It was a warm day, so Richard, Sean and I went over to Delamere forest (not far from Frodsham) for a bike ride. It was great cycling with people for a change, and managing to do it on a weekend day in summer was astonishing! Richard has a new mountain bike that thus far hadn't seen much action other than a trip or two to Tesco. Sean and I have old, non-suspension bikes with gear problems. (I noticed that my large front gear wheel is fairly impressively dented. Also, the saddle was gouged in transport. Ah well.) Nevertheless, the ride wasn't difficult and our bikes were easily up to it.
The map above is a bit handwavey since maps of Delamere forest seem very hard to come by - we found one in the car park after we'd come back, but we didn't see any en route. There were a couple of waymarked routes with coloured markers but these didn't seem terribly clear, either, until we came to a crossroads that explained it. Even then they didn't do much more than give a direction and length. Still, we made something up, following the 'white' path for the most part, deviating only at the beginning and end, really, to and from the car park.
It was one of the warmer days of the year (thunderstorms were to follow later in the evening back in Manchester) and humid but fortunately overcast, so we weren't sunburnt to a crisp - even so, it was bright. The actual ride went fine; Delamere forest's paths are largely gravelled/dust/fairly solid tracks, with only a small amount what might be classed as proper 'off-road', earthy and rooty (complete with mud in places!).
I really enjoyed the ride. It made me realise how far I'd come since a year or two ago I went for a cycle around Delamere with Stuart and Megan (guys, help me out here... when was it?). On that occasion I was really struggling with the inclines, to the extent that I was stopping and starting all the time. This time, although some of the lumps and bumps made me out of breath, I went up them with (relative) ease - and for some of them, my front top gear ring wasn't engaging so I had to do them in a middlish gear. The fact that I managed them at all was a great encouragement to me, even without that - because I remembered going up one of the hilly bits from last time. (If I recall correctly, a couple of dogs last time had gone after a squirrel, which I watched with amusement when I was walking up.)
So, there we go. Frustratingly close to 30mph again (I didn't notice that until afterwards!) and a fairly sedentary average pace, but it was nice and relaxing and generally a good day out. Thanks guys for joining me on that one!
Oh, and the 'official' Delamere Forest website: Delamere Forest.
Finally, a word about clothing and garb. We ended up talking about it because I've accumulated - generally cheapish - what might be described as 'cycle clothing'. Basically I've been discovering that proper clothing makes life a lot more comfortable, particularly in warmer weather - and I'm all for making life easier! I wear lycra shorts under my real shorts (I'm still /very/ self conscious) but they're good because they provide padding. I bought a cycle top cheap the other day (black, in case you were wondering - what else for a techie?!) which is polyester and so dries quite well. I've also now got some gloves - again, cheapish - because I've found that otherwise I get sore hands without them. Apparently all of this makes me look quite 'serious' about it - not really, it's more that I've found that comfort is quite nice, actually, thank you very much! Perhaps I'm too sensible sometimes.