No night for a brand new drive train
Arriving late in true JR-style (due to an accident blocking the M3 between 6.15-6.45pm), waiting patiently at the garage for me were Kev, Lee and Gordo. They kept an un-Bazza like calm as I then spent the next five minutes trying to straighten a bent and rubbing front disc.
Adjusting the barely-functioning brakes I held back for later, on the grounds I wouldn’t need them on the first, mainly uphill, sections. To avoid knackering the drive train, Kev was not on his new toy, see photo below (which is a feeble excuse to publish some photos from the Nov 3rd ride which have only just been downloaded).
Lee and I were both on our single-speeds, and with Gordo sporting his rear bike rack (the bike doubling as his off-road commuter) the vague route proposed on the forum thread was accepted as the one major hill was dispatched early on. Besides, no-one could come up with a plan that wouldn’t involve mud, so we headed for Alsatian and Headley Heath. A sneaky detour via The Hazels (dog-walker free), and the wiggly track to the end of Infestation, saw us on our way to the first major climb.
Despite my hurried arrival home and hasty departure, my climbing legs seemed to be functioning quite well. Almost as if I had winged feet (feeble excuse #2 for another Nov 3rd pic).
We did manage to lose Gordo as we headed towards the flinty climb to Headley Heath and Secret Singletrack, but thanks to mobile technology, we found he was near the Cock Inn. Waiting for him to rejoin us via the roads gave me the perfect ‘faffage-window’ to adjust my cable-operated discs, at last. Now I was able to stop, which was a minor improvement. Keeping me warm on this chilly night, was the windproof Moles 2012 top (just like the one Akak wore on Nov 3rd).
SS was great fun, and not too slippy. Life on Mars was also great fun, but was exceedingly slippy. Here, the ability to relax and fall into a natural counter-steer greatly aided forward progress. After Stane Street, and another recourse to mobile technology to enable the group to come back together, we headed up to the Mickleham Gallops to sample a new trail for me, The Bat Cave / Juniper Singletrack. We won’t dwell on the other route name that appears on Strava, but for enlightenment, a recourse to Urban Dictionary may be required.
We finished off by crossing the A24 at Mickleham, and heading up to Norbury Park. We traversed around acros the top of Infestation, but headed back down via what appears on Strava as ‘Norbury Traverse’. We said goodbye to Gordo as we headed back to the garage, and my final ride stats were 26km in 1 hr 43 mins of riding; 435m were climbed, with an average speed of 15 km/hr.
About the author
Having been mountain biking since 1996, you might have expected Dandy to have learnt to ride a bike by now. Several broken bones in the last few years prove the maxim that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
In between hospital visits, Dandy rides a brace of much-blinged Pace RCs, the 'green themed' 405 and the silver & gold 506. His winter hack is the Moles' favourite, an On-One 456 hardtail, now converted to an Alfine hub He also dabbles in 'the dark arts', keeping 2 road bikes in one of his seven sheds.
There are 9 comments on ‘No night for a brand new drive train’
We love to get comments from our readers - if you've spent a few moments to comment, thank-you.
If you haven't had a chance yet, jump to our comments form if you have something to say.
Leave a comment…
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Tony says:
Nice belated pictures. I do like the bling wings 🙂
Btw how do you manage to lose each other so many people in one ride. Was it accidentally or not?
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 14, 2013 at 4:18 am
Dandy says:
“I’m sure he was right behind me when we turned left/right”* was an excuse heard at least twice last night. Combined with the assumption that we all knew where we were going equals a recipe for resorting to the mobile phone to establish whereabouts. Thankfully, signal coverage is quite good in that area 😉
* delete as appropriate
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 14, 2013 at 8:30 am
Gordo says:
Ah yes, the getting lost bit. I regret the reason is there were mixed speeds in the group tonight: 3 zoomy riders and then there was me. However, I can probably scrabble about and find some excuses.
1) used to riding solo and continually forgot I was supposed to be in a group
2) couldn’t stand the noise of “somebody’s” rubbing brakes
On the plus side it was good fun to be out and I didn’t fall off!
Thanks for the speedy report.
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 14, 2013 at 8:35 am
KevS says:
Top reporting Gok, if a little retrospective on the piccy front! 😉
Great ride in the Schlopp last night but I think you are now giving Bazza (Mr Mechanical) a run for his money.
Losing Gordo and finding he was near the Cock Inn only reinforces my suspicion that I could detect the whiff of Ale on his breath when he rejoined us at Headley!
Lee’s guiding to the Bat cave run was a hoot, to be revisited.
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 14, 2013 at 9:41 am
Karl says:
The Solaris, porn like that shouldn’t be allowed.
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 14, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Kevs2010 says:
🙂
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 15, 2013 at 9:31 pm
jonesy says:
I laughed out loud at the comment and photo
“Keeping me warm on this chilly night, was the windproof Moles 2012 top (just like the one Akak wore on Nov 3rd)”
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 15, 2013 at 7:49 am
Dandy says:
Ah yes, feeble excuse number 3 for putting in another picture from the 3rd Nov ride. We weren’t able to include them at the time of the ride report, as RoadMole had buggered off to Detroit and left his camera back home; sounds like dereliction of Moles duty to me 😉
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 15, 2013 at 9:20 am
Andrew AKAK says:
It’s nice to feature in a night ride report, I don’t remember landrover looking so dry! Maybe you could pre-shoot more stock pics for night rides so you don’t have to stop in the cold and dark?
Add a new comment, or
Posted on November 16, 2013 at 2:24 pm