Three Ride Catch Up.

Some more quality time on the bikes this week just gone, but really, any bike time is time well spent. I say that, but these were very selfish rides - I enjoyed them, but there's not a lot to tell about them to reward anyone unwisely straying onto these pages. No tales of derring do, no glorious vistas to try and describe, no appearances on Traffic Cops likely. They were very quiet, gentle toots about my usual haunts that did me a power of good, but there's nothing much of it to share unfortunately, at least, not with my meagre writing and relating skills. That last bit frustrates me a bit... no, a lot actually, I do wish these blog entries were more interesting and informative writing wise. 

But anyway, I'm going to lob some photos up from these rides instead of wittering on about nothing, starting with the first ride to Idless Woods, for which I gave Fatso the gig.

 Now this is why I love the lanes. Granted, for stark visual, photographic, appeal, I prefer them in winter when the trees are bare, but scenes like this put jam in my sandwich pretty well too. To drive along here in a car is to miss out on the warm air, the sounds and the smells. To spear down this road like some Tour De France refugee, thrashing the pedals while chasing a Strava Personal Best is just a great experience wasted in my book. Drifting along feeling the air on your face and listening to the birds is what it's all about, but as Bertie Bassett once said, it takes all sorts, so I shouldn't criticise.

But I do read forum posts, and also watch Youtube videos, about people saying they're not enjoying their cycling and thinking of giving it up as the Personal Bests have dried up, they fret about their lack of wattage output and they're just not enjoying it any more. Well you're doing it wrong! Well maybe not completely wrong, but just try forgeting all the competitive guff for a change and just go out and chooch about for a bit. Go wherever the lanes take you, just go for a quiet ride on a bike for heavens sake! Don't set targets, set limits- say a maximum of 10mph... Or keep it in one gear - a low one...Yes really! Leave your Strava wotsit at home along with your heart rate monitoring watch! Wear non luminous clothing! After walking, the bicycle is the simplest form of transport going, it doesn't have to be complicated. I can't help thinking some folk need reminding of that sometimes!

Talking of personal bests, that must be the longest caption to a photograph ever...

After riding the new Plus Bike around a lot, I thought I'd dig Fatso out again, and boy did it feel weird to start with! Low, fat and wide... oh and noisy! Noisy tyres, noisy freehub, noisy chain rattling against the front derailleur... damn! I'd forgotten I'd got a second coggy thing on the front after riding the one by set up of the Plusser. 

I don't know if it's just me, but when I get something new vehicle wise that's different, it's not switching to the new that causes the problems, it's going back to what I should be used to. After years on Japanese motorbikes, I bought a mid seventies Triumph with the gear/rear brake on opposite sides to what I was used to. Riding that was never an issue, going back to my other bikes was. Same with driving and riding in Europe. Never an issue driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, but get back to England and at the first roundabout I'm thinking 'Whoa this is weird... go round this clockwise? How does that work?'

It was the same with Fatso, I was getting in a right tangle with the gears to start off with, but I soon got back into the swing of things, and most importantly, no one saw or heard all the clanging and grating of chains over cogs and derailleurs... Least I think no one did.

Another big caption... Hmmmm...

 The entrance to Idless Woods at Lanner Mill is just beside this old shed/garage. Unusually there were no cars parked here on this occasion, there's normally a couple belonging to walkers and paid dog walkers.

That's some hill too, but thankfully the entrance is only half way up, and when going all the way up, it also provides a nice spot to give the legs a rest to poke about and take photos.

No interesting barn finds here unfortunately, just some old agricultural looking junk.

A full day's rain the previous day had left a few puddles in the woods, but precious little mud.

The trees being in full leaf makes for some slow shutter speeds on even the brightest days, and therefore blurry action shots. 

Saturday saw me take the Marin out again for a goodly potter around my local 'hood. A careful bimble this, as I had given it a full clean after its previous outing and I didn't want to get it all mucky again! So I may have been riding routes designed to avoid mucky farmyards, known puddle hot spots etc...

 The road through the farm at Boswiddle is always clear of Cow poop and country dumplings. Not sure I like the look of the local refreshments on offer though. Reckon you could stand a shovel up in that and it wouldn't fall over...

Under trees for more ride by selfies, and again the problem of low light levels leading to blurry action shots. The answer of course is to increase the ISO and shutter speed vastly, therefore arresting the action, but also destroying the fine detail in a noisy, fuzzy mess.

Despite the aforementioned day of rain, the local rivers and streams are running, if that's the word, at the lowest I've seen them in a long time. 

