Twinkly Dave: Ragley Bikes Supported Endurance Racer

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• Hedgerow Porn

  I mean, really, where does it come from?! Riding up Waddington Fell yesterday, settling into a nice rhythm, feeling rather pleased with how well the ride had been going up to that point and how well my legs were coping with the climbing I let my mind wander a bit as I dragged the top of the hill towards me. I took in the scenery to either side of the road; the birds, the fields, the (annoyingly) fast moving clouds…and then i happened to glance down at the shrubbery at the roadside.
  Gah
  The mood was instantly shattered by a pair of arse cheeks spread for the camera, staring (if arse cheeks can stare) back at me. As I realised what I was looking at – and lost any sort of smooth pedalling motion – more and more genitalia became apparent. Reams of it, wafting in the breeze from the branches of the hedges, certainly more than one magazine’s worth (erm, i think, i don’t claim to be any sort of expert…).
  Who had the idea to drive out (i’m presuming whoever it was drove out there as it was too far from civilisation for all but the most ardent walker to walk to) and dispose of their unwanted “literature” in such a way? And how did it end up so spread out (so to speak) along the roadside? Why did they not just dump it in a bin? And, perhaps most importantly, why did they not just use the internet?! I’d have thought the days of paper pr0n were long gone by now (again, not that i claim to be any sort of expert)?

  Hedgerow porn – one of life’s great mysteries.

  dgpowell 4:52 pm on March 25, 2009 | 4 Comments | # |
  

   

• top weekend

  Dry(ish…for the most part) trails made for a cracking ride on Friday on the mtb. Following the 3 towers route from my house, then nipping over to lee quarry again once I’d got to peel tower so i could hammer the red route was the plan and the reality.
  Sunshine and spring warmth added to the fun and seemed to infect everyone i met while riding – even the big groups of oldies out walking happily parted ways to allow me past. The workmen at the top of The Rake in Ramsbottom added to the spectacle of me grovelling my way up the incline, 60 miles into the ride, by stopping work (any excuse i guess) to cheer/mock my efforts. Damn you all
  Hello to everyone else who was on a bike, enjoying the summeryness (springiness?) of the day, you all seemed very cheerful.
  A good “soul” ride that one.

  Saturday meant dusting off the road (cross with slicks on) bike and riding over to Wray and back in a circular motion. Lots more people out roadie-ing it up and as is the law, I chased them all down, said hello cheerfully and left them for dead
  Had a good chase down of a bloke riding up the climb to Tatham Fell – he knew his role as bait and even put a big effort in as I caught him to make it more interesting, before smiling as I dropped him. Good fun.

  More mtbing on Sunday, staying a bit more ‘local’ round darwen/rivi, with the emphasis being on riding “well” rather than “fast”. Still ended up being 47.6 miles without trying though….i guess you can’t take the xc out of the jey boi?

  dgpowell 4:48 pm on March 23, 2009 | 1 Comment | # |
  

   

• ladies and gentlemen, i think we’re back

  This may all change tomorrow when i wake up feeling like crap…but this afternoon’s ride went well and didn’t kill me.

  Yay

  I didn’t have much power up the hills, but i can put that down to lounging around for weeks, rather than any evil bugs eating my insides. Managed 105 miles in 6hrs 7mins, which is only 6mins off my fastest time for that particular route.
  Admittedly I’ve never been this knackered after doing it before, but again that’s not suprising and to get a decent time shows i’m coming back to life nicely

  If you believe the computer (which i don’t…fully) i exploded 3938kcals and climbed over 9999ft. That’s dubious as thre’s not as much climbing in this route as there is in the ‘pendle pedal’ route…which is hillier – and based around the same area, but you never know i suppose!
  Said computer also claims i thumped my heart round at an average of 172bpm, which is also somewhat unlikely…though not impossible as it has been higher than normal recently. It was definately trying to leap out of my mouth on the climbs!

