BathMTB: Ride Report

[BOYD Kevin]

A big'ish 'old school' turn out last evening as Kevin, Rich, Dave and Tavis arrived set to ride with Tavis and Dave single speeding it. Randy on his schwinn cruiser and even John sporting his 'city' bike popped by to say hello. Two goals for the evening were to get over to Pipe House with as little mud as possible.

So we set off up towards Ralf Allen then Perrymead up behind Foxhill. We then took in some of the many small woods surrounding Midford, slipp'in and a slide'in aplenty as we settled in trying to maintain momentum on the winter slop, Rich setting the pace with Tav hanging back trying to remember how to off road after months of hard road riding.  At Midford we picked up Pipe House, but we were going up, funny that all those hills you only ever go down really are much steeper than you think when done in reverse. Rich stopped half way to sort out unhappy gears, which were to be an issue for the rest of the ride. Pipehouse was eroded already after months of rain and needless to no one came close to clearing it. At the top we zipped along the A36 and headed down towards freshford along by the river stopping only to have a quick chat with random man and dog (turns out he works for MBUK), we eventually climbed up through Freshford with Rich setting a killer pace on the long steady climb. We crossed back over the A36 to head for sha&&ers, Rich set off at his usual killer speed followed by Dave with Tav and Kev bringing up the rear, half way down we bumped into some runners coming up - crazy fools. Rich stopping again with gear issues - turns out a well known Bath bike shop had stripped, cleaned and rebuilt Rich's CK hub that very day - mmmmmmmm.

Once we arrived at Midford there is only one way to go 'the steps' so the Kevin the step king was duly sent off first, alas no body cleared it, Kevin coming closest with a 'hand dab'. Tav and Dave pushed their SS up and even Rich walked as he was by now having all sorts of issues with his CK free hub which had sized giving Rich a tricky job trying to keep the pedals turning continually to stop the chain tying itself up in knots. We opted for a Ralph Allen entry into town with Rich setting a new slowest ever time for the decent trying to keep his pedals turning continually. We headed to the pig as we had arrived back pretty early, needless to say we ate many crisps and drank some beers.

Regards

Kevin

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