this was the last ride of 2012 and i think generally at the start it was met with apathy, the weather was a bit miserable, the trails are sodden, Christmas excess and enthusiasm had been and gone and we were all feeling a bit lethargic. So when we met there was a lot of indecision as to where to ride, to a cafe of some sort was a given and when Ben had a bit of a mechanical with rear brake pads, we popped back to his to change them and headed up to the Lickeys, just for a bimble round. I've never seen pads so worn, Ben was even wearing the backing plate down, how he slowed down i'll never know! i have to say though that Shimano brakes are a joy to work on and it only took minutes to change the pads and we were off up the long slog of Beacon hill. through the woods and down a very sketch bunch of *****. stopping at the bottom to let some dog walkers through i spied a path to the right and we went for an explore. I'm glad we did as we found a great trail with a few log drops and twists and quite a bit of tricky (in the wet) downhill and it finished at the golf club cafe! after indulging in bacon and sausage delights we then tackled the steep technical climb back to the visitor centre. I have to admit that no one cleaned it without at least one dab and quite a few wheel slide outs on the very wet roots and wooden water bars. once at the top we began the ridge ride, a sort of convoluted "slave trail" but then i just turned and headed down the steepest slope i could find and arse over the back wheel dropped towards the valley. things went pair shaped not long after and beginning to lose control...well at this point i said i "stepped away from the bike" but Ben insists i binned it and crashed, either way the bike went further than i did! The guys spent the next hour or so trying to find more daring lines down the hill and then pushing or carrying back to the top for another go. At times there was quite an audience as people stopped to watch, more i suspect hoping to witness a crash than anything else. Before things got too extreme and we lost all the light we left the woods and headed back. turned out to be a great ride after an indifferent start.
ride 183
20 miles
so time for some final totals
total 3313
commute 894
total mileage for 2012 including commuting 4207
so that's 969 just riding miles more than 2011
and with commuting an average of 11.5 miles a day
it's gonna be tough to beat that total next year but I'll give it a go
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