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^ Same
@ElGonzo - loved the report, wish I'd been there.
Photos also good to evoke the nightriding vibes -
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Great - definitely an accurate record of the vibe!
In the bike rack pic I recognise that Mosaic titanium GT1 with the orange forks, that's Adam's and is somewhat unique.... were you on the blue spa? I think I may have seen you super early on in the day, possibly at the start. -
It was a tough day out so finishing was a good result. given some of the leafy roads, winds and standing water, getting home in one piece was a relief! I can imagine that Green Dene in the dark/wet is a load less fun than when you can see what you're doing!
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Ride report - A Brace of Bramleys
~4 wks ago I helped at a local church bike workshop & got chatting to a gentleman of the parish named Pete.
Pete's regular chaingang were slowing and covering shorter distances in fair weather only etc - he knew of my riding habits and we agreed to put something in the diary.
Start line at Surbiton racket club included pastry, coffee, bananas, flapjacks - the splendid hospitality you come to expect from Kingston Wheelers Audax chapter. We were out on the road shortly after 0730 and agreed to make hay while the sun shone and cover maximum distance before Storm Ashley. Pete was going great guns on the front and we were flying along at 30-35 km/h all the way to the hills of Egham with a handful of hangers on.
The storm arrived around Swallowfield and by the time we reached Bramley control we were down to 3, and there'd been one rider already through the control. My apple donut at Bramley was superb and we headed out rejuvenated by cake into the rain, mud and howling headwinds.
That part of Hants/Berks has some tight and muddy single-tracked roads as well as some big sweeping hills, I remember various sections of road from both the Wiggle Magnificat Sportive and also the Amesbury Amble 300. We were making good time, dropped our last hanger-on and chased down a random clubman with whom we rode to the info. After the info at Whitchurch (99km) I started getting sleepy, proper heavy eyelid sleepy - I need to make less of a habit of coming into Audax sleep-deprived, I tried to wake myself up with adrenaline by descending as fast as possible - my judgement is rather poor when I'm tired and hungry, but despite a wahoo-recorded 73 km/h I was no better off by Alton.
The remedy for this soporific episode was caffein and sugar at Alice Holt café (145 km) - Despite the din of hundreds of small children it was all I could do to keep my eyes open and observed our riding buddy from earlier e-breveting in the car park, avoiding the rug-rats and sliding into 2nd place on the road!
We returned to the deluge, shivering and teeth chattering to discover that Pete's Garmin had tried to do a firmware update, stalled and could not be recalled to life. After a bit more shivering in the rain and swearing at an integrated circuit we set off again, but now the roles were fully reversed, me on the front buzzing from my millionaires shortbread and double espresso and Pete rapidly running out of steam behind…. I don't remember too much about that section, except that on a descent into Godalming I bottled it at a T-junction due to an oncoming van but Pete was still good for the rapidly closing gap and after a brief squeal of sodden disc-brake smacked into the back of me landing me on my arse in front of said van! No damage to man or machine and we were soon back to familiar territory of Surrey hills, Munstead, Wonersh, Blackheath, and then Combe lane (slower than you've ever known it) - all downhill now - Green Dene, Horsley and Effingham, places rich with muscle memory - back riding at evens again with Pete fully operational for a tailwind assisted blast through Esher, back to base just after 1600 enjoying a plate of Pasta and sauce and talking about a 400 in the new year and whether or not we could make the 6PM evening worship!!
I think Pete is now an audax believer and I had a blast riding an Audax like it's a sportive.
All that remains is to wash my bike -
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I'm after a 9spd mech for my Nephew's hardtail.
Would need to be posted as I'm in Ascot.
Not at all bothered about cosmetics as the bike is battered! -
PMd re gravel kings
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13) budget shimano 9 speed rear wheel.
Cheap and cheerful decathlon job - £5
You can have both this and the rigida a fiver collected and a tenner posted
Very little wear on the breaking surface
a bit of a dick