twenty four little hours

Sunday was planned for a proper ride, helvellyn and skiddaw were mentioned. All the rain had us erring, thinking about maybe hitting a trail centre instead if things were bad. By friday the forecast of a weeks worth of rain in one day and high winds we aimed even lower, meet at lee quarry and do graham's stw ride taking in bits of the Mary Townley loop. Sunday dawned (eventually) lots of heavy rain, blowing a gale and weather warnings and advice not to leave the house unless necessary, hmm. Crap weather chicken began, seriously considered calling the lads to see if they wanted to cancel but waited for one of them to make the call instead. No-one chickened out so, idiots that we are, we turned up got changed (in the rain), rebuilt Johnnies bike (in the rain) and set off up the the quarry (yep in the rain). We were getting blown about all over the shop and it was freezing, proper face numbing stuff. Faff stop halfway up my hands were already numb in my winter gloves, a few more lads came past, one was gloveless, his hands were bright red, looked like a beginner so I guess gloveless due to lack of kit rather than choice. Ouchy. No way were we heading any further from the cars so we just did a couple of laps of LQ. Wind was all over the shop, behind you one minute stopping you in your tracks the next. Pedalling down hills getting blown off line, scary. Tried the new pump track but a bit too advanced for us, old pump track was beset by wind so waste of time. I had a shot at the step down jumps but just the once. Social pace taking it easy and having a laugh. Went round for a second lap then Johnnies chainset exploded at the play area so we just descended straight to the cars and tried to get warm again. Pie stop at stubbins, awesome pies but a bit pricey. Just an hour and a half riding, well 90mins away from the car anyway, character building but as Johnnie said "I've already got lots of character building rides under my belt and stories to tell, I don't really need any more" Next time maybe I'll be the crap weather chicken :-) Then next day was glorious sunshine and gentle breeze, I was sweltering riding in to work and tailwind all the way home. What a difference a day makes eh?

My first taste of vegan sausage...

Bike to work day on Wednesday so after a nice easy cruise into work I wondered over to the canteen to snaffle myself a free brekkie, excellent. Sausages looked a bit incinerated but grabbed myself one anyway only realised when I bit into it that it was a bloody (haha) veggie one. Bleurgh, what a gyp, I wasn't the only one who fell for this either. I don't recommend them.
Anyway finally got out on another nightride, a limited one tho, Si resting a sore knee, Johnnie feeling very unfit, me out of shape and not wanting to beast myself just before HtN. I had to test out the SS, not ridden it in nearly 2 months! Climb up barrow bridge and old rake wasn't as bad as I expected, was feeling alright but could tell my legs didn't have much in them and the meter was running down quickly. Up to two lads the going was quick, coming down 2 lads was harsh, all churned up in last weeks rain and then frozen solid, very bumpy. Met Johnnie near the pike and up we went, brief pause at the top then down I figured we'd do san marino should be ace. We slogged our way up the full road route, was baltic, taking your gloves off to get something out of you pac was a bad move, you'd never get your hands warm again. Finally hit the top and rolled to the dirt road start of SM and that's where the ice started, a quick look and all of SM seemed to be covered in ice. Oh dear. Sat for a while eating jelly beans (which ripped my filling out - again! Aaaargh) Decided SM was a no go, headed back down the road, at the mast we split I dropped down to Loweys singletrack, again it was battering my arms and legs and near the bottom broke through the ice of a puddle. Climbed up to the res and as I started the steep down off the edge I realised my discs had iced over from that puddle eeek. Might have ridden it out if I'd tried bit I just attempted to turn back up the hill and stop but binned it. Rest of the ST was fun, almost as fast as summer. Didn't attempt the corner at the end tho. Home from there via smithills farm, nice little run out. My cold finally seems to be clearing up, fitness still lacking and SS might be optimistic for HtN, I've no doubt the racing red mist will descend and I'll be redlining from the start but with a bit of luck I won't actually die.

