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!
Eleven people turned up for our April Open Group Ride held at Ivinghoe Beacon. One chap unfortunately had to leave early as he left his spindle out of his front wheel at home. It was a glorious sunny day so the trails were dry and of course plenty of people were about on the trails on a sunny Sunday afternoon! We stopped off at the usual Blue Bell cafe for coffee and cycling nutrition (cake). No BucksMTB open ride is complete without a puncture or two, this ride was no different! Thank you to everyone who came along, details of our next open ride will be published online very soon.
Club member Jez kindly organised our first ever club ride at Hodgemoor Woods near Amerham/Beaconsfield last weekend. Hodgemoor is a pocket sized area of woodland at the top of Beaconsfield Hill. There are fun singletrack trails and a crazy bike park that are supported by both the Forestry Commission and the CTC. A fair few club members turned up for a great afternoon riding in the leaves and sunshine. A day messing about in the woods, what more could you want!
It was a bit too early a start for me for a day off if I'm honest but the early start meant the trails were nice and quiet at Swinley (well, not for long...). Great weather meant the trails were generally riding really well except some soggy spots on the red trail. A fairly short notice planned ride but four of us went along, including a new member who enjoyed their first time around Swinley. A BucksMTB ride wouldn't be complete without a mechanical, or two. Brake pad woes and a snapped chain were amongst the delays and repeat visits back to the van, but neither put a damper on the days ride and the cake at the end was definitely worth it. Thanks to everyone who came and roll on the next club members ride.
It was a chilly morning to meet up on Whiteleaf Hill but a frosty start to a great corker of a club members ride from Whiteleaf Monument out to Wendover Woods and back, taking in trails around Cadsden, Chequers, Coombe, Dunsmore and Wendover. Tradition was kept with tea and cake once at Wendover Woods before taking in a further singletrack route back to the start. A very hard going twenty miles (that felt more like 40!) with areas of bad churned up mud once the kind morning frost had worn off! Just the three of us causing chaos, but a big thank you to everyone who came and to Mike for planning and leading a great loop.