2021….
Time is ticking away for all of us so making the most of what we have here and now is vital using all the energy that we are blessed with does allow me to do the cycling adventures I enjoy. So riding your bike everyday in January was a good start to 2021. I kicked off on New Years Day with an 8 hour Fatbike ride around the Kirklees hill with my good friend Singlepeeder Saul. January ended with a splendid Viking Fatbike challenge that would see me ride Frank over 100 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing around Calderdale. Riding everyday in Jan did prove to be challenging but enjoyable.
The riding would continue having leaving my work place to move on to pastures new and able to have a few months as a sabbatical. My aim was to ride everyday from Feb to June before starting my new job. The riding would be of course be mountain bike and my goal of reaching 5,000 miles would be achieved.
February and March was cold riding local trails, drinking coffee and eating cake was fun enjoying the freedom on your bike with your friends.
The riding worked out really well as plans were in place to do as many mini adventures as possible in the months of April, May, June and July.
The big day rides soon started in April with Stadium Riders getting together for a blast to Manchester via the Pennine Bridleway and then day rides around Kirklees. The weather stayed dry for April and May and the trails were super fast every mountain bikers dream especially as winter feels like a lifetime. I’m OK with winter for a short while but then do dream of dry, dusty, sunny warm days.
Early June was warm and started with a moors to sea loop with my good friend Ian Varley and two of his pals from down south who would pop up for the weekend to enjoy the North Yorkshire Moors as well as have a few riding the coastline.
The bike packing weekend started with a trip to the North Pennines with a very good cycling pal of mine who had put together a brilliant off-road route over 100 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing which would take in many beautiful places and for those of you who haven’t visited the North Pennines then it is a place of beauty and wide open space. We would start at Blancland and that is where how journey would end the following day. Beautiful weather, dry dusty trails, great food and company, what more do you want?
After the North Pennines ride we decided to ride the Leeds Orbital off-road on our singlespeed on the longest day (19th June) this would start for me from Halifax and we would make our way to Leeds and the most northerly point would be towards Shadwell. The 5 of us certainly had a fab night covering 90 miles and over 6,000 feet of climbing. 12 hours of fun. We must be the only ones who can have an all nighter in Leeds without drinking alcohol and have a great time.
The next ride and the week after would be my favourite event of the year ‘The JennRide’ annual event rising money for hospice and in the memory of Jenn Hill deputy editor of Singletrack magazine. The organiser Rich always creates an amazing off-road 100 miles route around the South Lakes that allows you to ride, push and hike a bike over some of the toughest terrain in the UK on a fully loaded bike. I would recommend this to anyone who loves the hills and riding mountain bikes. Starting at Staveley and overnight bivvy at Langdale broke the back of this awesome route and the coffee/breakfast in Ambleside was a much needed calorie intake. The rocks, boulders, gravel, Singletrack and hikeabike definitely has you on your guard. Looking forward to the 2022 edition.
The rest of the year was more of the same:-
Cheviot Weekender
Chilled out in Aug
Singlespeed UK Bikepacking 5 days to Yorkshire Cycle Hub from Halifax
Manchester off road loop from Halifax
Bronte Bash in the snow in November
Bikepacking trip to Hartington Youth Hostel – The wettest coldest ride for a long time- ‘Hypothermic’
