Bikebus own cinematographer Marcin shot this vid just over the border in Kielder. You’ll be looking at Teenwolfs bum all the way down - not great but the other options were Iains, Steves, Mine or worst of all Lenkas. This section was probably the best and most fun bit on what was a fairly uninspiring trail. So much so that after getting back to the car park we skipped back over the border and unloaded the bikes for a blast round Newcastelton. Now this was a nifty wee trail centre - not very long and probably not worth the 100 mile journey to only ride there but as part of a Bikebus double dunter it was great. Nothing too technical, not too much climbing just some really well built, flowy singletrack that makes you feel like a better rider than you actually are.
This time on the way back we sampled the fish and chip delights of Lockerbie - nice!
So anyway happy viewing and remember to check back every now and again during Bikebus hibernation period and think of me up to my neck in nappies and baby wipes.

This isnt exactly a Bikebus related post, however its a nice wee film of my local trails as shot and ridden by Ginger Chris(my mate with the ginger hair called Chris). Enjoy.

Yes i know ive been slacking with my ramblings on this blog.
So whats been going on in Bikebusland?
After Mabie the next trip was Kirroughtree. If memory serves me it was a pretty warm day. Steve, Billy, Craig and me made up the posse(lenka met us there after having camped out in the forest the night before!). The trails were the usual - brilliant and the Girvan chippy on the way hame was even better.
Next was Inners - Martin, Lenka, Billy and Steve joined me for some 7 stanes radicalness. Well actually we just had a very enjoyable day on the trail notching up a few of the wee hidden tracks on the way round.
Next was a trip up north to visit the Queen in Braemar. Steve, Andy and myself made the jaunt. Apart from my navigational skills giving us an extra 45mins of climbing(sorry guys) the day was tremendous, especially the drop from 859m high into town to finish. Classic highland riding.
Glentress was next on the list. Iain, Phil , Martin and me were joined by a few ‘friends’ of Bikebus - Chris, Paul and Winker. The weather was typical Scottish summer - pissin down. Great trails tho including a wee hidden one(gets us away from the riff raff). A few of us also took part in a timed event run by garmin - Martin won. Phil got lost and im getting old.
Martin, Veronika, Iain, Rafal, Andy and me took on Ae next and gave it a doin!!We did have a few casualties tho - Well done Veronika on your first Mountain bike ride and hopefully you didnt get too many questions next day at work about the cuts and scrapes you picked up. Our on-bus camera dude(Martin) did his stuff filming rafal coming down the last descent.

Whew! im getting there although my brain feels a bit fried trying to remember all the going on over the last wee while.
Anyhow next was the hidden loveliness of Caberston. Iain, Steve, Billy , Andy and myself were joined by Andy and Aneela from Innerhaven. Thsi forest is one of my favs(and i think everyone elses too). Climb, great descent, more climb, another great descent, more climb, yet another great descent, back to Innerhaven for tea, out of date biscuits and some quality street, more climb, more great descents, more climb, more great descent(sorry old lady and man walkers for giving you a bit of a fright on the track just above Leithen water.
At last, a trip i can remember without having to wrack my brains.
The long trip north was made by Andy, Steve, Iain, Chris and me and we picked up a stray bear in Perth(Innerhaven Andy)We ended up in Glen feshie. Wonderful cairngorm riding - a real beast of a climb from the valley floor up to over 1000m and the summit of Carn ban Mor(cloud level was around 800m so the top section was rather damp and windy, still nice tho). What a descent, not one for the faint hearted. Rocks, more rocks intersperced with rocks. What a cracker.
After being eaten alive by the locals(midges) be packed up the bikes, headed over to Laggan, zipped round the red route, skooted down the jump park, skoffed some nice cake and coffee from the cafe got back in the Bikebus and got home just before dark. Crackin day out.

Billy, Martin, Andy The Butcher, Lenka and me - the roll call for a great day at Mabie on 21st June. Dry trails, not too warm (in comparison to the ‘heatwave’ we’ve now got!)…..oh and Billy did the gap jump, Lenka overcame her fear of the mini slab at the skills loop and Andy never went into his granny ring..no change there then and Martin rode his bike like he’d stole it(which is weird cause a few days earlier he was at Pollock park and spotted his old bike which had been knicked a wee while ago - a few choice words to the thieving scumbag and he got it back. result) Martin also shot a nice wee vid - better than The Collective.

