Saturday evening ride.

A frantic week at work, a busy Saturday morning, and a fairly relaxed
afternoon listening to the one day cricket final makes a fine recipe for
subsiding into dazed lethargy. But the last couple of overs of the
final were pretty exciting, and had me pacing up and down... and Giles
scrambled the last two runs and the result was a tie - but England will
have felt like they'd won, and Australia like they'd lost.

Such excitement is too much at my time of life - I'm 42 you know - and I
had to do something to burn off the adrenaline, so I forced myself to
get my riding clothes on and chuck the 28 in the boot of the car.

Soon, I am at the car park - the same place as I used for a base for my
last ride, but this time, I'll be riding upriver. That puts the river
Trent on my left as I cruise along the narrow tarmac track about 20
metres or so back from the riverbank.

A little bit of nice weather brings out the people, so I have to put up
with a certain amount of commentary from the less imaginative, or less
well mannered, people. But soon I'm more than 500 metres from the car
park, and thus guaranteed to be out of range of all but the hardiest
walkers. I reach the cattle grid - the very one that nearly broke my
ankle a year or two back. The bars are round in section, widely spaced
and shiny. I decide not to risk it, and I dismount and walk across.

There's a short section of riverbank past a deep wide lock, with a few
working barges moored nearby, then I pass through a gate into the
wilderness. The next kilometre or so is winding single track with a
slight slope down to my left. The grass and undergrowth to each side is
shoulder high or even higher, and sometimes reaches across to bar my
way. The track itself is sun baked clay soil, with unpredictable humps,
bumps and dips. All this would be fine on the Coker (I've ridden it
many times) but it's a challenge on the 28 with its narrow tyre. I UPD
a couple of times.

Somewhere along this section, I see the bright yellow flash of a pair of
goldfinches as they fly away from my approach. They perch in a small
willow and turn towards me with their scarlet faces.

To my right is an embankment, about 5 metres or so high, and I know from
experience that there is a track that runs along the top of it, allowing
a complete lap of a lake. I turn right along the rough trail that leads
to the access ramp. Something smells fishy - probably fish from the
nearby pet food plant, I suppose. It's not nice, and I try to keep the
speed up to get to fresh air.

A couple of times, I wince as the wheel rim bottoms out on a pebble or
piece of ballast, and it's a sort of relief when I finally UPD and can
take the opportunity to put some more air into the tyre. Is it just me,
or does everyone count the pump strokes, and only stop at a nice round
number?

Soon after this, I ride up the long ramp onto the top of the embankment,
and spin my way around the lake. There are in fact two lakes, separated
by a straight embankment that cuts across the diameter of the circular
main embankment. In the days when I was training hard, I used to ride
the various loops flat out on the Coker - clockwise around each lake,
anticlockwise around each lake, clockwise around the outer embankment,
and so on. This time, I decide only to do about ¾ of a lap and to drop
down the steep "unofficial" ramp to the riverbank again. This ramp used
to be a real challenge on the 26 with 150s, and later on the Coker with
150s. Now it just requires care and control on the 28 with 110s.
Either I'm improving or the ramp's getting shallower!

I continue upriver. The next big obstacle is unique on my regular
routes. It's a slope with a variable incline. It is covered with
concrete tiles, each about 30 centimetres by about 20 centimetres, set
badly into concrete. These have all sunk and tipped to slightly
different angles so that there is no continuous route up. At any
moment, you could meet an unexpected exposed edge of tile and "trip".
Also, the route is diagonal, so that the tyre is constantly crabbing.

Does that make it sound difficult? It was meant to. What makes it more
difficult is that, for the first time, I have an audience: a young
couple out for an evening (st)roll. The slope is at about the limit of
what I can achieve on the 28, but I make it, and am pleased and
impressed that I receive no comment at all from the audience - no daft
remarks, no patronising "Well done". They just step to one side, let me
pass, don't interrupt my concentration, and then let me carry on my
way.

It's a year or so since I've ridden this route, and it has changed
enormously. I'm on the top of the flood bank (Why, eye, steak and
kidney pie, I took my uni to the levy but the levy was dry...) and it
now has a proper crushed and rolled grit path, with signposts every few
yards advertising it as a cycle route. Last time I rode it, it was
muddy or grassy single track, and a dead end. There are rabbits in the
long grass to each side, which is nice, and there are slugs all over the
cycle track, which is er... less nice.

The "cycle track" takes me down the side of an industrial unit, where it
rapidly becomes clear that only a few cyclists ever us it. Brambles and
bindweed are growing through the fence and encroaching onto the path.

From here, there's a mile or so of public road through an industrial
estate, and then I'm at the entrance to Colwick Country Park, where I've
ridden many miles over the last few years. On a whim, I turn down a
short steep slope into woodland next to one of the lakes. This is a
route that I can usually ride "in one" on the MUni. Can I do it on the
28? Almost... I reach a section where there are overhanging willow
trees. I duck under the first, then there's a moment of hesitation as I
try to decide which way to go and I UPD, rolling full length in the
dirt.

