A Reprieve

An impromptu day off coincided with the weather relenting it's slutchy march though winter. Nice mild temps, no cloud and the sun was even out so we nipped up to the strawberry duck and had a walk round turton and entwistle res. Very nice, lots of puddles which charlie liked walking through and a flooded bridge section but hardly a breath of wind and ace views. We got back to the duck for lunch and it was packed, they'd run out of all the posh specials and we only just got our order in before the kitched sent word to postpone orders. I had steak and chips which looked a little plain on it's huge plate, no side salad/veg just a tiny jug of pepper sauce. Turned out to be plenty and just enough sauce too, very nice just not sure it was worth £17. I guess you need to think of it as proper posh resteraunt food rather than pub grub (or just not be a tight arse like me) Mrs had fish and chips, the fish was enormous and she got a vat of peas and homemade tartare sauce, very good. Their fish finger buttie might be a winner for a mid ride top up, I saw one and these weren't any of captain birdseye's lame attempts, these were proper chunks of fish battered and cooked to perfection and chunky chips, cost £5ish which isn't bad if you get chips included, can't remember if you do tho.
Night ride later on with Johnnie and Si, a little colder than expected after the nice day but not too bad. A couple of punctures meant it was a short one, but a good laugh all the same. Is it me or are these social rides actually getting quite, well...sociable? It's not all about the riding, more getting out and having a laugh. Before you know it it'll be like loweys nightrides spending half the night in the pub :-)
I really like my mmmbop now, it is big enough I think, it's just got a short headtube which the internal headset doesn't help with, hence lots of spacers. Climbing is good, seated the front end stays down, on my other bikes the steering gets very light on steep climbs. Apparently Brant worked out the seat tube geometry after riding behind Ton up a long climb. Front wheel doesn't pop up quite easily enough for my liking but swapping the 5" forks for some 6" might sort that, it might also negate the hill climbing part too tho so not sure. Ho hum. The weather broke just as I was cycling up my street, perfect timing, I hope the rain ends soon tho, I want hard pack dusty trails again.