5 hardy souls made their way down to Dalbeattie to experience what its like to cycle on the surface of the sun - well it seemed like that anyway in Scotlands mini heatwave.
Steve, Billy, Martin, Lenka and Craig along with my good self obviously were the ones wishing we’d brought some stronger sunblock.
After a nice wee drive down with the windows open and the wind blowing in our hair, Californian style, some last minute bike fixy stuff was underway in the carpark. Martins forks were playing silly buggers(got sort of fixed i think with much struggling with the shock pump) and lenka at last got round to changing her tyres - Iain gave her them to change around the end of March!!
Anyway, off we went and it wasn’t too long before the Dalbeattie granite had its first victim - Steve. A bit of a silly one really and prob not his fault. Guy in front stops, Steve looses his balance, topples over. Granite 1 Steves shin 0.
The trails were riding like a dream - dry, dusty, grippy. Could get used to this warm summer thing eventually i suppose.
Soon enough we ended up at the top of the Slab. Everyone that wanted to gave it a go and got down in one piece, although i have never before seen anyone take the same line that Martin did - nice one.
The puncture drop was next - its a 3-4 foot jump with a very rocky landing. If you are lucky you’ll land smoothly and ride away to the cheers of all your watching buddies just like Billy did. Unfortunetly i never caught it right on camera so back he goes for another shot. I got it this time(bikebusdotnet on youtube to watch) but tsssssss…the sound we all hate. Ah well, you werent alone - that was only 1 of 5(ithink) flats of the day.
Next on the radar was the Terrible Twins - by the time we got there Martin looked as if he’d just spent the last 3 hours in a turkish steam room but i suppose wearing a full face helmet in 26′ C heat will have that effect on you. Again the Twins were dealt with by anyone who fancied it. For footage check youtube again.
With a few people rapidly running out of water we still had loads of great riding to come - the lovely natural singletrack was dry as a desert - wonderful. Even the usually flooded log section towards the end was nearly dry.
Back at the van with everyone parched it was a b-line for Dalbeattie city(?) centre and the first shop was emptied of all isotonic juices. Thirst quenched, next up was hunger so Dumfries was thought the best bet for the mandatory Bikebus chippy(its one of your 5 a day!).
Everywhere seemed to be closed apart from a rather dodgy looking cafe. So dodgy in fact that Billy didnt bother getting anything! We needn’t have worried tho, by the time we’d been served and got back to the van he’d ’sessioned’ a just-opened foodarium and was happy as Larry with his usual fish supper, kebab and pizza.
All in all a classic Bikebus day out. Roll on the rest of the dry summer!

The now obligitory enroute stop on the way to Glentress was the wee cafe at Carnwath. Lenka, Iain, Steve and Billy stumbled out of the Bikebus and ordered up some wonderful scottish fair - bacon rolls and an apple slice - the breakfast of champions.
Glentress wasnt as busy as expected (there was a demo day on) but the usual points along the way threw up the usual Sauchiehall St style busyness.
We skooted up the red climb heading for Spooky Wood and then eagle Eye Iain spotted some singletrack off to the left. Looked good so we went for it. Aparently this wee section gets used for the running stage in duathlons but biking was well good. Lenka did decide to vault over her bars on a fairly steep off camber section (doesnt help that her tyres are like slicks and she has another new set in the house but cant be bothered fittting them), but apart from thatno mishaps just some fun, fast decending. We did happen upon what seemed to be a christmas prayer booth. Yes sounds weird. Loads of tinsel and pics of snowmen fashioned into a rather flimsy tent-like structure. At this point Steve seemed to get annoyed about christmas decor in May, he turned green, tore his shirt off and ripped a tree up from the ground. All very bizzare behaviour but true non the less. (the tree was already dead by the way and bikebus dont condone this sort of behaviour).
Not far after this we realised we probably were doing this section back to front as we were off the bikes and pushing up some way steep stuff. Next time it’ll be better going down it. We were soon popped out on the black climb just below the mast and away we went hop, skipping and a jumping down spooky wood.
Next we followed a few wee hidden, under the counter trails and then looped back onto the red all the way back to base and some well earned grub.
As always Glentress doesnt disappoint.
ps Good luck to the 3 Amigos(iain, Billy Steve) at the Ae enduro style event on weekend of 9/10 may

