9am Cwmcarn carpark for the christmas eve ride.
The fog of the past few days has lifted, apart from at the top where visibility was a little low!
Decided on taking the on-one as I felt like I needed a good workout (and the chain on the sub5 is a little stretched)....... well I definitely got that ;-)
The other 4 riders has nice bouncy bits at both ends but I did try and keep up. The climbs were tough but the geometry of the on-one is perfect for climbing ...... no wobbly wheelies, just a nice bit of traction (when my legs could supply the power anyway).
The freeride section was almost invisible in the fog but I had a few goes on the drops and a couple of runs on the table-tops ....... got the biggest air I've had for ages ;-0 ....
Final couple of descents were ace/brill/spot on..
We'd ridden for 2 hours and I realised that hard tails are great fun and I think my back is still in on piece ....
would like bigger brakes though .... 160mm mechanical discs are a little small for speedy downhills me-thinks ;-)

Needed to get some keys to a colleague ................. good excuse to go on the bike then ;-)

On the way back decided to pop into the woods by the lake and have a quick blast on the special singletrack.

It's been foggy for a few days and the lake was almost invisible but that doesn't matter in the trees. I thought the singletrack would be fine as it hadn't rained for a while .................. I was a little bit wrong! It was like riding through treacle .... fun but a bit messy...

I only had one run and decided it was best left until Mr J Frost has made an appearance. Still had time to have a play on some other fun bits and confuse a few people walking dogs as to why a seemingly "mature" bloke would keep disappearing over a muddy drop by the lake .......... then come back and do it again ...

So a quick blast on the bike ended up being over 1-1/2 hours on the bike followed by a bit of cleaning ;-)

Whites level @ Glyncorrwg was Sundays venue.... The skies were clear and the lack of fitness of the previous couple of weeks seemed to have gone.
The singletrack climbs were hard ... but fun ... in a beer credit kind of way!
Some of our group split to do the July trail ... 2 others & myself needed to get home at a reasonable time (christmas tree type stuff ;-)) so we voted to do the DH run...
It's nice when things flow ... and they did ... The final two sections are hard on the upper body as well as the legs if you want to keep the speed up and flow over the nice slabs ...
It was all over too soon but well worth it
I even cleaned the bike when I got back ;-) (and noticed my chain was in need of replacing)

december 4th commute ... wet n windy ... don't mind the rain HATE the wind!
december 5th commute ... as above
december 7th commute ... very wet n windy on the way in ... got picked up from work as my good laydee wife didn't want me to ride home as a couple of trees had come down and she was worried about my head!!
friday december 8th sort of ok hour and a half urban assault ride home ... nice to be on the bike but the weeks weather has left it's mark on the old motivation ....
No ride sunday as the sky dropped it's load again so I cleaned the bathroom ceiling ;-(
monday 11th ..... got soaked on the ride into work ..... not that surprised really .... but the hour ride home was fun and I even found some steep steps in the park covered in soggy leaves for a bit of adrenaline buzz and some skidz for kidz! ... just me, some 20watt lights and an owl .... nice ;-)

Sundays ride was nearly abandoned due to monsoon type conditions the previous night!
The thing I like about mtbing is the fact you can do it in almost any weather conditions .... within reason .... The clouds had parted so 3 of us decided to give it a go (or 3.5 of us if you count one who left halfway through)
Just a little local jaunt on rather slippy/slidey/wet-rooty stuff, but at least it gives you some extra skills for the summer ... or at least that's the idea.
Much fun was had including the best comedy off I've seen in some time .... fast approach to a stream crossing, got overtaken by my riding buddy who hit the water at warp speed resulting in visibility of zero (think overtaking a lorry on the motorway in heavy rain!) next thing I saw was a rear wheel up in the air a foot or so in front of my face ................. then a bang ......
He was fine though and after the laughter had died down we carried on.
Had to do the final switchback descent. In the summer it's fast and fun with plenty of grip. In the winter it's got a nice covering of wet leaves on top of slimy mud on roots. As long as you realise you wont be stopping until the bottom and beware of that front brake all will be fine!! (I think I brought most of the leaves with me to the bottom looking at my rear wheel.....
It was also the muddiest I've been for at least a year!!!
Winters not all that bad really ;-)