This unnamed stream usually flows quite nicely and noisily too - that lovely invigorating roar of flowing water as it is pinched at the sides when passing beneath the bridge on the road. At the moment the only sound is a slight trickle. Large parts of the stream bed were able to be walked on without fear of getting one's Beetle Crushers wet, so I took the opportunity to explore a bit beyond where the bank runs out, but a metal fence stopped me going too far, unfortunately. I'd like to walk along some of these streams at some point, wonky back allowing, to see where they go and to generally just poke my nose.

Poking around these river and stream banks is always interesting though, and makes for time relaxingly spent.

Sunday saw me machine gunning Imodium down my throat as I needed another ride but wanted to make sure I didn't get any unpleasant emergencies. 

This was just going to be round my usual loop, one of those rides just to keep the legs turning and the fitness up, but although gloomy and very humid, it was still a nice enough day out and I couldn't stay indoors. Sometimes it's not a desire to go out for a ride, it's a need, a fix I have to have.

Whether or not to go out was the easy part, the difficult bit is now deciding which of my motley collection of bi-wheelers gets the job. Having only ridden on fat tyres in recent weeks, I thought I'd reacquaint myself with 'skinny' rubber (2.25s!) and take the Voodoo.

 Woo... wobbly... slow... pedaly...

Yup, I did say slow. The Voodoo is a heavy bike now I've put panniers on it and fill them with all my junk, and it really did feel slow as I set off towards my beloved Tregassow Lane. My legs were flailing like the pistons on the Flying Scotsman as well and it wasn't just down to my cocking up the gears again, but also down to those smaller wheels requiring more effort. 

Well if I got confuddled by Fatso's 2x10 gear set up, going back to the Voodoo's 3x8 really saw me floundering to start with. I had to take my shoes and socks off to count the gear changes I did, and even then I had four gears left over. I'm going to need a calculator.

You've seen on Star Trek when Kirk says 'Warp Factor nine Mister Sulu! and it all goes a bit blurry? Well Pfft! Ain't anythin' special.

The Voodoo approaching maximum chooch factor 10 on the lane twixt Trehane Barton and Riverside.

I dickered about with the photo in Nik software, as in the overcast gloom, the Go Pro shots lacked oomph.

 The fields around Four Turnings Junction are besmothered in various crops at the moment. Spuds in this case...

... while on t'other side of the road are acres of Cauliflowers, with both of these crops being surrounded by fields of Wheat.

Harvesting all these growy things must take some doing that's all I can say. I have enough trouble pulling up the occasional Dandelion in my back garden.

Right, that's the lot I think, Thunderstorms are in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon, so that'll be something to look forward to, even if I do chicken out and don't take a bike for a ride in it - I'm a bit of a wuss about riding when lightning is about I must admit, but I do love a good storm so we'll see...

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A Little Marinated.

The Marin continues to impress as bike and rider get to know each other. The squeak from the DMR V6 pedals has thankfully been banished after taking them off and drizzling chain lube down past the spindle. They were then left on their ends in the hot afternoon sun to aid penetration. Fingers crossed that has done the trick and the infuriating noise doesn't return.

Other than that life with the Pine Mountain is proving to be very good indeed.

Sunday morning saw me heading off with some off roading at Newlyn Downs the target for the day's activities, and boy was it grey and stickily, clammily, humid out. Air you could chew almost. All was also eerily quiet for just after nine on a Sunday morning - not a breath of wind nor much traffic about, unusually little traffic even for a Sunday morning. Times like that always make me wonder if I've missed something big, like the end of the world or someone really important going toes up, so I was wishing I'd gone online and checked the news before venturing out. It turns out nobody famous carked it and there was no reason I'm aware of for the lack of cars on the road.

Passing through Mitchell. This used to be the route of the A30, back when you could open your bedroom window here, stick your tongue out and lick a stripe down the side of a passing truck. Heavy traffic used to thunder through here constantly, but now, like in many other villages, all is quiet, and also clean. These villages often seemed bleak places to own a house when strung along the road, but once by-passed and cleaned up, they once again become attractive places to live.

Anyway, it was a straightforward ride down to Mitchell, and on to the road towards St Newlyn East, where my wave was blanked by a couple of passing roadies. Most roadies are fine I've found, just one or two (and it's always blokes) give the rest a snobbish reputation.

Just as I was nearing the point where I exit the road, a thick drizzle started. I wasn't wearing, nor carrying, a jacket, so was going to get a bit wet, but that isn't a problem. I was more frustrated at the limits drizzle or rain impose on taking photos. 

