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!