First ride January 2013

Laneing 2013 First Ride

We’re just into the New Year; as usual we’ve all over indulged. So I’m sitting at home feeling fat and sorry for myself wondering if I should finish the chocolates and nuts now or tomorrow. As the stuffing continues more through auto pilot than need, I get a text from my friend Josh asking if I wanted to go out for a ride.

The weather has been mild and very wet the past few weeks. I had an idea for a ride one that I’d wanted to show Josh for quite a while now. He’d also shown an interest in it as he’d not ridden these lanes before. I was feeling let’s just say, uncomfortable with my added Christmas weight so instead of putting this ride on a forum for all, I decided just to invite a few friends that way if I felt like I wanted to stop it wouldn’t be a problem, and I could change the route at any time to suit.

The morning of the ride arrived, there would only be three of us riding today, the conditions were mild, overcast and wet. I wanted to see the height of the river before we attempted the crossing; this is the same river crossing I took Tony to just before Christmas. I’ve only ridden this lane a handful of times myself and I’m not sure how deep it can get, the banks indicate that it could potentially drown a bike at its highest.

We made our way toward the lane taking a short detour to check the river height, the detour is a tarmac country lane that has blind corners and is very narrow. The edges and centre of the lane was covered in wet leaf debris with just to lines of tarmac where the wheels had worn it away. I wasn’t happy about the lane I had an uncomfortable feeling that I was going to meet oncoming traffic. I continued with caution and I’m glad I did because as I rounded a corner, one of the larger ones with room to pass, a car coming the opposite way was cutting the corner and had left me nowhere to go. I knew if I braked hard the bike would wash out on the wet leaf mulch and I’d probably end up over the bonnet so I steered the bike into the bank braked and bailed off. Luckily I was safe but the car ran over my front wheel, fortunately for me she caused no damage to the wheel. The female driver was like “I’m so sorry, are you ok? Nobody ever comes down here, is your bike ok? I’m so sorry”. To be honest I was very annoyed although I’d expected it and told her to go on her way. She left hopefully a little wiser, but as I went to leave I realised that my gear lever had been bent in toward the casing from the impact from the hard tarmac road and that my bars were also bent. We pushed the bike to a safe point and worked on it. I managed to straighten the gear lever by put a couple of tyre levers between it and the engine casing and gentle prizing the gap open until it had sufficient room to be able to change gear. A little spannering saw the bars straight and after a good check around the bike we were once again safely on our way.

 

 

The first lane went well and all enjoyed the river crossing, which was surprisingly low considering the amount of rain which had fallen recently. I guided the way to the next lane but felt that I had to keep waiting however all came to light when we all arrived at the beginning of the next lane. I was told that Angelo’s bike was making an awful noise on acceleration. We had a look and I watch him try to pull away under load. It turned out that the front sprocket was severely worn, or as the KTM centre was to say later “that’s not a sprocket it’s a washer”

 

 

We attempt the lane but things were getting worse. This scuppered my planned ride as the nearest bike shop was about 10 miles in the opposite direction. I now had to work out the quickest and most direct way to the KTM centre whilst avoiding any major junctions and roundabouts. A steady ride saw us arrive at the shop with no further incidents. Luckily they had the part and we had enough tools on us to carry out an emergency repair. Once again the bikes were checked and we were on our way, a few lanes later we stopped for fuel and a bite to eat before heading off again. Whilst we were taking the break Josh mentioned that things happen in threes and that seeing Angelo and I had had problems he was next in line.

 

The day was now drawing on, the next section of lanes passed without any real traumas just the usual wobbles. Everything was flowing and going as it should. I continued to guide the way to the next lane but as I wanted to get some video footage I let one or the other take the lead once at the beginning of the lane. As I follow from the rear Josh took the lead, he rounded the corner where I knew it gets very wet and sloppy. Much to my enjoyment Josh decided to take the centre line which looked like solid mud where the 4X4s had pushed it up. But it turned out to be a mound of wet slurry. He slipped one way then the other and ended up cross rutted and off the bike into the ditch.

 

 

We were now all even one incident a peace and we all felt better now the curse of the dreaded 3 was over. We were now heading homeward and I had several different routes in my head, I wanted to make the most of any light we had left. A little road work later saw us at the beginning of a lane which I wanted to show Josh. I lead the way stopping where the lane split into two. I wanted to take the right hand fork so stopped to mark the way Josh pulled up alongside and we started to chat whilst waiting for Angelo. What happened next was bizarre. It felt that I’d been hit hard on the back and momentarily everything went black, first I notice a sharp pain in my leg, next I notice Josh was no longer by my side but about 12 feet further up the lane getting up off the floor his bike on its side. I turned to see Angelo sprawled on the floor his head under his bike.

I quickly dismounted, got the bike off of Angelo’s head and started to assess what had happened. Josh was fine apart from a little shocked as was I. Angelo was in a lot of pain rolling on the ground. All looked bleak and I thought that an ambulance would be needed. Fortunately as it turned out it wasn’t as bad as I first thought. The outcome was as follows, I had a sore leg, Josh was fine but had broken rear plastics where he’d been hit, Angelo came off worst. Although stunned and shocked he only really had a sore head and cut finger, which I dressed, his helmet suffered a cracked peak and scratches as for his bike the front side plastics where broken and snapped the head light was detached as was the right hand radiator. Spanners and cable ties saw the bikes repaired, even if it did resemble something like a blue peter project.

What had caused the crash was a simple momentary lack of concentration; Angelo was merrily puddle jumping watching where he was instead of where he was going.

Disaster averted, but time wasted. We had lost the last of the day. It was now my job to get us home as quickly as I could before we lost the light. Luckily I still managed to work in a few lanes and the day finished well with no more miss haps.

 

It was a very memorable day, but all for the wrong reasons enjoyable to a point but not one I’d wish to repeat.