What's been your favourite ride this year and why?

Cool... Now finish the second part of the question ....

always one clever little fluffy clouds

Doing the 7 hills killer ride. Great natural XC course, nice few hours out with a group of riders, talking and riding.

Other than that, a couple of weeks ago when a friend came over to ride and me, him and another mate went out all day riding local trails. Filming and trying out new jumps.

IMO, pretty much all my rides have been good this year! I cant wait to get out this weekend tho, especially with all the rain we've been having, its going to be great

Hmmm, hard to say. Either Swaledale earlier on in the year for some absolutely epic long descents, or Dalbeattie in 30 degree evening heat as I was probably at the peak of my fitness this year and just found it effortless

The trails i ride are always mint,The Tweed Valley is local for me ( about an hr drive ) everybody knows Glentress & Innerleithen but there's lots more trails built by locals ( my heroes ) that go on for miles and are spread all over the valley, my ambition in life is to some day live there permanently before i get past it lol, I kind of have a top 4, I love it when people come to ride where I do so when some of you guys down south come up to sample Scotland's finest it gives me a real buzz to see the reactions on folks faces
In reverse order
Euan and myself met a guy called Jimmy from Leeds at Glentress who was up for the weekend on a jolly paid for by his work, I met Scott and his mate Joe off this forum at Inners for a day Up n Down the xc route, Tweedlove inc the EWS was an event I marshalled at over 2 days and it was a bloody fantastic thing to be a part of, to see all the top riders ride the trails that i do and really struggle on some of it was memorable to say the least and to see videos all over the internet about it was right up there
No 1 on my list was the randomness sometimes of this sport, I was at Glentress myself and had a guy on my tail all the way up to the next car park when he came to me as i stopped for a breath and asked where the black route was, so we buddied up for the day, clearly he wasn't from here going by his heavy accent, Guillem from Spain was here for a month, drove over here in his van by himself, we did the black route including some of the EWS tracks, this was when i found out how good he was , what a rider, you know that way when some riders just float over stuff as if it's not there, semi pro and had been mechanic to some well known names, I enjoyed myself so much i met up with him the following week and introduced him to some guys i ride with, a really nice fella too, A friend on facebook now and i see he has won a local race and come 2nd in another, really fast and technically gifted on a bike   

The C2C (Workington to Sunderland) route I done with my son and a few good mates.

Not the hardest of routes really but it was a bit of a challenge for lot of us to do it in 2 days.
It's something I've been wanting to do for years but life (as it does) got in the way for many years and the normal "I will do it next year" excuses stopped me. So this year i said to myself "fuck it" I will do it even if I do it by myself.

Had an amazing time out with the lads the weather was mint and best of all I really had a good time with my son, money just can't buy times like that.

23 miles off piste at cannock last weekend guided by jay,made even better when he bought the teas at the end

There has been some great riding this year..but the trip that stands out for me is our trip to Arran in April.
There's always something magical about a road trip to start a ride and this one involved a 1 hour Calmac ferry crossing from Ardrossan to Brodick on the Isle of Arran ..we paid for Ian to take his van on the ferry ( to get our bikes to the start of the first ride ) the rest of us going as foot passengers ( bikes go free) on a saver return ..less than £ 12.00 which is great value ...but a 5.00am start from home was required to get the first ferry ..and an Asda brekkie in Ardrossan !
Once on the island a quick check in to The Glenartney Hotel literally a 10 min walk from the ferry terminal..and is superb and very bike friendly ...boot dryers anyone..with secure bike storage..and we were off for a short ride at the North of the island which although involving a bit of a Tarmac climb and descent to Lochranza ..also meant we could visit the distillery there ..and a quick chat to Gerard who apart from working there was also the main mover and shaker of Arran bike club ..who had been kind enough to send me some info . ..a great off road climb then drop to the coast and a mellow trundle along the coastline on some excellent singletrack followed ..but the main event was the following day ..
The Classic Route
A year previously myself and Dave t ..had come over to do this route and return home in the same day ..which I managed with 10 mins to spare before midnight .. But we had to cut the ride short ..or miss the last ferry ..this time we all hoped to complete the ride but were aiming for the 4.30 pm ferry ..but then over an evening meal and a few beers the night before it was decided to include part of another ( clauchlands) route ..the reason for which is that it included a fantastic cliff top descent . I'm not kidding when I say that this was the most shit scary descent I have ever undertaken ..by no means the most technical ..but a slight twitch the wrong way would involve a 300 ft drop to your death .. Which I did manage to put to the test , choosing instead though to fall to my right and impale my right arm on a barbed wire fence ..saying that though it was also the most exhilarating 10 mins I have had on my bike !
This route is fantastic other highlights including the Glenashdale Falls / descent down to Whiting Bay ..the "alpine" climb up to The Giants Graves ..some really tasty singletrack on the return to include Arran Mtb clubs own trail build ..which is technical but very very natural and is truly superb ..the extended route is about 50 km ..and guess what ..we still didn't get to do the section we had missed the year before.. We could have done it if we had decided to take the last ferry ..but that would have meant a 3 hr drive home from Ardrossan at 9.00 pm ..and everyone decided to do the sensible thing.
Still it gives us an excuse to return again ....
The Arran Bike Club' s website seems to now be defunct ..I know that they also had a Facebook page so maybe could be found there..( I don't do Facebook) ..but they did produce excellent route maps ..I will have them somewhere if anyone decides to go ..and should be able to email ..you certainly wouldn't regret it !

what was that with? Max?

Favorite ride this year will hopefully be tomorrows, it really won't be a long one but I'm hoping to start about 6:30am, pedal to the top of the range of hills and set up the tripod and with any luck, get a timelapse of the sunrise.

Had a few great rides meeting up with some of the great lads of here to do the Derbyshire peaks rides
bhf 43 mile ride was well epic chuffed to complete it

Did you manage this or was the weather too grotty ?