Location : Leith Hill and Redlands
Riders : Bish, Mark 2, XC Tom, Grievious Andy
Having not been out for a number of weeks on a night ride we though we ought to make an effort. The weather has been cold lately - and understatement - so the anticipation of nice firm trails was high. Tom and I arrived a few minutes behind schedule, to find Mark and Bish holed up in the van keeping warm, bikes already to go.
It was cold... nope, actually it was bloody freezing, as we proceeded to setup our bikes, get lights on, etc. It was this point I discovered I hadn't charged my main bike light... only had my headtorch (which in previous rides had lasted about 10mins!!!). But with new battery from deal extreme, I was hoping for longer - otherwise I'd be in real trouble - especially as Tom, having said I could borrow one of his batteries from his bastids.... immediately changed his mind. That was the first Dunnie moment.
Tom then spent the next 15mins sorting out his bike - cleaning it, pumping up the tyres, getting the lights set up, locking his car..... the list goes on (all whilst the remaining 3 of us attempted to keep warm by riding around the car park, shouting "Come on"). That was the second Dunnie moment.
We felt that given Dunnie couldn't make this ride we wanted to feel that in some special way he was still with us, and both these moments provided us with "fond" memories!!
When we did eventually get going, we enjoyed a full ride taking in summer lightning, first and pausing to attempt a little jump and the stumps half way along the second section. Mark took the challenge first and..... well let's be honest - rolled it! Bish was much faster on his approach and caught some air, only to suffer a poor landing with the bike slipping away from him. I know!!! Bish fell off!!!! That just doesn't happen. At this point Tom and I felt no need to repeat the exercise and so we headed off to finish the remaining trail. Off to the bomb holes and down the other trail into cold harbour, which has escaped me at this moment, and then over to Redlands. Turning Japanese followed and then up to Nation of Millions. All good trails, nice and firm and hard, and having all warmed up - a certain level of enjoyment was had!!
Riding with only a headtorch was rather a challenge - making my riding slower - but forcing me to feel the trail under the bike - coz I couldn't bloody see it!! My headtorch was still going at 75mins when we arrived back at the plough for the usual liquid refreshment, and some annoying dog barking....
A picture of some darkness....
