The annual GFBD ride is held on the first Saturday in December and has been running since about 2012. I am pretty sure Brian and I have had a fatbike ride on most of these with myself missing an organised ride last year due to being in Australia for a family funeral. Though I did get a local ride out on my Pugsley as soon as I got home. I think it was the following Saturday.
Anyway this year Brian decided to head up this way and the plan was to do the Loch More/Altnabreac loop in the flow country up here in the north of Scotland.
There are rides taking place all over the world so we did post this one up though we didn't really think anyone would show up but it made us committed to it regardless of what the weather would be. Well the weather didn't let us down. It has rained solidly up here for the past week and things looked little better this morning.
After Brian arrived at mine and had a warming cuppa it was time to load the bikes into my van for the short drive out to the start of our ride.
I was on my Pugsley with Brian riding his nice carbon framed fatbike with carbon rims, very nice and very light. Brian though has had a few hassles with punctures on these carbon rims when running tubeless so had fitted tubes to see if that made the difference. Thankful to say we had no punctures today so all seems good with them now.
We unpacked and quickly got going as the rain was light but steady and there was a stiffening breeze from the south west. Thankfully we were pretty well wrapped for it but it's still a pain in the backside and of course, would rather ride in the dry.
The wide open nature of the flow country lets you see what's coming from a good distance away and it didn't look like the day would get better judging but the limited view we had of the cloudy, rainy horizon.
Still, we had a great ride and once in the protected area where there were trees it was a bit easier going, though the road was littered with big filled puddles.
Due to the weather we didn't complete the loop, instead spending time taking detours and exploring trails we hadn't been down before and generally staying in the more forested areas rather than out into the exposed open flow land.
As the afternoon progressed the wind had picked up along with the rain getting steadily heavier.
I think we made the right decision not to go out into the south western section where we would be exposed completely to the wind as when we headed back the way we came we had a good few miles of very strong headwind along with heavy rain.
The Pugsley as usual was a joy to ride but I must do more maintenance when I haven't been riding it as much over the summer as not long into the ride I had the back brake start slowing my down and bringing me to a stop only to have a pad backing plate drop out and onto the ground with no pad material attached. They had some how separated and it had allowed to baking plate to drop out. Luckily no big hills out here so just rode with the front brake. Must check better next time rather than a casual glance for thickness :)
Thanks once again must go to Brian for his company and heading up this way.
Whether Fatbike or not I hope anyone reading this managed to get a ride in where ever you may be.
Jamie
