Last ride of 2013
After the Christmas ride with the GLC, I decided that I
wanted to get the riding going again. So that evening I posted a ride out on
the GLC forum, for the next weekend. I also rang a couple of friends to invite
them along too. So times and dates where all set and there would be at least
four of us attending.
I had the route set, in my head, which I wanted to follow,
but the problem I had was that when I sent my Satmap back for repair I had
accidently deleted all my routes, and
not having ridden for a while my memory of some of the further away loops were
vague. So I set about re-mapping and plotting.
With it already being Saturday and the middle part of the route
still vague in my head, I decided to ask Dave if he didn’t mind leading this
part of the ride. As a backup I also asked Josh if he didn’t mind, but it was
then he decided to tell me that he couldn’t make it due to being ill.
Sunday was now looking like a three man ride as I had no
replies on the forum, although this didn’t bother me and Josh had now pulled
out. The forum is a funny thing, you find people will say they are coming then
not turn up, or no one will confirm that they are coming and a few will arrive
last minute.
Sunday morning had arrived and it wasn’t as forecast. The
forecast was for a nice day but at this point it was overcast with dizzily
rain. I made the short ride to the fuel station and filled up; I brought some
new batteries for my GPS and waited for anyone to arrive. I was due to leave
the petrol station at nine and meet Dave at the John Bunyan pub at around nine
thirty. By nine fifteen no one had arrived so I decided to make my way to meet
Dave.
Lane one is only a few hundred yards from the petrol
station. It’s only a short lane but one of my favourites. It hasn’t been graded
and it remains a natural lane. The grass lay across the lane doing its best to
hide the ruts and making the surface unpredictably slippery. There is a sharp
corner about half way along that is rutted, not deeply, but enough to make me a
little wary so on the approach I drop down from the standing position, sat as
far forward on the tank leg out trying to use the rut as a berm to help me
round. Once round I was back up on the pegs for the rest of the lane, this part
of the lane is enclosed by trees, the ground is leaf covered mud that’s slightly
loose under the wheel. Dead fallen trees lined the edge of the lane from the
recent high winds.
I rode the road down to the fords that were now running high
due to the recent rain, the water wasn’t its usual crystal clearness, and was a
murky brown, hiding the gravel bottom. I
could have taken a detour over the bridge but decided to tackle the river,
although deeper than usual the current wasn’t too strong and the crossing
wasn’t too bad. Fords now dispatched
there was just one more lane to tackle before I met up with Dave.
I arrived safely at the end of the lane, but Dave was not to
be seen so I decided to chill for a while. The sky was now blue dotted with
large white clouds. The trees and hedgerows were brown and here and there, dark
green ivy climbed up through the hedge and tree trunks. The fields lay baron
and brown whilst the grass banks were a rich green. The lane was wet and rutted
with an ivy covered small tree blocking its entrance.
A short time passed and I heard the distant rumble of an
engine heading toward me. Dave arrived soon after, with the warning that the
lane was slippery and treacherous. The
lane for the most part is bank either side, these banks where covered in golden
brown leaves, fallen trees had been pulled to the sides to make the way clear
and here and there along its length braking the winter brown of the landscape were
green holly trees. Just before the end of the lane a large, long and deep
puddle covered the trail. Once through
the puddle we ascended up a short root stepped bank which led us up to the
road. We then caught the road to the
next lane which in part is tarmac and the other graded so we made quick work of
it.
At the end of this lane my intentions were to turn left, but
Dave suggested we go right. It meant cutting a chunk out of the ride, but it
also meant we had more time to explore. I had asked Dave to show me a short
lane which he uses to link up a small section of the loop he rides and this was
our next lane, after we had done some extensive road work. I have ridden this
lane many times before. It is only a short lane most of which has been graded
and flat. But it was a lane that was going to catch me out big time. Now I knew
where it was and how to find it I set off at a fair pace. I had travelled along about half the length of
the lane when I rounded a corner. On the line which I was taking the heavy rain
from the last few weeks had washed away a section of the path exposing a large
root. I have in the past coped easily with bigger step ups than this, but as
the front wheel hit the root it slid violently to the right causing me to steer
to the left. Then in a split second I had hit an overhanging tree which knocked
me backwards and sent the bike spinning through the air. I looked up to see the
bike at ninety degrees to the lane with its handle bars buried into the bank. I
jumped up full of adrenalin checked myself over then went to check on the bike.
