words by Stunt
Crew: TJ, Butty, Dunc, Slim, Stunt, Mr I
Route: Rainbow Bridge, Lidgetts Lane, Back of Kerridge, Double back to Rainow, Oakenbank, Pott Shrigley, Bakenstone dale road to the Layby, Diagonal ascent to Sponds, Chapel Descent, Across field and dale to Poynton Coppice, Snickets & byways to the Farmers Arms
Conditions: Unseasonably Warm, greasy trails, muddy in patches
Stats: Butty faff, many a dab
Notes:
Another small crew with riders dropping like flies, Coley to deep throat trouble, whilst El Pres pulls out at the last minute, surely nothing to do with a far from home poynton finish? 😉
Dunc is true to his word and has MTFU to join us (although on big wheeled lightweight rigid steed). Everyone else is Man enough on proper full suss machines.
What sights they are missing as Butty arrives on the Blood sporting Knife through helmet, spiders & skulls (warming up for the Bikesmithy fancy dress night next week!)
Slim has obviously had to much time on his hands as the 5 is back to spotless shiny JPS trim!
Route is set for Sponds to get us to the Farmers Arms for 9:15 for food.
They don’t like it up ’em Pike as some tired legs from the Duks ride last night vocalise on the first climbs.
Kerridge super greasy and plenty of mud to bring Slims bike back to au naturelle state.
Butty makes an in ride route adjustment and takes us up the back of Rainow, down some Teflon grass :-o, making the blood look like a carbon whippet he’s straight up Oakenbank only pausing El Pud style to salvage a rather new inner tube!
Pause for gels and drinks at the layby, where Butty confesses that the path may be tricky to find.
The usual slop at the start, but then a sheep cropped grassy path is fairly clear and surprisingly firm. A novel zig zag to crest Sponds, over the stile, and bouncing your bike to shake off mud/sheep poo also seems to cause the chainsuck of doom!
Root cause analysis = known issue with non standard chain ring, and Butty impresses with crank removal fix with impressive speed.
Wet grass makes for fun descent, with even more unexpected exlaimations on the cut across to the coppice where a mini muddy bomb hole at the bottom of the hill almost causes carnage (and there we thought Butty knew the path like the back of his hand!!)
Urban riding to the bright lights of North Cheshires premiere night spot.
We lock up the bikes next to another famous Butty, remove shoes, doff caps and change clothing – but still manage to look rather scruffy vs the venue and clientele. We should not have worried as the catering team do us proud (apart from ensuring everything that Slim wanted was off!). Novel Weiss beers, chips in buckets, sauce in mini milk churns, and a nice corner spot to people watch from.
We never quite managed to extract ourselves to the live music next door.
Goodness knows what Butty will do with such a short ride and early finish (by his standards), whilst the Macc bound folk head off into a stiff headwind that makes it all feel uphill all the way home. Twas worth it for new territory and a good venue 🙂
next week the opposite…hear those banjos !!