I manage the rest of this section with one other UPD, and make it up the
steepish little slope back onto the main path. I'm pretty pleased with
that - I've been known to struggle up the slope on the MUni.

My route around the country park varies, but I aim to follow well-known
paths through the woods. How I laugh when I find that my intended route
is closed and I'm diverted in a totally different direction. This is
Nottingham all over - we've had this nonsense on the city's streets for
a couple of years now as they've ripped the guts out of "the queen of
the midlands" and made it look like a bombsite. Now they're messing
about with the bridle paths through the woods! To me, "diversion"
should mean "an alternative route to the same place", not, "another
direction where you are allowed to go if you want".

Hmmm... I try to find an unofficial way through the woods on narrow
single track paths. This is unwise. It is just starting to become
dusk, and the woods are dark. The 28 is that bit taller than the MUni,
and the tyre that bit less suitable for riding over roots.

I come to a place where there are two low overhanging branches. I
jack-knife in the middle, ducking low under the first branch. Then my
wheel hits a root. The uni stands up straight, I rise on my pedals
slightly, to convert the forward momentum into upwards movement to keep
my balance... my helmet hits the second overhanging branch... I fall one
way, the uni falls the other. The uni doesn't swear. No doubt there is
much muffled merriment amongst the woodland folk.

A while later, I find myself riding across mown grass. A drunkard lies
twitching under a tree, sleeping it off. I fail to find the expected
gate at the far side of the lawn, and turn back. My wheel falls into a
"wheeltrap" - a steep sided hole concealed by longer grass - and I fall
full length and roll, swearing. If the drunkard had woken, the
unexpected sight of a flying unicyclist might have made him swear off
the booze for life.

I continue round the main lake of the country park, and take a few side
trails which used to be a real challenge on the MUni. I ride them with
disconcerting ease. Soon, I'm back on the road, then retracing my route
along the cycle path, down the tiled slope, and along the single track
of the riverbank. I UPD a few times here, and even miss the odd mount.
I'm getting very tired and my concentration is starting to wander.

I see a heron take off from the opposite bank of the river. It flies
low over the water, its wing beats noticeably shallower than when they
fly high. It is in "ground effect" mode.

For the last section, I divert through the woods. To my surprise, I
ride all of the most difficult sections, but I fall off on all the easy
ones. I think it's fatigue reducing my attention span. I'll be glad to
be back at the car now. The last kilometre or so of tarmac is easy,
although I completely miss my mount after the cattle grid. I can't
remember when I last missed a mount on smooth tarmac. I must be on the
point of collapse!

As I arrive at the car, I practise a little bit of idling, and ride
backwards for a few revolutions, just to prove I can still do it.

I guess that's about 12 miles, maybe a little more.

The 28 is a strangely satisfying unicycle to ride. It lacks the
unstoppable rollover factor of the Coker, or the grip and cushioning of
a MUni tyre. The short (110 mm) cranks give me lots of feedback, but I
have to plan carefully for slopes and tight turns. It is light and
elegant, but I need to nurse it every step of the way when riding on
uneven surfaces. I think riding the 28/110 on and off road is making me
a better rider.


--
Mikefule - The first cuckoo of unicycling

Sumer is icomen in, loud sing Mikefule!
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Bah. That sounds like a ride you could easily describe as "pleasant" and
"enjoyable". Which is a total contrast to my ride today, which was just
frustrating and long. I forget where I read good things about the
cycling on the North Dorset Downs, but after an afternoon of hacking
through massively overgrown tracks around entirely uninteresting fields
I won't be going back.

*sulks*

Phil


--
phil - ex-studenty type

Good, bad... I'm the guy with the Cattle Prod.
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Fantastic ride report mike, very well written & nice to know how the
110/29" is comparing to the coker or Muni on the same trails.

I know what you mean about the trails around now Phil, I went riding
today in some foresty track & trails in Leamington, and they're
amazingly different to how they were even 2 months ago. I couldn't ride
down most of my favourite routes, the thistles, brambles & nettles
choked the path until it was less than 6 inches wide, at most. I
couldn't walk them, let alone ride. Had a good time on my new 26" on the
local bike course though. I'm considering some long distance stuff on it
since the UDC Gel is so comfy. Looks like the 140mm cranks are coming
off my 20"...

Loose.


--
Loosemoose - HA! Sod You Gilby, I HAVE DAMMIT!

Dave: "I had a particularly bad UPD & found I'd lost a shoe"
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Longest post...ever


--
chosen - For The Cause

"In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail."-Vincent T. Lombardi-

Riding since dec25, 2003

Sub cook, mcdonalds pushover, unicyclist, juggler, dancer.
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chosen wrote:
*Longest post...ever *


Nah! I didn't have to split it between two posts. I've had to do that
before.


--
Mikefule - The first cuckoo of unicycling

Sumer is icomen in, loud sing Mikefule!
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On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 11:31:19 -0500, "Mikefule" wrote:

Nah! I didn't have to split it between two posts. I've had to do that
before.

And we've even had posts that had to be split in four parts!

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"As with all great social movements, the origins of mountain unicycling are unclear. - Hannah Nordhaus (Los Angeles Times)"