Weather Update: He's a bit clisty out. 

What locals down here also sometimes refer to a bit of coastal weather. Well I am getting near to the North Coast here, so it probably was coming in off the Atlantic, but I'm a manly mountain biker and laugh in the face of such testing adversity.

Access to Newlyn Downs is via a stile and footpath ahem... a path leading to the Public Access land. Here was another occasion where the Marin shone, as it is lighter than Fatso my Fatbike, and easier to grab hold of too, making negotiating the stile a lot easier.

 A quick lift over a stile and onto a secluded path that leads out onto Newlyn Downs.

Part of the Daisy family I gather, and rather splendid they are too.

Newlyn Downs is the site of the Cargoll Lead, Silver, Copper and Zinc mine. Underground operations ceased in 1870 but stockpiles and burrows continued to be worked for some time after.

Most of the site now is dominated by vast areas of spoil where nothing much grows, and belts of Heather and Gorse with a few narrow tracks threading through them. The skyline all around though is populated by the turbines of the Carland Cross windfarm, and all in all, it can be a strange place, but a good one for mooching about and having a bit of a play on a bike. 

 Newlyn Downs is home to the Carland Cross Windfarm spinny things.

The bright yellow of the Gorse has been replaced by the slightly less bright but still vibrant Heather.

The Marin proved perfectly adept at handling all I could throw at it, which let's be fair, isn't a lot, but still. A little more care is needed than on Fatso, that is for sure, but those 3 inch tyres and gert wide bars make for good, capable, off road fun.

The drizzle kept coming and going though, and here the Marin shone once more, by not howling its brakes. All my other bikes, particularly Fatso, can detect the slightest hint of moisture in the air long before any rain falls. Touch the brakes and you get a noise akin to someone grabbing a Wolf by its plums. Not so on the Pine Mountain though, at least so far anyway - the Shimano brakes remained quiet throughout. 

 Old giffer mooching about the mining spoil.

 Fence guards a mine shaft, behind are probably the circular remains of an engine house chimney.

I kept an eye on the bruising looking sky as you really don't want to caught out here in a thunder storm. Thankfully, despite the humid weather, I copped nothing but a thick drizzle.

I tend to stick to the main tracks around this site, which sees a lot of dog walkers too, as the place is riddled with mine shafts, and knowing how things are down here in Cornwall, not all of them are known about and capped. I'm a bit wary of going off piste round there in case I suddenly find myself plummeting down an old mine shaft. Cattle and dogs regularly fall down newly opened up shafts on sites such as this, so I'm not being all that paranoid really.

 You have to know it's there, but this easily missed exit off one of the main tracks leads to an exit on the West side of the site.

Time for some bush busting! A few weeks ago this was a sea of yellow but now the Gorse has lost its flowers it's all a bit drab green. A bit prickly too, but crack on lad, this is great fun!

 Whuu... whooo...

Man Down!

Those wide bars and the thick Gorse snagging them resulted in a light collision with the scenery. Thankfully this is as far from the vertical as I got, due to the timely deployment of my right foot, and I didn't actually fall off, not that I'd have fallen far as the bushes here are so thick.

I did give my back a good tweak, but a few minutes of deep breaths and relaxing everything saw things calm down after the initial streak of pain and I was able to carry on. 

Good job n'all!

There is always a risk I'll hurt my back while on a ride by coming off (in fact the worst I've hurt it was turning the bike over onto its wheels after fishing a shed chain out from the BB area) but I'd rather take that risk and enjoy myself in the meantime than stay home or only ride on the roads.

After a good old ride around, I left via another stile and thence onto an access road used by wind farmery folk, and people visiting the rather mysterious silos that also occupy part of the site.

 Having decided discretion is the better part of valour, I resorted to pushing whenever the track got narrow.

 The bushes aren't all Gorse, but in the drizzle, they were all wet, and I got very wet sleeves navigating this track.

No hardship getting the bike over that low fence, even after giving my back a minor tweak. 

The local Liquorice farmer has been busy again... ahem.

The access road that leads out to the main road near Fiddlers Green.

Awww... never mind mate...

A good old ride about then, and the drizzle didn't spoil the day at all, it was too warm for it to have any negative effects really. Getting wet is so much better when you don't also get cold.

So that was Sunday's chooch, and a most enjoyable one it was too. The Marin was introduced to my pressure washer once home to rid its shiny flanks of all the grit and gravel that accumulates on visits to the site, and now it is sat gleaming once again in my living room having since also received its first polishing with the Pledge.

