Mountain Mayhem 09

The year has gone very quickly, it feels like only 3 or 4 months ago i was posting about Mountain Mayhem 08 , however next month Mountain Mayhem 09 rolls into Eastnor Deer park which is close to home, the Malvern Hills.

This Year MM is on from the 19th to the 21st of June. Sadly Giant is no longer the sponsors , therefore making the possibility of trying a new Giant Anthem out is very low. However there will still be other Mountain Bikes to try that people with mine and Uncle Wozzers budgets can only dream of owning.

There website is :http://www.osmountainmayhem.co.uk/index.html

Let me know if people are interested in going, might be able to arrange a group visit.

Benni

 

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The Lost Art

Before I explain what art form I have re discovered today I will first give a quick overview of my day (relevant things only- not the most interesting post otherwise).

To start with ive had a cold recently , as many people i know have, and was to that extent struggling by the time i got to the top of my main climb this morning on the way to colledge. At this point I decided to raise the saddle a bit as i dont rid the apollo except when im going to colledge and this morning it felt a bit low. I must admit that it was user error, and the begining of my bad day, when i overtightened the seat post clamp -  thus snapping the bolt in half. Ive never liked the seat post clamp on the apollo as every thursday morning i have to raise the saddle , then every Friday morning lower it back down. This is because when im not riding it to colledge on thursdays smatt rides it too school, this would be fine except it takes a  while for me to get the high right on thursdays , and its not quick release which means i have to rummage throught my bag for the allen key adjust it, put the bags back on, then cycle on only to stop around the corner and adjust it again.

I decided while cycling back home down the hill ( it was much closer to home than colledge) that i would go to that Bicycle heaven , Halfords, after colledge as its just around the corner and would preferably get a quick release clamp.

I set off for colledge again this time on theGiant yukon, which i try not to ride to colledge. The ride to colledge on the yukon was uneventful, but actually quite fun.

After colledge some of my colleges didnt believe me that my airzound was LOUD (125DB -  more than a car)  so i let them have a go . Then set off for Halfords, however the route i chose made a rod for my back in two senses. The first senses was obvious at the time, the path was (and always has been) overgrown , and at the best challenging to ride on. The second was that after having been to halfords and descovering that they didnt have any sort of seat post clamp that was big enought i found half way home that i had a VERY flat tyre.

 

THUS THE LOST ART WAS DESCOVERED. This art form has not been lost. An self respectingly good Mountain Biker, or even cyclist, should  have the right tools  and knowledge to fix a puncture. The reason why i called it a lost art is because i dont believe that many people know how to, or atleast arnt confident or prepared enought, to do a Puncture repair on the side of a major road in a town.

This is what i had to do today. It wasnt much of a fuss for me, makes no diffrence if its a garage, roadside or hillside, however the looks I got from the passing general public were that of shock. They odviously were schocked to see a teenage boy with a mountain bike upside down on the pavement with the back tyre in his hands . I fixed the two punctures that i found, both about 10mm long -  probably from the thorns down the path to halfords. However the innertube has had a lot of punctures, and a lot of patches, so didnt like even more and decided to bulge in one spot, this i couldnt solve so gave in and managed to get a lift.

The final part of my slight rant, the most ranty part, is my slight shock at how many people walked, drove and even cycled past without even asked if i was alright, yet alone offering help. But hey, theyd probably never seen a roadside puncture repair beore , lol.

Benni

I have to say I agree

Before MyCycles closed down i visited a couple of times. Once was for some more patches, we were in the Link and i thought i’d have a look at least. Talking to the guy, he revealed that he coudl mend punctures in mere seconds now, so many people brought bike in with a flat tyre. Without the kit, skill, ‘time’ or all three, they preferred to let a shop do it.

Frankly, as Benni and I both know well, punctures can happen anywhere with anything. I’ve mended many a Red Riders puncture on the hills, the side of a road, in the forest, in the rain. To me it’s a basic skill if riding a bike. Like changing the trye on you car if that goes flat, it’s something eveyone should know. I leared from Dad, who learnt from Grandad, and so on. As i’ve said already, it seems such a basic skill. Half the problem is the lack of kit. The Red Riders always have tools with them when riding. We know it’s only a few miles back to cilivisation, rescue is a breif walk, phone call and ride in a car. Even so, we still carry enoguh basic kit to keep our bikes going out in the wild. Personally, a puncture is a less-than-five-minute job. Wheel out, tyre half off, bit of pressure in the tube, find the leak (takes the longest time), patch, let glue dry, tube in, tyre on, pump up (can also take a while depending on the size of the pump) wheel in and go. Simple.