Number 1

Finally kicked off the years riding, nightride and oh what a lovely evening...! Pittling down from the off but Johnnie had already text that the weather report was "mtfu" I was suited and booted and ready for whatever the weather chucked at me, fancied a long ride too give the legs a good workout. Rode struggled up barrow bridge and the mist started, got up onto winterhill and visibility was down to about 6', then I remembered I had my lights on low so upped them and visibility got to about 12' not a massive improvement. Glasses off due them keep steaming up, dropped down hole in the wall, very slippy but my minion ST did a sterling job upfront, lots of driftyness but held on OK, good work. Onto wildeswood, dropped down the first section in my usual kamikaze style despite the low visibility straight into the 2 blind bends, round one, round the next ARGH TREE! right across the trail, slammed on was at maximum braking and still heading for it so closed my (unprotected doh!) eyes and put my head down, managed to stop with my head against some of the outer twigs/branches, lucky escape there. Got to the meet, Si was waiting but no Johnnie, checked my phone "In A&E with son, sorry" hah likely story, looked out of the window and thought sod that more like :-)
Climbing up rivi I realised a long ride was out and Si has been beating himself up at the gym recently so decided on a quick one, up to the pike, down wildes avoiding the tree, dropping into the forest a log viciously attacked Si's front tyre at a shallow angle and he very nearly lost it. I got to the stud farm no sign of Si so turned back, he'd flatted in the woods. Quick change then down to bstard climb, oh joy, up that then I split, Si did ICR and fortunately flatted so he wasn't going flat out when a few seconds later a landrover came round the corner. I limped home down george's lane, and through the golf course, where I stopped at exactly the wrong spot to drop my saddle, sorted that, set off and a few metres ahead was a car, lad in front seat, girl in back both hurriedly dressing themselves, they must have seen me when I stopped to mess with my saddle, if I hadn't stopped I'd have caught them in flagrante fully illuminated by my hopes :-) Battered down to barrow bridge and home to bike wash and lots of food, just one question, where did all my fitness go?

Dawn til Dusk

I've fancied doing a silly ride for a while now, I'd got an allday no quibbles day pass for the STW lee quarry ride so I'd work around that. Did think about riding over from home but I'd have to set off at daft'o'clock, instead I got my ever helpful wife to drop me off at the body farm It was just getting light but really thick fog meant visibility was low, this was to be a constant throughout the day I don't think visibility ever got above 50ft, claggy indeed. As it was going to be a long muddy slog in places I'd packed the blinglespeed, round the holcombe horseshoe and onto the first leg ripper of the day, the climb up to peel tower, steep as hell but nice and smooth with plenty of grip so no excuses to push, ground may way up that, decent pace along the tops and dropped in to Lumb. Climbed up to Edenfield and the next grinder gin croft lane, mainly concrete which alternated between grippy and slippy for seemingly no reason. Sand Beds Lane beat me, steep rough and slippy and my legs were already protesting, was making quick time so paused for a quick rest. The packhorse slabs round cowpe were slippery, the timeworn grooves in them making for interesting handling. Got to top of leach before 10, the group hadn't even left the car park so stay and wait in the cold or drop in? Drop in obviously. Link road has bedded in nicely nice and swoopy. stuck behind a group but it helped me enjoy the swoopiness rather than caning it and getting out of shape in the corners. At the bottom me and another "loner with people to meet" took a shortcut through the quarry, the guys have placed some big rocks up to stop you doing this (sorry fellas) I stopped next to them and put my foot on top, which slipped straight off over the top and threw me over them, proper cartwheel with bike trying to land on top of me, bloke behind obviously trying to suppress a laugh asked if I was ok and had I not seen the stones? Met up with everyone at the bottom and...climbed straight back up. The slabs were interesting on skinny tyres and a very high saddle rest was OK. Climb back up the link road was slow going but not too taxing. Going down to Crag a guy crashed right in front of me, those slippy rutted packhorse slabs again, couldn't slam on or I'd have hit the deck too, managed to avoid him, he luckily hadn't hurt himself. Crag was nice, was flowing along it quite well until I took a high line round a berm were some sharp rocks ripped the front tyre, tube in and then a sprint to catch everyone up. We did a new route back to sand beds, better than the boggy cowpe way. Got chatting to NBT along there then at a stop I cadged a bit of one of gramejones "blondies" think chocolate brownies but with white chocolate and macadamia nuts. Wow, really nice, I reckon the sugar rush hit me within about 30seconds of eating. We dropped down via the waterworks, some interesting singletrack including a very squeaky bum inducing makeshift bridge and rooty roll in. My memory's a bit vague after that, some road and double track stuff round Harden moor, back up to the top road and a right grinder of a climb up to the windmills which weren't visible until you got to their foot when the rotors would suddenly swoop down into view and disappear again. A bit of a bogfest over to top of leach where I said farewell and set off for home, dropped into edenfield and lumb in proper quick time with grahams route, took the road through helmshore as I didn't fancy the steep rocky climb up, bad move, longer and more climbing. The climb back onto the moors was never going to happen legs were shot by then so pushed up. I was now in a world of hurt, thighs aching, arms pumped, back and shoulders knackered, feet numb even the palms of my hands seemed bruised. Felt good :-) Steep cheeky decent from the tower, around the horseshoe, shot down the roads through entwistle, needed my lights for the chicken run and along the valley to home. Had only taken me 2 hours from leach to home, pretty quick. 54ish miles, felt like a lot more, longest/biggest/hardest singlespeed ride I've done.

