Not The Great Light Test - 24th January 2010

Due to the rather poor weather for the last 2 months, it's been a bit quiet on the bike front in general. Either snow or work or laziness has meant virtually nothing cycling wise. Ian has been out and about during the week, but that's it.
So, after agreeing it all in the pub the night before, the rust was scraped off the bikes and they were loaded up into the car and off it was to the Derwent Walk. Nice and gentle to start with. I mean, it was November last time the wheels turned.
Ian hadn't rang Jim like he'd said he would, although with hindsight he'd have fallen off anyway, and Chris had his daughter's birthday party to attend so we can let them off.

Lots of ice in the car park wasn't a good sign, but it did clear once we were underway, just the occasional patch of slushy ice across the track, but nothing that couldn't be ridden around.

Rowlands Gill approaching, and Ian was working up a right sweat and finding it very hard work. I had told him his back was a bit flat, but I think he misheard and took it as an insult.

Anyway, he eventually decided to stop and bung some air into the back tyre, and it seemed much better after that.

Another few miles and it was time for a chocolate break, and off we went again, for about 10 yards before Ian states the obvious and says he's got a puncture. So we stop and I break out the rubbish cameraphone.


Ian hard at work sorting out his puncture. Actually, it was a double puncture, a couple of hawthorns being responsible.
A "new" tube was bunged in.


See. He's much happier now. I think he enjoys a getting covered in oil.

So, with a freshly pumped up tyre it was off again, along an increasingly ice covered track.
By the time we got to Ebchester Station, it was getting pretty bad. It wasn't just slush, it was that hard packed ice which had melted and frozen a few times. Glassy, and very very slippery.


Ian in a contemplative mood just past the Whinny Lane crossing beyond Ebchester

Well, it got to the point where we weren't going to make the cafe at Hownsgill before they shut at 4pm, and I wasn't going to risk it on that ice, especially coming back in the dark, no matter how good the new lights were.




He was trying to show me up for chickening out, but he was wobbling a lot.
No grip on the hills.

And so with that, we turned back and meandered back down the line towards Swalwell.
Once again, we stopped at Rowlands Gill for Ian to pump some more air into his back tyre. Not having much luck with that, but it lasted long enough to get back to the car before dark, and so the lights remained untested. We'll have a more indepth report next time out. Maybe.
Still, we'd done 18 miles, and it was a pretty mucky slog for quite a bit of it, so that counts for something.