It’s also typical no-one will stop to help a fellow human being (yes, cyclists are humans too). The worst is people staring, yes my bike is on its bars, yes the wheel is in my hand rather than the frome, so what? I’m obviously fixing it, sod off or offer a hand. Still, bike mechanincs need a job i suppose, besides the buliding, adjusting, replacing, overhauling, servicing and selling. Ah well, it’s been good to join a fellow Rider in a rant.

untill the next rant,

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Birthday Lake Cycle

As can be guessed from the title, this post is about a birthday cycle.

Oh yes, Wozzer is 18! Yup, he’s old. And for his 18th birthday, Benni, Mat and myself (wozzer) went up to the Lake District for a cycling weekend. We headed up on the Thuirsday (12th) and hit the Grizedale Forest on Friday and Saturday, then back on the Sunday. Friday, it was foggy drizle sort of weather, but we wnet riding anyway, like the mad nutters we are!!

We hired Mat a bike (Dad was driving, so we had his bike, ben brought his bike, and so did I, and we can only get 3 on the carrier, besides, Mat rides a road bike, so wouldn’t suit the off-raod trails) and Started our ride. And, half way round I managed to hit the only, single, tiny shred of glass in the entire forest! After swearing and puncture mending we were off once more. And just after a nice steep decent we hit the closed trail – closed for forestry work – and were now at the bottom of a steep hill with not enoguh will power to bother crawling all the way back up. Thankfully, there was a nice footpath right next to the closed sign, and so we used that! Seriously, the footpaths were more fun than the actual trails! The traisl being big forestry rocky, gravel roads, and quite fun. The footpath was single track, rocky, wet, steep, treed and rooted – and brilliant! Those lucky walkers have more fun paths! andway, after some single track we followed a tarmac path back to the Centre, riding past some interesting sculptures. Having had enough and being soggy and muddy, we returned Mats  bike and dropped the other bike s back at the cottage before going on to Ambleside for some shopping and stuff, bike shopping of course. and That evening we watched Red Nose Day – i gave up at 2am, after everyone else had fallen by the wayside over an hour before.

Saturday was brilliant. The evening before I had come up with a plan of rthe next day. So that (saturday) morning we went rowing!! The cottage (which was more of a mansion separated into several flats) owned a boat, and said to ‘help ourselves, life jackets and oars are in here, key on the hook there’. So wekitted up, grabbed some oars and went rowing. With mat at the prow, me on the oars,a nd Ben sitting aft went headed out into the Lake. While deciding on a destination or plan Mat spotted an interesting yellow sign on the opposite bank. So we rowed over there, in a rather interesting line, which was rather snaky and wobbly – my right shoudler is stronger than the laeft thanks to some injuries in the past – the sign was about poaching. Then Mat had a go at rowing, and we soon discovered, he can’t! After going more sideways than forwards, I took over once more and we headed for shore (lol that rhymes) and we then returend to the flat for bacon sandwhiches.

That afternoon we headed for Grizedale once more. The weather was better this time round, we even saw some blue sky!! This time we were doing the “green” route. It was about 10 and a half miles. And the climb wasn’t bad, not too long and / or steep, and then, right at the end the most brilliant part – adn 3 / 4 mile downhill!! Long and winding, corners everywhere, some of them over 90 degrees. not under 20mph for a good five minutes! utterly fantastic!!!

Ben and I have decided to go back next year, when we both have more money and cars. Theres a fantastic looking single track trail around the whole forest, called the “North Face Trail” and we are determined to do it!

Overall it was the most fantasticly brilliant birthday I’ve ever had! a good 18 miles, of solid offroad, lol a mile for each year!

Untill the next post,

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Snow – What snow!!

Well weve definetly had snow this month. We might not have had a white Christmas , but were much more likely to have a white Valentines Day. Last week schools all across the uk were closed for many days due to heavy amounts of frozen precipatation falling from the heavens (aka snow). The local High School here in Malvern was closed on Tuesday 3rd of February, and Thursday and Friday 5th-6th of February. I sadly didnt get all three days off as i had to go to work, but i did get Thursday off, due to colledge being closed. This was the day when i found out how fun , and easy, it is to drift a mountain bike.
I went outside at about half past ten, and found about two and a half inches (maybe more) covering the road that i live on. I decided to try riding on it. It didnt seem to be any diffrent to normal as long as you didnt turn to sharply. Then i tryed drifting, hehe, it was VERY easy to get the bike to go sideways, leaving tracks that wouldnt look out of place on a slippery road sign. By the time that smatt came out at about eleven oclock there wasnt much pristien snow left. Which he was fine with as neither of the other bikes would lockup due to V brakes not working well in the snow.

