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Tuesday Evening Off-road Ride | 2* |
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Leader:Robin Tucker |
Start Time:7:00 pm |
Start Location:OMH |
Description:Off-road ride around local tracks, usually about 15 miles. Knobbly tyres and good lights required. We are keen to welcome new riders and have spare lights available to borrow if you let me know.Dark, cold and wet - we'll ride in any 2. But please let me know if you are coming so I can tell you if I decide to cancel due to really bad weather. |
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Report:Snow had fallen the night before and there was still some on the ground - always a treat!No Davids at all on this ride though. We took the road/cyclepath to Wantage then up Goddards Brook. Here we crunched on to the first snow of the ride. By the time we were on the Ridgeway there was plenty - an inch or two deep. It was a clear night with a full moon, so we turned our lights off. With the bright moon and the snow on the ground we had good visibility of the smoother parts of the Ridgeway and we rode for an amazing 2 or 3 miles in the dark, quiet apart from the gentle crunching of snow. Arriving at Scutchhamer's Knob, I realised i had a puncture. Perhaps more significantly, there was no sign of Allen or Richard A. I set about fixing my tyre while Richard P returned to the others. My tyre was fixe about a minute before the returned, with Richard A walking with a 'terminal mechanical'. He thought his bottom bracket had failed, but the reality was even stranger. A chainring bolt come come loose and wedged itself in the front mech mount is some bizarre circumstance. Another chainring bolt was loose and caught this every revolution (except you couldn't make revolutions). We managed to tighten the loose one, but no matter what we tried, we couldn't free the bolt stuck in the mount. However, it wasn't catching much now so Richard A went down the hill and eased himself home. It was now well below freezing and the other 3 of us went on and down Harwell Hill. Returning to the road near Hendred, Richard P found some ice and went down. Nothing broken, but I'm sure he has a bruise today! Ironic that the road should be a more hazardous surface than the off-road. We made our way gingerly back to Grove without further incident. | ||
Distance:27.36 km (17.00 mi) | ||
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