  Not only was i feeling a bit more alive, but spring is doing it best to get springing – it was sunny, warm and bright all afternoon and the fields are beginning to get filled up with LAMBS.
  Lambs are awesome, all froliky and full of fun, they kind of epitomise spring and cheer up long rides no end with their general daftness. The few that have already made an appearance seemed a bit too new to really get into the spirit of being a lamb and mostly sat around looking a bit shell shocked, but give it a few weeks and they’ll be manically bouncing around the place.Yay.

  AND the clock go back forward in a few weeks. Awesome.

  dgpowell 10:55 pm on March 17, 2009 | 2 Comments | # |
  

   

• Lee Quarry

  Nipped up there with Wayne yesterday to see what was what (and to make sure I knew where it was before the race series taking place there kicks off…) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

  Didn’t want to do too much so a lap and a half of the red route plus some Gnarly Skillz (that’s skills with a “z”) playtime was just the ticket.

  The red route was not too technical (unless you’d forgotten your shoes and ended up riding in your posh trainers on spds…eh wayne), but had a nice amount of singletrack and a few ickle jumps to pretend to get air on. It flowed quite well and, thanks to a fair bit of “contouring”, held it’s height quite well so you didn’t feel like you were constantly climbing. There were also some big holes to peer in and some nice cliffs to stand at the edge of and give yourself vertigo

  Following little intriguing looking tracks off at pretty much any point round the route opened up a wealth of extra goodies – there’s a lot of stuff just off the main paths that isn’t signposted but is well worth a play on (i found myself on a set of massive* hip jumps completely by mistake, which was nice, if a tad scary, and there must be miles of sneaky (but still legal, obviously) little trails knocking about the place)

  Most of the stuff there (and everything on the red route) was doable on a rigid bike, but i did get the sense that re-building the bullit would be a good idea and would let me hit lines with a bit more speed (and possibly a larger grin…)

  It’s also just the right distance from my house to make it a destination for longer xc rides – a nice 40 mile route there, couple of laps plus a bit of jumpy fun and return home the way I came should be just right, in fact i might do it on friday, seeing as the weather’s meant to be nice and i’ve got the day off work

  *well they seemed massive at the time

  dgpowell 11:04 am on March 16, 2009 | 5 Comments | # |
  

   

• two steps forward…

  Car has now got a new MOT (after throwing £380 at it). It also has new front suspension coils – the old one that had broken was actually in 3 pieces, which was quite shocking!
  Annoyingly it passed with an Advisory (ie the mechanic noticed something that wasn’t bad enough to fail the MOT but was worth mentioning officially) – the discs are “slightly worn” and will probably need replacing before this time next year.

  Now that on it’s own isn’t annoying (stuff wears out, fair enough) what is a tad galling is that when the car had it’s service back in December I specifically asked them to check the brakes as I’d noticed the noise they made had changed. They checked and reported back that they were fine, with about half the brake pads remaining, no corosion and everything moving nice and smoothly…but with no mention of worn discs. I can’t see how they would have worn down that much in the following 3 months. Grrr.

  The dashboard is still as it was – apparently it’s a sealed system, so they can’t service it…and a replacement one would cost me another £300 odd quid, so stuff that, it kicks into life after a few seconds so I’ll run it until it gives up completely.

  While the car was being fettled I headed off for a ride (after chatting with the owner of the garage for a bit about how the new berlingo can fit a penny farthing or a tandem in without removing any wheels – ace). I’m definately not well yet, my heart rate was sitting at around 180bpm while spinning along the flat at 18mph and i simply ground to a halt on any climbs, no matter how small.
  In fact after 4hrs I had to stop and have a magic cup of tea.
  Managed just over 80 miles and felt shot to pieces afterwards. Damn, this sucks.

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  dgpowell 7:43 pm on March 13, 2009 | 4 Comments | # |
  

   

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© Twinkly Dave Mostly in 2009
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