Jason, John and Terry joined the Reivers this Sunday morning, 6th May 2007, in the wilds of Northumberland for another spot of exercise. In fact, they almost outnumbered them, not for the first time. Maybe the regular Reivers are getting cheesed off with the severity of most of their rides, only very small sections of which could be described as "enjoyable" by brain possessors. There's just something about their rides, let me think... nah, not worth the effort. I would definitely claim that this is the last MTB club anyone should join unless they have a death wish. It's certainly not beginner-friendly, so Reader beware and go elsewhere.

Anyway, today, with Tom leading we started from Barrowburn which is almost at the end of the road if you drive through Alwinton, beyond Rothbury, and keep going. We left the cars just after ten. That was my first mistake - should have taken it with me. The first thousand miles was an uphill drag (Ok, it was 5.8 miles) to the highest point of the ride on Windy Gyle, and boy, was that Gyle windy, probably more than Jason after a Vindaloo! The weekend forecast was spot on - gusts up to 60mph in the Borders. Fortunately the gusts helped blow us up here, at least for the first few miles until we turned west into it beyond Hazely Law onto the Pennine Way. So the first 1,156 vertical feet took us (well, me) an hour and a half. Things were to slow down dramatically after that, however!

Up on the tops to rest point number one, where we see a hive of activity with Tom doing something to Derek (left), Jason doing something to John (right) and Ray waiting for someone to do something to him I'm just the photographer, you understand. Looking back (down) - urk!

Tom's the black spec in the background (right) as Ray supports the signpost in the gale And here's shy Tom at the start of the stepping stones The Gollum's new bike having a fit and another Just look at the admiration from the Reivers Big Two! then it's all hands to the pumps as Jason's Whyte E5 throws up a tricky problem which turned out not to be a loose headset, but an unshackled front wheel!

We move on a little This ones for the landscape gardeners out there

Oh heck - where've they all gone? I managed to catch up just as Jason (left, prone) and Derek (right, teetering) both dropped it on this savage climb Looking back down to Dave and Tom with some big Cheviots in the background   

Now you may have gathered from my opening above that this was to be another heartbreaking, ball breaking, hate-inducing ride to Hell. And you'd be - right, but only partially. Although there were only seven of us (Dave, Derek, Ray, Tom and us three), the small talk was as cutting and humorous as ever, and there were again some very enjoyable downward slopes to negotiate among the painful slogs upwards. Disasters were happily missing, and our Jason gave himself the best odds of suffering pain by falling not once, not twice, but three times. Luckily he was travelling upwards fairly slowly each time, but in the one I managed to catch on camera he may have just said "ouch" or something similar. Even Fatboyreiver had sanitised his criticisms of everyone and everything, and was a much nicer person to ride with than on his first outing last Sunday at Blanchland.

The stepping stones which make up large sections of the Pennine Way across the soggier parts of our fabulous Kingdom of Northumbria demanded intense concentration with the crazy gales belting across your bows, and even the uphill sections were made somewhat enjoyable by the possible danger of slipping or being blown off the edge, and the even worse prospect of the remainder of the Magnificent Seven mocking one of the brethren for falling off. There was a short discussion at the junction of Mozie Law and the main drag, Dave suggesting the weaker among us may like to divert back to the car at this point. John was all for it but changed his mind when the others began to ride up Mozie's even higher hill off to the right. Once again, Golly was forced to take his mother  for another walk. However, this thing is a good four pounds lighter than the Coiler or Barracuda he normally uses and the difference was very noticeable at around 28 lbs for it's relatively cheap five inches of plush travel.

Don't know how that pallet got up here! this stretch is pretty new

We hid in Russell's Cairn for a short snack break when the weather took a substantial turn for the worse. Luckily it blew over but here's a few pics of the menacing clouds rising up the hill to envelop us.

Ray tries to turn himself into a kite (at least I think that's what John said).

They've gone and left me again so I console myself by taking more pictures of the DDG against the dramatic backdrop of the Cheviots

After Mozie Law came more climbs up Beefstand Hill and Lamb Hill before light relief on the drop to the Mountain Rescue Hut. We stopped here for a decent lunch break out of the relentless, tormenting wind and Golly's new bike became the centre of attention, or abuse, whichever way you look at it. Derek joined in with Jason to ultimately force the Gollum to stick a bit more wind in the X-Fusion shock of the Mutha as they reckoned it was sagging way too much. Of course that was with Jason and John's somewhat heavier bodies parking themselves on the DDG's saddle. I suspect the shock may be slowly leaking air, but I'll give it a few rides to bed in. Jason didn't escape the ribbing after John decreed he had no brake pads. Close inspection revealed almost brand new pads in the Hope callipers of the Whyte E5, but I'm already on record here somewhere claiming loud noises from jay's brakes when you follow him closely. Pretty sure they must be fairly hard, probably sintered pads in there and their natural resonance is being amplified by the boxy carbon fibre swinging arm.

A few miles further on Tom lied barefacedly when asked by John what was coming next. His reply was "it's all downhill from here", but nay, lad, it wasn't. For the lonely Gollum, straggling at the back out of sight of the others while taking his mother (OK, Mutha) for a long slow walk over the moors, the evil wind was Very Bad News, and he was almost at the point of sending up a flare when finally we did reach the downward turn for home miles later. But that was only after climbing over the road block known as Deel's Hill, part of the Border County Ride. It was worth it, though, as only the sheep beyond the summit (the summit - ) prevented a land speed record attempt on grass as we MidAirCrisis trio took full advantage of the kind gents from Morpeth opening all the gates for us as we blasted stupidly down to the tarmac ribbon snaking through the valley 600 feet and 1.4 miles below. We joined it just short of Blindburn and enjoyed a rapid 3 mile downhill cruise with the wind at last at our backs back to the cars.Dave at the start of the final drop and Derek catching up Made it!

I would class this as a hard ride, but there was enough payback to make it almost worth the trip, although I'll probably never come back, and never, ever come anywhere near these moors in wet or winter weather as our hosts seem to enjoy doing.

Here's Jason taking bike protection to the nth degree back at the cars

The Golly GPS said 18.2 miles, total time out 5 hrs, average speed 3.63 mph (yep, but I walked a LOT) and 30.1 mph down the final field, though it felt nearer 40 with the high Fear Factor and some menacing sheeps' faces.

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