Thursday, December 20, 2007

First Wednesday evening ride

With Deana and youngest son away in Australia I am at liberty to pretty much do what I like when I like. It is not that I have any restrictions on my time but I do get a wee bit guilty every now and then when I go straight from the office to the mountain bike park.

When I left work I had a guilt free and loud trip up the motorway to the forest. The traffic was amazingly light and I ended up at the end of the motorway at least 20 minutes earlier than I expected. I could have gone up to the park and had a warm up ride before my riding buddies arrived, but, oh no, I chose to go to McDonalds for 2 chicken cheese burgers. Ok they are small and cheap and nice, but I really did not need them and I am not so sure I really enjoyed them either, but they did kill the spare time. Though half the riding crew turned up late so we didn’t get away until 6.45.

I was riding with an old riding friend but one I rarely ride with these days as we are in to different styles of riding. I have definitely trended to the longer cross country ride and he has moved into the short ride with lots of time spent sessioning the jumps and other stunts that litter Woodhill forest.

I took the Cindercone out again, though I had planned on riding the single speed. I am down to one comfortable seat and did not get a chance to swap it over before I left. The Cindercone has been riding OK , but the front hub has been on the way out for a while and was making some seriously bad noises by the end of the ride. It is time to retire that bike until I can spend some cash on it. To spend some cash I need to sell the AC first.

The ride was Ok, we rode at a reasonable pace between jumps but did have to stop for a session at each of the various structures. It was good to get some pace going again but in the end I did get frustrated with all the mucking around and left the boys after just over an hour and rode back to the car – which was round about the time my hub made loud clunking noises so I am glad I rode no further.

I definitely going to ride the single speed next time, I think I am strong enough, but it will be slow and painful to start with. I cannot wait to get back to the longer rides.


I took this photo on Sunday. I spent a fruitless hour or so wandering up to and around the domain looking for some tree photos and really found nothing that inspired me. I was early for dinner with friends so took a cruise along the waterfront and stopped for these boat sheds. I like the symmetery in the roofs.



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