Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Yeah this time in going to take more than flapjack to keep me going, and also set aside 20 mins for a proper lunchbreak just to break up the day a little, gonna try keep up with the group but main focus is taking in the trails & soaking it all up

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Aye 24/26miles is the red route,IIRC the bikes needed to be back by 5 so it wasnt too bright that we hadnt started the ride until after 1pm. It put the pressure on and we needed to be averaging around 6miles an hour to get back with a reasonable chance of returning the bikes.

We were stopping around every 30mins for about 10min to allow everyone opertunity to catch thier breath have a chin wag and compear crash stories. On one stop Mike generously crashed in view to give everyone a giggle. - good sport.

Approaching 3:00 we werent even half way around so we all agreed we should take the short cut and got it back somewhere near schedule By 3:30 we had fallen behind schedule again so if we wanted the bikes back ontime Tom and I needed to push on. At another stop at around 4:00 Tom and I shared the last bag of Hairbo with the group and decided to continue with no further stops. It would be an epic push with still 6-8miles to go but we wanted to complete the course rather than bail out down a fire road.

We'd completed the route in about 50min rolling in with 10min to spare feeling like champions, all be it champions who'd been kicked this shiz out of.
We were stood outside the hire shop having regained control of our breathing and could just about stand again without support. We were still considering a mutual suicde pact to end our pain when Rob and YC rolled into view having a merry chat, these were the first of the fire road cheats lol.

Once they'd washed thier bikes and gear at the Jet Wash we noticed Mike merrily wandering about, god only knows how he managed it but Im betting the Tea and Cake were to credit for his unphased persona.

Nicks' brother was doing some stunting when nick and paul came into view. We'd all made it back to base and it was now little past 5.30 we all loaded up our various transport and left Dalby in the rear view.

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Any time after easter sounds good - voted. This has reminded me to get up to Stainburn and blow the cobwebs away. Hardly ridden any push bikes since coast to coast last year and that was done on the road bike.

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Did 11 miles in 1hr 5 yesterday and finally found some proper hills to work on my climbing (full on slippery mud as well) - a real novelty on the flatlands of york!

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/39515942 hover your mouse over the graph at the bottom and watch the red dot (me) whiz along the route :D

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Call them hills? You do know about the Castle Howard loop don't you Paul? It is quite handy for York and takes a couple of hours.... It is many years since I rode it, but as it is all on RoW it is still available. From what I remember, this description is accurate http://www.mtb-routes.co.uk/northyor...d/details.aspx

:D

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Lunch break is a good idea, what do you recon for start time this time? Aim to be at Dalby for 10? I quite fancy taking a camera next time, there were some epic possibilities for good shots on the last outing.

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Nope never heard of the Castle Howard loop but know where castle howard is - what's RoW? :D I know they're not proper hills but if I repeat them enough I can move into some bigger ones and eventually maybe become a little bit good at hill climbing (maybe even shed a bit of weight in the prcoess)

Thanks for the tip off though, got a bike rack now :thumbsup:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-z...s800/photo.JPG

saris bones 3 - the instructions say to have it resting on the bumper, but the straps clipped to the top of the bootlid pull the rack upwards away from the bumper - whereas having it where it is on the picture, although it puts a bit more strain on the straps, the straps are pulling the rack towards the bootlid rather than up it if that makes sense? Just feels safer & more stable in the pictured configuration, and also allows the numberplate to remain visible..

Already been on the phone to my mate who's an autoelectrician for getting a 7 pin socket to power a numberplate/light board though.. Keep it legal homies.

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Yeah the earlier the better tbh.

Re: camera - everyone thought I was slow and fat but I actually kept stopping to take pics every few miles, hency why I was always rolling in 5-10 mins after everyone else.. Honest. :razz:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1046831...ut18thJune2011

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

RoW = Right of Way, for MTB bridleways(BWs), Roads Used as Public Path (RUPPs - these being phased out) and Byeways Open to All Traffic (BOATs) - IIRC the Castle Howard loop is on Bridleways and minor roads for most of it's length. If you cannot find it, I'll contact some of my York friends for the route.

Re: Dalby forest red route again? Abandon hope all ye who are fat..
 

Count me in - anything been decided yet?