M
Mark Thompson
Guest
I realised the other week that I was living next to some
beautiful countryside so bought a map of the Peak District
and nipped off to look at some peat. Got the train without
any bike hassles from Manchester to Glossop then cycled off
to the start of the walk. The first half was all uphill.
Immediately realised that I am s-l-o-w up the hills - was
only doing 10mph - eek, I'm a trundly! Then it got worse.
9mph, 6.5, 5.5 then horrow of horrors The Granny Ring
Noooooooooo! Following the example of some of the more
cunning members of this group I stopped a couple of times to
take pictures + admire the view. Still didn't work - the
after starting again the speed quickly dropped back to the
horrendous below- trundly speeds. I passed the time
experimenting with road positioning but the cagers were used
to wobbly cyclists and gave me a wide berth regardless of
road positioning. Tried some very primary positions round
some of the 'no overtaking' corners to see if I could get a
conker[2] but they just overtook on the blind bends anyway.
Ho hum. What was interesting is that when a train of cars
came passed each got successively closer[3]. Actually that
wasn't interesting at all, but it illustrates how bored I
was with the hill.
Eventually after a period of time longer than it will take
to read this post I got to the top of something. To my
immense enjoyment it was downhill all the way for the next
two miles. The big ring thing wasn't working (bloody
derailleurs...mumble...grumble) so it was a case of letting
gravity do its thing. As I passed thirty mph a vaguely
worrying wobble developed in the front wheel/headset so I
kept my speed lower than I could have.
Got to the car park, locked up and had a most pleasant time
walking about looking at peat, sheep and the view. From the
top of Kinder Scout I could probably see Manchester through
the binoculars but couldn't be sure through the haze.
Watched a couple of planes land at Manchester Airport then
started walking back looking at more peat, sheep and strange
rock formations. Was absolutely no one about so scrabbled
about over nig boulders, tried to scare myself by looking
over the edge and baaa'd at the sheep.
The ride back was even better than the ride there. Had
thought about the wobble and decided to see if it was
serious or not. An evil headwind stopped me going to fast
but this wasn't a problem as I did the last four miles above
thirty mph. Got up to just under 38 as my top speed which is
not too bad considering that I wasn't pedalling[4]. Raided
the garage for ridiculous amounts of chocolate to replace
all the calories I'd burnt off, then off to the station to
get the train back to Manchester.
Whilst riding through Rusholme, land of the curry, I was
thinking about how considerate all the drivers had been when
an oncoming Mr SMIDSY turned right, just in front of me. I
slammed on the brakes with a quick prayer along the lines of
'don't let it hurt but please wreck the bike so
Mr. Insurance buys me a new one' but unfortunately the
brakes worked a bit better than I expected and I just
smashed one of his hubcaps. The guy stopped and I pushed
the bike over. "you alright?" says he. "didn't see you"
"Yeah, think it's ok" says I spinning the wheel to see
if its buckled, and hoiking the wheel back in line with
the handlebars. "bugger the bike, I'm worried about
you!" Crumbs. Obviously blind/dopey but he both stopped
*and* seemed to care. Slipped the unused u.r.c. Goolie
Cutters back in my pocket and pedalled off home.
Plan for the next week is to do some mystical chants over
the gears to try and get the derailleur thingy working
properly, then do it again and see how fast I can go with
pedal power.
Mark.
[2] The Great Trog Conspiracy. Track a copy down and
devour it.
[3] Apart from sports cars, who seemed to welcome the
opportunity to fling the car about a bit.
[4] Or is that selling stuff?
- where'd [1] go?
beautiful countryside so bought a map of the Peak District
and nipped off to look at some peat. Got the train without
any bike hassles from Manchester to Glossop then cycled off
to the start of the walk. The first half was all uphill.
Immediately realised that I am s-l-o-w up the hills - was
only doing 10mph - eek, I'm a trundly! Then it got worse.
9mph, 6.5, 5.5 then horrow of horrors The Granny Ring
Noooooooooo! Following the example of some of the more
cunning members of this group I stopped a couple of times to
take pictures + admire the view. Still didn't work - the
after starting again the speed quickly dropped back to the
horrendous below- trundly speeds. I passed the time
experimenting with road positioning but the cagers were used
to wobbly cyclists and gave me a wide berth regardless of
road positioning. Tried some very primary positions round
some of the 'no overtaking' corners to see if I could get a
conker[2] but they just overtook on the blind bends anyway.
Ho hum. What was interesting is that when a train of cars
came passed each got successively closer[3]. Actually that
wasn't interesting at all, but it illustrates how bored I
was with the hill.
Eventually after a period of time longer than it will take
to read this post I got to the top of something. To my
immense enjoyment it was downhill all the way for the next
two miles. The big ring thing wasn't working (bloody
derailleurs...mumble...grumble) so it was a case of letting
gravity do its thing. As I passed thirty mph a vaguely
worrying wobble developed in the front wheel/headset so I
kept my speed lower than I could have.
Got to the car park, locked up and had a most pleasant time
walking about looking at peat, sheep and the view. From the
top of Kinder Scout I could probably see Manchester through
the binoculars but couldn't be sure through the haze.
Watched a couple of planes land at Manchester Airport then
started walking back looking at more peat, sheep and strange
rock formations. Was absolutely no one about so scrabbled
about over nig boulders, tried to scare myself by looking
over the edge and baaa'd at the sheep.
The ride back was even better than the ride there. Had
thought about the wobble and decided to see if it was
serious or not. An evil headwind stopped me going to fast
but this wasn't a problem as I did the last four miles above
thirty mph. Got up to just under 38 as my top speed which is
not too bad considering that I wasn't pedalling[4]. Raided
the garage for ridiculous amounts of chocolate to replace
all the calories I'd burnt off, then off to the station to
get the train back to Manchester.
Whilst riding through Rusholme, land of the curry, I was
thinking about how considerate all the drivers had been when
an oncoming Mr SMIDSY turned right, just in front of me. I
slammed on the brakes with a quick prayer along the lines of
'don't let it hurt but please wreck the bike so
Mr. Insurance buys me a new one' but unfortunately the
brakes worked a bit better than I expected and I just
smashed one of his hubcaps. The guy stopped and I pushed
the bike over. "you alright?" says he. "didn't see you"
"Yeah, think it's ok" says I spinning the wheel to see
if its buckled, and hoiking the wheel back in line with
the handlebars. "bugger the bike, I'm worried about
you!" Crumbs. Obviously blind/dopey but he both stopped
*and* seemed to care. Slipped the unused u.r.c. Goolie
Cutters back in my pocket and pedalled off home.
Plan for the next week is to do some mystical chants over
the gears to try and get the derailleur thingy working
properly, then do it again and see how fast I can go with
pedal power.
Mark.
[2] The Great Trog Conspiracy. Track a copy down and
devour it.
[3] Apart from sports cars, who seemed to welcome the
opportunity to fling the car about a bit.
[4] Or is that selling stuff?
- where'd [1] go?
