Another Sunny / cloudy local gravel / tarmac loop around Hamsterley / Woodland / Toft Hill

Yet another warm sunny / cloudy day here in County Durham. Todays loop was a mixture of country lanes and a ride straight through Hamsterley Forest from Bedburn and out at Blackling Hole. It was a steady away spin on the Synpase Neo E bike taking in the views over the valleys. Below are a few snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon -

Time the beast had a wash.

Another local sunny / cloudy but less windy gravel loop

The temperature today was just right for a local loop taking a couple of old railway lines joined by two short sections of road. Again it was a mix of sun and cloud for the whole ride but the wind has died right down. The lines were very quiet and hardly a sole wandering about. I more or less had the tracks to myself. Even the road sections were quiet, everyone must still be on holiday, all the better for me! The lines are back to nearly all bone dry and dusty = fast / easy going. Below are a few snaps from the ride. It was also new shorts day today, today which match my new Gore top, what a fashion item I am, NOT. Enjoy and hopefully more soon -

Local spin upto Pontop Pike on the road with some gravel chucked in.

Another sunny / cloudy / warm ride but the wind was even stronger with gusts of over 25mph. It was tough going to say the least but I needed to turn a few miles in. This was the first ride on the new Maxxis rear tyre and I had no problems. Plenty of grip on tarmac and loose gravel on the old railway line sections. No sign of any leakage yet either. On the country lane past Pontop pike I nearly got wiped out by a bloke driving a black pick up whilst on his mobile phone then less than a minute later an elderly lady coming in the opposite direction a foot of the my side of the road, looked up at the last second with me shouting at her, she had her mobile phone on the top of the steering wheel either reading or sending a text / email, crazy stuff! Also I nearly got wiped out dropping down in to Lanchester village, not sure what was up with drivers today but they need to slow down and just think about what they are doing.

 

and a couple of short video clips