Sunshine, mountain bikes and cakes; what’s not to like?
First decide on the cake stop, then plan a route; that’s definitely my type of ride. Having established that both JR and myself were under pressure to get back early, and once we’d decided that, “Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe” in Shere was destined to receive our custom for the morning, the only remaining question was working out the most mud-free route to get us there.
Between us (Big Al, Kev the Grand Mole, JR & myself), we decided that the Yew Trees climb, Scouting for Boys, back of Westcott, Abinger Roughs, then our Newlands route to Shere were the most likely to get us there without too much of the brown and sticky stuff. Whatever happened, we we’re determined to avoid Badger Run, Collarbone and the North Downs Way.
Admirals Track had plenty of standing water, and I was glad that despite being out of the country all week, I’d heard enough comments from the UK to persuade me to put my waterproof socks on. All descents had to be treated with a little caution, so no downhill Strava PRs today, but despite the odd squirm we all made it safely down to the railway line and Westcott.
Fortunately there was no black ice on our tarmac sections today, and we hope that the post-op recovery is proceeding as expected, Lloyd (see last week’s ride report).
Along the back lanes of Westcott, Big Al regaled me with his explosive attempts to seat the ‘fat boy’ tyres on his 82mm rims, involving flammable substances and naked flames. I’ve seen a YouTube clip of something similar for a tractor tyre, and it certainly beats packing the well of the rim with plastic padding.
This week I didn’t suffer from chain suck when in the granny ring, principally because my shifter refused to shift the chain off the bigger 36t ring. Oh well, good job I got used to single speeding over the summer; and at least I still had 10 gears to play with unlike Al who was on his single speed again.
We made Shere in good time, and headed to the Sandwich Shop. It’s actually a nicely decorated cafe, with just 3 or 4 tables. Crucially, it had a decent looking coffee machine, a fine selection of £1 cakes, and an offer of a bacon or sausage roll and a coffee for just £4. Al was the only one to take up this offer, with the rest of us opting for the £2 coffee and £1 cake options. My white chocolate and cherry ‘Rocky Road’ was excellent. It’s certainly good value when compared with other options in the area, and they gamely put up with our muddy backsides on their nice chairs, though we did remove the cushions first. We might need to phone an order in shortly before arriving if there’s a large group of us, however.
Revived by the caffeine and cakes, and inspired by the roadie peloton heading through the village as we emerged from the cafe, we retraced our steps back to Westcott. On the way, we passed a chap on his electric bike that’s equipped with a custom dog seat for his little dog that was fetchingly encased in a fluorescent jacket.
Later, despite JR’s entreaties, we were unmoved at his suggestions for a challenging climb back up to Ranmore, so the smooth and gentle gradient of High Med it was. Not wanting to be dropped in such august company, I actually recorded a Strava PR on the climb.
JR opted for a swift blast down Dearly Beloved and a direct route home, while the three of us thought Golden Nugget and a return via Polesden Lacey was worth a look. The run in along the bridle path was perhaps the worst mud we’d encountered all day, though the trail itself was running well enough. The off-camber sections were decidedly ‘twitchy’, though both Al and myself found the final left turn where the Prospector’s Trail branches off to the right caused the biggest slide.
Naturally, Kev held us both up again on this trail, despite letting us both start well ahead of him 😉
After a great ride in potentially dire conditions, we laughed off the miserable lack of response from the roadies that passed us on Chapel Lane, though this might have been because they’d just spotted the ‘20% Gradient’ sign.
This, however, was a precursor to an encounter with a very angry walker on the edge of the Polesden Lacey estate who took great exception to our use of the track from Chapel Lane. I attempted to engage him in a sensible dialogue, pointing out, in response to one of his main complaints, that the estate vehicles that used the track were far more likely to cut up the lane’s surface than we were; and that despite his insistence to the contrary, we weren’t acting illegally even if we didn’t have a legal right of way.
Amusingly, his wife/companion walked away looking very embarrassed by his antics. I apologised for upsetting him with our presence and wished him a pleasant morning, he responded by telling me to, “Bugger off” not once, but twice !
