A steep lomg climb at the far end of the trail is rewarded with a flowing, rocky descent, all black graded that goes on for almost 3 miles.

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Date: Sunday 7th June 2009
Riders: Richard, Rob, Davebus, Terry and Dave
Glentress, 7 Stanes
Weather: 13°C

Glentress was ridden today, a touch over 20 miles. Some long winding shallow climbs at the start (fun) followed by some long steep climbs further in (not fun) and Davebus's freehub gave up. Not a surprise really as we all now it has been knackered on some of the LOMAC rides and he hasn't had it serviced either. This saw him push up the long climb to the outlook in a light rain but as it was granny gear for all of us except Terry who was back in the saddle then he wasn't far behind us.

After all of us went down on Britney Spears (sloppy seconds anyone?) the busmeister then took the emergency exit back to the hub cafe and bike shop.

The rest of us pushed on and there were some long rocky descents folloed by longer leg burning climbs but me n rob rode it all unlike our last visit in 2006.

The final black descents are hair raising and then onto the red descent which is rerally fast. me n rob caught up with Terry and were buzzing his back wheel until he pulled over to let us past. Rob thanked him but I was full of adrenalin and shouted 'yeah! Get outta the way old man!'

Of course I didn't mean it and instantly felt guilty but Tezza took it well and told me to eff off at the bottom...

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Date: Monday 8th June 2009
Riders: Richard, Rob, Davebus, Terry and Dave
Dalbeattie and Ae, 7 Stanes
Weather: 14°C

we couldn't face another long car trip to visit Innerleithen so we decided to go back to Dalbeattie this morning as we all enjoyed it and Terry had missed it earlier on in the trip.

We all had a great ride and davebus has really developed his technical skills being much closer to us on the rocky descents whilst green orange dave has proved to be a freeride god tackling all of the black runs/rocky slabs.

Went back to Ae this afternoon to finish off the end of the route we had to miss the other day. Only 8 miles, five of them uphill on a fireroad climb but it was worth it for the bermed, rocky 3 mile descent with tabletop, drops and doubles aplenty.

All made it safely to the bottom. Talkimg of bottoms, why do a group of blokes fart so much? We are off for a curry tonight too so the accomodation will whiff in the morning.

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Date: Tuesday 9th June 2009
Riders: Richard, Rob, Davebus, Terry and Dave
Altura bike trail, Whinlatter, Lake District
Weather: 16°C

So anyway what's with Whinlatter? (Nice use of alliteration).

We turned up at the forest car park which is full of mainly the retired generation with a smattering of mtb'ers and got chatting to a local familiar with the trails, nice bloke.

There is a visitor centre, cafe, toilets and well stocked bike shop.

We set off on the Altura trail, North loop (red grade). It has one of the best starts of a purpose built trail I have ridden. As you already have plenty of height at the car park it uses gravity to best effect to have you immediately speeding through the trees on a rollercoaster trail.

This gives you up onto a fireroad with a big shit-eating grin on your face and you cross the fire road and climb up a narrow exposed trail which twists up the hill giving some superb views of the surrounding mountains and lake below.

From here there's another winding section thru the woods before a long, steep and challenging fire road climb.

At the top you traverse the side of the hill discovering that the local slate used to build the trail is nothing like as grippy as the granite you have been riding all week long in Scotland.

There's an unfortunate and frustrating loss of height on a plain fireroad but another singletrack climb gains height again for the main attraction of the day.

The final few sections of this short 6 mile trail though the woods are great featuring tight corners, slippery roots where we all get a drift on, berms and rock drops before the final steep descent featuring doubles,alpine style steep bermed corners, tabletops and a series of almost a dozen kickers which enable you to get air without even trying but are perfectly built so that you are launched front wheel high rather than the normal rear wheel uppermost position beloved of you average joe 'wheels firmly planted on the ground' rider.

Davebus and Terry decided to hit the long road home at this stage whilst Dave, Rob and I hit the blue trail.

Recently built, this is best described as blue and a half as it features sweeping berms and swooping singletrack that allows you to really give it the beans offering plenty of opportunity to get air off strategically placed rocks whilst there are plenty of alternative trail features for those of you who like a challenge like the option to cut a wide flat corner by taking a shorter line but having to negotiate rock slabs deliberately placed there to test your bike handling skills.

We paused for ten minutes to rescue a small group of geordies left stranded by a broken chain who seemed amazed at the fact that you could fix it with a powerlink rather than having to replace the whole chain...

The blue finished with more bermed corners through the trees although I made it 4.5 miles rather than the advertised six miles.

We still had a long way to go home and so decided to give the Altura 'south' trail (5.5 miles) a miss and set off down the M6 in Dave's wind assisted 2.4 litre Volvo.

Oh yes, an update on mechanicals...

At Kirroughtree Rob had a cartwheeling off, landing on his feet but he caught the saddle on his shorts on the way off and pulled the nose of the saddle off the rails. We zip tied it back on in a haze of midges but it was slipping allday and rob bought a new saddle at glentress the next day

My front brake pads got contaminated at some stage over the week and I rode the whole of kirroughtree without a front brake (pulling hard on the lever I could still roll the bike foward with very little resistance)

Needless to say I took some corners/descents very fast and Davebus caught me on video coming down a rock garden with very little control just managing to save it at the bottom.

I already mentioned davebus's freehub. When he got back to the bikeshop they had a load of work in front of dave but we had been talking to the mechanic earlier as rob recognised him as having worked in Nirvana cycles.

The workshop monkey saw the cycleworks sticker on daves frame and when dave mentioned he knew dave farmer he had quoted the magic password as said bloke also worked there too and daves bike went to the top of the list and was fixed inside 40 mins

Dave also bought a new bottom bracket as his bearings are shagged. I replaced this for him last night with assistance from dave W and also greased his flat pedals (DMR V12's) as they were bone dry and his bike sounded like a bag of spanners as he rode the trails.

After increasing the level of air in his rear shock and replacing the rear tyre which had ripped on a rock as well as replacing the pads in his brakes it was like davebus was riding a different bike today. (:uey would have been very proud of my mechanical skills).

Rob has just reminded me that on the first day we rotated Davebus's bars from flat to the correct position to completely change his riding experience.

Lots of flats as its so rocky altho stangely as I am the only one on a hardtail I only had my first flat post todays dalbeattie ride whilst having lunch in the car park. The valve had moved on the rim causing it to dig a hole in the tube.

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