River Run

At ten past four this morning my alarm went off. Reality slowly clicked into place as I remembered that the reason I was awake was because I needed to get up to go riding. Following on from the example set my MacPuppy and company up in Edinburgh, Steve M had organised a Manchester alternative to the now infamous Breakfast Ride and it was starting at 5am.

The whole thing was made a lot easier by having prepared all my kit the night before, all I had to do was get dressed grab some food to eat on the way and go. Still it took about ten or fifteen minutes. The ride along car free roads was a bit surreal, but within no time at all I was rolling up to Sale Water Park to find STW forum dwellers Bruce and IJH already there.

Once Steve M and 360 turned up we were off riding down to the Co-op Pyramid in Stockport and back in the early morning sun. For some reason I keep thinking about the way in which the low-light caught the pollen from the riverside plants exploding into the air as they were brushed past. It was a good way to start the day, but not so much of a breakfast ride – I think stopping and eating somewhere needs to figure in the equation.

Most of us were riding one geared bikes. This singlespeed thing is quite addictive really. I might actually be beginning to like it. That’s something that I’m finding hard to come to terms with given my original scepticism. I do need to sort out the current seatpost slippage issue as a priority though.

On a different note I hope that by tomorrow night the FSR will be in a rideable state once more, with the shock fresh back from TF Tuned and with some handlebars on it again. That way a trip somewhere at the weekend with said beast might be a possibility. Not much happening other than that.

Finally finished the write up for the cross France trip again. Read about it here. I’ve been meaning to hook up a link to the NSMB e’zine since Ben showed it to me. Its on here now, so check it out to read about lots of new stuff (like the ’04 Big Hit). I’ve been reading Mountain Bike Review on and off for the last fives years or so. It has its fans and its critics, but I think it deserves a link either way.