Happy New Year to the local R/Bers ! 
Well, that was a lot less of a carnage than I'd imagined!
After a solid day of rain, I expected the trails to be pretty gloopy.
Having got to Arundel station, ahem, slightly late
I was greeted to the sight of absolutely no bikes in the car park. Thought I'd missed the boat TBH.
However, as I freewheeled in, I was greeted to a cheerful-looking godders, sat in his van, waiting for more people to arrive.
Well, the numbers had now doubled,
as I was here :facepalm: After having oggled his lovely Cinder Cone for a while,
we saddled up, as it was obvious that no-one else was going to show up :roll:
Along the Arundel by-pass we went and onto some quiet trails, gradually climbing to start with, then a nasty little steep section. Mick was finding it a bit of a strain as his SS bike was over-geared, however we made it up that section, dignity intact.
Then along to some nice up and down sections,
before some proper wet, rooty singletrack took us down to the A29, where we came out slightly higher than we expected.
Rolling down the road to where we wanted to be, we saw the entry to the bridleway, and stopped short of going down it, as there was a big drop off down to it :shock:
Carrying on having gone around the cliff, we ended up on a nice section of singletrack into Whiteways woods.
Mick knows his way around here, so we had some fun riding through the twisty, rooty trails around here.
It was also not as muddy as I thought it would be, just the occasional puddle, which added to the fun.
So, after some singletrack skills were displayed - not by me, you understand - it was time for some refreshments at the cafe. Cheers mate!
At which point the Sun made an appearance and it was becoming a really nice day.
So, suitably refreshed with coffee (and cake for me), we went on our merry way down towards Amberley, over the bridge there, then back towards Arundel, along some road, some bridleway.
With the quiet lanes and tracks, and with the Sun on our faces, it really was a very pleasant end to a great ride back to Arundel with godders.
Thanks for your company mate
I plan to do a similar ride in the Summer at some point, hopefully people are less scared of getting dust on their bikes at that time of year
Mike
Well, that was a lot less of a carnage than I'd imagined!
After a solid day of rain, I expected the trails to be pretty gloopy.
Having got to Arundel station, ahem, slightly late
I was greeted to the sight of absolutely no bikes in the car park. Thought I'd missed the boat TBH. However, as I freewheeled in, I was greeted to a cheerful-looking godders, sat in his van, waiting for more people to arrive.
Well, the numbers had now doubled,
as I was here :facepalm: After having oggled his lovely Cinder Cone for a while,we saddled up, as it was obvious that no-one else was going to show up :roll:
Along the Arundel by-pass we went and onto some quiet trails, gradually climbing to start with, then a nasty little steep section. Mick was finding it a bit of a strain as his SS bike was over-geared, however we made it up that section, dignity intact.
Then along to some nice up and down sections,
before some proper wet, rooty singletrack took us down to the A29, where we came out slightly higher than we expected.
Rolling down the road to where we wanted to be, we saw the entry to the bridleway, and stopped short of going down it, as there was a big drop off down to it :shock:
Carrying on having gone around the cliff, we ended up on a nice section of singletrack into Whiteways woods.
Mick knows his way around here, so we had some fun riding through the twisty, rooty trails around here.
It was also not as muddy as I thought it would be, just the occasional puddle, which added to the fun.
So, after some singletrack skills were displayed - not by me, you understand - it was time for some refreshments at the cafe. Cheers mate!
At which point the Sun made an appearance and it was becoming a really nice day.
So, suitably refreshed with coffee (and cake for me), we went on our merry way down towards Amberley, over the bridge there, then back towards Arundel, along some road, some bridleway.
With the quiet lanes and tracks, and with the Sun on our faces, it really was a very pleasant end to a great ride back to Arundel with godders.
Thanks for your company mate
I plan to do a similar ride in the Summer at some point, hopefully people are less scared of getting dust on their bikes at that time of year
Mike
I got out for a rather muddy ride on Friday around Bedgbury on the modern one. Was a lovely sunny day despite the gloop, and a great first ride for 2015.
