Moor fule (with) me

I met up with MikeFule yesterday evening for a quick loop from
Princetown. I had two routes in mind, one quite long and one not so
long - Mike had done a lot of riding over the week and was feeling
slightly knackered, so we opted for the shorter route. This route
involved a section of track that I had never unicycled before (but biked
loads of times) from Merrivale, along the valley below the famous Vixen
Tor. It turned out to be mostly pretty rideable, although not easy in
places causing us a few UPDs. I'll have to go there a few more times
and practice.

I won't go into much detail of the ride because I'm sure Mike will do a
much better job of it that I would (although I reckon my thread title is
almost up to his standard ), but the weather was kind to us and it was
a very pleasant ride of about 13 miles or so. Nice to meet another
forum member, and I'm sure we'll be doing it again sometime.


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rob.northcott - Need to practise uphill mounts

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to
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You should see if Paul and Sarah would be interested; then you could use
"The moor the merrier" too...

Phil


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phil - ex-studenty type

Good, bad... I'm the guy with the Cattle Prod.
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phil wrote:
*You should see if Paul and Sarah would be interested; then you could
use "The moor the merrier" too...

Phil *


Or even the moor the merrivale?


--
rob.northcott - Need to practise uphill mounts

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to
skydive twice
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Hah! Exposed as a fraud. The shame!

So I met this young chap who told me he'd only been unicycling for a
year or so, and we agreed to go for a ride. I've been riding 18 years -
and quite seriously for about 4 years. Who fell off most often? Me.
Who couldn't keep up and had to stop for a rest? Me!

It was a fantastic route, with a short burst of main road through
Princetown, past the prison whence the prisoner escaped in The Hound of
the Baskervilles, then along a narrow gritted path to an old railway
track bed. The track bed had a steady gradient, and required caution
with the uneven ballast crunching under the wheel. Then there was an
interesting section of granite railway sleepers. Fantastic views to the
left across the moors.

We then swooped down the main road, past wild Dartmoor ponies, and cut
through a lovely little bridlepath across rocks and mud. Here I felt
like Eddie the Eagle in pursuit of Eddy Mercx as I parted company from
the unicycle time and again, and eventually found Rob patiently waiting
at the bottom of the hill.

Then the steep climb up the tarmac road. About a 17% gradient. Rob
said he was a bit nervous about this climb - so that must be why he got
it over with so quickly!

The character of this ride was different from all of the others that I
had done on Dartmoor over the preceeding couple of weeks. The railway
track bed presented an easy route through the wonderful scenery, and is
a real "find". There were odd sections which Rob described as "spiky"
and I still have the bruise on my upper left arm from one flying UPD.

Great fun, but it really did show me up as slow and unfit. That's what
complacently bumbling about on my own on a flood plain does for me. I'm
now back in Nottingham and planning to work on my fitness.

Will be back down in Devon from time to time, so hopefully we can ride
again and I'll do rather better.


--
Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling

Competing with yesterday to hold off tomorrow.
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Glad you liked the route Mike - it was nice to ride with somebody else
rather than always being on my own. And thanks for making me sound like
such a hero... I think it was just a case of being a route where brute
force and ignorance paid off more than experience and skill, but I won't
tell anybody that - oh bugger I just have

Hopefully we'll meet up again sometime - perhaps do the Burrator route I
had in mind, or somewhere over Okey way?

Rob


--
rob.northcott - Need to practise uphill mounts

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to
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