Wednesday 5 September 2012

the Harvest Night ride

the Harvest Night ride by rOcKeTdOgUk
the Harvest Night ride, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

we had a first time night rider with us tonight so i thought it would be good to give him a variety of trails that we ride in the dark. we didn't start until 2030 so it was the first ride since Feb/March that has fully started in the dark. conditions were just about perfect, cool calm and lots of moonlight. the trails were in the most part very dry so quite fast. because of the dry weather all the local farmers are harvesting the fields and on two occasions we had to tackle bridleways that ran straight through wheat fields that had been cut and the chaff left on the ground to dry, some of this was piled quite high and it soon got tangled in rear mechs and clogged drivetrains. we had to stop a few times to pull the organic matter out of the gearing fearing that something would snap if we carried on. there was quite a lot of wild life about, including fox, numerous cats and owls hooting in the distance. we kept up a good pace as it was getting increasingly cold and stopping for too long exacerbated this. as a special treat for the new boy we stopped at the pub for a pint before starting the last few miles to home. the verdict? "great fun but tiring", so i'll take that as a success and i hope he tags alng again.
ride 129
18 miles
total 2433
commute 673
sept 76

2 comments:

Deadly Dan said...

Hi guys,

I'm a rider from Alvechurch and recognised what I think is the Crown pub on your photo?

I ride mainly locally, Lickeys, Clent, Cannock etc.with the odd excursion to Wales. Mainly ride MTB either geared or SS. Just wondered how often you guys ride and whether you'd be cool with having me tag along some time? By the way looks like you have a nice stable of bikes in your group especially that Evil and the Singular,
Dan

Deadly Dan said...

email is senddanamail@gmail.co.uk if you want to get in touch