Relentless

Tuesday nightrides have been switched to Wednesday so Johnnie can play at being chuck norris, pity coz Tuesday was a decent evening. Weather was looking grim, Johnnie cancelled due to poorly tummy, me and Si braved the elements. It had been cloudy all afternoon, as we set off from moss bank park we thought we might just get away with it, nope 2mins in it started to rain, steady drizzle set in as we hit scout road. Going up Burnt edge the north east wind (well it was blowing NE dunno if thats a nor'easterly or a sou'westerly) and constant rain soaked my left side, going down 2 lads and wildes soaked my front, could hardly see a thing, mist and a solid wall of rain, my glasses were useless, fortunatley my innertube+ziptie fender kept my eyes grit free, Si's shop bought version didn't work quite so well. Bit of a mooch round the fps near the barn (no walkers around eh? wrong, who the hell goes walking in weather like this? :-) ) up AICR very wet now, Si's main Hope light packed up with no warning, oops, no pike or san marino then. Along georges lane that NE wind soaked my right side, up hole in't wall rain pouring down my back for the complete drowned rat effect. Down burnt edge back onto scout rd, Si's joystick cut out too, oh dear. I loaned him mine for the drop through the golf course then home for a warm shower and dry clothes. Two and a half hours of constant rain, at least it was warm. It's all points in the karma bank tho, you have to endure autumn and winter nights like this to earn the fantastic summers like we just had....oh wait....

Yes it was a bit

I'd booked Friday off for a ride but I had no one to ride with so I planned a biggy, with no one to complain about the climbs being too steep or the descents too scary or the route was too long or that their legs were hurting* I had a blank canvas. High street would be involved, I parked in Kentmere climbed out of the valley, up dubbs and garburn road. It was a lovely morning and the trail was a lot better than last time I went up there this time I managed to ride the first few corners then I started being sensible, lots of miles and climbing to go so chill out and don't attack silly climbs. Up to garburn pass then climb to the yoke, on a seriously steep bit I pedalled hard and thought "dig deep dave" then I remembered the route and amended it to "don't dig deep, dig shallow...with one of those plastic spades" Dropping from Yoke I went over an innocuous rock not very hard and got a flat. Grrr, ust tyre was at 45psi (!) full of sealant but wouldn't seal. Pushed up Ill Bell to give it some time but nope still wouldn't seal. Bunged in a downhill tube in and pumped it up to 60ish. Gave a rough sluggish ride (>400g tube) but no more problems. Ill Bell descent was mental didn't ride much of the top at all. Froswick was better, then I got to the thornthwaite crag beacon, cool never been here before. On to riggindale straits and onto the ullswater classic loop, one of my favourite rides. Along the undulating trail to Loadpot and the loooong gentle descent to the cockpit, lovely. The route to howtown has changed over the years, now has loads of G-out gulleys/rollers, hit them at top speed and it's awesome, which with no walkers around is what I did. At howtown the nice lady at the pub refilled my camlebak and I set off to do the ullswater trail, at 12:30 oh dear. It was packed with walkers but I'm happy to say they were all nice people moved out of the way as I rode, when I was pushing they chatted, just a lovely vibe going on. Minted. The trail was as good as usual, I got a clean run at all the down and along bits and I pushed up all the hard climbs. I was feeling the strain at patterdale, at this point my original plan was to turn round, do the ullswater trail in reverse, go up boredale hause and drop back into patterdale before heading back to high street, but after mapping it at 46miles/10500ft climbing total I'd decided I probably wouldn't bother with that bit, I was right. A quick change (how nice is a fresh riding top after 5 hours of hot weather riding?) and on to the soul destroying slog that is the climb upto the Knott. Purgatory, absolute bloody nightmare, 2miles 1800ft I walked about 90% of it, carrying my bike up the grass staircase I was having serious doubts about finishing, legs were dead I was almost out of water and I had a long way to go. Flapjacks, powergel, serious talking to, keep going. Finally hit high street and it got easier, did a lot of riding up to thornthwaite and I felt lots better, I skipped Froswick peak taking the route around it, slogged up to Ill Bell, another carry, and finally made it to Yoke, from here it was pretty much all downhill to the car, over 3 miles of it. Pitched staircase to start, flat out hardpack, some rocky/grassland singletrack, then onto the rockfest of garburn pass. My arms and legs were wrecked by the time I got to the car. Battered, righteous complete muscle fatigue, home for a long soak and a lot of sleep. Hardest ride of the year, I didn't have a camera but if you squint and add a dash of imagination this photoshopped mspainted pic from last winters ride should give you some idea ;-)

