The "Photos From Today's Ride" thread...
Discussion
Yeah it wasn't too bad today, quite a lot of puddles and muddy bits, but under the trees the roots were dry so ok, had two big two wheel drifting moments but no offs. 1st time I've ridden there on a trail bike and although it's a bit harder I think faster. I'm going to do the Root Canal end of season race and after today leaning towards leaving my DH bike at home. Do love this NS Snabb T it's a great bike, very plush for something with only 140mm travel at the back.
Had the both bikes out before going today trying to decided which to take, glad I went with the light weigh.
Had the both bikes out before going today trying to decided which to take, glad I went with the light weigh.
Out on the MTB over the weekend in the Peak District - my first trip up there 
Beautiful scenery and these are from Saturday around Lady Bower - beautiful sun and then torrential rain right at the end !! Mostly off road so excuse the tarmac in the 2nd pic ! Bike did its usual trick of being way better than my skills and getting me out of trouble a few times, although t paid me back with clouts to the back of the calves with the pins on the pedals !
Beautiful scenery and these are from Saturday around Lady Bower - beautiful sun and then torrential rain right at the end !! Mostly off road so excuse the tarmac in the 2nd pic ! Bike did its usual trick of being way better than my skills and getting me out of trouble a few times, although t paid me back with clouts to the back of the calves with the pins on the pedals !Herman Toothrot said:
I did two hours of skills training yesterday, went from doing nothing more adventurous than riding off a kerb to doing some pretty steep drop offs and learnt to change my posture, pick better lines etc.
I'll hopefully progress to a few little jumps in a week or two.
The #microadventure started off at Cockermouth and cut through the edge of the Lake District. This is Overwater.
Then up to Carlisle and out along the Solway Coast
Cheeky camp for the night
On next day down coast past Silloth to Workington.
Finally back to Cockermouth.
This was my longest ever 2 day ride at over 110 miles and fully loaded up with camping gear.
It was fantastic! The Solway coast was tremendous.
I loved the way that once you strap your gear to your bike everyone is so friendly. A lovely old bloke guided me through Carlisle on his bike and "Malcolm from Maryport" went out of his was to show me through the town after rolling along with me for a while. Thanks all
Then up to Carlisle and out along the Solway Coast
Cheeky camp for the night
On next day down coast past Silloth to Workington.
Finally back to Cockermouth.
This was my longest ever 2 day ride at over 110 miles and fully loaded up with camping gear.
It was fantastic! The Solway coast was tremendous.
I loved the way that once you strap your gear to your bike everyone is so friendly. A lovely old bloke guided me through Carlisle on his bike and "Malcolm from Maryport" went out of his was to show me through the town after rolling along with me for a while. Thanks all
Edited by Elfit on Monday 27th June 14:50
CoinSl0t said:
Wow, love that
I did two hours of skills training yesterday, went from doing nothing more adventurous than riding off a kerb to doing some pretty steep drop offs and learnt to change my posture, pick better lines etc.
I'll hopefully progress to a few little jumps in a week or two.
I couldn't think of anywhere better to practice drops than surface to air at Aston hill, drops get progressively bigger down the course, great place to build up.I did two hours of skills training yesterday, went from doing nothing more adventurous than riding off a kerb to doing some pretty steep drop offs and learnt to change my posture, pick better lines etc.
I'll hopefully progress to a few little jumps in a week or two.
London to Tenby, Wales, on Sunday. 412km of block headwind and driving rain. Character-building. Here's the blog entry Nipping out for Laverbread.
Edited by Gruffy on Thursday 30th June 10:24
Part of my new commute route takes me across a horse race track, or exercise track. It has Beware Galloping Horses signs as you approach both sides. I spotted these two turn at the top of the hill and come trotting back towards me, thinking they might speed up so got the phone ready for an exciting action pic, but they slowed and stopped for a chat!
Then I noticed the clouds
From Tuesday's nightmare...
...apologies for the crappy photo. It was cloudy, and raining, and I was under the cover of trees. Plus my mood at that point was VERY dark indeed, so I was in no mood to try to be any sort of 'David Bailey'.
Now at this juncture it very much appeared to be "ride over", but a very nice chap called Phil let me use his garage and what tools he had to sort it out. Fueled by a welcome cup of tea, I worked on it for what seemed and age, and eventually got it straightened out sufficient to make it AT LEAST 35 miles home, but it may well have been closer to 40 miles (Garmin battery died too a little later).
Edit to add some pictures from happier times, earlier in the ride...