Time to get Fatso out for a ride again I think, otherwise he'll be getting jealous!

Crapmungous map of the chooch. The more informative version can be had HERE

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When N+1 Comes and Finds You...

Well I've neglected this here blog a bit lately, so with some good coffee (M&S Honduran done in the Aeropress – very nice) sat beside me, let's dive in and sort things out.

Way back in the 1990s, I was poking a Raleigh Activator 2 about, and for those who don't know of these gruesome machines, here's a web found shot of one in all its dubious glory.

Oh Lordy... what was I thinking? Behold the Activator 2...

As bikes go, it was a bit like driving a Reliant Robin really, all very nice until someone sees you. I was having fun though, riding around on my days off, marvelling in the plush ride of the high tech elastomer full suspension. It was as heavy as a small house and the finish on it was pretty grim I must say - nasty, gaudy, stickers that started peeling off with the first wash, thin paint crappily applied, and so on. 

But all was fine and dandy in Activator world until one day I clapped eyes on a more serious looking pair of bikes. The ex Lady Back Road Bimbler and I (she also had a bike) were up in the Forest of Dean, enjoying some trails, when on arriving back at the car park, I was stopped in my clattery tracks by the sight of a pair of Marins. An Eldridge Grade and a Bear Valley I think, but whatever they were, they really caught my eye with their rakish looks, and superb looking paint.

 Now here was a really sexy looking bike - The Marin Eldridge Grade. Way out of my range financially at the time unfortunately, but a bike that I really lusted after, and still think is a proper looker to this day.

The Bear Valley, also a good looking bike (certainly way better than my fugly Raleigh). 

Since then, I've always liked Marins, well, most Marins, they've made some right munters too, but I'd never owned one.

That nearly changed back in late 2015 when I was thinking of getting another bike, and was wanting something with fat tyres. Marin had just announced the new version of their old favourite, the Pine Mountain, by way of celebrating their upcoming 30^th birthday in 2016. This bike really caught my eye – steel framed, fully rigid, 27.5 plus wheels/tyres and so on. I really liked the idea of owning one. Also in the frame was a full fat bike, the On One Fatty. Both bikes were at the same price, but there was a fly in the Marin's ointment in that it wouldn't be available in this country until May of 2016 at the earliest, while the Fatty was a mouse click and a couple of days away. I clicked my mouse and Fatso entered my stable of bikes, and a damned good bike it is too.

Old Pine Mountain.

New for 2016 retro looking Pine Mountain. I was very taken by this bike, but lack of availability when I was ready to buy meant I opted for the On One Fatty instead.

But I still liked the Marin, and as time went by and reviews or posts on forums started appearing, I'd read them with interest. It was very much a bike I still had an eye on, despite having opted for another at the time.

So fast foward to the present and I'd been happily bimbling about as usual, when a couple of weeks ago N+1 came and found me and grabbed me hard. I wasn't actually thinking of buying another bike, but I got wind online of a great deal on the Pine Mountain at Rutland Cycling, and what a deal it was. 

The PM was listing at £850, but they were offering the bike for £550. That was tempting enough, but then to really keep me awake at night, there was another £50 off to be had via a discount code on the site. Oh now that really did become very tempting indeed. Further more, if I went through Top Cashback, I could get about £13 back on the sale. Under £500 for a reasonably well specced steel mountain bike is pretty good going. The fact it was my old fave the Pine Mountain just made it a deal that was impossible to ignore really. 

I tried though, telling myself I didn't need another bike, it was yet another different wheel size so requiring the purchasing of yet more spare tubes to carry, and a bag to carry them in, then there was the cost of another bike computer to log my rides with the bike, mudguards for the front and so on. I tried, I really did, but the deal was too good to miss out on, and in a spirit of we're a long time dead, so do what I want, while I still can, I finally hit the buy button, and I'm really glad I did as the bike is a real treat to own and ride.

The Pine Mountain straight out of the box and in my rainy back garden. Buying online from Rutland Cycling was a painless and very quick affair. I ordered the bike on the Sunday and it it arrived just after 9 am on the following Wednesday, requiring only the straightening of the bars and the fitting of the supplied pedals.

 86 - 16 relates to this model being launched to celebrate Marin's 30th birthday. Frame is marked XL and is a 20" size. They also offer a 22" XXL for really long people, plus all the usual smaller sizes.

The general finish, the quality of the paint and other details, are all very pleasing I must say.

