I took Michael up to Ramsbottom the other night for a night ride. I’d planned a easyish route over Holcombe Moor, down Robin Hood’s to Irwell Vale, Edenfield then along a trail I’ve not ridden for years. Dead rocky it is. “He’ll love this” I thought. It was much more severe than I remember, in fact the trail that was already pretty technical, bears all the scars of 2 years of pretty much constant rain. At the bottom we had to stop while Mike put his chain back on. The only problem was that his mech was hanging off…he’d smashed it on a rock. I set about removing it, shortening the chain and bodging a singlespeed setup. It’s about time he was riding a singlespeed anyway, now that he’s old enough to grow a scraggy beard 😉

Anyway, that was fine, if a little bit spinny until we got to Nutall Wood. For some reason (probably poor maintenance), three of the four chainring bolts decide to disintegrate so he’s now got chainrings that move in an elliptical orbit around the bottom bracket.

We walked the last mile (up the Rake) to the car.

Yesterday was Eleanor’s first birthday. I ate too much pizza, too much cake and drank too much red wine. Loads of our friends and family came round so it was a really good day.

The birthday girl enjoyed it too!

 I’ve “disposed” of 2 more bikes in the last week. Stripped but not-yet-sold is the Patriot. And sold but not-yet-stripped is the Prince Albert. I’m really sad to see them go but they’ve not been ridden often enough and the PA is pretty bloody heavy anyway. I’ve kept the forks, wheels and all other components…so there may be some options in the New Year. Given the sorry state of Mike’s DMR and the fact that he’s all of a sudden the same height as me, it’s probable that we’ll share a bike (ok, I’ll build something for him and nick it occasionally). At least then I might pay more attention to maintaining the thing.