As we live right near a local Golf Course , and we didnt think people would be playing due to the thick coating of Golf ball hiding cotton, we decided to go have a look. And unsurprisingly there was no one there , and the snow was undisturbed. Well, by the time we left after about fourty minuetes i couldnt say it was undisturbed. We didnt do much damage to the perfect surface, only a couple of Tobogan tracks and a few tracks left by my bike. The snow was thicker at the golf course and due to this i managed to get my back wheel jambed up with snow. It was fine after removing all the snow.

On the Friday , i had to go to work. My boss offered me a lift, but i declined his offer. Instead i turned into a bicycle collection service. I was asked by my mum if i could go to her bosses house and collect a key, i happily agreed and set off into the snow on my Yukon. Mums bosses house is higher up the hills then our house, so i was forced to climb up the main roads in slush, until i came to some quite steep wiggley side streets , which were hardly touched. I climbed up these roads , got to mums bosses house then turned around and flew down hill to work, i managed to get a max speed of 27 mph , hehe. I was probably one of the fastest moving cyclists that morning (except maybe wozzer)
And that concludes the current snow cronicals of Benni. I say current because as im typing there is more and more snow falling, however i dont think im going too go out in it as its just gone five in the afternoon
Yours in writting , Benni (8th February 2009)

 

To fix a buggered DiamondBack…

Well, it’s not that buggered, it’s just old really.

I’m talking about my old DiamondBack (DB). My intial plan was to strip it of parts then dump it, but while doing this, Mum had the idea of doing it up so it worked, and sending it to Cambridge for my older brother. His current bike is very old and slowly falling apart. If it were me, i’d have improvised and kept it working, but he’s going to be a vet, and is busy in Cambridge and isn’t overly fussed about bikes / cycling. But anyhow, I also thought this was a good idea, so agreed to the plan.

One major problem was the fact i’d stripped the handlebars already. The flappy paddle shifters/brakes, which are a single combo unit, I’d taken from the DB, and put them on my youngest brothers bike (looks quite good), wired it all up – which took ages, so long i wasn’t taking them off again to go back on the DB. So i needed a 7 speed shifter. My intial idea was to use the 6 speed twist-grips shifters, and just have 6 gears out of 7. However, this was but a minor problem compared to the deraullier. I hit it when having fun on (or should that be off) black ice, so it’s rather very buckled. I thought i’d give it a go at straightening it. But, i looked at it, bent it this way a bit, then up like that, oh, back a bit maybe. It just wasn’t working, and then the hanger snapped – so it wouldn’t work at all.

I decided I needed more parts than I had at the time. I looked at the possiblity of getting one of the old crappy rust buckets from the science park, they were ment to be used by the employees to ride up to the shops or whatever but weren’t. Dad could get one for free, and I could use if for parts, Deraullier, shifters maybe, cables, deraullier hanger. This plan failed when Dad asked he was told there were none left, but he could see them out the back. While talking to his colleuges, one mentined he had some old dodgy things down the bottom of his garden. Yet another plan was hatched.

So, a few days later I took delivery of two beat up rustbuckets. Both only had their front wheels, but everythings else was there, rusty and not very good looking, but there. So I tooke them apart; brake levers, cables, blocks, arms; gear shifters, cables and deraulliers; handlebars; chains; a few bolts; suspension forks, and a middle suspension spring / damper system; light brakest and reflectors. Soon I had a pile of parts and two frames. The chains were badly rusted, the wheel treads were weathered and cracked, a set of brake levers were simply awful, so I threw those away.

Good news; one of the bikes had a 7 speed system. Bad news; the deraullier had been in a crash or something, and the deraullier cage was really badly bent. Still, I now had a 7 speed shifter if nothing else. The other bikes 5 speed deraullier was still good, but too small for use on a  7 speed set. But, it had a nice cage. I stripped both deraulliers down, used the straighter cage from the 5 speed to renovate the 7 speed, chose all the shiniest bolts and bushes and reassembled the 7 speed deraullier, at a later date i straighted the bent cgae out in a vice and have reassembled the 5 speed, though it needs a new jockey wheel.

