Last night I got the bike out the garage to find a 'prick perforated pneumatic pipe', p-word for short, fixed that. Cycled 8 miles to meet a friend with his shiny, new Triban 3a, then we decided to go over the Humber Bridge, up and over the west-side shared use path. My mate, not being so good on the hills (ramps leading up/down to the bridge paths) complained and I suggested that we stay on that side and just turn around - 'oh no, I'll just follow you'. Down and under the bridge we went, onto a road, I pointed out that the path seemed to be on the other side of the fence, but there was a gate closed so thought no more about it.
Ah, shhhhhhhhhyte! This road leads onto the A15 across the bridge - 'Let's just risk it, it'll be fine' said my mate. Just before reaching the north tower my back wheel felt funny - I put it down to the road surface, but not for long, soon it was apparent it was another p-word. No probs, we'll just drop onto the path from here. Now those that haven't seen it, the road is separated from the path with a slope about 6' in height, it's a very slippery slope particularly in cleated shoes. Eventually I got down safely and the two bikes followed, then my mate. Replaced the tube and used my CO2 cartridge to fill it - first time and it worked perfectly, well worth the money!
So all fixed and packed away again we continued our journey on the east-side path heading south. Mostly. It was very quiet, in fact we'd seen nobody on this side at all, turns out that path was closed off at both ends with a big gate that we had to negotiate - again not great in cleated shoes so I took them off and posted them under, then a little gate that was much easier.
Heading back home out of Barton it was getting dark, thankfully I had my Knog Frogs fitted (and forgotten till then!) so they went on, maybe I should've changed my lenses at this point too. Oh well. Dropped off my mate and then cycled home for a total of just over 40 miles.
and I wasted too much energy sprinting to close the gap); I then got drop but got swallowed up by the faster pack held that for a bit but fell of after I went through! then did the remaining 9 or 10 miles on my own (quite happy though I managed to maintain a reasonable speed then without totally capitulating the flat terrain helped.
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