After some changes at work and some short notice holiday being approved it was decided for a cheeky three day mountain bike weekend. After looking into the lack of short notice flights to the Alp and the poor weather forecast for Scotland I decided to head to North Wales. As it was far too short notice to make it a proper club trip I decided at least to open it up to members to come along; Chris, Adam and James all appeared for a various combination of days.
Read more: Club Members in North Wales; Llandegla, Coed y Brenin & Penmachno Report
Our July open group ride was held from Ivinghoe Beacon and took in a circa fifteen mile Chiltern Hills loop. Non club members are invited to join us for these open rides to try out the club, meet the staff, meet some members and try out some new trails before joining as a Club member. Nine people turned up in total and a good ride was had by all with no mechanical issues or punctures (unusual!). The group did encounter a little bit of rain but generally a dry ride with tea and cake at the Bluebell Cafe. It was fantastic also to have a great mix of new first timer riders, returning faces and members too.
Club member SteveA kindly led yet another great Chiltern Hills based loop taking in some fantastic views and singletrack in and around Wendover, Hastoe and Dunsmore areas. Four club members joined Steve out on this ride, taking in some new dusty trails and enjoying the sunshine!
The view from Ivinghoe Beacon during our club members only ride at the weekend, one of the many reasons we all love the Chilterns.
Club members Steve kindly organised an extended Chequers route out and about in the sunshine with both some long standing members and new members alike. A big thank you to everyone for attending and to Steve for organising.
Our May open ride was a tough ride due to muddy conditions that we ended up with due to bad weather during the week. The ride however went well without any mechanicals. One member of Bucks Search and Rescue attended as the others were on standby for a possible call out and Max a young member of the club did very well battling through the muddy conditions.
What absolutely fantastic weather! A chilly morning to get going but a stunning summer-worthy day for our exploration around the Chilterns. Four of us joined this ride, and with most of us having ridden to the start point at Wendover Woods we all finally all united at the top of Wendover Woods to start the ride. The ride out to Ashridge was for tea and scones, literally - there is no false advertising here at BucksMTB! The trails were fast, flowing and very dusy and we made up good time on the first half of the route only to lose what seemed most of the day waiting to be served at the Ashridge Monument Cafe. After a refuel and a brew (and did I mention the scones!?) we headed off via a different route back towards Wendover, taking in some fast descents and then some sections of canal to make up the mileage back. The route was 20 miles, plus the extra mileage some of us put in to get to Wendover in the first place. Great to see so many other mountain bikes out and about too, the sport is definitely still growing. A big thank you to Chris, Mark and Steve for joining me, a great fun day all round. Final thought for the day, was this possibly the first BucksMTB ride in history where we didn't have a mechanical!?! More club members rides coming soon.
A very short notice club members ride at Cannock Chase (we headed North to avoid the rain....) and we were blessed with bone dry trails and sunshine all day. It had been a couple of years since Chris and I had been to Cannock and thoroughly enjoyed it, there seemed to be a lot of changes since our last visits too except the fact there are still some hard climbs!!! It was so dry it was an easy way to turn a set of mud tyres into slicks! It was so sunny at the end when we collapsed at the cafe that we even managed an ice cream (first of the year!). See our calendar for more upcoming club members rides.
Great early morning BucksMTB ride around the Wendover area. One poor member forgot his MTB shoes so had to wear his slippers!!!! Today's work out with five others from BucksMTB, absolute top notch conditions and gorgeous weather!!! A big thank you to SteveA for organising and leading the ride and to our club members for getting up early to join in! More club members rides to be announced very soon.
Our club members enjoyed a new route from Berkhamsted to Ivinghoe and back, kindly organised and led by club member Steve Attwood. The route took in a 15-20 mile Chilterns singletrack route on a gloriously sunny Easter weekend morning with an unmissable stop at the Brownlow Cafe at Ivinghoe Beacon for one (or two) of their infamous scones!