Apologies to deejay for murdering his very nice picture

*only joking guys, you know I like social rides really)

Over ambitious

Does 46miles with 10500ft of climbing sound too much? Hmm I can feel a loooong road bailout option coming up.

Black Ops

I'm blessed with a brilliant family but I'm also cursed with a mountain biking obsession. As obsessions go it's not bad, it's healthy, it's not illegal - apart from the odd civil infringment, sure it can cost a bit but the biggest problem is it's a time sink - not a good mix with a young family. For a few very good reasons I'm not allowed to ride at weekends at the moment, so family stuff all day yesterday, put charlie to bed at 7 then out for a ride. A proper ride, my legs were due a beasting. Been working on a definitive 3towers ride, the standard direct route is a bit boring so been working in some stuff from various routes.
Usual nightride start, barrow bridge upto 2 lads, kennel, wildeswood, bastard climb, pike, proper nice sunset, welsh hills, red sun reflecting on sea, blackpool tower, morecambe bay and cumbria hills (I think).

rubbish phone pic but you get the idea.
Down the pike, climb hole in the wall, winter hill mast and down san marino. Mistimed a drop and flatted, bugger. Precious time wasted sorting that. Belmont res road whilst not open has been modified so pedestrians can cross it (yay) across to tockholes where I picked up Mr Sparkles nightride route, got a bit lost round roddlesworth, back on track down by earnsdale, up lions den, down the tech little chute from loweys rivi ride, upto the tower then down sunnyhurst. Halfway down hitting 25-30ish some enormous beast ran across the trail right in fornt of me, had to brake to miss it. Figured out it was a hare but it was the size of a frickin dog! Down and across to whitehall along the little ginnel, setting of everyone's outside lights - sorry paul :-) Upto cadshaw, legs were feeling a bit shot but figured I only had 2 climbs to do to get to peel tower. Sure I'd have to ride home somehow but thats just details.
Crowthorne was hardwork, thats one long climb, quarlton holcombe and the steep, steep climb up peel, phew, done, noticed it was 11:30, oops. Down the stepy rocky route Mr S showed us, then backup the steep climb almost to the top to do another one Mr S pointed out, also good. Properly tired, lack of concentration had me off, going up a steepy bit, just as I was gonna heft up a step section back wheel slipped and bike stopped dead, ended up doubled up over the bars and off to the side, handlebar in the face - nice. Dropped down crowthorn, my route runs into a bit of a dead end here, only off road route I'd found is via the jumbles which is a bit pants so decided to gib out down the road. Mrs Called me at that point "Where the #@$! are you? it's gone midnight!" ahem. As I was passing I called at Turton tower to cross that off too. home for 12:30, legs shot, nice.



Would have been happier if it was a 50miler but it'll do. Good time to be out, quiet, cool and a useful time to get some riding in. As some guy said, soaking up the hours everyone else throws away.

Road rage...again

On my way home friday I see a bus up ahead indicate to pull out, it's quiet so I move out to where the bus driver can see me in his mirror and wave him to pull out, he starts to do so. Just then I hear a car coming up behind, I hear him speed up, passing us and preventing the bus from pulling out. I flap my right arm up and down to signify my annoyance (I may have been holding an imaginary beer bottle at the time) Car goes passed, bus starts to pull out again then has to brake again as the car has pulled in ahead of the bus...uh oh! I tuck in behind the bus but nope the driver has seen me and starts shouting "was that at me? Eh? WAS THAT AT ME?" Oops. "if you can't take a bit of criticism then don't drive like  wanker" was not my response, well not unless I wanted to follow it up with "unhand me you oaf" and "strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possi...OUCH" This guy looks a bit of a scrote but he is driving a nice car so he's either well dodgy or he's in the cars, beer and burds neanderthal brigade. Either way that plus the fact that I'm exit strategy deficient in the damp paper bag scenario means I aint squaring up to him. So I do the valiant thing and run away, pavement, 1 way street, exit stage left. Another adrenaline riddled commute ending with sewing machinists jangly leg syndrome. Tool!

