Date: 11th October 2009
Riders: Richard, Davebus, Terry, David, Debbie, Bruce, Simon and Kelton
3 Hills (Pitch Hill, Holmbury Hill, Leith Hill and back again)
Weather: 15°C

This morning was the first morning this year when I have felt like sacking off the ride before I had even started but instead it turned out to be a great day in the saddle.

I was getting ready at home and looking forward to wearing my new riding kit, a rather fetching Fox Livewire jersey in burnt orange colour plus the ubiquitous Fox High Frequency shorts in standard black. Full review to follow in due course.

A quick glance out the window (usually more reliable than checking the weather reports) showed it to be an overcast but seemingly dry day. However as I wandered into the conservatory to get some piece of kit I heard the disappointing patter of heavy rain on the glass roof.

Damn and blast and because I didn't want to ruin my new shorts I even changed out of them back into the old Decathlon shorts that have served me well over the years.

But I forced myself to get ready and into the car and set off for Peaslake which was luckily outside of the cloud cover and nice and dry for the start of the ride.

There we met some of the usual riders plus Bruce who has ridden with the group (minus me) over the summer and Sheffield Simon who we bumped into out on the trails a few weeks back and has decided to hook up with us again to learn some new trails.

Debbie and David had also bought Kelton with them. It's Roy Orbison's middle name apparently but unfortunately Kelton turned out to be a bloke rather than a 'Pretty Woman'. Sorry mate, I'm sure you have heard that more times than you care to recall.

However by the end of the ride it's safe to say Kelton was 'Crying' with cramp and 'Only the lonely' as he trailed far off the back of the pack.

The trails were holding up surprisingly well helped in part by the guy with long travel full-susser and full facer hanging off his bars who was lovingly raking a nice bermed corner on Trail 1. Chers my friend, we salute ya!.

We also spotted Ivan who I rode with last June as well as Ant who rode with us in March this year and was mincing down Barry Knows Best with a friend in tow .

It started to rain part of the way through the ride but it was only a mild shower and a mild day ands didnt affect the ride quality or the trails.

After splitting the group into two I led the faster group round the rest of the trails and we had some fun barrelling down the Upfolds Farm descent and meeting four riders coming up the hill just as the trail starts to narrow.

But we survived with just a flat for Bruce and after fixing that it was non-stop back to Peaslake via my favourite Holmbury 'village hall' climb whilst Dave, David and Debbie nursed Kelton back to Peaslake for a recuperative cup of tea and a cheese straw or two.

Date: 17th October 2009
Riders: Richard and Cas
Road Ride: Surrey lanes and byways
Weather: 11°C

With me needing to be out on Sunday I fancied a quick spin on the road bike on a Saturday morning and as usual Cas was up for the challenge.

He led me on a wild goose chase around the Surrey lanes and even reaching as far as West Sussex.

We covered 63 miles including the Box Hill challenge which saw me set a disappointing time for the zig-zag road climb which was just 4 seconds faster than the time I setback in April despite having covered 2,800 commuting miles during the interim.

Something tells me I need to look elsewhere other than pure mileage to improve my climbing ability.

A few pics below but road ride pics never seem to be as exciting as MTB pics (well at this amateur level anyway, of course you see some great pics of the grand tours during the Summer).

However, a major new advancement for the site this week as I have finally figured out how to have a decent viewer for you to see my pictures through. Many thanks to Steve and Matt who both gave me some tips on how to set this up.

Date: 2nd November 2009
Riders: Richard

No cycling for me this week apart form being back on the commute again this morning (Monday 2nd November).

I was on holiday last week up in the North East of England. Despite being very close to Hamsterley Forest I didn't take my bike as I had intended. Following my SMIDSY incident on the Thursday, my right shoulder was very sore and although I commuted again on the Friday I didn't feel up to the different stresses that a mountain bike would put on my shoulder so left it at home.

That reminds me, on Friday's commute I saw a bunch of chavs on their Halfords bikes and as I was flying along shouted 'C'mon lads, can't you go any faster?' as I flew past. Unfortunately a traffic light stop (I'm no RLJ'er) meant they caught up and they made me laugh when the most feral looking one in the ubiquitous hoodie sneered 'betcha can't even wheelie'.

That's probably correct my dear fellow but at least I can construct a sentence properly.

As part of the North East trip we vistied Beamish Open Air museum and I spotted a few cycle related opportunities and took a few photos which are added onto the end of the selection of photos below.

Finally, I was planning an MTB ride on Sunday but the weather was shocking, the kind that would have had Noah putting his boots back in the cupboard and thinking to himself it's a bit wet out there so I reluctantly called off the ride. Sorry Ted, I know you were already on the train. I had at least got up and ready and was in my garage preparing the bike when the weather got even worse and a quick phone call with Terry decided the matter. Oh well, there's always the commuting miles and next weekend to think about.