Arundel to.. erm.. Arundel..

Finally got to do a semi-decent off-road ride at the weekend - what we'd planned, was to get the train to Arundel, get up to the South Downs Way via the first part of the Arundel to Brighton Ride, and then head West, as far as we could (at least Chichester was our thinking) instead of East to come back to Brighton.

What happened was a series of calamities that culminated in approximately 5 miles of walking / pushing along busy A-roads!

Here is a breakdown of the day:

• 8:00 - 10:45 - Jim called in to work to supervise some work related to the IT systems in the office
• 10:45 - 11:30 - riding home from work on moped, buying food / drink for ride, getting Dawg and riding to Lancing Station
• 11:30 - 11:45 - realise that the train that D got on at Brighton is not stopping at Lancing. Jim gets on another train to West Worthing, to meet D on his train, which does stop at West Worthing
• 12:00 ish - get to Arundel
• Lost track of times at this point; aim is to ride up through Arundel Park to the point where we normally turn right (east) on to the South Downs Way, but turn right
• Get to the side of the River Arun, and realise that it has completely flooded. We get round the first flooded bit by walking carefully along the few inches of bank that are still exposed, and then round some trees.
• Another few minutes of riding, and we get to another flooded part - this time the path is completely submerged, with trees / bushes completely overhanging the river - no chance of me trying to get round that!
• We back track and find some very steep steps cut in to the side of the hill
• At the top of the steps, we have a break and find that the road on the other side of the field we emerged on to was in fact the road that we would normally cross at the end of the river stretch, so ride down it, and then turn left at the relevant part, on to the road which the South Downs Way crosses.
• D realises that the sensor to his speedo - so no sense of total distance travelled, current speed (would probably have been embarrasing anyway!), or most importantly, average speed - we use this as an indicator to see if we need to go faster or not in order to complete a ride before dark (for instance).
• We ride up the hill from the road at a stupid pace, caused by the sloppy ground - it's absolutely sodden and very difficult to get any grip - especially on an almost bald rear tyre (OK, my own fault..)
• We manage to travel what I suspect is a few more miles by 15:30, and decide that we really need to start heading back towards the nearest town with a train station.. so we turn off the South Downs Way, and head south. Using just my compass for guidance (read: no map), we base the decision which direction to take upon reaching a junction, on which path goes off at an angle nearer to South (see the flaw there?)
• After having seen very few people on the ride, I go and slide off right in front of two of them, who are out walking their dog. Doh! Great fun though.. I'd been fishtailing my way down the incredibly muddy track with a huge grin on my face, looking rather silly with my neck warmer converted in to its' beeny-hat form and worn under my helmet.. so I just had to prove to myself that I could look even more stupid ; )
• Another 15 minutes down whichever random combination of paths we'd chosen to take, and D gets a pinch puncture.. doh! (again!). After half an hour and two patches, we were back on our way again; it's dusk by this point, and we have no idea where we are..
• 16:51 - we come out of some road or other on the A29, and after checking Dayna's GPS, ascertain that Arundel is (still!?!) the nearest town, and start riding when we can / pushing our bikes up the wrong side of the A29 whenever it's clear, shouting "car!" and pulling our bikes up on to the verge whenever we see oncoming headlights! This went on for what I suspect was about 2 miles, at which point we get to the junction of the A284, look at the sign and realise we still have 3 miles to go until we get to Arundel Castle.
• It takes us another hour or so to get to the road signposted for "Town Centre", which we take, getting to familiar ground after another 10 minutes.
• 5 minutes before we get to the Station, it starts to rain.. luckily we don't get too wet.
• I finally got home at 20:00 - not an incredibly successful ride, and frustrating at times with the poor condition of the terrain, but great fun overall.. we're going for it again in the first few weeks of February, but will aim to be in Arundel by 9:00AM or so next time, so we'll get a bit further.

Carrera Kraken images, small bike ride, and many happy returns..

Finally managed to take a decent photo of T's Carrera Kraken Ladies bike - I'll make a gallery page for it soon; click for a bigger image..

Went on a ride yesterday with T from our home in Lancing, to Worthing pier and back again - a total distance of about 6 miles - a good chance to tweak the saddle position for T and get her used to riding again. No off-roading this week though ; (

Ooh - nearly forgot - the site is officially now a year old - the first post having been made on the 15.1.2006! Happy Birthday site!

Weekend riding..

Didn't get any off-roading done for the second weekend in a row this weekend, but did pick up T's new bike - the Carrera Kraken Ladies. Pics to come soon, more off-roading to come just after!

MTB Riding update..

I've been making updates mainly to the Reviews section this week; as well as adding in reviews of some new products, I've also downgraded the Specialized Hemisphere tyres.

First update of 2007!

Didn't manage to go for a proper ride over the weekend - the Dawg had a puncture, and despite the best intentions in the World (fix it before 10:00am, leaving plenty of time for a decent ride), it didn't quite happen. I did manage to get several bike related bits 'n' bobs sorted though, including:

• Bought some more Muc-off, as the last lot was getting low;
• Bought and fitted a new inner tube; this with a Schrader valve (removed the adapter from the wheel to fit this, as the bike originally had Presta valves);
• Thoroughly cleaned both bikes - the Dawg gets a wash after every ride, but I can't remember the last time the Fire Mountain did;
• Found a great deal on a new bike for my girlfriend (well, she bought it..).. more below..
• Bought some new bolts to fit the bike holder to the wall in the garage (take 2!) - These are a bit more beefy, with metal expanding rawl plugs which will hopefully do a better job of holding both bikes up - what with the extra bike (which is being collected this coming Saturday), we'll definately need two to be suspended above car level to fit it all in.

So, I wasn't too gutted at not getting a ride (well, I did ride along to Halfords in Shoreham to get the Muc-off etc, riding back along Shoreham Beach, so there was a *little* ride..), and I had ridden a combined distance of about 30 miles to work and back during the previous week anyway.

On to the bike for my girlfriend! We'd talked about getting her a bike for a while, but as we're planning a holiday in late Feb / early March time, were going to hold off till after then. However, when on Saturday, I saw a Carrera Kraken, a £400 bike, going for £200, it was too much of a good deal to pass up; I nearly bought it there and then but thought it'd be a good idea to get it properly sized up!

So we went back to Halfords on Sunday, but it'd been sold! Cue a fruitless trip to Halfords Hove, followed by another to Halfords Lewes Road, Brighton, and we finally found one. We ended up getting a 16" framed one, and we're picking it up on Saturday.

A 50% discount is obviously a great deal, even if the spec wasn't up to scratch for a £400 bike in the first place - but Carreras' generally do tend to be anyway, so I'm really pleased. As we haven't actually got the bike yet, I can't list the actual spec, but the below is from the Halfords website, for the 2007 model:

• Lightweight 16" 7005 aluminium frame with double butted 3 main tubes;
• Suntour XCR 100mm travel fork with lock out and rebound damping;
• SRAM SX5 27 speed gearing with trigger shifters - I think these are actually the X7 shifters on the 2006 model, which are a step or two up the range I believe;
• Tektro IO (cable) disc brakes;
• Truvativ Isoflow chainset with Powerspline bottom bracket;
• DDM1 disc specific rims with Tioga Factory Extreme tyres;

So, 27 gears, cable disc brakes, lockout suspension fork, splined bottom bracket for £200.. bargain ; )

The bike also has woman-specific components such as shorter length handlebars, shorter reach brake levers, saddle, etc.

I'll get some pictures of the bike up as soon as possible - for now, here is one from another site - TTFN!

South Downs Way Randonnee Challenge Posts..