Somewhat improbably, we’re into February having dispatched January in short order. The prospect of a short month and the appearance of deep, deep snow in the Mole Valley (as well as the South East) has brought a bit of much needed novelty to town, with several Moles slipping out to sample the white clad hills.

Not me though, my four week burst of effort has finished with the inevitable cold which I’m hoping to dispatch reasonably quickly. In the meantime, I’m chafing to get out in the snow before it goes.

My last experience was a bit of a hoot although I doubt Mark will agree. As Fate would have it, we decided to ride into work a couple of years back the day before a modest fall of snow. Not wanting to change our plans in the face of such a trifle (well, more white blancmange really), we headed out anyway. Things were fine until we got to Nower Wood where the first contact with tarmac for Mark was when his arse landed on it. The first time of several.

After that, we ended up with a bit of a yomp across country both on and off the bikes as we made our way to Reigate via parts of the North Downs Way. A normal hour and a bit ride took two and a half hours and still haunts Mark I think. I must be misty eyed with nostalgia (as always) though, I thought it was great!

But I digress. With the vague title to this post you might be tempted to substitute the word Pipedream instead of pipeline, but that would send out the wrong mesage. No, we’re not about to switch hardtail alliegencies so soon after On-one becomes Brant-less although it would be nice to explore a few more brands. Singular springs readily to mind for example, wish I’d made it to Head for the Hills’ demo day for a try on one, as I find myself warming to the brand.

No, what I’m going on about is what our dear readers can expect over the next weeks. Now I’ve put it in writing, better factor in the waffle variable but here’s hoping we manage to deliver on our plans.

First, bike reviews. Over the past weeks, four of us have acquired new bikes, almost in the manner of homing strays, except these are brand new bits of kit. If I wanted to include strays or at least the newly found, then we’d be up to five new bikes being ridden by the Moles.

In order of acquisition (if not actually riding—Colin) here they are… First, Jez has a recently re-warmed Voodoo something or other (HooDoo?) which he’s been putting some winter miles on. Tony has (amongst many, many bikes) a new Trek Fuel EX8 which looks very sweet and then of course there’s Colin with his purple Dialled Bikes Alpine still waiting to see the light of day and a dry trail. Crashing on, Jem is putting an On-one Summer Season through it’s pimped up paces and Dave has now swapped his ‘that blue’ 456 for a ‘new blue’ 456, still managing to keep the Mary bars of course. Well, if they’re good enough for the Fat Cyclist after all…

Without wishing to put anyone on the spot, that’s five reviews of the sort of bikes people want to read about just waiting to get penned. For me, my Orange is still out of service waiting funds for a new derailleur and in the meantime I’m loving my classic Inbred much more than I expected. I’ve got a few bits of kit to review myself which I’ll be adding as time allows.

I’ve many ideas for the site too, which will continue to see plenty of tweaks in the coming months and hopefully some interesting articles. We must be doing something right as we’ve just celebrated our best month for traffic ever, helped no doubt by a regular flow of writing and some cracking rides to talk about. Particularly good to see is the increasing level of comments accompanying our postings which is always a sign that people are still awake at the back.

So thanks to everyone and hope we all have a great February. Happy riding!

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About the author

Matt is one of the founding Molefathers of the Muddymoles, and is the designer and main administrator of the website.

Having ridden a 2007 Orange Five for many years then a 2016 YT Industries Jeffsy 29er, he now rocks a Bird Aether 9 and a Pace RC-627.

An early On-One Inbred still lurks in the back of the stable as a reminder of how things have moved on. You can even find him on road bikes - currently a 2019 Cannondale Topstone 105 SE, a much-used 2011 Specialized Secteur and very niche belt drive Trek District 1.

If you've ever wondered how we got into mountain biking and how the MuddyMoles started, well wonder no more.