Badgers in heat - Epping Forest Summer rides

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F_6IjeprfEs

Thanks for that everybody and thanks for leading Pete.

Thanks all, really enjoyed that! Good to see a decent turnout, despite the rain. Also glad everyone made it round on those slippery roots, without incident.

The dappled sunlight on the way back from the teahut has now burned itself into my memory as a great 'end of Summer' moment :-)

Slippy slide fun, thanks Pete and all folks.

Today's ride

Nice one @BareNecessities for organising and the others for being friendly and helpful/patient on what was my first Badgers outing, definitely not my last as it was a blast!!!
Cheers folks

Glad you enjoyed it. I'm all about getting off-road noobs out there and enjoying the mud!

Yeah, really nice ride - and thanks for pointing me to the fire road back, was good fun

badgers in heat the rain

great fun once again nice to see a bit of mud back

But a lot less than expected! And yes @BareNecessities the afternoon sun at the tea hut was great, like a reward for turning out despite the forecast. Also I meant to say your Talbot is lovely...

badgers secret handshake

new badgers handshake vetoed

badgers v.1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99782232@N00/albums/72157673409613291

badgers v.2
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99782232@N00/albums/72157673446496100

That top pic is so good!

Especially when you look above Luke's head...

Fantastic fun guys! Great pictures from everyone, hopefully we can do some more if the weather holds up :D

Threat effort from the hardy folks who turned out today.....and well lead by the big fella!
Nice to put some names to usernames/faces, and to absorb the wonderful mix of velocipedes that people chose to to ride......that's half the fun for me!

Sorry to turn up late and leave earlier, but I had some family chores to attend to.
Let's not leave it months before the next badgers adventure!

I'll just leave this here for you all..

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/269742/#comment12553902

or there's this:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/290909/#comment13141242

Threat effort

I did no such thing.

damn, looked fun today. bummed i couldnt make it.

i should buy a mountain bike

Shit, knew I had something booked yesterday. :(

Thanks again to @BareNecessities for organising yesterday, great to meet more friendly people and put some usernames to bikes/faces. Thanks for putting up with me and my pedal troubles, especially @mmccarthy without whom I would still be clipped into my bike in a bush somewhere on Wellington Hill.

Hah! No worries man! That pedal/cleat combo did seem to be absolutely horrible.

As a sidenote, I'm actually finding riding with flats a hell of a lot better than I'd thought. No temptation at all to get back to my Times, just need to get myself a proper pair of shoes rather than a £25 pair of skating shoes which are being ripped apart...

@mmccarthy, how's the leg?

It's alright thanks, been keeping it cleaned and wrapped so haven't been inspecting it too frequently. Looks fine now, might pop by the GP tomorrow just to be sure.

A piece of advice I can definitely offer, if something similar happens to you, get your leg waxed right away. The repeated application and removal of plasters is the worst part of the whole situation.

I feel the same about flats. Since getting some proper riding shoes and changing to flats over the last few months I've become way more confident on trails. Definitely recommend proper shoes though, the new waterproof Five Tens are nice.

Got some Five Tens on my xmas list, the skating shoes were more to test the waters than anything.

Had imagined that flats would be useless for any sort of distance or hill climbing but I'm not really finding it to be a noticeable difference.