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Yes it that time of the year again when the TV, radio, newspapers, your favourite web site and blog’s are highlighting the past 12 months. Personally, I would rather forget the past 12 months, it was not great the first time round and I can’t see the highlights being any better. Having mentioned the past 12 months in my last blog posting the only thing I am going to say about 2011, is I hope 2012 is better.

Due to the weather I never got to go for a ride on Thursday, it was wet and windy. With the wife at work I brought the bike into the kitchen and spent an hour or so on a small job to hopefully eliminate the squeak on my bike. I removed the chain-rings and chain-ring bolts, cleaned them and then reassembled with a little copper-slip grease to hopefully eliminate the squeak.

Friday dawned damp and miserable with the threat of heavy rain to come in the afternoon. While having breakfast I received a message to say that the ride was still going ahead although the distance had been shortened due to the conditions. So I loaded up the van and then headed to mother-inlaws to drop our son off then headed out to Sturminster Marshal which was where the ride was starting from. By the time we left there was 14 of us and the rain had started to fall, we did not get very far as we had our first puncture within 20yds of starting. Apparently a small flint like stone from the ride leaders drive was found in the tyre. We were soon back on our way as the rain continued to fall, our fist section of off road track came with a health warning as parts of it were chalk and in these wet condition more like ice, they were not wrong. The front wheel was sliding around on the chalk between the grasses bits trying to find grip, it made avoiding some of the deep puddle interesting as you could not just suddenly change direction.

The rain by now had changed to a fine drizzle, the riding was through mud. The basic of the ride was that we would go around Badbury Rings and then head out to the old airfield at Tarrant Rushton. There is only a hanger, a couple of other building and the some of the perimeter road left there now. We slipped and slid around Badbury Rings on to a narrow trail about 6″ wide. This narrow trail which is sunken into the ground is difficult enough in the summer with the long grass, stinging nettles and over hanging branches. But now the entire pathways has been cut back but you still have a narrow trail which is just a stream of mud which you have to stay in the middle of to avoid hitting the sides otherwise you end up falling off. Fortunately everybody made it down in one piece and in my case with a lot of dabbing of the foot to help with balance and forward motion.

Another climb across an open field of mud before we came to the airfield and around some of the perimeter road. As we left the airfield and down a narrow trail along the edge of a field I saw a mouse or a vole like creature scurry across the path just in front of my wheel not once but twice. 14 miles later we were back at our starting point where the ride leader turned hostess laying on a mini buffet and drinks (tea to sloe gin) for all the mud splattered riders. I think it was more of a slog than a ride and as can be seen from the picture below it was dirty, yours truly is far right.

A view of the dirty bums from yesterday ride

Due to bike cleaning duties (I was only able to hose the bike down yesterday) and dads taxi duties this morning I was unable to get the bike ready for the last ride of the years so I will be starting off the new year with a ride tomorrow after fulfilling more dad taxi duties taking the daughter to work.

Finally to all of you a happy new year and may it bring you the joy you are looking for.

It has become a Christmas tradition to end up building a Lego model or two for our son. Last Christmas was the Lego Technic 8 wheeled crane, this Christmas it was a Platform lift truck. A bit of a smaller than last years build model but just as enjoyable to do. My childhood was Mechcano, a toy brick product called Better Builders (bit like Lego but smaller bricks) and Airfix (and others like it) kits, I was always building something, I just like building things. Now a days I build computers from a pile of components, mountain bikes (more like a rebuild after taking them apart) and Lego kits when I get the chance. Maybe I should look for a job at Lego land building those large models they have………..

Just before starting this post I decided to read what I wrote in this blog last year, I had an idea what I wanted to write this year. Well I could of simply just copied last years post over to this years and they would of said exactly what I wanted to say. The past year started badly got better in the middle and then fell over at the end. My diet has been non existence where I have just bounced around the same weight as I was at the start of the year (and the end of 2010). I am not going to blame anybody except me, I am a stress eater, when the stress mounts I eat and all boundaries become non-existent, if it is food I will eat it in copious amounts.

I was intending to go for a ride with our son this morning but it was bleak and showery all morning and he decided that he did not want to go riding in the wet. The daughter had gone out so I was left baby sitting our son so I was not able to go out on my own for a ride. Weather is not looking much better for tomorrow or Friday when I was hoping to go on a club ride. Tomorrow I might be able to coax our son out to Moors Valley but it does depend on the weather which is not looking wet and windy.