I used the brake levers off youngest bros for the DB already. So I now had brakes, a 7 speed shifter and matching deraullier, and no hanger. I tried to work my way round the missing hanger, but with the DB’s frame thats not possible. A trip to halfords and £15 later I had a new hanger. I bolted it in place, perfect, now for the deraullier. On it went, I split the chain, unthreaded it from the old deraullier and through the new one. Selected the least rusty cable, threaded that through the shifter, mounted the shifter an the bars, threaded the cable down all the casing to the deraullier and connected it.

Here we go, pedal. Bit of a noise, but nothing I can’t adjust out of. OK, we’re in 7th, down to 6th – deraullier didn’t move. 5th, still nothing. 4th, it jumped into 6th. 3rd had it in 5th, 2nd on the shifter was 3rd on the cogs and 1st was 2nd. Dam, not too good. Oh well, new deraullier (relativly) new cable and shifter, first time, no adjustment, crappy changes were to be expected. Half an hour later, however, it still wasn’t working. i’d adjusted everything and still it was crap. I took another look at the deraullier position, hello… that top jockey wheels at a peculiar angle. squinting at various angles I realised it wasn’t just the cage that was bent. I took the deraullier off again, and went at it with several tools. It’s a spindle / pivot thats bent. No way to get to it without specialist tools. Bugger.

I’ve a friend at church who is a bike nutter, and has been for years. He’s the old 60-ish year old who can do 20 odd miles and still be up for more. Anyway, the dreaullier was shown to him, and he said he might have somthing similar in his shed. So hopefully, i’ll have a better 7 speed deraullier before too long. If not, i’ll consider a smaller deraullier and just wire it up so it gets 6 out of 7. Also the hanger is an issue, the deraullier must have the correct arm for the hanger. So I may not find anything suitable.

If thats the case, it’s back to Plan A – parts and dump. But I hope that doesn’t happen, it’s a good bike, faithful and sturdy. It’ll enjoy a simple life in Cambridge I think. So I hope i can get the parts needed.

We’ll see, the future is unwritten, what comes next is unkown.

Untill the next post,

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

You’re fired, you’re hired…

I have a retirement and a new recuit to announce!

First of all; happy retirement DiamondBack S10!! Over a thoousand miles and three years of commuting to and from school. Yes, it’ll be sad to see it go. It’s long 19″ frame, its interesting rear suspension, those still good front forks (surprising for cheapy Suntours), creaky steering, rattly gear levers… ah good time on a good bike. It’s heavy, it makes noises as if in protest, it needs adjusting every other day but it’s done well. Over a thousand miles, three years of the school comute; hard hack downhill, heavy on the brakes, rough roads (victoria) sharp corner on Woodshears. Then back up, racing up the alley, coping with the grass perfectl well, accelerating well out of the junction at the top, the long crawl up Clarence, mixing with traffic, blasting up Church Street (locals will know thats a fair hill) then rocketing along the Worcester Road to home. Many, many times. Several back axles, resulting in new wheel, new gears, many brake blocks replaced. Riden in all weather, hard and fast. It has served very well.

Fair Thee Well, DiamondBack S10!

And now for the second part; new bike!!

I looked round a bit, a couple of shps had some interesting options. Looking to spend £200 or less on a decent bike is always a challenge. I considered ordering a Giant through BackOnTrack, Upton had a nice looking ClaudButler. But in the end, it was Halfords in which I ended up once again. So far, the only bike i’ve ever had that wasn’t from Halfords is my XTC. Thats an Excel (legendary) and the DiamondBack both from Halfords. They do have a good range covering just about every price bracket one could hope for. Good range, not always good bikes.

As good as my Giant XTC is, it’s not very roady. Using it to commute on roads just felt wrong. It’s troughbred off-road, and should be used as such. So, i just wanted a new commuting bike to take the DB’s place. I did shop around, but Halfords was dcently local, and had more or less what I was after. I also looked at, and seriously considered, road / touring style bikes. I tried to be interested and look at them, but they just didn’t float boats. Limited gearing, little or no suspension, silly little finger thin tyres. I always kept thinking back to a hybrid or mountain style bike; 21+ speeds, decent suspension, grippy 1.95 / 2.1 tyres. I, like mybike, am also a thouroghbred off-road machine. So those kind of bikes ticked more boxes in my opinion.

