Riders :- Coops, Foxdale, Skippy, NeilS, Ned, NeilK, Emma, MarkT, John, SteveQ, DaveR, Nick, Richard, DaveM, Andy, Shaun, Grace, Mark and Keith
Tonight’s ride was from glorious Foxdale, a small village the kind you see on chocolate box lids, also home turf the great gatsby west egg and east egg for me. Riders gathered ready for the off on what was a cool night, some old faces turned up (one very old one now Dave Reilly), we nearly got away with setting off before ‘Fingers Kerruish’ rode in arriving late, he cursed Ned for driving past him on the way in, Ned claimed he never saw him……with two rear lights and a 1800 lumen front light Ned’s defence was about as strong as Pistorious’s.
Announcing the route on the pancake day ride Coops made the atmosphere fall flat, going up Rhenshent to start with,’let’s get cold soaking feet right from the off’. He’s going to give up being a cock for lent. At the top it was straight up and down through Stoney mountain on the fire track, whilst waiting to regroup the merits of Dave’s mud hugger mudguard were discussed it appeared to keep mud off everything except the rider.
A road ride to St Marks (voted the islands 2nd most desirable place to live after Foxdale) and on to the controversial persuasive essay topics Bhudda trail sadly since the dissolution the Bhudda is no longer there. Another regroup before we moved onto South Barrule. We were now an hour in to the ride and Marks ‘Production Privee Shan’ complete with General Lee decals had lasted longer since its first outing from new (he’s rougher than a badgers arse) South Barrule and Corlea next through the Tunnel of Amour, where Dave R showed us how to dismount while the bike is still moving, following the side wall down Corlea to the bottom which rides really well. At the bottom gate we realised two riders were missing Mike had snapped his chain just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse Coops was on hand to help/hinder take your pick.
The slog up the Whisky run was next, which is easier in the dark,at the top the group split to stop the quicker riders from getting chilly before we entered the Cringle Trail Centre.
Cringle is riding superbly well, Willie Corkill has done great work in there. At the bottom his Lordship NeilS was disappointed that there wasn’t a man servant around to carry his bike over a fallen tree. Once out of Cringle it was decided with the battery levels getting low on the lights we’d head back to Foxdale on the road.
Well done Grace, Cringle isn’t the easiest in the dark for a first time.