Well I am out of here for now, I will be back before the end of the year

It has been quite a while since I have had a drink of the alcohol variety (about 9 months) but I must say that this red wine is going down nicely and before anybody asks, I did not buy it, it was a gift. So is it a good idea to be writing a blog late at night after drinking……………can you trust me??

Last night I planned a ride out around Badbury Rings but the wind was blowing when I got up this morning so I decided to ride at Moors Valley Country Park with the shelter of the forest. The open fields of Cranborne Chase with the wind blowing across would make riding a bit hard. The ride turned out to be a short ride for no other reason I found myself back at the van earlier than anticipated so I called it a day, still managed about 12 miles which included a lap of the Through the Forest trail at speed (well speed for me anyway).

Everything was going ok until I was three quarters of the way round when I found my path blocked, I don’t mean the narrow cycle path but the fire roads (the cycle trail pops out of the forest onto a fire road for about 100yds before disappearing back into the trees). Cars were parked all down one side of the fire road, flag down each side of the road, a small tent at the side of the road, people stood around in the middle of the fire road. I rode slowly through the crowd avoiding hitting anybody, got told I should not be riding through the crowd, how about you should not be blocking a public right of way!! Apparently it was a Boxing Day orienteering competition as I was to find out later. I pushed on slowly through the crowd until I found the cycle trail and disappeared into the forest leaving them all behind.

Having finished my first lap I decided to do a second lap adding all the extra secret trails sections as I went round the official trail. This normally means I do three questers of the trail and then turn off and head back to the van (roughly where the orienteering group had setup camp). Everything was going OK until I spotted a new bit of secret trail I had not seen or tried before. After following the trail and being spat back out onto a fire road I did not know where I was in the context of the trail and my parking location. I followed my nose and then suddenly found my self being swamped by those in the orienteering competition. They were literally coming out of the woodwork or in this case the forest, not on the paths but literally out of the trees and heading for a small narrow bridge, I suddenly realised where I was. It was the same foot bridge I needed to get back to the van (this is a small single track bridge about 15ft long over a water filled ditch).

Now I am happy to share the forest with anybody but please show a bit of common sense, there were 5 of these orienteering folk stood around literally in front of the footbridge blocking mine and other orienteerer’s from accessing the bridge while they tried to decide if they should read the map or follow everybody else, (yes I over heard them asking each other that question) NO get the F**k out the way!! I had rolled up behind them and two members of the group turned and looked at me but failed to move out the way and carried on standing in front of the footbridge. They had moved to let other orienteerer’s access to the bridge (about 90 degrees to my right) but if I moved to where they were getting on the bridge then I would have to fight for a position against the swarming masses and get onto the bridge at right angles.

Suddenly they moved into a tight huddle and I lunged forward and forced my way onto the bridge. I ask you some people, I guess after my actions they felt the same about me, I am quickly going of these orienteering folk.

Realising where I was I headed for the van I decided I had had enough of fighting this orienteering lot, my riding was over, the forest was there’s.

Well it is morning time now, it got late and the wine was affecting my brain, so I gave up writing last night. No riding today, think I am being dragged around the shops later….joy NOT. My next ride will be Wednesday when the son is coming out for a ride

It is Christmas eve and it is to quiet around here, dear son is in bed a sleep….. allegedly, the wife and daughter are upstairs wrapping pressie, I sat here typing this having just finished playing family taxi for the day after picking the daughter up from work.

Lets back track a few days, Thursday I collected my forks from TFTuned despite getting lost looking for the Industrial estate, must update my sat nav, according to the sat nav I was in the middle of a field. Later that afternoon they were fitted back on bike, unfortunately I was not able to take them on a test ride as I had other things that needed to be done and anyway I had a ride planned for Friday morning.

Friday was a day of heavy precipitation (rain to me and you) so the bike stayed in the shed.

Today is Christmas Eve and I had to keep up the tradition of riding on Christmas eve, but first I had to drive the troops to the shopping centre so they could mount a dawn raid on the local supermarket to get those fresh bits we were still missing. In the end I still managed to head out on my bike just after 9am although I was not sure how long I would ride for.