So, whithin my budget i had a quite large range of Apollo’s, fullsuspension seemed to bea main theme. So, they’re out. Apart from the older framed Excels, Apollos (being halfords own cheapy range) aren’t very good. And I’m after a hardtail, lighter and still bouncy. So, I marched stright past the Apollos, looking at them only to keep an eye on the steadily rising price. Then at the 199 mark i came across two nicer options. A hard tail DiamondBack, and a blue Carrera Vulcan (the latest Vulcans have red paint jobs). Closer inspection revealed they wre both interesting.

The DB had a chunk frame and red paint on the front at least. 21 speed, good; Zoom forks, hmm; Gripshifts, hmm; front disc; good; rear V, nothing wrong with V’s; Red paint, brilliant. OK, i don’t particularily like the shifts or forks, but otherwise good.

Now on to the Carrera. As i’ve said before Carreras are like Toyota’s Lexus to Apollo. But it shows. This Carrera was labelled the “Vulcan V Spec”, which meant it was your standard Vulcan, but with V brakes rather than discs. 24 speed, very good; SR Suntours, good; Sram 4 shifters, basically flappy paddles so good; Dual V’s, nothing wrong with V’s, in fact these are Trekko which can be very good; blue, yes it’s a nice enough blue, but red’d be better.

After a fair anoumt of hmm-ing and err-ing and noggin stratching overnight. i decided to go for the Vulcan. It had better everything, minus the colour and braking. But good V’s can be just as good as the cheap disc on the DB. Also, the DB had a cheap looking headset, and treaded cloumn – very hard to work with / on / get parts for now-a-days. The Carrera looked sleeker, it had more gears, flappy paddles (of a sort, those Sram 4’s are… different, shall we say), and i’m more used to working with / on V brakes. It ticked boxes nicely, and so thats my new commuter.

So, Welcome Aboard Carrera Vulcan V Spec!!

After riding it to work and back, i’ve been able to get the saddle hieght right, front set adjusted properly, brakes bedded in (sort of), and when I got back I stiffend the incredably soft suspension. The handle bars feel really wide, and i’m going to have to get used to those Sram 4 shifters, . But otherwise it’s a good bike. Those 2.1’s don’t feel too draggy, so i may get some use out of them before I get some 1.95’s. Tomorrow morning i’ll be dissasembling the old DB, raiding it for useable parts and spares. Then it’ll be off the the retirement skip, oh i mean dump, no i mean ‘home’, retirement ‘home’.

Well, thats all the news for the moment,

Untill the next post

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Retirement

All cyclists are semtimental about any bike they’ve riden for a while

As both Red Riders and readers of this blog know, Benni retired his Apollo Excel after many years of servic. That Excel went for miles and miles untill it’s frame cracked, fork bearings went, etc. Its safe to say Benni rode it into the ground. And thats exactly what i’ve done to my DiamondBack!

Quite literally. It was at that “just working if you know it’s little tricks” for ages, and i rode it without too many qualms. Almost 4 years of service, well over a thousand miles covered. And while thinking of replacing it it kept working as if to say “i’m fine, no need to be replaced”. And I did say that i’d ride it into the ground before buying a new commuting bike. Then one fateful winters day, i did exactly that.

Literally rode it into the ground. Pulled out of my drive, down the road, thinking it’s bloody freezing, throuhg the lights without a problem. Slotted into the right turn lane, slowed right down for a car, pulled away and round. Aaand rode it into the ground. Black ice is the most obvious explanation, hit it, lost the front end, dropped it. Another explanation is the new front tread i’d purchased and put on the night before, silly cheapy halfords thing. New treads rarley grip that well, and the recently gritted, wet, smooth tarmac proved too slick for it.

Either way, i think i can say with confidence that i’eve written it off. After picking me and the bike up off the busy junction, i started off again, stopped again a few meters on and wrenched the rather buckled deraulier out of the spokes. I then limped all the way to school after bending the deraullier in such a way it just about worked. I got it so sit in 7th, and 2nd / 3rd while the shifter was on 1 / 2.  Utilising the front deraullier I got to school, locked up, swore once again, and limped (leg was hurting) into Sixth Form. After explaining to variuous people why my elbow was in such a blackened (tarmac gunk) and bloodied state, i (in a free lesson) went on various bike websites, and calculated that i’d cost close on £100 to fix everything wrong with it. It was only £150 when new, 3 years old, very worn, wouldn’t be worth £50. Not worth fixing then. Not with a very buckled quick-fix-bent-back-to-a-rough-position rear deraullier, worn chain, worn gears back and front, slightly bent brakes, and a slightly wobbly back wheel. And to make matters worse, I limped it up the Alley, along Court Road, and then the front deraullier cable snapped! So i had to plod home with two point 2 gears depneding which way the wind was blowing and how hard i wasn’t pedaling.

