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@blue_fleet
Bit of a contrast to ^ (though the mud is as common factor). Prepare for a ramble.....
Following on from my post on last years winter solstice #4377 I wanted to do another shortest day ride but am busy tomorrow so went today instead, giving me an extra minute or so of daylight, whoop whoop. Having ground my geared bike into a state of disrepair this years effort would be aboard a singlespeed. Being considerably less fit than this time last year and having 19 less gears, I should really have opted for a shorter route this time, but did'nt and expected to suffer.
I'm a south of the river resident so the wilds beyond north London are pretty much unchartered territory for me so I decided to head out that way on a Rumsfeld ride, known unknowns and unknown unknowns. So I was off into the frozen north, (of Watford), with snow, chips and gravy and maybe even a glimse of the northern lights. I cobbled together some bits of a TNRC route with some other unridden roads, scribbed it down on my faithful tunnocks tea cakes analogue sat nav device and set off in darkness hoping to cleart most of London by sunrise.
I lost the back wheel on an icy patch as soon as I turned onto Bradmore Lane at 24 miles, pretty much as soon as the proper back lanes started. I stayed up but the ticker skipped a beat and I was decending like a Wiggo after that. I stopped to take a pic here
As soon as I'd taken this pic this women came out from the 'castle' and asked me to move my bike from the tree and grass. I said sorry about that but I've just taken a pic and I'm off, she insisted I move it now or she'd call the police, what a miserable battleaxe. I told her to fuck off and chill out, I'm going, and she can call the police if she wants. She immediately pulled out a mobile and did, or at least pretended to. I wished her Merry Christmas which I could see made her blood boil, and set off. I appear not to have been arrested.
Last year I got away with a brief bridleway stint so I put 2 miles in this ride. I was not so lucky this time. As soon as I turned off the main road at the 38mile mark it was clear cycling was going to be a struggle and maybe impossible. It all looked pretty enough in the sunshine.
but shortly after this picture the trail went from rideable to like ploughed field with huge puddles, I did ride when possible but it was really energy sapping and some bits I was walking. Pretty soon front and back brakes were like almost invisible tiny hands swamped by the accumulating quagmire and almost locking the wheels. When I finally got to a road I had to spend a while trying to clean it up with grass and leaves. It had warmed up by now so I ditched the muddy overshoes and trousers and was down to above the knee lycra shorts, racy, and changed from full fingered to fingerless gloves, less than a week before Xmas, I felt lucky. But the colour the sun had added to the pins in the summer has long since gone so it maybe was'nt so lucky for any onlookers.
The other problem with bridleways of course is you can't reccy them on google maps so I was'nt sure if I'd come out where I'd hoped. I had'nt. In fact as soon as I'd remounted and gone no more than 100 yards I saw the Candlestick pub and realised I was back where I was 10 miles ago, the bellow of my 'FUUUUUCK' could be heard for miles. The Tunnock teacake sat nav's main downfall is it does not do auto-reroute, if you go off route, you're blind and the rest is useless. Having just cleaned everything I decided against returning to the swamp to try and find my original route, so I opted for the other direction and hoped to find one of the name roads loaded into the Tunnock. I found a dual carriageway and barrelled along it for a bit which was hideous, before admitting I was lost and stopped to check the map on my phone and found out I'd been heading off in totally the wrong direction so had to turn around and do the whole dual carriageway bit again and a bit more, this time nobody heard my 'FUUUUUKS' as they were drowned out by the traffic. That whole escapade lost me precious time.
It was bloody windy for large sections of the journey. There was'nt much wind when I left so annoyingly I did'nt notice a tailwind up there but the wind got steadily stronger throughout the day and of course I had a headwind for the entire return leg and the bloody ruksak felt like a paddling pool on my back.
By the time I stopped to wolf another peanut butter butty and have some coffee here
I was already feeling pretty crackered but I knew the big climb of the day was coming after the imminent Babylon 'n' Tring. I knew the gradient was'nt that harsh but I was pretty much expecting to have to walk some of it, it would be fine with gears but I'm rocking a pre chrimbo 85kg girth and have'nt done a long single speed ride since riding to Southend in May and that was not exactly Alpine, so I was wearing my apprehensive socks. And by now I'm stressing about light, I have an utterly lame 'be seen but not help with any seeing' front Knog LED so knew I had to get back to street lamped civilisation within the M25 by sunset or I'd be in trouble, and I did'nt/have'nt got the money for a Friday train fare.
But I chewed bar tape and ground to the top, then a nice descent to Chesham. Apart from a few short sharp climbs (Hyde Lane made me wish I'd brought my Jekyll MTB) I knew the profile was mostly downhill back to London. I was pretty sure barring incident I was going to make it, but I did'nt have time for any pubs stops which was a blow, and I did'nt take any more photos, but I relaxed and enjoyed it more.
Since the temporary demise of my geared bike a month or so ago I've been riding my Genesis Flyer, which relays road information by shouting it through my arse, spine and wrists, so it was so nice to ditch the shouting for the singing of the Mercian which is only just back on the road having barely been ridden all year, the difference in ride quality is amazing, I was reminded what I'd been missing. With it singing and me humming along to hours worth of techno techno techno techno the miles rolled by and I had a blast. I'm feeling pretty smug right now managing a SS 200km ride on the 20th Dec with only crap LED's. I've had a homecoming calorie onslaught, good preparation for next week. Amazingly I feel fine and these beers taste good, but maybe tomorrow will be different......
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/2090843