For the past couple of weeks I have had an aching pain in my right leg, I can’t lay in bed on my right side for long as I get a pain in my right hip which is the one I fell on when I came of my bike in the ice and snow in January this year and then landed on again when I crashed in May. My knee has a dull ache in it like a pulled muscle but without the pain of a pulled muscle when you move. I also have a pulled muscle feeling around my groin on the right side from time to time (sound more like the walking wounded).

I decided to ride the Throop loop. At the start I was feeling a bit tight like I had not cycled for a few weeks but as I got a couple of miles under the tyres I felt OK. It was muddy, on two occasion having me off the bike, the first was when I tried to ride up the side of a rut, the front wheel just slid along but I had already committed to going to the right and the bike just fell side ways and I was able to just step of the bike. The second was in a deep mud pool the bike just stopped, I got off the bike and the bike just stood there supported by the mud.

By the time I was left Hurn Forest my right leg was aching and as I came down across Parley common I could feel my thighs starting to pull so I decided to give the return loop back to Throop and along the river a miss instead heading straight for home via the road.

The forks acted as they should which was good news, always a bit concerning when something fails but they can’t find anything wrong with it.

I am planning on going for a ride on Boxing day morning, dads taxi start again as I have to get the daughter to work as there are no buses, so as I am up I might as well go for a ride. Not sure exactly where or how yet but a ride I will do.

OK it only leaves me to wish you all (and your families) a Very Merry Christmas

You know the saying, if it was not for bad luck I would have no luck at all? that exactly how I feel at the moment. I have only been out riding once in the last 10 days and that was with my son and the ride ended with my forks giving up the ghost. I noticed that I lost all but a inch of travel (as opposed to the 4 it should have). Once home no amount of gentle coaxing or strong expletive language could bring them, back to working order, they were going to need a professional service. Now the last thing I needed now was a repair bill just before xmas but had I not decided to get them repaired it meant no riding over xmas and new year for me. I did consider servicing the forks myself but decided not as there is a difference in carrying out a service and repairing a set of faulty forks and I wanted them working by Xmas eve so there was not a lot of time to mess around.

A quick check around the Internet and TFTuned seemed to be the people to service my Rockshox Forks . To be honest I did try another company but after four attempts during the day they failed to pick up the phone (and still have not returned my answer phone message I left). So a quick call to TFTuned so see if there were any inherent faults or any other sort of gotcha with these forks to which they said there was not. So Monday night I filled in the online service request form and parcelled up the forks for their trip to TFTuned on Tuesday.

This morning just after 11am I got a phone call from TFTuned saying the forks were ready, a complete service, all new seals throughout the forks and a bill for £89. On the one hand it is an expense I could do with out, on the other it is cheaper than a new pair of forks and now I will be able to ride over the Xmas and New year break, so it is win win for me…………….what do you mean how? I now can’t afford an xmas booze so I won’t ruin my dieting by drinking and I can carry on riding to help with my weight loss, well that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Hopefully I will be doing my traditional Christmas eve ride, done it for the last couple of years, weather is looking OK. Then hopefully I will be out for a early Boxing day ride.

As for the rest of life it is a right pain in the rear, work is nothing but a nightmare at the moment, I think somebody has tied a target on my back as most of the agro seems to be directed in my direction at the moment. My other problem, or rather the other half problem of being made redundant on Jan 31st is not really helping matters, neither was a decline after what she thought was a successful job interview today. Seem to remember being in a similar position this time last year.

Now for the not very regularly ABS (Arse Behind a Steeringwheel) Award goes to a driver on the M3 this morning just south of J9 A34. I was on the inside lane which becomes the slip road while the middle and outside lane continue on as the M3, I was going a bit faster than the car in the middle lane and the lane marking between lane 1 (sliproad) and lane 2 (now lane 1) had changed to show that I was clearly now on the slip road, so what does the ABS do, move and indicate (in that order) onto the now slip road narrowly missing my front bumper because he did not like me undertaking him. He then realises that he is now on the slip road for the A34 and promptly moves back into the now inside lane of the M3 and accelerates away.

Yesterday ABS Award goes to the little old lady in her silver Micra who waited until the lorry was about 50yds from the junction before pulling out in front of him, thankfully there was nothing coming in the other direction and the lorry was able to swerve onto the other side of the road to avoid her whilst locking everything up in a clouds of blue tyre smoke. I was speechless at her stupidity, I not sure what the lorry driver said but I some how don’t think it was printable judging by the hand gesticulation I could see in his cab mirror.