Upper Weardale / Cumbria (Alston) / Chapel Fell Sunny - Windy - Cool road ride

Well after Monday nights / Tuesday's continuous rain and flooding the sun was out today and so was the wind! I thought it was time to take a few hours off work and enjoy the sunny weather. The temperature was between 5 to 10 degrees for the whole ride and there was a very strong head wind on the outward leg to Alston. The roads were nice and quiet as ever in Upper Weardale / Alston area. When I reached Alston I dropped down through the village centre to the have a drink and 5 mins rest before climbing back out of Alston on the High Force road. The Cumbrian side is not the best with loads of pot holes, no white lines, poor surface but once you cross the border and into Co Durham its new smooth tarmac all the way down to Langdon Beck where I turned left and up and over Chapel Fell. This has been large stone chipped on the Teasdale side making it even harder to climb. The descent down on the Weardale side was very fast (46mph with the brakes on) with sheep on the road, wash off rain water pouring across the road and massive whipping side winds. I was pleased when I reached St Johns Chapel and back into some shelter again. Last night was also the first night for the gritters in County Durham and the roads were white with salt. Below are a few snaps and a couple of video clips at the bottom. Enjoy and hopefully more soon -
PS NECCL RD3 Newton Aycliffe this Saturday - organised by Brett and all from Aycliffe Velo.

Bought some new go go bars as well

 

Second time out for my new Sidi's.

 

And a couple of video clips

 

 

Sunny, warm'ish local road ride

Well last week was a complete wash out and so was most of the weekend. We have had rain, more rain and some more rain on top of the rain. I did not get any cycling in but a near 4 hour hike on Thursday during a gap in the rain. We had a look through to Bishop Auckland on Saturday then through to Alison Court just out side the Metro Centre on Sunday. Alpkit have opened up a shop, one unit down from Cycle Republic.
Today was the first descent day we have had for a while so I cocked my leg over the saddle for a spin out. It was a local road loop and covered 27 miles with nearly 2500ft of climbing.
I could tell I have not been out for a while, all parts of my body was feeling it but kept plugging away in the gaps in the sun / cloud. Below are a few snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon -
PS - NECCL RD 3 this Saturday by Newton Aycliffe Velo at Oak Leaf Sports Centre, Newton Aycliffe.

Fresh Goods Sunday - Ritchey Mtb SPD replacement cleats

I bought these as part of the order from Merlin Cycles with the Cannondale water bottles. They were too cheap to turn down, in fact I should have bought a couple of pairs. All our bikes are fitted with Ritchey pedals so they were always going to come in handy. The cleats on my older mtb Sidi's are starting to get worn and I wanted to keep the shoes for muddier rides so fitted these new cleats onto my new mtb Sidi's (for no muddy rides!). The cleats last along time as long as you don't do too much walking in them on hard surfaces. They are easy to fit, 2no x 4mm allen bolts per cleat. I put loads of copper slip in the threaded plate on the shoe and on the threads of the bolts, so when you come to replace / remove the cleats / bolts they should come out easy!
RRP £19.99 and I paid £7.75

Manufacturers Blurb - Replacement cleats for Ritchey V4 mountain pedals

Mounting screws are included

PRD11149

 

 

and some old ones on my Northwave winter boots