I bought a DIY gingerbread man kit from the supermarket last night. Bit of an impulse buy, but one of my less costly ones.

We created a gang of aliens earlier. Hope you like them. (what did you expect? Santa and his elves?)

The one at the bottom is in a post-alien autopsy condition.

It was our work’s night out last night and it left me feeling like crap this morning, despite me only having a couple of beers and a couple of glasses of wine. I just can’t take the stuff these days. After a couple of drinks I start babbling like an idiot and I don’t cope too well with the aftermath the day after. I set off this morning anyway, as planned, on the roadbike over to Macc via Oldham, Stalybridge, Glossop, Hayfield, Whaley Bridge and Bollington. I took an accidental detour to Chinley and ended up a couple of miles down the A6 dual carriageway. It was freezing cold and I just couldn’t get warm, despite sweating loads. Bloody hangover.  The climbs hurt more than they normally do, and going downhill gave me a feroucious windchill-induced headache – the like of which I’d not experienced since Winter Tough Guy.. There was plenty of ice on the roads in the Peaks, keeping me twitchy the whole time, especially with the amount of traffic there seems to be at the moment.

Not a great ride, but good prep for the ride to the Lakes in a few days.

Winter has arrived and last night it gave me a slap. Another late night (after the kids are in bed) road ride on the cross bike-cum-touring bike, up the hill through Walshaw and towards Affetside. The council clearly hadn’t gritted the road up there and as I approached the summit I could tell it was getting more and more icy, until it was a sea of ice and slush.

I stopped to check with my feet for ice. I thought there wasn’t any. I pressed on and within a few seconds, SLAM. I found the ice – several metres of it. I hit the tarmac, twisted my wrist and listened to the crunching of road meeting metal. I’ve scratched my rear mech although I didn’t bend the hanger this time. I’ve also managed to smack the STI’s into the ground and taken big chunks out of those too. Why did I pay the extra for Ultegra? They look like they’ve been shotblasted and kicked around a car park after 12 months use and abuse, but at least they still work.

It was still wet today and I’ve been putting off riding the new road bike until it was dry. What a muppet. So out I went on the shiny new, white bike, in the rain and filth. I’m impressed. It’s light, so it goes like a rocket. It’s got carbon stays and fork and nice wheels so it’s comfy on crap roads. It’s new, so everything works as it should…except for the rear mech that started complaining after an hour or so. This is the first time I’ve bought a complete “off the peg” bike so at least I had someone else to blame this time. Poor lad probably had 50 bikes to assemble that day and he couldn’t test ride it up and down Deansgate so I’ll let him off. A quick twiddle with the barrel adjuster and it was fine anyway.

It was an eventful ride. At least 3 thick women decided that they were going to turn across my path from the right, the last one got a right gobful of abuse. Which isn’t like me at all 😉

On one other occasion I looked down momentarily whilst scorching down a main road (I’ve noticed this bike doesn’t do slow or even “medium cruise” – only full-on scorch), looked up and happened to notice that the road was blocked by a car turning right and the car following it had stopped, waiting. I was heading for a crash into the back of it. SHIT. Hard on the brakes (very impressed with 105 brakes), locked the rear wheel and felt it sliding out to the left underneath me on the wet tarmac whilst I was still heading quite quickly into insurance claim and broken bone oblivion, now sideways-on. Everything had gone quiet and like the old cliche, time stood still…I’m going to hospital and my bike will be trashed…then I stopped. Nothing to worry about, I had at least a foot to spare. I turned around to see the bloke in the car behind me grinning and shaking his head in a kind of “you were lucky but that looked exciting” way.

I activated one of those “you’re going too fast” signs that tells you your speed. 35mph down Turton Road which I thought was impressive.

I’ve been busy all week with the kids, work, work on the house and joiners in the house that I’ve not had much time for this blog or riding bikes/running. I finally fitted the mudguards to the ‘cross bike earlier in the week – what a bleeding faff that was, caused mainly by the disc brakes. A load of swearing and hacking with a hacksaw and they’re on. I’ve fitted a rack too, so it’s all ready for the ride up to the Lakes in a couple of weeks (and the ride back again). I forgot how much faster this bike is with roadie slicks on instead of the Maxxis Locusts I’ve had on it since the summer, despite the rack weighing as much as a sack of spuds. I got out for a ride on it in the dark and a howling gale – did 30 miles around Bradshaw, Affetside, heading Darwen-wards and back. I need to get some proper miles in on this bike in the next couple of weeks to prepare for the big one.

I aquired a new bike this week, through the Ride 2 Work scheme at our place. It’s a Scott S20 roadbike, discounted by the shop then through the scheme discounted by the government. So I got it cheap. It’s lovely. I mean, really, really lovely. I’ve not ridden it yet on account of not having any pedals and the fact that I’m not quite ready for getting it dirty….Did I mention it’s lovely? (I’ve now fitted pedals and swapped the saddle for an SDG Ti-Fly).

Deb, me and the girls went to Manchester yesterday and visited the German market, next to the huge Santa that’s really Zippy in disguise.

We bought wooden toys from some Swiss folk and some sausage from some German types. It was a good day out; my one remaining day off well spent in fact.
Later, I went for a ride on the TankBike and it dropped the chain on a climb. I managed to avoid castrating myself on the stem but still went plummeting towards the dirt. That bloody tensioner’s giving me grief again it seems, maybe I should weld the bugger in position this time 😦