Don’t often get photos of myself so this is rare, second photo same day different fence.
Nursing a broken leg I’ve been leaving my geared 36er at home and relegated to riding my (freshly modified for XC with shorter cranks and a longer handle) 26" Oracle on a rails-to-trails greenway. Anyone who says knobby tires (even the 3" Duro that I had before I replaced it with a 2.5" Maxxis) have too much rolling resistance on sealed pavement has never tried the 36" Nightrider tire. Of course, at this rate (8 miles today) I will have burned thru a $65 Maxxis tire in no time. 
I think I’m going to start a blog named FindTheHiddenLoop to share jewels like this shady spot under the bridge by the river which is about 2 miles after the “sidewalk closed” signs that I rode around. The Louisville Loop is still a work in progress but it is coming right along. Happy belated Cinco de Derby! Winner “I’ll have another” by a nose over “Bodemeister” (my pick) who almost lead from start to finish.
First Blood of the Season!
I went out for a record-low .39 miles today. It culminated in the scuffing of brand-new bar ends and a loss of skin on my back, elbow and palms.
This is my left hand BEFORE washing it, and… 
This is my left hand AFTER washing it. See that blood above the skin hanging off? I thought it was just drainage from the main wound under the hanging skin. While I was washing it, I scratched and scratched, thinking it was dried blood on skin. It wasn’t, and I was scratching my flesh. Fun, fun. Thankfully, the bleeding has stagnated, so it should scab and not require stitches. It’s bigger and sorer than it looks in the picture.
Innovative setup - but I can’t help feeling that you’d be safer with no helmet at all than with that lot strapped to your head!
great idea! would be really good for uphills 
Yesterday’s ride!
These were taken with the self-timer. I was trying to capture myself in the air, but after about 5 attempts gave up 
I thought this one came out alright though.
Here’s me just before crashing to the ground 
Hey, in the riding on top of the swing you’re cheating. You’re holding the edge of the picture. 
What a hard 10 mile ride (second of the weekend) we have had 3 months of rain in one month and it is all so wt and waterlogged, the trails have a hard chalk base which is slippery enough but the top layer of mud is just liquid! It was more slippery than the snow and ice in January!
Also the mud in the valleys was really sticky it was almost impossible to walk in it, even with a KH26 wide version my 2.4 Rubber Queen started to pack up on the frame!!!
Seriously bring on the sun, I like mud but it is getting a bit old now
Don’t they have trails for biking and hiking that are better draining?
We got 160+ cm of rain here, pretty much year round, some big rain events, and I can always find some unmuddy trail to ride.
Hi Guys.
Great piccies as always!
Turtle I watched your vid a few times, you are amazing!
Great idea for a camera holder, and I very much like mbalmer’s idea of putting candy on the end, that would work for me for sure.
Here’s some piccs from my recent hols in Scotland. we were very lucky with the weather, wall to wall sunshine, (well nearly 
) Had some lovely rides.
Muni was great fun, when I finally settled on a tyre pressure! Downhill, I went over little rocks and through puddles, I had soo much fun. I kept laughing, my hubby thought I was barmy! When I fell off, I just pushed my muni back up the hill and tried again.
Also first real outing on my 29’’, this was on the Isle of Skye, some lovely car free paths.
Wow, a castle, how cool is that!
It is a double edged sword, in the UK we have 3 types of trail Footpath, Bridalway and BOAT (Byway open to all traffic) which is basically walkers, walkers Horses and Cycles, and walkers horses cycles and motorised vehicles respectively.
The land these trails are on is a mixture of Crown land (owned by the Queen), national trust (public but owned maintained by the trust who preserves the land for the public who fund it by donations / membership) and finally private land
Footpaths and bridalways are enshrined in Law so everyone has access to them and have done for decades/centuries cycles coming along later got lumped in with Horses so we get access to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of miles of trail
These can be maintained by the National Trust, the private land owner (farm vehicles can and do use a lot of the bridal ways on their land but depending on the popularity of the area some trails get little attention and can overgrow and be lost.
There are a small amount of dedicated bile parks around the country that are more closely maintained but not to the extent of the US
I used to do 4x4 driving but the government pretty much killed the sport on public trails by changing the law and insisting trails get surveyed etc which councils could not afford so they just just closed them, also the Ramblers association (wallkers) hate 4x4 and are a powerful countryside movement so they managed to help get loads of trails closed to 4x4s 
Luckily cycles are lumped in with Horses so we are safe as houses!
I have been riding these trails for two decades and it is the same every year super muddy in the winter and dry and dusty in the summer, due to the South Downs being made of chalk erosion is not really and issue as the trails are cut through the top soil to the chalk/flint underneath then it goes little further. We have had unprecedented amounts of rain this last month (3x the norm) so it is expected to be this muddy, but if you haven’t heard it is pretty rainy in the UK 
I find it interesting with the US’s 200 odd year history how interested you guys are in the UKS heritage sites, they are amazing but you trip over castles/iron age forts around here so you take it for granted which is a travesty as our long and “interesting” history makes us what we are today
I need to make some trips up to Scotland but then it is wetter and greyer than down her in the south (if that is even possible :p)
Not always
We suffered from a “newer is better” way of thinking starting around 1950 and lasting till the 90’s when people started realizing that we were tearing down our historic buildings and replacing them with new modern ones. For people like me who grew up in Los Angeles, California (were most buildings were put up during the 20th century) seeing the structures of the UK, and Europe which date back hundreds and sometime thousands of years is amazing.
We have some kinda old stuff here (1600-1700’s), and some really old stuff (pre history) from native americans and such, but the difference for me is that European history plays such a prominent role in modern culture, literature, industry, so it feels like my history.
I lived in the Basque country for a year, had such a great time, traveled mostly in the Iberian peninsula. I have also traveled in Scandanavia, the Baltics, and Russia. It’s probably time to go back…
Is American history interesting to Europeans? Maybe that’s the thing, we’re interested in things outside what we know, because what we know is just so boring and lame 
I mean, seriously, what is with American politics, it’s embarrasing, really.
Hey Guys.
Scotland is full of castles! 
This is the castle seen in the film “Highlander”. 
Nah otherwise we would have to accept you kicked us out
Likewise we ignore Australian history after sending all the criminals there to that nice sunny land while we stayed in rainy England ;)
I always wondered about that, like did you guys not realize they were getting the deal of a lifetime?
Seriously, Australia and New Zealand have a lot going on, I’d move there in a heart beat. As for the UK, nothing personal, but I wouldn’t move there for money or love, sorry guys.
I might go back to Spain, the Basques are a fun group and the Pyrenees are awesome!