Mechanical Failure

Date : 31st May 2010
Riders : Bish, Dunnie, Grievous Andy
Area : Leith Hill

An interesting start to a “ride”. We met at Bish's house, Dunnie, complete without bike, which he needed to pick up from HftH, after it's latest repair job. With Dunnie jogging, and Bish and I comfortably, riding we headed off for the shop. A quick bike change for Bish, borrowing a carbon frame Ibis, and the collection of Dunnies wheel, we headed off towards Milton Heath and the journey up to the top of Leith Hill. About 1 mile from the shop, Dunnie's pedal came undone from the crank, which necessitated a very brief stop and pedal tighten. Onwards. After another mile, Dunnies pedal “fell off”, or rather the bearings failed and the pedal became a useless flailing piece of metal sliding up and down a metal shaft – probably not delivering the true performance come to be expected of even the basic pedals. So Bish and I decided to crack on, while Dunnie headed back to HftH for some new pedals. This, I believe, is probably the shortest ever time Dunnie's bike has been out of the shop!!

Bish and I headed up to the top of Leith Hill by way of Squires farm. A pleasant ride in nice weather, not too hot and not too cold. We got a call from Dunnie after about 20minutes in, and successfully met up at the bomb holes. Blasting up to the tower, we took in the obligatory cup of tea, before heading off towards the little kicker (can't remember the name of the area!!). The guy who served us our tea at the tower was already there on his skills bike, showing us exactly how to do it! Without much speed he gained terrific height, pulled the bike to the side, and then landed smoothly and gently, and all he was wearing was a pair of jeans, t-chirt and a baseball cap – no safety gear there. Our efforts, whilst technically, fair, had no height and no flair. Needless to say we hated him!!

Off then towards windy willows and a fast smooth ride through the whole trail. At the end of Windy we turned right and down to the new descent Bish had found a few months back, and hacked down it at great speed. It was nice and dry and flowed well. Heading back up the bridal way towards the tower, I ran over a small branch, SNAP went my rear mech hanger! That's ok I said, I've brought a spare – and we proceeded to dismantle the mech hanger and attempt to position the new one..... to find it was the wrong one!! Bugger! So single speed it was. Now Dunnie has had afiar bit of experience of this activity, so thanks to his expert guidance, we'd quickly transformed the trusty stumpy to a single speed.

Off we set back to the tower, down personal hygiene and up no cycles and then along to deliverance. I didn't fancy it with my sore thumb and knackered bike, so took the easy way down, whilst Bish and Dunnie took it in their stride. Down to cold harbour, Bish and I said goodbye to Dunnie, and headed off to Milton Gore for a quick look at some of the jumps, which Rich had a few sessions on. Again, my bike not in peak condition, I declined. We headed back down to Dorking, taking in all the trails we could – Bish at one point taking a tumble bunny hoping a small twig!

On the road back to Dorking it was quite apparent that gears were needed to retain speed – most of the route I freewheeled... slowly, and if not I was pedalling like a madman for no real gain.

So a mechanically challenged ride!