Lots of spare mounts for dropper post cabling/bottles/bike packing luggage too.

 Those black bands on the fork legs are important - without them I would've had second thoughts on buying the bike due to the potential hassles involved. The 2017 models were subject to a recall earlier this year to replace the forks, as a potential issue had been identified. The modified forks, fitted at the recall or to new bikes leaving the factory, are identified by those black bands.

Brakes are Shimano BR-M445s, and initially lacked bite, but as the first ride went on, and I did a few crash stops to bed them in, they got better and better, and are now quite powerful and progressively bitey enough for my needs.

Sram GX derailleur snickety snicks nicely between ratios on the Sunrace 11-42t cassette.

This is my first 1X transmission, and given the ugly great hills round these parts I was a little worried, but combined with the 32t chain ring, the gearing is easily low enough to get up even the most gurn inducing of climbs.

You do lose out on high end gearing though, and my wildly spinning legs bounce off the rev limiter at about 24mph on the flat, but that's fast enough for me.

This photo does highlight one of the two things I'm not so keen on with this bike - that rather ugly looking brace twixt chain stay and seat stay. The other issue is the way the fully sheathed cables/hoses hang down the front of the downtube, but both these issues are pretty minor aesthetic ones and not deal breakers by any means.

Bars are a tree snagging 780mm wide, but with a 15mm rise and 9 degree back sweep, are very comfortable and of course, give epic leverage over that fat(tish) front tyre.

The pedals the bike arrived with were a bit crappy, being heavy, not very spinny and with a built in reflector. Having bunged DMR V6 nylon pedals on the Voodoo and been very impressed with them, I opted for another pair for the Marin. This pair though are not so good. The V6 pedals are DMRs entry level jobbies, featuring bushes rather than bearings apparently, and are sealed up - no owner servicing possible. That's all fine, but both the pedals on the Marin have started squeaking liking someone stepping repeatedly on a Stoat or a Weasel. The ones on the Voodoo are fine, so this is both odd and disappointing. I have today taken them both off and run chain oil down past the spindle, but have yet to bung it up the road to see if this has cured the issue.

I've added some of my usual guff to the bike of course - spare tubes in a saddlebag, computer 'cos I like to know how far each ride is and how many miles each bike is doing and so on. I can live with a muddy backside, but not a splattered face, so have fitted fork and downtube guards.

I am really impressed with the way the Pine Mountain tracks. I don't know if it's the tyres (27.5 x 3" Schwalbe Nobby Nics), the rigid steel fork or the geometry, but the steering is very accurate and stable on and off the road. Where my other bikes wander ever so slightly, the Marin just rigidly sticks to a line as if the front wheel is running in a slot.

Tyres don't feel at all draggy to me, and roll for ages in scientific testing (on the flat, 5 mph, stop pedaling and see how far it takes to stop. A long way is the answer). 

I'm also impressed with how the tyres and steel frame and forks take the sting out of harsh bumps, and muffle things like road chatter and corrugations. My Fatbike just floats over those sort of things, feeling like there are fluffy pillows attached to the wheels, the plus sized tyres on the Marin give more feedback while still removing all the harshness. Off road I haven't ridden in mud yet, but it has coped well with everything I've found on a couple of lumpy bumpy bridleways. You have to be a tad more careful in choice of line than on the Fatbike that just batters and flattens its way along, but roll over and traction are still good compared to narrower tyres.

The seat has proved perfectly comfortable so far, although the longest ride I've managed to date has been 17 miles.

I like bikes, both owning and riding them, hence having 4 bikes where to a 'civilian,' one would do. I like their differences in details, style and ride, and the Marin is a very satisfying bike to own and ride. It is well finished (it pained me to take it out and get it mucky, it really did) and is a real pleasure to get out on with no vices that I'm aware of so far. For the price I paid, it's an absolute bargain I reckon.

I'm doubly pleased I pulled the trigger when I did though as the 2018 Pine Mountain has just been announced (maybe why the 2017 models are being discounted) and not only has the list price risen to £900, but they've chosen to paint it a rather dull green all over. Not my cup of tea at all looks wise I'm afraid to say, a backwards step in that department.

2018 Marin Pine Mountain - a bit drab looking in my book. Lay it down in the undergrowth and you'd never find it again.

Photo nicked shamelessly from the Singletrack Magazine site.

So that's four bikes now in my ready to ride collection (plus the old Clattermonger Carrera that is in retirement)... It's going to be even harder to justify anything else should N+1 come knocking again in the future!

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