Woburn is Black
A few of the posse got together last night for some rooty Woburn action which would also be Sicknote's first every venture into his lordships domain.All but Rob rode to/from the woods and managed to crank out a respectable mileage by the end of the evening. Rob met us up on the heath where we id'd that Sicknote's noisy bike was prob'ly due to a freewheel ravaged by another damp winters riding.
We found the woodland sections to be mostly dry and just a little springy, so hopefully they'll get faster as the year slips by. Although the roots we dry they made from some interesting sounds amongst the posse as we all slithered around.
Unfortunately, Brumster's light failed without any warning and left him fumbling around in total darkness until someone took pity on him to see what the problem was. No amount of fiddlin or butchery got his lamp working so we between us we donated bits to at least give him some vision. After which, the "fix" made his bike look like it was rigged to explode :lol
On our rapid exit and descent of "lights out" (the original!) we found the top half has been resurfaced, passing by mighty quick. In a moments madness I decided to then head back over the railway line but the horse trodden track was extremely muddy - BAD NEWS. Some pressed on, stressing their limbs while others opted to walk. Either way the bikes were now buried in gloop and more than doubled in weight. The next couple of miles (hard pack) was spent pogo'g as much mud off our rigs as possible.
A few delays and a mixed posse meant we had to leave some sections for another time but I for one enjoyed slicing through the trees with some pals.
Thanks to Uphilla for remembering to switch on his GPS and recording the route. Unlike I who hauled it around in his copious rucksack - along with a "silenced" mobile phone :blush
Posse: Brumster (Liquid), Dozer (Endozer), Farqui (5Spot), Rob (Flux), Sicknote (Hardrock), Uphilla (5Spot)
Weather: Mild, dry, clear-ish with a light breeze.
Mechanicals: Brumster - complete light failure/unfixable. Sicknote - noisy freewheel/quietened with lube
3 Comments:
brumster said...
"21 miles?!", I said.... cripes no wonder my legs are burning.
Good fun even if my light troubles wasted 20 minutes or so (very weird; I'm kerfuddled as to what the problem is - will report back with findings!)
Another mechanical (that I think affected Dozer too) was loss of effective use of middle chainring due to all the muck but this cleared itself up once I'd shed the several pounds of muck of the frame and tyres.
Farqui said...
I've just washed the gloop off my rig and it was most clay like. T'was a sticky mess that needed a right good scrubbin'. A total opposite of Woburn's sand and only a stones throw from the tree line. Sorry guys.
brumster said...
Well, it would appear I fubar'd the battery because everything else is tickety-boo on the DIY light setup.
Dozer sent me in the direction of Cycle Surgery who were having a sale on lighting items and an impulse purchase swiftly followed... one Lupine Edison 5 HID sitting at home now, awaiting testing :)
I attempted to justify the expense to myself - I figured I was looking at a good £100 in NiMh battery and appropriate intelligent charger to fix my old setup so it didn't do it again.
With the Lupine available at £320 notes (instead of a RRP of £550) my finger hovered over the "Checkout" button and a snap decision planted it down. I know it won't get the use it deserves but I'll try and use it more often now. Back-to-back report with Farqui's L&M will ensue, I'm sure!
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