Words & photos by Pete
Crew : Dunc, PTD, Butty, Troll and Pete
Conditions : Relatively mild , the light rain gave up quickly. About 9c . Only felt the cool breeze at the apex of Oakenbank (which is known as “High Cliff” on the 1909 Map of Bollington – see photo above )
Route : RB – War memorial – Higher Lane – Lidgetts – half bridleway -Rainow – Oakenbank – Spuley Rd – Pott Shrigley – Moorside Lane – Chapel – diverse routes to The Poachers.
Notes : Around midday Funky Funky filled the leadership vacuum and so we had an Ops leader and a plan. Hurrah !
I had managed to get both bikes (The Soul and The Five) back up from our rental to my newly repainted garage at Gleave Ave. But the Soul was the most roadworthy (the bottom bracket and cranks on the five are so noisy it hurts) – so hardtail it was for this TNR.
It was just about light when we rendezvoused at RB . The equinox and a proper Spring are just around the corner.
For some reason I was particularly clumsy this week and had my first tumble before we had even got to the War Memorial . Inability to get loose from my left hand pedal cleat seemed to the key symptom. Butty was having saddle issues as well.
By the time we got to the Kerridge Bridleway the sloppiness and slippyness got ratched up a level . Greasy as f**k is my best description – the slippiest and muddiest I have ever known it, and despite this we dropped down towards Rainow after getting halfway along the ridge – amazingly I managed to stay upright on this bit.
The worst of the slippyness , however, was on the descent to The Chapel ( pls imagine poor mock Welsh accent when pronouncing “Chapel” ) . I am certain there were at least a couple of offs which were never declared.
Postscript:
I thought the culprit (for my inability to unclip) was this wear in the cleat itself :
But it turned out to be this failure of the sole of the boot itself :
they have had a little over 8 years of use now , so I guess I need to cut North Wave some slack on the warranty front 😉
Discussions over beer in the Poachers :
Fosbury Flop, runners camel toe, bathroom tanking and the challenges of martial harmony.