Honest, funny...
...and beer. Note please the correct shape and orientation of the rear derailleur!
With a side of cheap hypnosis.
PH-worthy spot outside the Mercedes restoration specialist in Silchester.
Walbury Hill, near Combe Gibbet
Pathetic attempt at "Arty" photography. Fenceposts in the mist?
Combe Gibbet concealed by low cloud...
...then briefly revealed, and restored to view.
It was shortly after I rode down off Walbury Hill that things really started to go wrong.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An edit to add a few more photos to round off the tale. The full story is laid out a few posts below this one...
The state of the bike now. The chain finally snapped again half a mile from home. The derailleur is bent beyond proper repair. There's one snapped spoke, and several are gouged and would need replacing. There's a slash in the tyre wall (circled in white) that I repaired with a strip cut from an old tyre, placed inside with the tube.
That bloomin' chain! At least it held long enough to get me very close to home.
My poor old bike. Twenty years it's put up with misuse and abuse from me. I thought it was in good shape, and was plotting to build a new 'wet weather' bike to replace it. This thing was due to go back to 'entirely original' spec and see out it's life as a pub/shops/errands bike. Not sure if it's wise to get the mech hanger straightened and aligned and put it back onto the road or not now. A decision for next week, I think, after I get a local specialist to have a look at how bad the weakening of the frame really is.
...apologies for the crappy photo. It was cloudy, and raining, and I was under the cover of trees. Plus my mood at that point was VERY dark indeed, so I was in no mood to try to be any sort of 'David Bailey'.
Now at this juncture it very much appeared to be "ride over", but a very nice chap called Phil let me use his garage and what tools he had to sort it out. Fueled by a welcome cup of tea, I worked on it for what seemed and age, and eventually got it straightened out sufficient to make it AT LEAST 35 miles home, but it may well have been closer to 40 miles (Garmin battery died too a little later).
Edit to add some pictures from happier times, earlier in the ride...
Honest, funny...
...and beer. Note please the correct shape and orientation of the rear derailleur!
With a side of cheap hypnosis.
PH-worthy spot outside the Mercedes restoration specialist in Silchester.
Walbury Hill, near Combe Gibbet
Pathetic attempt at "Arty" photography. Fenceposts in the mist?
Combe Gibbet concealed by low cloud...
...then briefly revealed, and restored to view.
It was shortly after I rode down off Walbury Hill that things really started to go wrong.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An edit to add a few more photos to round off the tale. The full story is laid out a few posts below this one...
The state of the bike now. The chain finally snapped again half a mile from home. The derailleur is bent beyond proper repair. There's one snapped spoke, and several are gouged and would need replacing. There's a slash in the tyre wall (circled in white) that I repaired with a strip cut from an old tyre, placed inside with the tube.
That bloomin' chain! At least it held long enough to get me very close to home.
My poor old bike. Twenty years it's put up with misuse and abuse from me. I thought it was in good shape, and was plotting to build a new 'wet weather' bike to replace it. This thing was due to go back to 'entirely original' spec and see out it's life as a pub/shops/errands bike. Not sure if it's wise to get the mech hanger straightened and aligned and put it back onto the road or not now. A decision for next week, I think, after I get a local specialist to have a look at how bad the weakening of the frame really is.
Edited by yellowjack on Friday 1st July 12:06
CoinSl0t said:
yellowjack said:
From Tuesday's nightmare...
So what happened there then?Being daft, and determined to manage a 'proper' (not namby-pamby kilometres) century for June, I continued west instead of turning for home. After riding Combe Gibbet and Walbury Hill, I then headed down and home. On my way down Post Office Road, Inkpen, I shifted into the big ring at the front, as the road straightened up and conditions were more conducive to building a little more speed.
Then my Garmin told me I was headed the wrong way, so I turned round. At which point it corrected itself, so I turned round again. After stopping to try to decipher which direction was correct, I moved off and within about 200 metres everything went catastrophically wrong. Another shift to the big ring actually overshifted off the chainring, and then there was an ungodly noise from the rear and I came to a grinding halt. The mech hanger (a part of the frame, in this case, not a break-away item) was bent in two directions. The derailleur cage was twisted into a very odd shape, and the chain had broken and dumped one link onto the floor.
