2015 Ride 2
Crew; A ride; El Pres, 3 Sheds, Butty, Stunt, Slim, Gee, Eric
B ride; Dunc
Pub; PtD
Lame excuses; Mr I, both bike and body, hors de combat
Route; NBR, Charity and extension, Cat, Danebower, Cumberland Brook, Standing Stone, Nessit with central descent, Bob’s bench, Shrigley Hall.
Conditions; A small window in the evil weather stayed open just long enough for us to get to the pub without needing a Macintosh.
Stats; Eric a) momentary high speed lighting failure, b) inappropriate progress monitoring app.
Offs; Butty
With a number of last weeks no shows finally showing their faces, ride two reflected the slow shambolic return to work after New Year which has become synonymous with the moribund state of this once great nation.
Butty had arrived with a new purple chain to replace the green one which let him down so badly the other week – purple obviously the stronger colour but it did clash with the orange of the frame of his rigid singlespeed. The weather geeks reckoned that a gale force wind would kick in at 10 pm; sensibly we decided to race round a high level rough and tumble route before we got blown away. So after awarding Butty the most inappropriate tool of the night award we set off up the hill.
The surface on Charity seemed to have changed somewhat following the recent snows or maybe inappropriate use by motorized vandals. Legal don’t make it ethically right guys. Right or wrong the rocks and ruts were fun as ever although the stream towards the bottom was more river like than usual. Alex’s cunning planning ensured that as the wind started to build it was pushing us up towards the Cat. The opposite was true for Danebower. Remembering where the big washout hole is about two thirds of the way down the descent becomes more of a challenge to the older members of the peloton. Soon, in the words of Bob Seeger we were “Against the Wind” slogging up the A54 to the start of the Cumberland Brook section. Alex led off, through the muddy ruts – spotting danger he yelled “doom, doom”; not spotting danger Butty yelled “what, what?” just before he rode into the hole of doom; executed a neat somersault into the mud and realized what “doom, doom” meant. “Look out” might have been more appropriate, Alex.
Charging down Cumberland Brook on his “Enduro Rig” – whatever that means, Eric suffered a catastrophic failure of all his one light – goes very black very quickly doesn’t it. Fortunately it flickered back to life before anything solid was encountered. Time for a headlight as well maybe.
As we got back towards the forest we sensibly rode huddled together following 3 sheds recanting how his brother in law’s friend’s mate new someone who thought they’d heard that highwaymen are back in the forest stealing bikes at knifepoint. Encountering none, we proceeded past Bob’s bench and to Sutton Hall poste haste – stopping only to go back to look for our President who had gone a different way!
Back at Sutton Hall, Statto downloaded his new app – 5.6 miles ridden, 15 minutes total time – really.
Beers various, food aplenty and tales of daring do in the Alps; all is well, apart from the pouring rain on the ride home.