Ditching road cleats completely – marginal losses. Views & Opinion by MuddyGoose - December 29, 2021January 18, 20220 There are times when you do something because 'that's the way it should be' or because 'that's what everyone else does'. And because it seems to be right or best you never bother to question it. Then maybe you have one of those moments of realisation and decide that actually, 'there's a better way'. That's what happened for me when I questioned why I was riding single sided road pedals, road specific shoes and LOOK Keo cleats. When I bought a road bike back in 2012 to have alongside my mountain bike, I actually started off with mountain bike pedals and cleats on it but for the reasons mentioned I changed to 'proper' road shoes, cleats and pedals. I guess it
The Annual Yaxley Riders Hunstanton Ride East Anglia by MuddyGoose - July 16, 2021July 16, 20210 Many, if not all cycling clubs and groups have their key rides of the year. It may be a specific much loved route, it may be a particular event like a reliability ride, a particular TT or hill climb or something on a certain weekend or day of the year. For many who have recently joined the club or group these rides can often become rite of passage. Rides that will be talked about throughout the year on other rides. The journeyman riders may even speak of 'the time we had gale force winds and driving rain all the way home' or 'the inaugural year when there was only 3 of us' and such like. Well for any
Lancashire Stop Off – Forest of Bowland Forest of Bowland by MuddyGoose - November 7, 20180 The UK doesn't have any alpine climbs; this is something that will remain true even after Brexit. What it does have though is plenty of short, sharp and very steep ones. Almost as if to make up for the lack of total elevation gain, the road builders factor in as much steepness as possible. Or at least that's how it seems when you're grinding your way to the top in a low gear, barely turning your pedals and feeling like walking would be faster. Fortunately in the Forest of Bowland I didn't encounter any of these! Nope, not at all. And after a punishing time in Devon a couple of weeks earlier it came as a welcome relief. 1517
Head to the hills, Day 2 – #ExmoorEpic Bikepacking Devon by MuddyGoose - November 2, 20180 Day 2, early morning, the tarp and bivvy combination seems to be working a dream. I'm snug, I'm dry, it's raining, I got some decent sleep overnight, it's raining... Oh, no - it's raining. And so we have that dilemma moment; do I stay warm and dry where I am and slowly watch the time ticking by or do I get up and get wet packing everything away in the rain and starting the day's route in the rain? The answer is of course a scramble to find my phone, it will know what to do! Have I got a signal? Yes. Have a got a weather app? Of course! Will the rain stop? Probably, in about an hour. Time
Head to the hills, Day 1 – #ExmoorEpic Devon by MuddyGoose - October 6, 2018November 2, 20180 There really shouldn't be any need for an excuse to head into Exmoor for a couple of days of cycling. The north Devon & Somerset coasts host some outstanding scenery and provide a multitude of challenging hill climbs. However, for me the underlying purpose of the trip was to tick off some more of those hills in Simon Warren's book, numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 in fact. This along with the previous 45 that I'd completed so far would take me up to 50, a significant milestone for any sort of best 100 list! The fact that I could ride this as a two day trip with my cycling mate Phil and include a bivvy overnight by the
“I didn’t know about these hills” – #39 The Burway in Shropshire Shropshire Hills by MuddyGoose - September 21, 20180 The Peak District, The Lakes, Wales, Scotland, The Yorkshire Dales; I could go on. There are plenty of decent areas of hills in the UK, Meccas for the hikers and bikers alike. These are the most popular places, the National Parks, the commonly spoken of, the well written about and very much rightly so. I really enjoy hiking, biking, kayaking and camping in places such as these. But that familiarity for those places, wrongly leads many, including me it seems to assume that everywhere else is relatively flat and boring. 1436
Crashing through the potholes of Oxfordshire – The Chiltern Hills #23 & #24 Chiltern Hills by MuddyGoose - June 2, 20180 Having chalked off a good few of the 100 UK climbs in Simon Warren's book, it's now getting harder and harder to find opportunities to climbs the remain ones. Previously I did so opportunistically, taking my bike with me while working in various parts of the country and knocking off two, three or four at a time in a well planned route. However the remaining hills are now singles or farther away. Or just in places I don't tend to visit. The exception being numbers 23 and 24 in the Chiltern Hills, these are less than a two hour drive from home and perfect for a day trip ride. 1369
Cold and Icy – No Excuses Cambridgeshire Rides by MuddyGoose - February 27, 2018March 8, 20180 For anyone not in the know, that title might be seen as me advocating manning up and braving the weather etc. But no, that's all been said before, many times by many riders and until I get the chance to ride across the Mongolian plains I really won't truly understand tough conditions. 1341
Riding the highest surfaced road in Britain Cumbria by MuddyGoose - August 5, 20170 For a hill loving, road cyclist these are the ultimate aims. To ride the highest road, to climb the longest climb, to achieve your maximum elevation gain, to test yourself on the steepest of gradients. It's the love of pushing yourself, of achieving the next level of difficulty that drives us on. Well the road that winds it's way up to the top of Great Dun Fell offers all of this and gives us an excellent surface, almost entirely free of cars on top. 1232
A day on the road bike in the Yorkshire Dales Yorkshire by MuddyGoose - July 31, 20170 One of the advantages of trying to climb as many of the 100 UK Climbs as possible is that you end up riding in many different parts of the UK. The Yorkshire Dales is somewhere that I might choose to ride in any case but my 'hunt for climbs' partly dictated my route on this occasion. Having already climbed Buttertubs Pass and Lamps Moss, this route focused on Tan Hill, Oxnop Scar and The Stang. Turning this into the first day of a two day trip I managed to convince two mates to come along for the ride. 1181