Had a lovely ride around the Scottish Borders, Tweed Valley area, yesterday. It was the Skinny Tweed ride, organised as part of the Tweedlove festival. As this was very much a social ride, it came good on its promise of beautiful scenery and lots of good chat. I spend so much time on the bike on my own, I sometimes forget how nice it is to coast along quiet roads having a blether with a good buddy or a friendly bike riding stranger. There’s always great camaraderie between cyclists and I’ve met some lovely folk in chance encounters out on the road over the years and yesterday was no exception.

It was also the first outing for the. New Endura lycra that I’ve been given for Biggest Journey, which performed well and looked great. I was also test riding the beautiful Boardman SLR that I’ve been very kindly loaned by Boardman Bikes. The SLR was inspiringly fast and, more importantly, comfy and stable and should prove to become a good friend on my 400mile epic.