Wednesday 4 July 2012

The eternal creak of borked cranks*

Despite the weather forecast the grey laden clouds and my own personal meteorological cynicism we did not get soaked last night, wahey. Rode the singlespeed, 3 reasons, one the aforementioned weather, two to see if the cranks would bed in and stop creaking and three if they didn't Johnnie would be urging me to take the spare cranks he had for sale, gratis, just to stop the racket :-) Climb up the golf course was hard work, first time singlespeeding on proper hills for a while and my legs were still hurting from running at weekend but the weather was nice and warm just a bit misty and the odd drop of rain. Mist got quite damp on top of winter hill, down hole in the wall, down AICR (saw a deer) and met johnnie at the bottom. Back up and to the pike and chatted to some other riders about... yep you guessed it, the weather. Quite a few riders about actually. The ride off the pike reminded me I was out of practice descending with saddle up, over the first drop handlebars turned slightly, front wheel dug in, front tyre folded over, cacked myself, I immediately slowed right down, johnnie caught up and went to pass me but due to the camber of the gully pushing us into the middle we nearly hit each other, a right old mess. Slogged up hole in the wall, just about cleaning the gulley, down 2 lads and the new wildes trail, (saddle down bit better but still pretty shoddy) then back up the tarmac. Johnnie then headed for ICR I went up hole in the wall again (stalled in the gulley), upto the mast but considering my performance so far decided against san marino, did the shooting hut descent (badly) and then tucked in for a long road descent home. Not bad considering, as johnnie said it would make a great nightride in October, still a long way from the balmy summer nightrides we should be doing in July.

*atleast I hope it's the cranks, if not its my frame :-(

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