We passed several more walkers on this track, all of whom responded happily to our cheery, “Good mornings”. One even kindly held the gate onto Connicut Lane open for us, though this turned out to be less of a favour than it looked with Kev failing to make the tight turn onto the dry section of trail and forcing me even deeper into the wheel-sucking mud.
We eventually hit the tarmac, and I parted company with Al and Kev leaving them to tackle the delights of the flooded Admirals Track a second time, while I headed down into Bookham.
A great morning’s ride, with a riding time of 2hrs 37mins for the slightly less than 40km for me (avg 15km/hr) and just less than 600m elevation recorded.
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:
It was a beautiful morning yesterday. You look like you were completely free of mud by the time you got to Shere. Good route choice.
It’s a pity that the ride was marred by the super grumpy walker. If you can’t enjoy a walk in the sunshine without being so mardy then you are a bit of a saddo.
It certainly seemed more fun than the 20mph Dorking Cycling Club group ride.
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 8:46 am
J-R says:
“Completely free of mud by the time you got to Shere”.
We found plenty of muddy on the tracks from Abinger to Shere. Dandy left such a big brown pile on the floor of the cafe where he put his backpack, that the Grand Mole felt compelled to clean it all up before we even sat down.
It was a lovely day for a ride, but I did confirm my previous suspicion that the Mudhugger is too short – I was dirtier than Kev with his full rear mudguard, but not as bad as D’Andy with his Mucky Nutz, which seemed to concentrate the mud onto his shorts and backpack.
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 9:20 am
Matt says:
I was stuck at home while my brother in law fitted a new radiator in the bathroom. I wasn’t needed, it just felt a bit rude to sod off on the bike, plus I wouldn’t have been able to shower when I got back anyway. Shame, looks a nice ride, I like the idea of trying different food places, that’s the Sandwich Shop and Pilgrim Cycles recently.
I hope to be out soon
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 9:24 am
Jonesy says:
I love nowty walkers.
I can always win the debates with them.
🙂
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 11:57 am
KevS says:
Nice writeup D’Andy and it was great to ride for once with no rain coming down from above …. but plenty of water coming up from below!
Nice to get out with a small group of select Moles and compare each others rear elevations for mud accumulation.
I think I won the cleanliness stakes with my rear Topeak mudguard as D’Andy seemed to resemble the back end of a muckspreader even with his Arse fender fitted. Strangely Big Al was cleaner despite no rear mudguard, how’s that work??
No Moles ride is complete without evaluation of the cake stop and the “Ye Olde Sandwich Shoppe” in Shere was good value, excellent real coffee and a warm welcome even for mud splattered riders dripping muck onto their nice clean tiled floor!
I think the crazy walker we met on the way home must have forgotten to take his happy pills that morning as he just seemed to kick off at the sight of mountain bikers, despite us being the most pleasant, broad minded, tree hugging (Eek), save the whale, horse friendly bunch of ####### (select your own word here) that ever graced the trails! 🙂
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 12:19 pm
Karl says:
You got the Solaris muddy!! Well I never. 😉
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 4:15 pm
KevS says:
I know. Shocking way to treat a bike! Guilty as charged m’lud.
I did clean it immediately when home, even before cleaning myself, if that helps! ;-()
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Karl says:
Phew!! 😉
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 9:59 pm
Karl says:
Enjoyed reading that D’Andy. Enjoyed too your pose in the 1st piccy!
Let’s hope it stays dry for next weekend..
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Big Al says:
It was nice to be back out on a moles ride in the sunshine !!! Its a shame we had to encounter the Angry Old Man towards the end of the ride , for a minute it looked like Dandy was going to lose his cool and we’d have a fight on our hands .
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Posted on January 20, 2014 at 7:13 pm
tim says:
Hey – Dandy it was me that shouted ‘Hello’ on Sunday morning on the Lower Rd !!
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Posted on January 22, 2014 at 5:44 pm
Dandy says:
As usual, it took a second for the aged synapses to fire up before I realised it was you. I hope I responded cheerily enough, though at that instant I had no idea who you were 🙁
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Posted on January 23, 2014 at 11:30 am
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