Peter's Inaugural Ride

Although Pete has only been on two of our rides, he obviously thought we were such a great bunch that he must lead a ride for us. Pinchingthorpe Forestry Centre near Guisborough was the venue on a rather dull Saturday morning of July 8th. After I had taken a number of wrong turns (Liz was navigating), we arrived with 90 seconds to spare. Waiting for us were Aileen, Pete and son Danny and of course Nigel.

As is usually the case, if it isn't my ride then I haven't a clue where we've been. I distinctly remember riding close to Roseberry Topping and the sun was in my eyes, so we must have been heading southish. At one stage the track was particularly rough, at this point Nigel felt there was scope for further weight reductions to his new lightweight machine. At one hundred grams (to those who still buy their fruit and veg by the pound, 100g equals one large tomato) he felt his seat post was too heavy so he snapped it in half. His seat post was now down to half a large tomato but of course his seat height had to be drastically reduced by about 15cm. (an average sized banana) making it very difficult for him to ride. Liz being slightly shorter than the rest of us, volunteered to try swapping bikes. The seat height was ok but Liz couldn't reach the handlebars, a disadvantage when it came to negotiating bends. Unfortunately Nigel had to call it a day and head back along the roads.

I do remember stopping at a cafe, I think this may have been at Kildale, anyway it was a very nice cafe.

I may easily forget where we've been but I always remember when other people fall off. On this ride first to go was Pete then within a mile Aileen took a tumble and to complete the set, five minutes later the two of them collided. As we headed to Commondale, Liz had obviously been going at some rate as she managed to wear her brake pads down to the point where the arms were catching the tyres. Now for one person to change all four brake pads would take a good ten minutes, so to save time, four of us armed with allen keys set about changing a pad each. Twenty minutes later we were up and running again!

From Commondale we headed back to the cars via Guisborough Woods to end a very enjoyable days mountain biking.

Thanks Pete for leading such an excellent ride and at 25 miles good value for money. Hopefully now you've got the first one out of the way, you will be leading many more rides.

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	Swaledale Outdoor Club

Peter's Inaugural Ride

Dave Neesam