Last night’s ride proved that no matter how much you plan something, it doesn’t always work out the way you hoped.

First of course there was the persistently poor weather to contend with, yet another wet ride in muddy conditions. Yay!

Then we had trouble all getting together. Dave discovered he was double booked and had to pull out during the day whilst Jem and Dave P were out Wednesday night instead. Hannah was unwisely sent to meet us in an obscure part of Leatherhead (don’t ask!), so that left just Mark, Nicola and me to venture out into the wilds of the Surrey Hills.

Within the first couple of miles it was clear that conditions were hard going, all the rain resulting in plenty of energy sapping clay and wet roots to spin away momentum. On the first fast run down to Mickleham through Norbury Park my Hope HID battery worked loose and flapped round my head tube (I hadn’t managed to secure it properly) and Mark’s brake pads devoured themselves.

We thought we might be able to switch the rear pads to the front as they had a little stopping power left, but Magura Julies use split pins to retain the pads and we didn’t have a pair of pliers to get them out. Added to that I still wasn’t able to get the battery properly fitted to my stem.

At that point that I decided it was probably best if we abandoned the route I had in mind. I was hoping to take us up to Juniper Top and down to Brockham but it wasn’t realistic given the circumstances and I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone hurting themselves unnecessarily. Sometimes you just have to step back and recognise that pushing on regardless is not a good idea.

So instead we turned the ride into a mainly tarmac run just to get a few miles in. I quite enjoyed it actually, pushing myself a little on the road climbs so I felt I’d done some exercise, even if the evening felt a bit anti-climatic.

But we live to fight another day!

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.