early morning ticking
Up early this morning as I needed to make an adjustment to the gears on the bike before I went out for a ride, so I positioned myself in the early morning sun as it was damm chilly in the shade. Not tow sure what the neighbours thought of my ticking rear Hope hub at 7:30 in the morning. Thank fully I got them sorted and was ready for the off. Well the off came a bit later in the morning (no particular reason why it just did).
Dropped the wife and son in Wimborne and I headed out to Badbury Rings . I parked in the main car park and was intending to head out toward Witchampton and then west to Long Crichel then heading back to Badbury Rings. Some of this ride I had done earlier in the year when it was quite muddy so I knew some of the trails around Badbury Rings the rest would be new. As I got the bike off the car I was beginning to wonder if shorts sleeved cycling top and short were sufficient for the day as I was shivering with the cold despite the sun shine and blue skys. Fortunately the first part of the ride is down between the hedgerows out of the wind and then a gentle climb, by the time I was at the top I was nice and warm. As I left the known bit of my ride I was one a wide bridleway but only had a very narrow cleared strip down the centre of it, by narrow I mean about 6inches. With plenty of overgrown brambles, Rose hip and stinging nettle to grab at my arms and legs it was an interesting section.
Most of the ride was made up of Bridelway and small sections of road linking bridelways together. There was one large hill up a bridelway at Long Crichel. Me and hills don’t go well together but I will call this one a draw as I had to stop three time going up it, but I did ride it all the way to the top which I was pleased with.
I was surprised by the time when I got back to the car, it had taken just over 2 hrs to do 13.9 miles, I think the problem with routes like this is I have to keep referring to the GPS to make sure I am on the right track and in the sunshine it is difficult to read, even more so when the track colour you are following is slime green which you can barely see, mental note to self slime green might look good on a 19″ monitor on your desk but it is bloody useless in the sunshine on a 3″ screen.
I took my camera with me intending to get some nice shot looking out across Cranbourne Chase, except that I forgot that I had it with me until I got back to the car and sat in the drivers seat and could feel a lump in my back. So here is the only shot of the ride looking west from Badbury Rings car park, they run point to point race around the out side of this field hence the green band around the outside of the plough middle.
Point to Point field
Picked up some new handle bar grips this afternoon for the bike, bought a set of Ergon GR2. I bought the same grips for my other bike and I sorely missed being able to grab hold the bar ends when going up hill on the Whyte. While I have the same grips on the other bike the new ones are slightly different, looks like they have remodelled them, while the shape is the same the bars ends are now rubber rather than magnesium as my old ones are. Only time will tell how if they are as good as the old ones.
