Before we go any further we must announce that this ride is sponsored by the stoats of the doldrums, or maybe that’s too local a reference… or maybe it’s not even a stoat but he was very cute and not camera shy at all!

In view of all the sunshine bouncing around we abandoned the planned road ride in favour of a spin to the ice cream van in Todmorden. We’ll always ride for ice cream. Another nail in the road ride’s coffin was the arrival of a new camera. Haven’t had any retail therapy in ages and cracked big time.

Even though I was glad of the gears on Monday’s epic with Jon there’s nothing like the grunt and grind of a good singlespeed ride. Especially around the cobbles of Todmorden…

Here’s Shona looking for a repeat of the stoat show, one rider and her bike…

B-Side on the moor after Littleborough…



Ice creams in Walsden. Probably the only place someone would shout ‘nice bike, love!’ out of a white van to someone on a singlespeed, 650b bike. We were only 50 yards or so from Brant Richards’ house though, that could explain a lot. Me, AKA Mr Whippy.

As ever we did the ride the wrong way round. Either we need to think about gradients a bit more or councils should just sign the trails correctly!Nearly home now,