But not as much as a tool as this absolute degenerate.
:-(

An error in judgement

Nearly threw myself under the wheels of a car this morning, worst mistake I have made on the road in a looooong time. Approaching a big roundabout there's a long line of cars stopped on the cycle lane so I cut down the right hand lane intending to slot in further up the line where the bike lane becomes mandatory (so will be free of cars...yeah right!) it's a big roundabout and has a cycle lane so no matter how busy it is I can normally get on and off without problems using the mandatory bike lane*. Anyway I'm heading down the right lane, no spaces at all then a space appears right at the front, I race forwards to try to get to it but the van next to me floors it too, I'm faster but not quick enough to get into the left  lane properly, I endup charging into the roundabout too fast, too wide and pretty much straight into the path of a car already on the roundabout. Fortunatley he/she saw me and braked I waved apology and again as he/she passed me on the exit. Felt like a right tool, stupid stupid idiot.

I dunno this probably wouldn't have fazed me when I was younger, infact half the incidents I moan about on here probably wouldn't, near misses were still misses - I win. Nowadays I know how to ride "properly" and I know how other road users should treat me, before it was "the road is for cars, i'll just weave around them", now it's "we are all traffic, lets do things properly please". So I get all flustered when people don't give me some common courtesy, ie a bit of room so I don't get hit by a tonne of fast moving metal if I fallover/wobble/breath out and I get more worked up about a driver treating me as a 2nd class road user than I will about someone nearly killing me, education can be a dangerous thing**

*This is fine if you are taking the next exit but if you are taking the 2nd, 3rd or 4th exit the markings indicate you keep to the edge and stop at every exit road and wait for a space to cross it then move on to the next one, daft, instead of getting into the flow of traffic and it being 2 junctions (1 on 1 off) the road planners want to you to negotiate several. Rubbish design.

**education is like a communicable sexual disease, it makes you unsuitable for certain jobs and you feel the urge to pass it on :-)

Well...mostly apples. More self abuse.

After a busy week I still wasn't done wreaking havoc on my body, I went running again on Saturday, I had planned to take charlie on a ride but he slept most of the afternoon so I only had time for a run. Some cheeky beggar has blocked a ROW near me, a wire fence ziptied across a bridge, I've emailed the council, if it's not official I'll have a go at pulling it down. Not as long a run as usual just 45mins, no injuries this time, I think 45mins is about my limit after that I start to get hurt. Rest on Sunday, we went to a christening so spent most of the afternoon chasing Charlie round a social club. Some kids didn't appreciate him trying to hug them either.

Had a leaving do yesterday, nowt big (at the leave-ees request) just a few beers at the pub near work so I rode to work, as often happens a few beers turned into lots of beers and unfortunately the only cider they had was some six point something percent rocket fuel scrumpy, it looked like week old piss but tasted quite nice. I'd started on that expecting us to only be out for an hour or so but as it was I ended up absolutely blootered. Train home where I insisted on cooking tea, wife tried to stop me on the grounds that she didn't want me burning the house down or poisoning us both. I persevered and soon knocked us up some spicy fajitas, shortly before lapsing into incoherent rantings at the TV and the world in general. She left me to it, I woke up on the couch rough as arseholes staggered to bed.
Turns out the scrumpy wasn't just made from apples but also cat piss, rat poison, dog phlegm and all sorts of other stuff intended to rid you of brain cells as fast as possible. All this on a school night too, this morning was unpleasant, I've perked up now but still wont be up for tonight's ride.

De Ja Bleurgh

 Another weekend of perfect riding weather forecast, another pass out, another sorted ride planned with some mates, another bout of stomach upset, another failed weekend split between bedroom and bathroom. Grrr.
Those of a sensitive disposition look away now.
Seriously I don't want anyone complaining this post is gross, I gave you fair warning.
To be honest the ride had already fallen through, neither Johnnie or Simon could make it but Johnnie reckoned he'd be up for a local so spitlers edge was looking promising but I awoke 2am Sunday with a well dodgy stomach, Mrs had been throwing up during the week so I instantly knew what was gonna happen. We'd had Fajitas for tea and I really didn't wanna see those again, as it turns out it wasn't so bad so whilst still bent over the toilet bowl waiting for the next heave I started compiling a top 3 worst boaks ever. (told you this wouldn't be tasteful)
At 3 we have barely chewed Gammon. I was 13 on hols with my parents me and my sisters had spent most of the afternoon rolling down a massive sand dune making ourselves dizzy. Felt queasy for the rest of the day. Had Gammon for tea which as per usual for me back then I wolfed down. We then went watching indiana jones last crusade at the cinema, just as they got to the Venice boat scene my stomach had enough I walked briskly to the bogs had trouble finding them didn't quite make it. I spewed in the cubicle but didn't quite hit the toilet, whoops. Feeling like death I went back but a few mins later had to go for another go, sprinted this time made it to the cubicle just in time only to find it locked, went for the next one but the delay meant I liberally sprayed the floor of this one. I can only apologize to the cleaners at Newquay cinema.

