We’ve been away for a few days near Kirroughtree, a bit of walking, chilling and visiting castles and stuff. I had a few rides of the trails in the forest, apparently this is some of the best flowing singletrack in the country. I have to agree. It’s a belter. The black route was good, plenty of rock features and technical sections – the red route however is outstanding (even at night). If you’ve never ridden it, get thee to Scotland and do it.

At times, especially riding the technical stuff, I felt a bit under-biked. The low weight and narrow flat bars on the Global didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence at times (although it was very, very fast at other times) but it’s the only geared mountain bike I’ve got at the moment. I heeded the advice of several people not to take the singlespeed – that turned out to be good advice. It’d be good to go and have another go (or three) on a burlier bike, a bit like the one Michael was riding, in fact.

We even had a “family” ride around the green route – Deb, Michael and me towing the girls in the trailer. It was nice and surprisingly muddy!