7th January 07: Character Building Ride

My buddy stayed up until 2am on Sunday 7^th January to finish rebuilding his bike with new wheels, brakes and gears. All that was required was a ride to christen the baby.

We headed up to the South Downs Way from Sussex University sports centre via Waterpit Hill (the name should have given us a clue) and Buckland Bank. Within 20 yards we were covered in mud and ploughing through thick viscous mud 4 inches deep, these conditions prevailed until we reached Blackcap on the SDW, the section through the trees just south west of Blackcap was most memorable as it was a pond about 12 inches deep from trees to fence. The first casualty was my buddy’s gears with the rear mech giving up the will to live and the ability to change gear. We stopped a couple of times to clean the mud off the bike but this was a futile exercise as within 5 yards it was as if we had not bothered. The next disaster was when my buddy’s chain snapped; we repaired it with an SRAM speed-link but got covered in mud. As we were repairing the chain on the windswept ridge the rain started. Determinedly we continued along the SDW to Ditchling Beacon and wanting to get back we cut short down the road to Stanmer woods. Neither of us had the desire for the single-track so we just headed straight back to the car.

The bike was well and truly christened and we returned a lot wiser. On the up-side my Nicolai with Rohloff Speedhub never missed a beat and changed gear perfectly the whole way round. Money well spent.