The bike was fine the handle bars were a little out of line, but nothing
serious and the hand guard had been knocked up, which was soon put right by a
short sharp tap.
From here Dave took the lead as I wasn’t quite sure of the
best way to go. The next two lanes where known to me, but again as I rounded a
corner the rear wheel stepped out scaring me a little. This proved to me that
you need to practice to stay on top of things. A small amount of road work saw
on some familiar lanes once again. It
was here that we met up with a couple of quad bikers and a motorcyclist. We passed
them and headed toward the end of the lane. We were on the last section when I
made the silliest mistake of the day. The end of the lane had several deep
puddles along its length. I decided to take the right hand bank to avoid the
puddles. But it had recently been cleared and had several trees lying along it.
I thought I would be clever and pop the front wheel over these trunks and avoid
the puddles. No, what happened was I
didn’t pop the front wheel enough going over the first log, as it was wet the
front wheel then tracked along the log causing me to fall off toward the puddle
I had been trying to avoid. The next thing I knew my hand to elbow is submerged
in water. I’ve managed to avoid a
soaking, but on retrieving my bike I notice that the hand guard was now
catching the clutch, so at the end of the lane we stopped so I could make some
minor repairs.
Whilst making the repairs to my bike, the quads and other
trails ride turned up. I tinkered away and Dave got reacquainted with the
trails rider; apparently back in the day they used to ride at the TBEC
together. Introductions were made and it was agreed that we would join forces
and ride as a group. So we headed back up the lane we had just ridden. At the
end of the lane we waited then waited some more. The sun had now come out and
the weather was good. The trail rider said he would go and check where the
quads had gone. We waited some more, on his return he informed us that they had
taken the wrong route, but where close behind and would soon be with us. We
then waited a bit longer then some more. Eventually it was agreed that Dave and
I should carry on and let the rider go back and find his friends. Hopefully we
might meet at another point during the day.
Dave and I now set off again. Dave has a wealth of knowledge
of the lanes around this area and now started to show me a mixture of lanes
that I had already ridden and some I didn’t know of. There was also a nice mixture of fire road
and graded lanes and untouched muddy, slippery lanes. Slowly we covered lanes making our way back
toward home and soon I once again knew where I was. However Dave still
surprised me with some lanes I didn’t know off. Although riding now for several years I still
need to learn some essential skills such as the wheelie. Wheelies aren’t for
showboating but play an important part of riding, for coming off of banks or
getting over logs etc. I would also like to be able to spin the bike on its
axis. But today’s lesson was on how to
roost your mate. A useless piece of
knowledge unless of course you want to cover the person behind you in mud. It was now past lunch and I was once again on
familiar ground, so we decided to make our way to the garage to refuel both
ourselves and the bikes.
We sat for a while and had a chuckle about the morning’s
ride and activities. However the day was getting on, and we had to make a decision
on what we were going to do for the rest of it. One thing was for sure and that
was we were going to tackle Fox’s Lane. This lane always has an amount of water
running along and we wanted to see just how deep it had gotten. Soon it was
time for the off, we made our way to the lane. We had just started when we
rounded the corner to meet two four by fours blocking the way. They hadn’t
broken down or anything like that, they were in fact just ferreting and although
one walked out to see what was coming, they made no effort to move. I quickly
weighed up the situation and made my way around the inconsiderate ferreters. Dave
joined me shortly afterward; we now tackled the wet lane I was thinking ahead trying
to map the best route available to me, which is hard when all you can see is a
nice flat level surface of water. We were doing well, the line I had guessed
was most of the time round hub deep. Then suddenly, but I can’t say
unexpectedly, the front wheel was suddenly engulfed. The engine stopped dead
and I must admit I thought the engine had sucked in water through the air box. I
quickly pushed the start button and luckily she started straight away. I continued
relieved but with slightly wet feet. Once through and in what I considered to
be a safe place I turned round to see how Dave was getting on. We both made it
through safely, even if we did paddle a little, and then headed off to the next
lane. 
We covered a few more lanes and ended up at a point where we
were both about the same distances away from our homes. Whichever way we went
now one of us would be travelling away from home. The days are short at this
time of year and when the sun goes down it gets cold very quickly. So after a
quick chat we both decided that today had been a good day and that it was now
time to quit while the going was good and make our way home.