At 2 Tapas. Work do, La Tasca's, nice, spicy spanish food, absolutely zero stodgy filler to soak up the copious post prandial alcohol (Chinese or Indian you get rice, with tapas you get nada) Spicy tomato puke, bleurgh. Horrible.

And at number 1 we have, well wait and see. Mine and a mates birthday, ooh 9 or ten years ago, we went for a curry, had a right laugh in the curry house - but that's another story. As was pro forma with my mates at the time some found eating food a necessary evil and were in a rush to get to the boozing while the rest of us finished. The other birthday boy and a few others went over to the vodka bar. I followed a little later, no sign of BB but there were my mates offering me a shot, ok cheers and I necked it, chilli vodka, you gits! They told me the other lad had already had one and had run to the bogs to throw up, I kept mine down ok but it didn't half burn (on top of a hot curry too) The night continued, ended up at someones house supping vodka til, well dunno, whatever time sunrise in march is. Now I've generally got a pretty strong stomach and very very rarely throw up on a night out but if I've really over done it, my stomach tries to sort it out, tries for a good few hours too then decides it's had enough around lunch time the next day and gives up. Anyway me and my gf went home and had a bit of a snooze, got up later felt crap for a while then tried our usual hangover pick me up, tuna mayo sarnies and tomato soup, she felt better i didn't. Sure enough a bit later I barfed, chilli vodka and tomato soup burned it's way back up my throat and out my mouth and more disturbingly my nose. Ow ow bloody ow. Worst ever. Since then I never neck a shot without tasting it first and I stick to fryups the morning after.

Feel free to share yours :-)

Pushing the envelope/Breaking the crust

Ride home was fun, the ground had softened in some places but had a few dodgy moments where I'd push into a turn and the ground held fast, seconds later another turn and the mud crust would give way and it'd go all squirrelly. Got some proper drifts going on, no stacks tho so it's all good.
Some inconsiderate twunts near home, I got home just before my mrs, I waited outside for her to help get Charlie out, she was opposite our house indicating to pull into a parking spot on our side of the road, she had to wait for a queue of traffic to clear. Lights at the corner went to red so we waited for someone to let her in - you know just pause for a few seconds before joining the long queue ahead. Nope no one stopped, just before she got completely blocked in for another cycle of the lights I had to step infront of some womens big 4x4, cow, admittedly plenty of people had already not let her in but she'd have blocked my mrs in. Where the lights are is a box junction but quite a few times recently I've seen people queueing across the junction and when the lights change no-one has been able to get across (except me on my bike of course :-) There's just no need for crap like that.

Proper night riding

Tuesday night ride was cancelled so yesterday afternoon me and SI decided to nip upto Cragg Quarry after work, he's not been before. Drive upto his then set off, 40minutes in I realised it's a lot further to the top of rooley moor road from Si's than I remembered, getting pretty cold too. Eventually got to cragg and managed a loop in the dying light, good stuff, pedally but quite flowy, there was a lot of really good bits I'd forgotten about but I had other things on my mind last time. We had a second lap in the dark, much harder work, taking the downs a bit slower so even more pedally. Few near misses as I was coasting around the top of the berms instead of carving the start and cutting in. Ended up running out of berm a few times. Dunno how anyone would manage with just bar mounted lights, you can hit the berms so fast you need to look wayyyy ahead and scan the trail up down right and left, if you got the choice helmet mounted lights are the way to go. Was funny, stopping and looking back along the trail for Si and just seeing his light shining out above the hill he was climbing, very "close encounters" We split after that lap, he had a long downhill home I had a bit more testing route. Stupidly I did more of the loop again instead of going straight down RMR. When I did depart the loop RMR was no where to be seen I just had a rough idea of direction and a faint sheeptrack to follow, the track twisted and turned and then dissappeared. I looked ahead still no sign of RMR and no chance of tracing my route back - gulp! Started getting worried, didn't wanna get lost on the moors. I forged on and fortunatley found RMR close by, phew! Remembered the route back to sandbeds lane and over to holcombe moor OK, pretty good considering I've only done it once. It's a bugger of a climb onto the moor but I managed it and was presented with a nighttime vista different to the usual from rivi. I headed to crowthorne round the horseshoe, a bunch of bikers passed me at the maggot farm (particularly pungent!) My legs were fading fast so took the road home mostly downhill. A pretty hard route for a night ride, I was shattered at the end but it was a good blast.

