Ride 06/04/2015 Beecraigs.

Another sunny day, not bad for a bank holiday weekend, although a little windy. Decided to take a ride to Beecraigs, I’ve ridden past it before but never bothered to stop and look at it. So this time I stopped and it was very busy there, your typical country park I suppose, it also has a few hills that I wasn’t expecting so got a bit more of a work out that I was expecting. Anyway a slightly longer ride than yesterday and a slower one due to the winds.

Ride 05/04/2015.

It’s a nice sunny day for once so did a quick ride to Clackmannon and back before dinner.

Ride 04/04/2015 Fintry Loop.

Since the weather was going to be reasonable today I decided to do a slightly extended version of my Fintry Loop, usually 55 miles long I made it 60 miles for today. Still bit of a dull day but the wind was calm and the sun did shine a few times. Cycling up Crow Road is always a tough ride but today wasn’t as nasty as I was expecting it to be so got all the way to the top without stopping at the car park half way up. I motored down the other side and along to Fintry and finally down to the A811 which takes me along to Stirling Castle, where I decided to have lunch. Then it was time to follow the Forth River around to Grangemouth and back to Falkirk.

Ride 29/03/2015.

After yesterdays no go gale force winds today’s winds had died down a bit but were still strong but at least I could ride in it. Unfortunately it was raining as well which didn’t help having that driven into my face, but I soldiered on taking a route around Cumbernauld’s north side and the return on the south side returning via Slamannan. Not a big ride but given the shitey weather it was enough for me.

Ride 21/03/2015 Ben Cleuch.

Well it’s a nice sunny day with low wind speeds so I decided to take a crack at Ben Cleuch, the highest hill in the Ochils, and I friggin make it although I’m knackered now and have strained a muscle It’s quite a difficult ride up to Ben Buck but thankfully it evens out with the ride up to Ben Cleuch. It’s usually very windy up their but today it was a pleasant breeze so took some photos, had a bite to eat and headed down again, I wanted to get home before dinner. All in all a good day with over 3300 feet climbed.

Ride 14/03/2015.

A rather dull day but without the ridiculous winds, so at least I was able to get a decent ride before lunch time, although it was still a bit on the chilly side so I was still riding in full winder gear.

Ride 08/03/2015.

Shitey weather weekend, so riding Saturday was out the question, gale force winds were just too high, and even though Sunday was slightly better wind wise I was still fighting the wind the entire ride. The rain didn’t help either but wasn’t hard so I just ploughed on, not a big ride today but the weather just sucked

Ride 28/02/2015.

With weather warnings of gale force winds and rain today I did a quick sprint around the Forth before the weather got too hairy.

Ride 21/02/2015 Carstairs.

Well it’s another windy weekend so I decided to stay off the hills and take the road bike out for a spin, since I hadn’t ridden it in a couple of months. I was heading for Carstairs but I stupidly didn’t swap the seat on the bike to my comfy Brooks saddle so after 20 miles my arse was giving me grief. I was looking to do about 50 miles but that didn’t happen, I won’t make that mistake again. It was a sunny day with a few showers but it was still bloody cold with a little frost on the roads and the wind just made things worse so doing such a small ride wasn’t that detrimental

Ride 14/02/2015 Ben Buck.

It’s another reasonable day, cloudy but little wind, which means I can have a second shot of getting up Ben Buck. Couldn’t do this 2 weeks ago because of gale force winds up there but today was the day. Ben Buck is the second highest hill in the Ochils (679m), after Ben Cleuch (721m), and is a good candidate because of the the dirt track that leads most of the way up their. Not an easy ride as it’s quite steep in places and the track has a lot of loose gravel and stones which made me wheel spin quite a bit but I did manage to cycle about 95% of the track, snow and some very rocky sections had me walking but I did make it to the end of the track. Unfortunately when the track ends the fun begins as you now have to ride over moor land which was wet, boggy and snowy and I ended up walking most of the way here, but on the OS map the gradient is reasonable so it wasn’t too arduous a task. Its quite flat at the top with some good views over to Ben Cleuch and Burnfoot Hill with is wind farm on. I was tempted to go all the way up to Ben Cleuch as it’s not far but by the time I got to Ben Buck it was after four o’clock and I wanted to get down again before it got dark. I was also high enough to have the clouds whisping around me, especially up at Ben Cleuch but it doesn’t show that well up in the photos I took. Anyway I made it, climbing more that 2000 feet and am satisfied with that and it was a lot more fun to ride down hill than up it