After the long winter my kit is wearing out and last week I wanted to ride the SX trail for the movie shoot so had cannibalised the Prince Albert, swapping over the crankset, chain, and rear wheel onto the SX frame. I couldn’t be arsed to change it back on Saturday and knew that the ride Dave had in mind was doable on a 35lb’ish bike.

However as well as being worn, the chain was too short and was giving me shifting problems. Never mind I thought, I have some brand new links in the garage from where I have shortened previous chains so I will just add those in.

I added the first short section with a powerlink and was then looking to add another section when I realised I already had 2 powerlinks in the chain. Adding in another section would leave me with 4 powerlinks and a part worn part new chain so I decided to give in and buy a new chain.

At the same time I was changing the rear tyre as my Maxxis Minion Super Tacky had lost all its tread over the harsh winter. Again, I started to fit the only obvious candidate from my spare tyre stock in the garage when I noticed a tear in sidewall.

So I went off to Epsom to Fudges cycle store for some lube, a chain and a new rear tyre with the only requirement being that it was cheap. A Specialized 'The Captain' fitted the bill at just £16.

I was going to treat myself to new middle chainring too but they didn't have one in stock. As I was driving home I realised I probably had one already and yes, at last my spares box didn't let me down and I found a brand new 32 tooth chainring that I had discarded sometime over the last couple of years.

Finally I gave my Bianchi Via Nirone a good spring clean to get all the winter salt, grit and road detritus off it. It's almost back to new now!

Onto Sunday morning and it’s amazing what a bit of sun and dry trails does for the soul. After struggling for the past couple of months to get anyone out at the weekend (it was just the hardcore of Davebus and Gazza last week on their own after our DOMTB movie shoot) an unbroken week of sun and the promise of dry trails sees a group of 15 (or was it 16?) riders meet at Starveall car park on Leith Hill including a return for Ryan and Jake after the slog that was the Newlands Corner ride and Rob, a new rider to the group.

Rob normally rides with a bunch of mates but they are all busy this week so he was looking for someone else to tag along with.

So I turned up on the ‘big bike’ for some fun riding on Leith Hill. From the car-park we headed up to the Tower and then via Personal Hygiene to Deliverance and the trails around there.

Well done to Simon for riding Deliverance on his single speed, rigid frame with only a rear brake working and that was held together at one stage using a safety pin: that boy needs therapy! (that’s an Avalanches reference BTW).

Somehow the five of us that rode Deliverance managed to lose the rest of the group for the next section and we didn’t hook up again until about 40 minutes later for the Slidewinder descent where Rich F took a tumble over the bars after losing his front wheel in a particularly deep spot of mud and Jake just managed to hold on as he bounced down the trail with his rear wheel in the air, arse off the saddle and one foot off pedals (he managed to save it just in time) and then it was back round to Summer Lightning.

The second section is my favourite and was really riding sweetly today and we looped round for a second run, pausing briefly to say hello to the moles. Both runs were captured on the GoPro to make the latest video in the collection: ‘Summer Lightning & Personal Hygiene’.

The group was so large that I would suddenly be riding beside someone and realise that I hadn’t seen them at all during the ride as we had been riding at different ends of the bike train all morning.

Down by the closed off area of Summer Lightning and over the fallen tree before heading cross country back up the bridleway climb and up to the Tower via the Deliverance bomb-holes and cricket pitch where we paused briefly to watch some of the runners in the Leith Hill half marathon today.

After a tea and cake break I said my goodbyes as I was heading off to Stamford Bridge for the late afternoon game. Rob and Gazza joined me for the final descent via Chocolate Jesus and the quarry whilst Dave led the remaining group down Windy Willow and Deliverance Two before climbing back up to the jump section for the same route as us back to the car-park.

This is the reason why we kept riding through all that miserable weather over the winter: to enjoy day’s out like today.

More pictures here on Flickr courtesy of Rich F.