Why? Seriously why?

So I'm ill, again, I'm not happy but before I go apop-bloody-lectic I'll just chill out and see if I can get over it in time for kielder. Anyway, no riding to work, it's school hols so light traffic, for a limited time only I got free parking at work plus I had a few errands to do after work so I took the car in friday-wednesday, hould be cheaper than the train too*. By tuesday I was sick of it and I gave up on wednesday night, put the car away not to be used for commuting again without a damn good reason. Even with the hols it's busy out there, you gotta concentrate a lot coz everyone is trying to cut in and is swip-swapping lanes to get 1 car length ahead, not a good way to start the day, in normal commute conditions it must be a nightmare. If I was stuck driving to work everyday I'd be looking very bloody hard at alternatives, cyclings not for eveyone but train, bus or tram, you can just get on and switch off, read a book, watch some vids on your mobile, play some apps, catch a few more zeds whatever and arrive at work if not wide awake then a lot less stressed than having driven. I'm lucky (well I planned it actually) I live and work near 2 stations with frequent trains but park and rides have got to be better than driving into a city centre. When I ride in I see plenty of people who seem to be doing the same bolton to manchester rat run everyday I bet half of them could quite easily use public transport but they'll have a whole raft of spurious reasons why not. I really cannot see the why people put themselves through it.

*it is, not worked out how much yet but the petrols def cheaper than a day ticket, if I got a monthly or annual ticket I doubt it would still be cheaper than running a car tho.

Some training....finally

Well bugger me summers back, had planned to ride saturday but the met office assured us sunday would be the best day so I made other plans for saturday but with it being so nice I had a nasty suspicion it was gonna be throwing it down sunday. My fears were unfounded and I set off at 10 in glorious sunshine. Plan was to do a try out for Killdave, big mileage, no saddle dropping, no taking helmet off for climbs, a decent pace as little stoppage as poss and try for an overall >8mph average. Had planned a route over to cragg quarry weeks back but never had the chance for various reasons - mostly weather based. So heading for cragg obviously I went straight up winterhill :-) down kennel and wildes, upto the pike down AICR, over to leadmines. Going along the top I ran into a horny bull (quite obviously so) and 4 cows completely blocking the trail, had to shout at them quite a bit to get them to move. Looking back on this it might not have been a great move, if I was in my home with 4 ladies in an excitable state I doubt I'd have appreciated a mountain biker crashing through.
Over to white coppice and up through the plantation. Saw lots of guys in power ranger suits at roddlesworth, must be some mental DH tracks over there :-) Water (and cake) stop at tockholes cafe, up darwen tower, down whitehall, up the 666 along the rollercoaster at entwistle where I was chasing another mtber, first time I've ever seen another rider there I think. Fast drop to turton tower then up the road to crowthorn.
I was still going OK, faster than my usual "all day pace" can't believe how many riders were out, I think everyone who owns a bike saw the weather on saturday and thought "right I'm definitley riding tomorrow" Holcombe horseshoe was great best I've ever ridden it, upto the tower which was open but no time for a brew keep going to pleasent view. Down raven shore and up via the train station, a tasty bit of riding this, will be back. Up east st onto sand beds lane and a loooong climb to cragg, no signage but finally found it. Did 1 loop, it's good and as I was taking it easy it flowed rather nicely as opposed to my usual charge into everything and either stuff it up or grab massive handfuls of brake. At this point I ran out of food (oops) had meant to go to lee quarry too but that would have been pushing it I think so back the way I came, pub stop for a coke and water refill chatting to some bikers, hope the smell didn't offend my clothes were smelling pretty lived in by then. The climb back up to holcombe was fine and along the top I was buzzing, combination of the coke sugar rush/caffeine hit plus a cracking tune on mp3 player I was giggling as I belted along, great fun.
I saw mr potatoehead from STW on the horseshoe had a quick chat then ripped down crowthorne to the strawberry duck, I had meant to do the rollercoaster and turton tower again but halfway round entwistle I changed my mind it was only 5:45 plenty of time so I necked a caffeine gel, rode down BJ alley over to belmont and went up san marino. Was pretty tired and not confident, aching all over including ribs (!) and my stomach was starting to go a bit funny but I settled into 22x32 and took it nice and easy and cleaned it. Anyone offering the hero biscuits? I'll take one. Turns out I was 65miles in when I started that climb, I'm quite happy with that. Wanted to lie down at the top but knew I'd never get back up so bent over stretched my hamstrings and went all dizzy when I stood back up. Was going to ride back down but didn't fancy loss of concentration high speed crash so backdown through the golf course and barrow bridge.
Did some proper post ride stuff too, ibuprofen, a cold bath (really feels nice on mashed legs) and a choccy for goodness shakes, supplemented with double soss egg n chips which soon settled my stomach.
Not feeling too bad today just tired obvioulsy, final stats were 74miles, 10500ft ascent, 9hours, 8.2avg, 4 flapjacks, 1 gel, 6L water. I'm very happy with that, biggest hardest ride ever. There's about 15miles of road in there which will help the avg but I had gates and some map checks to slow me down. If the weather for kielder is like that and I ride like that, then I've a decent chance of finishing, some big ifs tho. All in all a pretty fantastic weekend.

