Tom, Rich and I met at Coldharbour outside the Plough. It was pleasantly warm and after Tom had finished admiring Rich's new bike...
we headed off up Leith hill towards our first little trail... the rollercoaster. My hardtail performed well, even though the braking was a much more physical activity than with disc brakes!! Until the last dip, when the front suspension crown bottomed out on top of the tyre.. whoops! I managed to stay on, but that became a feature of the evening.. the occasionally farty sound coming from my front forks. I'm sure Rich took me on a number of routes to maximise the possibility of me bottoming out on my tyre!!!
We arrived at Deliverance, had a quick look over the edge and then headed off to do the first section of summing lightning. At the start of the second section of summer lightning, we took the left hand fork, which is a challenging downhill with a number of big jumps, but ones which thankfully you can avoid if you're feeling a bit of a wendy... or you're on an old hardtail!!!!
Successfully completing that run we headed back up towards the Coldharbour cricket pitch, round the back of the pavilion and up and down to the base of the hill leading to the tower. Rich went first, then Tom, and I wisely stayed at the back, not knowing how the hardtail would take to the climb. Tom sped off, overtook Rich, finding a less rooty section and was at the top before you could say “Tom, your back wheel's catching up with your front”. Rich on the other hand, put his foot down and started pushing, as he hit the particularly knarly rooty section – bang went his 100% record. I found the hardtail remarkably light on the front, and hence found it quite difficult to keep the front wheel on the ground...that's my excuse for my feet going down.... twice... The only “bonus” for both Rich and I was that the tower tea shop was closed, therefore no forfeit.... but of course no refreshing cup of tea either!!!
Straight off the top of the hill and down the back for a few quick trails, complete with farty sounds from my front wheel! We headed off towards windy willows, via “sunglasses trail”. Nice route, with only minimal muddy patches, having dried out with all the lovely weather we've been having. Towards the end of the route we narrowly avoided a badger which skuttled across our trail – first time Rich had seen a badger in the wild.... and I suspect it's the first time the badger had seen Rich too. The trail culminated in a lovely log jump, which even I tried on my hardtail... mmmm, but at least I didn't fall off!!!
Back to the tower and straight onto personal hygiene, where Tom had a little wobble... but still remained on his bike! Following our normal route we arrived back at the top of deliverance, meeting a huge crowd at the top, debating amongst themselves whether they were going to attempt it. Most of them declined, and found the easier route down. One guy decided to tackle it, and tackled it he did. He caned it. Inspired, Rich took his usual long run up and caned it in style. Tom quickly followed, and I mean quickly!!! Pulling a front wheelie half way down but managing to stay on the bike. I declined given the lack of robust front suspension, so found the wendy's route down to join the boys.
Off down the trail we arrived back in Coldharbour and onto the Plough for a well deserved pint or two.
Check out the links to flickr and youtube for more pics and a vid from the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment