Captain Hook's Bike Ride!

As usual the weather over the holiday weekend was pretty miserable yet as soon as it is time to return to work the sunshine comes out. After two days of torrential rain it was back to work on Tuesday accompanied by cloudless sky and warm sun. We met up at Devils Dyke for a run through the first section of the upcoming Muddy@rse ride and combined it with a little trail clearing. We were also keen to have our first attempt at a tasty looking singletrack we had recently spotted.

After the singletrack descent down the side of the Dyke we cleared a fallen tree that had irritated us for a couple of years and continued on our way. A couple of brutal climbs and one long fast downhill later and we became aware of a periodic squeak eminating from the BB area of a guys SC Blur. On we went across a trail that was very badly horse damaged and then down the singletrack descent that was every bit as tasty as it looked. All the while we were serenaded with the increasingly loud squeak that was now clearly audible with every rotation of the Blur's crankset. On inspection the Blur frame was twisting about 1 cm with each push on the driveside pedal, worrying. Our buddy is taking the plunge and buying a new bearing kit together with two new swing links; hopefully this will solve the problem and prevent damage to the frame.

As we were returning to the Dyke a couple of us could judge our buddy's distance together with his pace by the bottom bracket squeak. The immediate thought was of 'Peter Pan' where the crocodile that follows Captain Hook can be heard approaching due to the fact that it has swollowed a ticking clock. Once this fact had been pointed out it was the cause of great merriment and laughter that made the ride back to the car pass very quickly. In fact the story of Peter Pan is more than a little apt to describe us, we are trying to 'ride our bikes as childishly as possible as often as we can' in an effort to slow down the inevitability of advancing years. Big kids trying not to grow old!