Ever Decreasing Circles

As planned, Rod camed round at abiout 7pm and we had a nice bowl of home made veggie soup before setting out for a night ride. Marple GOlf course to the middlewood way the hang a right back to Marple. Straight across and right round Marple dale, then round back to chadkirk and up the hill through the woods to the canal. Once again through the new trail to Romiley and down the ace downhill to Compstall - this time I just made the tight left hander at the bottom of the first steep descent, yay me! Didn’t quite make it all the way as there are the steps half way down, tried to go round them to the right but discovered why Campion said “oof” so loudly on Thursday when I went off the same drop!

Round to Brabyn’s Park and realised we’d only been out for a hour: on Thursday it took us an hour to reach this point just from the pub! We’d stopped to debate what route to take when we met Jon, Dan and anopther chappie on the Bicycle Smithy night ride so we decided to hook up with them. I was able to introduce the chaps to the delights of the nature trail in Marple, then we went back up and I took them down the Marple Golf Course descent. I think they rather enjoyed it, and Rod actually remembered having ridden it already - quite something for Rod, he’s not the best at remembering trails! Once we got to the Middlewood Way, I headed back to Marple and the boys kindly took Rod as far as the A6 so he could ride home. I know they did, I’ve had a mail off him this morning.

Regular commute, tyre felt a bit soft so I stopped on the Otterspool track  to try to get some air in. Big mistake, took me ages to get it back to a reasonable pressure. Oh well, managed it in the end and got home in time to cool down before I head out for a night ride with Rod later - not ridden with him for over 12 months :/

On wednesday I rode in on the CX bike, the on the way home I went route finding. Regular route as fas as otterspool, the up chadkirk hill on the tricky climb through the trees and over to the canal. From the a new trail over to the back of Romiley and some routefinding in the estate, I got a bit lost which was a good thing as when I found the trail I intended to ride it was a bit rubbish, but it led to the point where I’d got lost so that meant I had a way to cut out the crap bit. From the down to Compstall, which was ace fun, I wiped out half a dozen times, then home through Brabyns park

On Thursday I rode in and home on the road, very surprised to see the ride home took only just over 30 minutes, I thought it would be longer. The point of the quick route home was that we went out for a night ride - the pair of us on inbreds. From our house down the main road to the Marple Hall estate, then round the school and down to the Hare & hounds on Dooley Lane. Having collected the Motley Crew, we followed the route I found the previous evening as fas as our house (via the nature trail in Marple Memorial Park where more than one of us had some two-wheel sliding action on the corners!) and dropped Jane off, then took the trail through Marple Golf Course and once more dosn the path round Marple Hall school to the pub for a pint or two. Friday was just the regular commute.

Martyn rode over and we set out from our house. My first off road ride in a couple of weeks, and the first with gears for ages! On top of that I was using the wheel I’ve just built and it stood up to the test very well.

We didn’t do anything  overly mad as Martyn had already been out the day before: Canal to Strines Station, then climb straight up to the Fox Inn. I just managed it, and Martyn lost it on a slippy rock about 2 yards from the top - shame!. Up Nield’s way then down the zig-zags and up Aspenshaw hall, down the Pennine Bridleway and straight across up the road by the Quarry. At this point we changed our normal route, about half way along we took a bridleway off to the left (opposite Moor Lodge) that we haven’t ridden since the last ORTP back in 2000! This spat us out on a road where we turned left for a short climb then right onto another bridleway stream down to Gowholes, just below Furness Vale. Talk about wet, the top half of the trail was literally a stream, I was soaked through and managed to pinch flat. Was n ace descent though!

I wasn’t too popular afterwards as the way out involves a big climb no matter which way you go: we chose to follow Dolly Lane round then climb back up to meet Overhill Road and back towards Hayfield. Agains though we chose another new bridleway, hanging a left to go down through Over Lee farm, then straight across the road and onto the Sett Valley Trail back to New Mills. After that, we just span home on the canal. Not sure on the mileage but not inconsiderable, and it was very nice to ride new, unfamiliar trails and to ride familiar trails in a new  direction. Jane on the Juliana, me on the Inbred

Not lazy in the sense of not riding, rather in the sense of not writing. I’ve not updated this for ages, and I haven;t finished the article I promised Chipps!

Anyway, 5 commutes. After Monday as below, the next ride was the Thursday. On Monday I felt fine but I felt crappy on Tuesday so drove in and thank goodness I did as I came home early. Drove in Wednesday as I didn’t feel well enough to ride, then on Thursday felt better so cycled in only to feel worse as the day went on. I cycled home ok but I was off ill on Friday. Didn’t ride at the weekend as I wasn;t sure how I’d be

The next week, 4 commutes - the only day I didn’t was Tuesday as I had to go to Bicycle Smithy for my first wheelbuilding lesson. It went well, I removed the D521 rim from my Hope Bulb and replaced it with a new XC717, from scratch. Seemed to go well and I think I have the hang of it, but of course it’ll fade unless I get to do another one within a reasonable timescale

Just wondering really. It’s pretty boring to be honest, I’m only doing it so I have some kind of record and to get into the habit of recording things. I need to start working on prose more than anything

Usual route. .Was passed by a bloke lit up like a Christmas Tree at the entrance to Morrisons - I’d slowed as the bus was letting some muppet park on the pavement, and as we move off he passed me. Fair enough, thought I, once I was up to speed I was moving at about the same pace but he carried on down the road when I cut through to the TPT. I have wondered about the speed of the road versus cutting through - down the hill to the pub opposite the Audi garage and cut through, might be quicker although it does mean riding on the road. When I came out of the TPT at the roundabout under the viaduct, he came past me again, he’s obviously gone straight on at the bottom, so road is more or less the same speed but off orad means no cocks in cars. Drafted him along the side of the M60, then cut through to Portwood and never saw him again - although as I came out at otterspool, someone whizzed past me on the road looking mightily similar, didn’t get a good enough look though to be sure.

Jane’s first ride in 3 weeks, so we decided to take it easy. I rode the chameleon to try out the new Avid BB7 I bought secondhand off the STW classifieds. It’s not in the best nick the rubbers seals and grommits are all perishing, but for £22 it’s not too bad as it cam with an Avid Ti lever and it’s giving me an idea of how well the BB7s perform. quite pelased with the performance on the first ride, we’ll see how well it performs over the next few before I decide to change all the bikes over!

Another short one: regular route in, then up to Sue’s to try to set up a VCR donated by Dom so I could record the RLWC match. Failed due to lack of leads. Returned next day with leads to watch the match live and again failed to set it up as when I went to collect the tape, it was 3 hours of static