Bank holiday weekend I managed a couple of short rides, out into Essex and then down to south London. The south London trip was - by all accounts - something of a disaster. I caught up with one of my fellow Ride Across Britain trainees, with big intentions of heading down to the lanes of the Downs and taking a pause alongside Sir Winston at Westerham on the Green.
Broken bikes and broken dreams
Halfway up the first climb of the day (a steady but long climb up to Crystal Palace) my riding buddy suffered a major mechanical failure. I sadly wasn't there to witness the almost-fall but I'm told that the incident evolved a bit like this:
- Gear lock, chain grind, pedal lock
- Wobble, look of fear
- Lean forward, grab upcoming bollard, hang on for dear life
- Manage to somehow unclip pedals and come away unscathed
The bike, however, was not so lucky. Three weeks on and it is still in the shop. Apparently, sourcing a Boardman rear derailleur hanger is harder than it sounds.
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| The beautiful but broken Boardy |
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| A rear derailleur hanger... the part that snapped clean off |
We decided to part ways, at which point I merrily set off back up the hill when I realised that I had somehow managed to get a puncture within 3 seconds of setting off. Must be some sort of record. Not even 10 miles into our ride and with one unfixable problem, and now a puncture, we concluded that we'd be much better off sitting in Cadence with a cup of tea.
Lessons learnt
Zero.
Belated May highlights
- 2 May: 40 miles (West Wittering to Horsham)
- 7 May: 50 miles (Matching Green, Essex)
- 9 May: 35 miles (Theydon Bois, Essex)
- 12 May: 15 miles (Velopark, Stratford)
- 14/15 May: 188 miles (Revolution London, Day 1 and Day 2)
- 29 May: 50 miles (Stanford Rivers, Epping)
- 30 May: 15 miles (Crystal Palace, London)
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