Bad JuJu

My chakras obviously aren't aligned and my feng shui is all out of whack. This post was supposed to be about a return to form (not my form I'm probably in worse shape than I was in march) but the weather was finally back for a decent night ride. Arranged to meet Si and Johnnie, got my Heckler out, good time to test my new wheel (mistake) saw the spoke key but thought no need wheel is bedded in and I have a key on my multitool (mistake x2) grabbed my backpack (a hat trick) and set off. Up barrow bridge and winter hill. On top of winter hill back end felt all wiggly. Hmm pivot loose or something? Nope back wheel, all the spokes had unwound so it was stupidly slack, like it had just been laced. Sweary, lots of sweary words. Look in my pack for multitool - oops, the multitool with a spoke key is in my other pack and I am bereft, key-less. Lots more swearing. Ended up walking down kennel run, met the lads on georges lane, used Si's spoke key to put some tension in the wheel and gingerly made my way home on road. Grrrrrr. Wheels going into shop at weekend. Might have another go at wheel building in the future but not for use on the heckler, need something I can trust.

What is the point?

At the train station this morning queuing for my ticket like a good little person, I see a builder type coming up from the platform and walk passed the 2 security guards on ticket duty. One of them eventually shouts him for his ticket (he's already passed them) "didn't get one" well come and buy a ticket from my colleague here "I'm in a rush" and builder walks off. Security guard looks sheepish for a second then shouts "I'll get you on the way back then". Now I'm not expecting security to rugby tackle the guy to the ground (he was a stocky bloke too) but WTF come on, at least put up some resistance "do you want to pay? No? OK that’s fine" is not good enough. Don't let the guy walk away, you stand in front of him and ask him to pay up, if he threatens you then move aside and let him know you'll be calling the police.

Dunno what it's like elsewhere but round here they had a big push 12months ago to stop ticket evasion, it was allegedly costing them a lot in lost revenue. Proper barriers went in at oxford rd which didn't work properly for 6months but now seem better, still rejects my ticket about once a fortnight (and I only take the train once or twice a week). Private security on other stations (G4S). But it's all cobblers, it's not the first time I've seen someone just walk through ignoring the guards and I’ve seen people tailgating paying customers through the barriers. All these measures cost money and if they aren't stopping ticket evasion then that’s an extra cost added on to the people who already pay. Boils my piss it does.

Stroppy bugger

Just had a call from a belligerent DHL driver, "i'm trying to deliver a pram and you're not here" well yes I'm at work, what are you gonna do if royal mail call you right now to say they're trying to deliver a parcel to you eh? "tried your neighbours and no-ones answering" and...what is your point caller? Bring it back tomorrow or monday maybe? "I'm going to have to try the rest of the doors on your street before I can take it back to the depot" any chance you'll tell me which stranger you leave it with? I've not heard back so presume he's either taken it back to the depot or lobbed it over a wall. What pissed me off was his attitude, proper miffed he was that people are out at work during the week, not quite "on message" is he?
"Don't worry if you're not at home to receive your order as you will be left a calling card with a telephone number to re-arrange delivery.
Thank you again for ordering with Mothercare. We look forward to you shopping with us again. "

Some reading for your pleasure

Very good (depressing) article with some awful examples of our legal system.
Cycling against the car culture
A must read for cyclists and everyone else for that matter, all of us are affected by cars whether we drive, ride or neither, you don't have to be a road user to get mangled by a car.