1 and a bit rides to report.
Yesterday evening
@Rickshaw Phil picked me up, to go and collect the bike from his, after the interim service he’s carried out for me.
We then did a short test ride, around the village and back down to mine. The bike felt great, with just a small adjustment to the front brake.
An excellent job done by Phil as always 👍🏻
4.36 miles.
Today I’d arranged another ride with Paul and had decided to take him up a hill. He’s doing London to Brighton in June and so I thought I’d up the difficulty a bit for him. Cruel to be kind, as he needs to up things a bit in his training!
We met at a nearby school, on a dull but mildish morning and took the main road to Annscroft, which was very muddy in places, unusually so for a main road.
We paused for Paul to take a work call and then turned onto the lanes to Plealey and then began the long and steepish climb up to Oaks. It rises about 500 ft in a mile and a bit, so not ridiculous, but more than Paul has done for a long while.
He coped quite well for the initial section, until we got to the steep bit, where he was thinking of getting off and walking, but I kept encouraging him and I suggested we pull into the farmyard for a breather, which we did.
We then set back out for the second half and I purposely set off a bit quicker, to create a good gap and let him go at his own pace, rather then trying to keep up with me.
I crested the hill at Oaks and pulled in to take a couple of pictures, while waiting for Paul.
I’d only been there a couple of minutes, when he arrived and he’d made it without walking, which I told him was a really good effort. He’s not got the lowest of gears on his Bianchi either and I said he’ll thank me when he’s battling up Ditchling in June. He did say I’d lied in saying it wasn’t ridiculously steep though 🤣
We then descended to Wrentnall and up the lane and short section on the main road to Pulverbatch. The descent from there to Stapleton is great fun and lasts about 2 or 3 miles, which Paul enjoyed.
We then followed our regular route to Gonsal and Condover, before joining Lyons Lane, which is getting muddy again from the tractors, one of which pulled out not too far in front of us, which saved us having to pull in to let it through.
Approaching the short sharp climb, we found that a Motocross event was happening on the course there, so we stopped and watched for a few minutes. They were kids between about 8 and 12, at a guess and they were certainly giving it some guts, really impressive stuff.
We continued on to Betton Abbots and out onto the A458, for the very short section, which was busy and we encountered todays knob who hooted at us for having the temerity to just be there and came past within inches. We caught them up at the island and made them quite aware of what a prat they were.
We parted ways with 20.75 miles on the clock, at 11.7mph avg, which I thought was decent on that terrain.
The bike also felt brilliant, perfect gears and brakes, plus much smoother and definitely rolled better than it had been for a while with the dragging brake. Thanks Phil.
