Yep, there's still winter up in the hills

Yep, still cold and very very icy up on my favourite trails. But all in I really enjoyed my spin this afternoon and after my little moaning session about the weather I was a bit surprised about that. Was cold as hell out there but a hot mug of lemon/ginger tea got me sorted in no time! Happy days! :)

Riding my bike & living life // Summer mode is ON!

 

After about a week and a half non-biking time I was dying to get out on the bike! I got some nice overtime built up at work so I'm off for couple of days and I got to admit that the timing couldn't be any better: summer has arrived!!! Clear sky, super hot days, sunburn and everything! :)

What to wait for then?! I was on my way in no time!

I managed to get 2 spins done in the last 2 days with the total riding time of 4 hours and 20 minutes, which I'm pretty happy with mainly 'cause I'm on 24/7 Baby Alert at this stage. This was the main reason why I stayed around the local mountains, kind of hoping to be able to get back home fast enough if I need to. :) 

Excellent view!

The plan was that I had no plan. I've decided I take it as it comes but the only criteria was to visit most of my favourite places around Dublin. Here is the list of these super cool places that I never get bored with: Ticknock, Fairy Castle, Threerock, Wicklow Way, Tibradden, Kilmashogue. 

Fun time on the Metro trail

Now, the only thing I can tell is that when I ride my bike only once a week it does not help to stay fast that's for sure. These spins aren't Strava worthy ones or anything but I sure did have fun and enjoyed the hell out of my time on the bike! I was riding all over the place, riding trails back and forward and enjoyed the mega hot summer days with temperature that I don't remember when I seen in Ireland for the last time. I might even risk it to say it out loud: summer is here! :)

Near Tibradden

Enjoying the sun on Threerock

Managed some sweet max. speed on the Kilmashogue fire road: 65,4 km/hour...

Mountain biking is fantastic in weather like this but also can be done in pretty much every other conditions. The only thing that can't really be fun on a crapy day is a proper BBQ! So, we didn't want to miss our chance: fired up the grill and got some lovely chicken breats thrown on it. After the savage spin this was the perfect way to finish the day! 100%  loved it! :)

Chillin' with the BBQ & my bubbly (strictly non-alcoholic one)   ;)

Here it is, the best home made chicken burger in town! :)

The last 2 days were absolutely fantastic: spent lots of time with my wife Anett, went for mountain bike spins, got lots of rest, had lovely food and I did all this in proper summer conditions! Needless to say: life is great! :)

WW // Tibradden - Nice & relaxed mountain bike spin

Another Saturday means another XC spin, so we wasted no time: got on our bikes and turned up towards the Dublin muntains to have fun on the bike on this great, sunny morning. This time I went out with my friend Csaba and since we haven't been out on the bike together for like a million years we decided to have a cool and chilled out spin with lots of talk and a very civilized pace. :)

The plan was to show him the new trails that I started to use lately and the fastest way to get there was to climb up to Threerock and from there we hit the super rocky and technical Wicklow Way to reach our destination.

Rocks after rocks, puddles after puddles...it was so much fun to ride on that upper, flat sector of the Wicklow Way and rise to the challenge to manage a good pace without loosing control of the bike on the aggressive surface. It was cool! :)

That's not smooth indeed :)

After the short sector of the Wicklow Way we turned right and started to roll along of the trails of Tibradden. The real fun started when we got on the Legend trail which was extremely muddy this time...I mean the whole place was super slippery! The best part was the switch in between the opened parts of the trail (they were real challenging 'cause of the mud) and the forest sectors (they were extremely quick and dry enough). To go from easy and fast to difficult and slowish, and to repeat this soooo many times was pretty cool! :) 

At some points it was a real challenge even just to stay upright on the bike. The most sketchy bit was the right turn after the big, flat rock that lies in that left turn drop. It was savage to ride that thing in that mud! :) 

The biggest & deepest puddle that I've encountered for a long time!!! :)

We had good fun while we tried to ride accross that thing but it was soo deep and the bottom of it was full of rocks and branches it was impossible to ride through in the middle. The water was as deep as the axles and the BB! The only way to get through was to pick a nice line on the right hand side. Here is a short video of the crossing: 

After we finished messing around the muddy trails we got back on the road and started to head back home. By the time I got back to my place I got 30 km in under a little longer than 2 hours.

Here is our route this morning

Havin' such an easy and fun filled mountain bike spin on a bright and sunny Saturday morning is just great. I loved to be out on the bike and mess around in the mud! It was short, it wasn't fast or difficult spin but hey! It was brilliant and for today it was more than perfectly enough! :)