Ride Sunday 4th of December – Socialising in the Surrey hills
It was a “select” group that met up this morning at the Bocketts Farm car park. Kevin, Karl, a somewhat under the weather DaveC and myself. Maybe the it was the lack of e-mails prior to the ride or the proximity to Xmas but the 14-15 rider groups of the previous few weeks didn’t appear. Nor the MWB AWOL Matt – has he gone over to the “Darkside” completely?
The first person we met – before we’d left the car park – was DaveB from the Diary of a Mountain Biker. “Getting back to fitness” and off for a jaunt in the Surrey Hills with a couple of friends. After a quick catch up and with no sign of anyone else joining us we headed off with a vague plan of Leith Hill.
The Admirals Trackway was finally succumbing to the mud and it was harder work than it has been for all of our exceptionally mild autumn (anyone remember riding in the snow 12months ago?). We plugged on and headed past Polesden, up to Ranmore and slithered down Landrover, although the short trail down to the railway line was the most treacherous with wet and slick chalk.
Across Westcott to the Rookery was fine and we all puffed our way up to the bottom of Wolverns lane. At this point we regularly started seeing other rider groups, it was busy in the Surrey hills this morning! We noodled up Wolverns Lane to summer lightening and then met up at Deliverance with some early morning starting moles DaveW, MarkyMark, Dan (almost Danielle), Gary, plus others (sorry senior moment now).
After much chat a group of riders headed down Deliverence. With their 5inch skill compensators – sorry full sussers – showing the advantages of lots of travel. Karl then went down on his HT and showed how hard it is to ride Deliverence without rear suspension. Lets just say it’s a good job that the shed is no longer there!
Heading off to the cricket pitch we took in Chicken Wings (a first for me) at stop/start speed and up to the tower, where I kept up my 100% – with bar ends – record. My god bar ends make such a difference for me on steep climbs.
As we were having our tea and cakes, Darren and Amanda rolled up on their Ellesworth Tandem. Drawing much curiosity as usual. Going on the back of the tandem with Darren is a hell of an experience – not to be missed – so we persuaded Karl to have a go. Well he came back in one piece!
Heading down Personal Hygiene and off to WaggleDance where we heard what we assumed was a chainsaw going at the top of Wolverns. Getting closer it turned out to be an amazing RC car. A Lozi 1/5 scale buggy with 4×4 drive, slip differentials and shocks that wouldn’t have been out of place on the back off a full susser. The owner and his son gave us a driving demo – up to 40mph – and showed off it’s jumping skills. It just had the most amazing suspension damping, we were all impressed and once DaveC had stopped disscussing RC transmitter frequencies we were off again.
With a small group we were able to stick together well and blast the Summer Lightening, Wolverns, Rookery combo in an almost continous string. Heading off through Westcott we were almost run off the road by a impatient Horse Lorry driver – she was definitely in a hurry to get somewhere! With DaveC protesting that he wanted to ride McPhersons mount* not mid-med we headed off up to Ranmore. *this may have been a tiny bit of an lie.
With time pressing on we retraced our tracks to Polesden, Admirals Trackway and Bocketts. The rain had stayed away, the morning wasn’t too cold, there was plenty of catching up with friends on the hills. A good morning all told.
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Daniel Pullen says:
Yep, a good day for all in the Surrey Hills. Great to hook up with you guys, and better still that all this awesome terrain is right on our door step. Woop!
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Posted on December 4, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Markymark says:
Good to see you guys, we got carved up by Darren & Amanda on the tandem just as we were approaching BKB – which looks like its been groomed a bit and was in fine condition for our speedy decent back to Peaslake.
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Posted on December 5, 2011 at 12:21 pm
DaveW says:
Yes, it was really good to see you – and to see Darren and Amanda later on. Other than Gary/Mark’s mate, whose name I don’t recall (sorry!). The other riders in our group were Tom and Dave from Swinley/Tunnel Hill area, who had been after Surrey Hills tour for some time, but I’d not been able to help until now, what with the holiday and then the arm injury. Good to be back in them hills once more!
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Posted on December 5, 2011 at 1:30 pm
KevS says:
Seems like the Moles were spread far and wide across the Surrey Hills on Sunday.
The Tandemist’s sure get around on that big black steed and it never fails to impress seeing them ride it up to the tower at Leith Hill!
Always enjoyable when we do the Leith Hill “Classic” ride and hats off to Diesel Dave for hauling his weary rig up the climbs, even when it was obvious that a couple of the injectors in his diesel were not firing !
By the way, is it me or is the mud getting stickier this winter??? 🙁
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Posted on December 5, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Matt says:
The mud definitely seems stickier Kev but I think it’s just the time of year. Later in the season it tends to be less of a problem but at the moment we have the leaf matter as well as the Surrey clag to contend with.
Still, the days will start getting longer soon!
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Posted on December 5, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Tony says:
Now with pic of the amazing RC car!
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Posted on December 5, 2011 at 9:57 pm
Karl says:
Very enjoyable ride indeed, and what a buzz being on the back of Darren and Amanda’s tandem for a short taster.. Thanks D..
Well done Dave on true grit Brit spirit, thanks Tony for speedy report.. and Kev… yes Very Sticky Mud!
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Posted on December 5, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Matt says:
Looking at that RC car reminds me of this:
Classic! (Father Ted on Wikiquote if you want anymore of that)
Anyway, looking at that picture it looks like Dave’s sorted out his Christmas present to himself doesn’t it!
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Posted on December 6, 2011 at 10:14 am
Dave says:
lol…..I do have that look about me don’t I! It took me back to when I got my first Tamiya R/C car but I was marvelling at how these models have moved on.
However, the reality is I only have time for one outdoor hobby and that is reserved for MTBs. This model is a beast and requires lots of space to use and is really only any fun if you have a few mates with them as well. I can see Keith getting quite excited by one of these though…
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Posted on December 6, 2011 at 11:46 am