The Day after Friday 13th…

Friday 13th was fairly uneventful, but the following day was something different. The plan was to head up to Grizedale to introduce a friend to some trail centre riding. On loading the car up its noticed that the rear tyre on their bike was all split and cracked – Hmm didn’t notice that when cleaning it. So we stopped off at Wilf’s in Staveley on the way up for a late lunch and picked up a new tyre in Wheelbase.

By the time we arrived at Grizedale it was gone 2.30pm. The pay and display rates are currently £2 for 2 hours or £4 for all day. We had just over £2 in lose change, so decided to buy the ‘2hrs will be just enough’ ticket just before leaving the carpark. By the time the normal preride getting changed and ready faffage had been complimented with a tyre change and then a inner tube change in the same wheel due to a sticky valve leaking air, it’s nearer 3pm when we start riding.

Anyway off we go. The trails are easy going in comparison to some centres so I think it’s a good introduction to singletrack with some technical bits and boardwalk sections. Still I come around one corner to find my fellow rider tangled up in their bike to the side of the trail. Not enough momentum to get over a step up and they’d crashed out. No damage other than some dented confidence and we’re soon back on the route.

Progress was fairly slow, but steady riding around in the snow covered fireroads. Coming out of a singletrack section near the most northerly part of the loop a graunching noise from my rear wheel makes me think that the rear disc pads have picked up some grit. Feather the brake lever a bit and try and get it to clear as I climb up the hill and about 5 seconds later there is a rifle shot as the rear tyre explodes.

Another Kenda Nevegal that’s ripped through the sidewall just above the bead. Oh well no problems, I’ve been in this situation and done the repair before. Camelbak opened up to get the tools and food out. A wrapper from a bar will form an adequate tyre boot. So with the tyre off I set about putting some air into a new tube to give it some shape for fitting. About four strokes into pumping the tyre up, the shaft of the pump snaps off the piston. Bugger. My Mountain Morph’s been all over the world with me, but it’s just died in the Lakes.

So it’s 4.30pm. Light is fading fast. We’re in the middle of a forest in the Lakes. We’ve just realised that neither of us remembered to buy a car parking ticket from the Pay and Display, we’ve one bike between us, the other has a tyre with a hole in it and no means of pumping it up.

Just as I’m calculating the best way off the mountain, a horse rider turn up with a mountain biker riding along side. I do a Tinker Juarez and ask if he has a pump I can borrow and it’s with some relief that he says “yes”. We have some banter with our Irish rescuer who also donates a Park tyre boot and with the aid of some duct tape wrapped around the tyre and rim in the damaged section the bike is back in action. We part ways and trying to keep as little weight on the rear wheel as possible we make it into Moor Top carpark and begin the final and best sections of the North Face Trail back down to the Grizedale Visitors centre.

The fields are becoming misty, the light is disappearing and it’s with a woop woop that we make it back to the car to find that we’re escaped getting a parking ticket. Great day out…

Midweek Escape

Wednesday off was a luxury this week and an opportunity to squeeze some extra riding in. I was hoping to get to Llandegla but the place is shut due to too much snow, so a local route was opted for. The Compstall Loop I’ve ridden before was chosen.

It was relatively mild in the City, but as the Peak District was neared and height gained the temperature plummeted and there was still plenty of snow on the ground up on the tops. Brake pad destroying conditions and some tripoding necessary to get safely down some of the descents that had been buried in drifting snow. It was great to be out though!

Into the Hills

Given that today I’ve woken up to discover several inches of snow have fallen over night in Manchester, the fact that over the weekend a small group of us managed a self-supported overnighter from the city into the heart of the White Peak seems pretty impressive. With over 100 miles from leaving the front door to home again and over 2,750m climbing it feels like quite an achievement too.

Shiny Bike Bits

This little beauty turned up in the post during the week. It gives Chris King a good run for its money in terms of quality. It features very nice machining and is very lightweight. I like the design as it seems very well thought out, even coming with a special fitting tool to protect the bearings from a press.

With a super low stack height it will give just over an extra 10mm of steerer height on the bike this is going to be fitted on to – saving the need to buy a new steerer assembly. I think that it’ll also slacken increase the head tube by just enough too.

Mud Skills

Rode out on Sunday and decided to practice some mud skills on the greasy clay based mud around the reservoirs in Debdale Park. It was incredibly wet and muddy as expected and of course the inevitable puncture occurred at the worst possible moment when the bike was at its most filthy. Up near the Golf and Sailing Club House, the piece of land that used to have a makeshift motocross course on it with some little jumps bits of singletrack and enough stuff to keep you interested for about 20 minutes has been It’s been torn up and it looks like the golf club are building an extra hole on the land. Bit of a bummer really.

Weekend Double

Rode both days this weekend. A reverse loop of the river run on Saturday and a trip up and down the Longdendale Trail on Sunday, clocking up about 35 miles between the two. Nice easy riding, great weather and better than expected trail conditions. Ended up reading about the Lights in follow up to the ride – I’d never heard of them before.

Woodhead Chapel

Wee Ben has been in touch – he’s living it up in New Zealand and getting some great riding in during the summer weather conditions in the Southern Hemisphere. Check out his photos in his blog.

Back to Normal

This week has involved some surreal commuting and it’s only the second time I’ve ridden to and from work. Last night I was commuting home and some fella on a white mountain bike with a lot of seat post showing comes buzzing past. No problem with this except he’s dressed completely in black and has no lights. Or a helmet. Well maybe he doesn’t need a helmet because I’ve already calculated that this guy is a bit of a tool, a fact that he confirms shortly later by weaving between as many vehicles as possible both at speed and stationary.

As I rock up at a set of lights another rider is already stopped, but our friend has already launched himself through the red lights, having to swerve deep into the left hand turn of the junction to get through the traffic already hurtling through it. The other rider said what I was thinking: Wanker. The lights changed and we both set off, I decided the riding seen could lead to some spectacular carnage, so upped the pace to reel him in. I over took him with some white line riding, only to lose the advantage as he road up the pavement to undercut some stationary traffic. My parting call of “get some lights dickhead” as he turned off the main road at least seemed to be acknowledged, as he responded with a bewildered over shoulder look.

Tonight the excitement was the driver of a silver Merc estate who, as I was doing some centre line riding past stationary traffic seemed to purposefully move further over to try and block my overtaking. What a loser. Didn’t work either, but did mean I had to ride on the wrong side of the road to get past. That wasn’t so bad though as the carnage that the sound of an ambulance causes as it approaches from behind. Quite why people still don’t know how to react to these still amazes me. It would be nice if they were a bit more thorough in their checking of mirrors as they scatter themselves to make way.