I was some 40 miles or so from home (although I ended up riding a fair bit more than that due to poor route selection) and it very much looked like 'game over' for the bike. I pulled and twisted the derailleur as much as I dared, and rejoined the chain with a spare snap-link, but there was no way I could get the tensioner wheels to line up, so the chain wouldn't run through. I had a 'Leatherman' tool and was doing my best with the pliers, but to no avail. So I decided to split the cage, thinking that straightening one plate at a time might get a better result. When I came to bolt it back together the bolt holes were out of alignment, and I was ready to give up and try to walk to Newbury.
That was when a local chap called Phil pulled up in his car. He was just arriving home a few yards up the road, and offered his garage and some basic tools to help, made the tea, and held the bike straight while I worked at it. In the end I managed to use the tapered handle of an 'F type' spanner, tapping the inner cage plate down it to get the holes lined up. Then I put the thing back together, tested it briefly, and said I'd ride home. Phil, bless him, had offered me (and the bike, in his estate car) a lift to Basingstoke to get a train home. Foolishly I declined and even made a daft route selection, initially heading south/south east in the correct direction for Basingstoke, before inexplicably heading north again to Newbury which added an extra 7 miles and additional strain to the weak chain.
I'd been out since 11:45am, and it was 10:26pm by the time I'd paid for fresh batteries and a 'back-up' front LED light at Tesco in Newbury. At that point I'd been trying to retrace my route out, but the last straw was a pinch-flat on a pothole on the road alongside Greenham Common. Luckily I wasn't too far out onto the common, so headed back to the last streetlamp to fix the flat. That's when my (near hysterical) wife phoned to find out "where the hell" I was, and a barney on the phone ensued. I was about ready to give up at that point. There was one train left out of Newbury, but there was no connection to Farnborough available until the next morning. It looked like I might end up walking home. That was when Rachel and Molly, a divorced mum and her 18 year old daughter, came home from work/shopping, and decided to walk the short distance from their house to see if I was OK.
I ended up spending an hour in their house, calmed myself right down, had a coffee and a clean-up. Rachel even insisted on making me a packed 'lunch' to go on with, if you can belief that? Ham sandwiches, Hulahoops, Quavers, and a Nature Valley cereal bar! She also persuaded me to abandon my plan to re-trace through Tadley, and to hit the main A339 to Basingstoke. I was glad I took their advice too, the road was smoother, the gradients kinder, and there was more in the way of vehicular company and street lighting. In the end I made it to within half a mile of home before the chain snapped again, and I finally dragged myself up the driveway at 3:04am on Wednesday morning, 15 hours 19 minutes and 105.7 miles after I left.
Bad? Ill-advised sheer bloody mindedness to keep going despite the drip-feed of setbacks through the day. The bike, my 20 year-old well loved steel bike is very much worse for wear. My failure to keep my wife informed of my whereabouts as each disaster unfolded has definitely earned me my current place in the dog-house.
Good? I kept going. Perseverance paid off in the end, I got back under my own steam. I learned that it doesn't pay to throw in the towel in the face of apparent disaster. Unbelievably, I managed, with a few basic tools and a little external assistance, to repair that twisted mess sufficient to carry me to within sight of home. My "one century ride per calendar month for every month in 2016" personal challenge is still on course. It may have been spread over two days, and taken twice as long to complete as it should, but it was one ride, and it counts!
Best of all? Meeting Don, Angie, Phil, Rachel and Molly. Every single time I had a new disaster, and I was at what was a very low ebb, one or more of these magnificent strangers stepped up and offered assistance. Don's garage full of tools and classic motorcycles, Angie's welcome cup of coffee to warm me up. Phil's garage, tools, tea, and offer of a lift to the station. Rachel and Molly's approach was perhaps the most surprising, and delightful. They were two women with no man in the house, it was gone 11:00pm, dark, and I was a lone male stranger. What started as the offer of a coffee turned into a mood lifting chat, food, and the opportunity to clean up before carrying on. These folk turned any negative feelings about the ride, and about "modern, selfish society" on their heads. All contributed to my being mentally and physically capable of continuing, and for this I am truly thankful. Without them I have no idea how, and when I would have got home.
One final photo to finish the tale...
The bike as it is now, bent derailleur, broken spoke, slashed tyre and all. But hey? I got home without so much as a broken fingernail, just in dire need of some soap and water. Happy now to put this debacle behind me, enjoy my weekend at the Chalke Valley History Festival, and come back to the bike(s) afresh next week to plot what repairs/replacements are needed...
(Apologies if it's a bit long, but no one part of the tale would really make sense in isolation. Thanks for reading!)
Edited by yellowjack on Friday 1st July 11:51
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