A lot of rain last evening and also during the day, so I was a bit hesitant about going to the nightride that was organised by Stef 'Solo' Reynaerts. Planned and on the 4Bikers.be website, a lot of people who initially agreed to come didn't fancy riding in the mud and cancelled. But when around 3pm the rain stopped and the sun came through I thought by myself 'why not' and decided to go. Had to return when I was halfway to the starting point because the mudfender I mounted on my front fork clashed with the Fox RLT 80 . It touched the forks bridge on compression. So I turned around and took off the front fender, and then rode towards Bierbeek and The Borre were the start of the ride was.
Stef was there, as well as Magura and Magura senior, Fully Fetzl and I believe the sixth was Supernaut. The ride was very good. A lot of twisting and turning, with only the occasional screech of an owl and the rustling of an escaping roedeer to break the silence of the forest. The heavy rains had left a lot of deep, washed out ruts so care had to be taken in the descents. Fortunately you don't see most of the dangers in your cone of light, so you don't have to worry about them either. I used the Lupine tesla 4 which behaved flawlessly. I had it on the middle stand which should last for 6 or 7 hours. Even then I heard remarks that it was very bright. I had to react with catlike quickness a couple of times when my front wheel hit a log, or skipped into a rut I didn't see. Also puddles are sometimes a lot deeper than you think and this takes the speed out of your bike very quickly. Some 38K and 400 heightmeters later we were back at the starting point. No mechanicals, no falls, 6 experienced mountainbikers who enjoyed a great ride in the dark, wet and silent forest. The smell of the wet pines was overwhelming and my bike now looks like it has been dragged through a mudhole - which, come to think of it , is more or less correct.

Still the overall impression was that it was not as wet as I had expected. A couple of puddles yes, some a bit deeper than others but for the rest just an overall dampness of the tracks , nothing more, nothing less. My GPS had less heightmeters than my Polar, which is quite strange. But the Polar only had 25.5K recorded since the speed sensor looks like it needs a new battery. The sensor died 1h30 into the ride. It did record the time, heartrate and heightmeters though so if you couple both instruments, and my Classic Cateye Enduro 2, you get a good idea of the rides' length and difficulty.

Ride Stats : 54K and 565/375 heightmeters (Polar/Garmin) in 3h12mins

7959/81185