Ride Report: Wed 07 September – Destroy the Singlespeeder
To let all know that Moles don’t hibernate just yet, here’s a brief summary of the mid-week ride. As Big Al had turned up on his single-speed Ibis Tranny (I’ve never recovered from the results of searching ‘Tranny’ on Google), we opted for climbing Box Hill from several different directions.
After a quick call from Tony to confirm he would join us ‘en route’, Big Al, DannyP, JonV & myself headed off up the crappiest bridlepath in Surrey before heading left towards Bocketts. After some of the ‘off-path’ cheeky trails, and after further exchanges of voicemails, we joined Tony down by the River Mole.
Alsation was next, with Big Al making great headway I must assume (as I couldn’t see him from my position at the back). DannyP had requested a revisit of High Alpine, so with Tony now leading we all had a great run down. The tree at the end claimed no victims this week.
The ‘C1’ High Ashurst climb, however, did score a few more victims this week, and was followed by the Brockham descent. This time we turned left to take the chalkier descent with a little more ‘flow’, rather than the straight on approach.
The Smith & Western climb challenged Big Al again, and we all had fun negotiating the cows that habitually block this trail. One even swished his/hers (I didn’t check) tail into my face as I passed ! This climb also saw my rear tyre slowly deflate, but after a few pumps with the Big Bastard (TM), I resumed the climb. Further pumps were required before I got to the top, before finally changing the tube in the S&W car park.
We had barely started the run alongside the fence before the start of China Pig when I heard a loud curse from JonV behind me. I stopped and waited for 30 seconds for the lights to return to an upright position, but as they didn’t seem to be moving I went back to investigate.
Turns out his seatpost had been playing up, and in trying to adjust it on the move, he came a cropper. With hardly being able to take any weight on his lower leg or ankle, I led him down the wider, less technical, Happy Valley descent. After another voicemail exchange, we rejoined the group in the car park. Apparently China Pig was ‘interesting’, especially as we’d had light rain for the last 30 minutes or so to add a little slickness to the trail.
Tony left us at Mickleham to head back to Leatherhead town centre, while the rest of us headed up to Norbury and the sawmill. More by luck than navigational skill, we took the most direct route to the Hylands Garage in an attempt to prevent any further damage to JonV’s leg.
Medical update: After a trip to A&E yesterday, nothing is broken, probably just tendon damage. Should be back on the bike in 2-3 weeks. Just in time to make up the numbers for D2D, eh Jon?
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.
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tony says:
After some frantic browine point collection (childcare, cooking, cleaning) I managed to get out for the only evening I wasn’t traveling this week. Perfect timing meeting everyone!
Although the weather wasn’t great it was fanastic to get out. The drizzle made some of the trails just that bit greasy and I had to reign back the speed a bit on the descents – I hope I didn’t hold anyone up!
What a surprise it was too, to find that D’Andy was the casuality.
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Posted on September 9, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Dandy says:
Surely you omitted the ‘not’ in that last sentence, Tony?
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Posted on September 9, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Big Al says:
Destroyed thats a bit strong ! I always work on the theory dismount when its quicker to walk.
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Posted on September 10, 2011 at 7:12 am
Dandy says:
Happy to set the record straight, Big Al. Despite our best efforts at the planning stage, you were certainly less destroyed than quite a few of us at the finish 😉
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Posted on September 11, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Andy661 says:
Dandy, are you sure it was a tail….? 😮
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Posted on September 10, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Dandy says:
Well … it was about 3 foot long, had a fluffy end and smelt of cow sh!t, you decide !
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Posted on September 11, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Matt says:
Last week was a nightmare work-wise but there was a silver lining.
Among other things I’ve now managed to replace the brake pads in both my singlespeed and Five’s Avid Elixir brakes with new Kevlar ones from Superstar. Which I hope means an end to squealing-like-a-pig braking. It’s strange but with that kind of racket every time you brake you seem to end up not enjoying riding so much!
The Five now also has the front Aspen the right way round and I’ve replaced the loose RaceFace crankset with a borrowed Deore one from Dave which I hope has also stopped the creaks coming from there. A quick weigh-in at Daves says its 28.5lbs with pedals, so considering the heavy Deore crankset and the two inner tubes in the tyres (don’t ask) that’s pretty good. In full spec (XT crankset and tubeless Aspens or MudXs) I reckon that’s a 27.5lb bike, not bad at all.
I guess this is a roundabout way of saying I hope to be back out on the MTB soon. But maybe on the Nobby Nic-shod singlespeed and not the Aspens!
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Posted on September 11, 2011 at 7:34 pm