Thus, I am getting a new commuting bike!! I’ve looked around a bit. I’m looking to spend £200 or less (but don’t mind going a bit higher) there’s a nice Claud Butler in Upton, but is fixed frame, i’d preferr hardtail. But is a major competitor. Halfords had a few interesting ones. A hybrid/mountian DB, looked alright – had red paint job There was a Carrera Vulcan “V Spec” – a Vulcan with V brakes rather than the Disc Spec, with disc brakes. One or two of the Carrera Subways looked interesting. I’m a bit suspiciopus about Carrera, being a Halfords-own make. Carrera is to Appollo like Lexus is to Toyota – a posher version if you will. Still, maybe being better than appollo they might serve well, and i’m only really using it for acommuting.

I’ll be making the decsion tonight and purchasing it tomorrow morning before I go to work. I’ll post tomorrow wiht the result.

Untill the next post

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Red Christmas Ride

It was cold, but we rode

Last year three of us hit the hills on the afternoon of the 21st of Dec. And it was misty and frozen at the top of the Beacon. This year two of us pedalled our way up the Beacon, it was on the 28th Dec, and it wasn’t as misty, but it was frozen!

We met in the usual place, at 10:30, and took some time to admire Bnnis new lights (very nice i must say). Then we hit the trail, we started the Wyche, then suddenly did a U-turn, raced back down for a few hundred yards, then took a left onto a path. Our speed catapulted us up the firt, steep rocky slope. We followed this path along to St Annes, I collected some water while we were there, then hacked up to the Knoll. We headed across Happy Valley and onto North Hill. We rattled along the lower north Hill route. Then took a left onto the zig-zags. We crawled our way up and round, Benni failed on some of the corners, which meant I failed because he was in front at this point. Anyway, we got to the top in decent time. We then raced along the higher north Hill route back toward the Beacon. We stopped for a breather next to the Dias before selecting a low gear and slogged our way up the Beacon using our usual path, we both made it over the Rock Patch without any troubles, and got to the summit.

Up here, in the freezng wind and possible could, it was bloody freeeeezing! Even thick skinned Wozzer had to give in and put his coat on! The wind howling over the ridge meant our light bikes were blown majorly to the right (facing the Toposcope) and I ended up riding leaning at a weird angle inot the wind. After looking briefly at the veiw (inside of cloud) we descended. We dropped down and ’round the back’. on the way we passed a group having some champane. Anoraked, hooded, gloved, scarfed, and drinking champane out of the wind. I said “cheers” as I passed. Originally Benni and i were planning to go down the ‘back route’ but with the amount of wind, numb hands and walkers we decided it’d be better to go down the tarmac path. which we did. we went slowly to avoid walking folk. at one point we hit the ridge quickly to get round a large group. The ridge up to the Beacon is incredably rough, and roucky as heck. Never the less, we bumped our way down, and ‘nut-cracker suite’ was experienced (i.e. when the saddle hits one in the groin).

We bidded each other “Happy New Year” as we rolled through the Wyche Cutting. Benni got out in front of me, and i couldn’t get past him through the corners (he pulls a wide line, so it’s hard to over take and undertaking is out of the question – not enough room) but i got him after the bends, i rocketed past him at 31mph!! From the Wyche Road he drops down Lower Wyche Road and rattles across Peachfeild to get home. I head all the way down the Wyche, join the Wells road, rocket through Belle View terrace, along the Worcester Road, left at Link Top and Home.

I made it 8.7 miles in the end, house to house. It was really fun, and good to get out on the hills with Benni. As always, I can’t see why I don’t go more! Anyway, maybe in the New Year we’ll get our game together again and go cycling more.

Until the next Ride!

Uncle Austin Wozzer

 

Happy New Year!!

Have a good new year, ride lots, cycle far and most of all – have fun!

Also, we hope you had a good Christmas!

Untill the next post,
The Malvern Red Riders