What a day! Probably one of the best on Bikebus. Not because of the riding(which as usual was great and more on that later) but because of the mid -ride stop off at Innerhaven for tea and cake and, get this, chocolate dipped strawberries! I can still taste them….mmmmm.
As always in this part of the world the riding started with some serious uphill although a few wee downs kept us amuzed on the way up to Kirnie Law and past the old reseviour. Then the fun started. Innerhaven Andy led us all down some STEEP, twisty, fairly technical singletrack This trail was definately ‘local only, hidden, wink wink, hows your father’ type stuff. Hope i can remember how to find it again. Soon enough, one by one we all popped out on the fireroad. I, however decided to sommersault down a steep bank onto said fireroad while trying to walk down with my bike. Even if i do say so myself i dont fall very often but from the howls of laughter if must have been fairly funny.
Another twice we trundled up the fireroad to be rewarded with some superb ‘local only, blah, blah, blah’ singletrack. Thank goodness for disc brakes. Thank goodness for mountainbiking.
Another couple of comedy moments were had before the aforementions strawbs. 1st, i came off arse over tit again(yes i know twice in one day - not good) at a steep shute linking 2 fireroads. Andy scooted down first so the challenge was laid. Steve stepped up to the plate, easy. Next Chris after a few false starts cruised it. I then decided at past the point of no return i didn’t fancy it. I’m getting good at these sommersaults. Next up Iain, getting prepared for his summer in Whistler, grabed the bull by its balls, no probs. By which time i’d scrambled my way back up and at last made it down.
Next stuntman moment was at a fair sized drop-off. Craig(out for the first time in a while using flat pedals) careered off the drop at the same time his foot slipped off the pedal. I hope he’s not planning on a big family as crotch to top tube is never good preperation for that.
mmmmmm….strawberries then followed.
We then hawled ourselves over the Tweed and up to the start of the downhill trails and blasted back down quicker than Steve Peat. Well it felt like it anyway, in reality i assume it was quite a bit slower.
A great day.

On the Bikebus today were Steve, lenka and for comic effect The Winker made an appearance. He’s not all bad though - he did provide us with some lovely bacon rolls en route to what was to turn out to be a virtually perfect biking day at Drumlanrig.

A fairly empty carpark on arrival was given a bit of a jolt what with Winker not being the quietest person.We set off with everyone in good spirits, the sun was trying to make an appearance and our legs were trying to get the pedals spinning. If you’ve never been here before, Drumlanrig doesn’t waste any time in getting straight to business - the wonderful and for a change, bone dry singletrack starts right away and just keeps going and going. As the miles were munched the sun started make it feel like summer  - well a Scottish summer anyway, perfect biking weather so no excuses. The usual sections of trail caused the concentration to be upped, the tight rooty corners after the bomb hole on the way down to the wee bridge over the river and the skinny at the top of the steep climb.

The ‘best’ was saved until last though. The steep drop into the carpark from now on may not be Lenkas favourite bit of trail. A quite spectacular off was had by our Slovak friend - over the bars, full mid air 360 with her bike tumbling behind. Thankfully all was ok(including bike) apart from some battered pride. Fair play to Lenka though - she has bigger kahunas that alot of guys to even  try it. Well done , you gave it a shot.

First ramblings on the blog are about our trip to Kinlochleven.  Started out from Glasgow with Billy, Iain, Steve and Ed and then the usual getting stuck behind a really slow driver on the shores of Loch Lomond - much to the annoyance of Billy. A pit stop at Crianlarich cafe, quickly follwed by another stop to stock up on mars bars at The Green Welly. Arrived at Kinlochleven to meet some friends of Bikebus - Andy and Aneela from Innerhaven. No hanging about and we were soon off up into the hills. A bite sized chunk of climbing and we ended up at Loch Eilde Mor. A pretty muddy(and amusing) traverse followed up to Blackwater dam…and then the fun started.

My brand new forks blew a seal, the rain stared to pelt down and then we all scrambled down to Kinlochleven. Some enjoyed the descent, others didnt. Some looked in full control, others didnt. Soon enough we were in the local pub firing into a nice burger.