Lucy & I planned a day out into South Lakes and the Dales today, so after a bit of chat with some friends we ended up as a group of nine, a little bigger than originally planned but it turned out to be a really good mix of riders. It also looked a bit like a KTM advert as we passed through the counties with everything from 6 days variations to my old 400!.
A late start had us meeting up near Kendal for 10 ish, then once Geoff had arrived, (after many stops for breakfast and ablutions), we got on the road...
The first few lanes seemed to be gates galore land as we traversed to Breast High Pass, which we actually all rode fairly cleanly, the main reason for stopping was meeting a bunch of lads who had rolled one of their 4x4's on the hairpins... they were busily getting it back upright when we arrived and we saw it at the end of the day on the A6 looking a bit battered but OK.
The descent was its usual hard blocky bouncy session. Lucy struggles with all things downhill and took this very slowly but again all reached the bottom in one piece. The next lane had a little ford in it that has loads of lichen on the stones and so was slippy as hell.. two of us went over, me included and I then launched the bike into the rocks as my hand slipped off the clutch whilst getting it back on two wheels... After this the lane itself was easy!!
Several lanes later took us near to Kirkby Stephen and a couple of river crossings, all through safely for the first one but then a few bikes in the drink for the next one. One drowned two stroke, two injected bikes swimming but the rest were fine...
Lunch took us into Kirkby Stephen where we met up with Mr Garcia and his group of riders doing the reverse loop to us... no thrills and spills for them though apparently!
We finished the day off with a few good lanes down into the top of the Dales and a blast back to Kendal on tarmac from Sedbergh... Included in this was a quick puncture repair for Andy as he hit a drainage gully a bit hard and put a slit about 3 cm long in his inner tube! Nice...
The plans are being hatched for another day out soon but for now I need to sooth some aching muscles and and both clean and service both mine and Lucy's bikes as they've now had a hard couple of weeks of laning with little care and attention!
Another good day out on the trails, some great people and some really nice chats with some walkers and a lady on her horse. The sun was shining too and it was warm out today, which was an unexpected bonus to put the icing on the cake!
Thanks to all who came along, a great day some good banter and some very good riding...
A late start had us meeting up near Kendal for 10 ish, then once Geoff had arrived, (after many stops for breakfast and ablutions), we got on the road...
The first few lanes seemed to be gates galore land as we traversed to Breast High Pass, which we actually all rode fairly cleanly, the main reason for stopping was meeting a bunch of lads who had rolled one of their 4x4's on the hairpins... they were busily getting it back upright when we arrived and we saw it at the end of the day on the A6 looking a bit battered but OK.
Several lanes later took us near to Kirkby Stephen and a couple of river crossings, all through safely for the first one but then a few bikes in the drink for the next one. One drowned two stroke, two injected bikes swimming but the rest were fine...
Lunch took us into Kirkby Stephen where we met up with Mr Garcia and his group of riders doing the reverse loop to us... no thrills and spills for them though apparently!
We finished the day off with a few good lanes down into the top of the Dales and a blast back to Kendal on tarmac from Sedbergh... Included in this was a quick puncture repair for Andy as he hit a drainage gully a bit hard and put a slit about 3 cm long in his inner tube! Nice...
The plans are being hatched for another day out soon but for now I need to sooth some aching muscles and and both clean and service both mine and Lucy's bikes as they've now had a hard couple of weeks of laning with little care and attention!
Another good day out on the trails, some great people and some really nice chats with some walkers and a lady on her horse. The sun was shining too and it was warm out today, which was an unexpected bonus to put the icing on the cake!
Thanks to all who came along, a great day some good banter and some very good riding...
