Saturday, July 30, 2011

Giant XTC 4.5 For Sale - £250 (SOLD)


This is my son's bike, which he has sort of out grown. It is a medium, suitable for someone 5'7" - 5'10" (he is now 6'2"). It has done one weekend off road (Dalby) and a few road miles(on slicks) so the knobblies are hardly worn. I would guess 500 - 750 miles, with a few minor scratches. I thought I would see if any of our crew were interested before I place it on Single Track.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Bike, Beer and BBQ Update

To my surprise, Les turned up after a hard mornings work (?) on his bike, so that was 8 miles before the rest of us had even started. I had checked the forecast and had seen the storms the last couple of days so decided to put the mudguards back on (BGB) and then wondered why, not a puddle in sight :-).

I had told Uphilla that the route was all legal, well from our FNC pub onwards it was. There are some new steps to negotiate on the way to the pub, more a case of riding up the side of them but there is a big nasty route at the top now, I think some members of the posse may have had a little dab? Rob took the lead without a GPS or any knowledge of where we were going, which resulted in me overtaking him at some forks in the route :-).


Uphilla managed to find a nail and lodge it in his tubeless tyre (how do nails lying on the floor get in to your tyres?). We had a few goes at trying to seal it, I tried to assist but just snapped off his irreplaceable tubeless valve (very sorry again, but you did get your own back!). Followed by a nice piece of single-track down the far side of Telegraph hill (NB fallen tree now removed).


We made it over to the Offley motorbike show, before Rob managed to split his shorts and then fix them (does anyone else carry a needle and thread with them on these rides?), with big hairy Hells Angels going back and forth eying him up. Followed by one of the best downhills round here (Chalk Hill), similar to some of the Chilterns descents.



More XC type riding over to Langley and as we approached another downhill we were looking forward to, we found the ground was soaking. We had just missed a downpour, so maybe take this one easy? I didn’t go that slowly but Les still came hurtling past me, Rob got stuck in a rut and was heard cursing a swearing as Sicknote sailed past him.

I had noted there was PH marked on the map at Ayot St Lawrence, so had thought this would be a good place to stop for a pint or 2 with only about 7 miles remaining, downhill and then flat. Little did I know how desperate I would be to stop at this point for other reasons (NB to the landlord, re read the note you have put up on the door in the loo!!!). So after a couple of pints, a few nibbles and out first down pour we were off again.


A nice little downhill followed by boring but safe cycle route back to Harpenden train station. We did get caught in a couple of downpours but managed to take cover under trees or bus shelters, so never had to put our waterproofs on. Rob left us at this point as he decided it would be quicker to cycle home from here. The rest of us jumped on the train back to Harlington and Leagrave. I think we might have been a little smelly and muddy by this point, but that is was knobblies is all about.

A quick wash for us and the bikes followed by BBQ at chez Yates (ta), to finish off a good day on semi local terrain.

Posse; Uphilla (another new even lighter hardtaiL), Dozer (Canyon ESX), Les & Sicknote (Specialized Bitch Pros), Rob (Turner Flux)
Weather; Sunny/Overcast, dry and then very wet at the end.
Mechanicals; Uphilla nail in tubeless tyre, Rob split his shorts.
Injuries; Dozer (Forehead V Uphilla’s car boot, fixed by Dr Yates (Mrs))