Sunday 26th October 2008 saw NMBC exploring the Dark Side (OK then, Wearside) for their weekly leg stretcher. This one was long overdue with that last attempt being curtailed early due to inclement weather conditions (vertical rain) at Cleadon half a year ago or more. And now there are a few more considerations - Mick H, Tim B, Chris D and now Rachel are all domiciled south of the Tyne and this was something slightly more accessible for them, as well as a reward to them for their regular attendances and Mick's magnificent showing at the Hairy Coo in Perthshire where he really flew the NMBC flag high.
It was made all the more memorable when the Speedian, aka Ian A found himself with a rare free Sunday to spare and joined us at Holystone at 08:45. So it was then, that Ian, Andy, Jon, Stewart and the Gollum set off for the Tyne Tunnel. We'd only got a few hundred metres when the GollyMobe burst into song. It was Ainis (pronounced eye-nis, by the way), a young gentleman who's just moved to the UK from Lithuania to work here. Actually, the job was secondary - he'd heard about us on the Web and wanted to join up! He'd managed to get himself to Asda's car park from his town centre abode and was calling from there. So we did an about-turn and went back to meet him. As the van was (legally) full, he was more than willing to follow us to our destination at Seaburn sea front, where we arrived around 9:30. No sign of anyone else yet so we played in the bike park for a while, with Stewart and Jon showing their jumping and trials skills - impressive. Chris D arrived closer to 10:00, followed swiftly by Rachel and then Ian toured out to the promenade to locate Mick and Tim. Mick had already encountered a problem on his XXX when he discovered a slight absence of rear pads on his Avid BB disc brake. Tim the Prof to the rescue with his spares pack.
10:15ish and time to go, ten of us ready to attack a brisk westerly breeze as Mick led us out onto the sea front, sunny but cool. Two minutes later, Chris was yelling at Mick - "You've got a flattie!" as the hiss from Mick's rear tyre got louder and the blob of white gunge oozing out grew bigger. Thank Heaven for Stan's No-Tubes, eh? Seconds later, all was well, although it had lost a bit of air, but he rode on regardless, the magic goo doing it's job admirably. Incidentally, if you use the stuff and you get an audible (ie BIG) hole in a tyre, turn the hole straight down to the ground and put all your weight on it, tipping the bike as necessary. This will do three things - allow the latex to reach the hole quickly, stop too much of it being evacuated, and reduce the amount of air you lose.
We set off for a leisurely but not slow cruise up Sunderland's answer to Newcastle's riverside promenade. The most striking difference is probably the steeper sides to the Wear's valley as it nears the town. otherwise, little to choose. Out past the Marina, under the Monkwearmouth bridges and just before we reached the Stadium of Light's shadow (what a daft thing to say!) Jon decided to once more demonstrate his step-hopping prowess, and proceeded to launch up a 12 incher. Unfortunately he managed to whack his rear wheel straight into it's square, sharp edge and before you could say "pssst" we had Puncture Two. No Stan's on this On-One Inbred, however, so it was tube replacement time for Jon.
While the fix was being applied, Ian A was busily pointing something out to Rachel. Now we've all read about men like this showing young girls their tricks, but here the young lady was being shown the best way to tackle steps, and after a couple of tentative approaches, she zoomed down this short set like a veteran. Nice one, Rachel and good on you Speedy for taking the time. And at last we have a photographer amongst us - cheers Stewart for these great pictures, starting with a brilliant study of Rachel on this, her first step attack. Nice little bike, clipless pedals, one-finger braking - headed for stardom!
Off we went again headed for the industrial estates along the riverside below Wessington Way as Mick pointed us at the A19. Once under the Hylton Bridge and a little way west, Mick had a treat in store for us. A superb, unexpected blast of singletrack. Now you must forgive us, but the sun was bright and shining in our eyes on the outward journey, so there's a slim chance, a very slim chance, that this may not have been, er, erm, exactly what you'd call bridleway, in the strictest sense of the word. However, there were only a few doggie people coming t'other way and they were all very nice, for once, and we apologised for any inconvenience, as we always do if allowed to.
The walkers seemed to vanish just as Mick invited the Gollum to lead off down the best bit of all, hoping to see him crease himself on his scary road tyres. I can tell you, this little stretch is every bit as enjoyable as most other natural singletracks we've come across. It also has plenty of hidden roots, bits of timber and the odd rock poking up from beneath the fallen leaves which could easily catch the unwary. For the racers it was fantastic, if a bit short. And at this point I must apologise for the lack of the usual crappy pictures, as GollyCam Two chose this ride to join it's little brother back home when it packed in, but fortunately help was at hand and provided much better results than I ever do...
the story in pictures!
Now they say trouble comes in threes. They're right. Unless you get a fourth bit. Rachel of the River got the third today - another puncture. And right by the river, as it happens. She sure has an affinity for the wet stuff. Anyway, while the real gentlemen of the party got to grips with her tubes and removed her outer cover, it was the young lady herself who discovered a 12 mm thorn in her rear tyre. Nasty one. There followed another short course of instruction for Rachel by Golly on how to patch a tube, ignoring the demands of his fellow riders to stick a new tube in. It was a lovely day, we were basking in sunshine and protected from the wind, so patching was the best thing to do, and save the tube for a rainy day. Ian snatched a few choice pix along the way aswell, like this evidence:
Time to move on again, and time for Rachel to become slightly detached from the others for a while after she lost sight of last man and took a wrong turn. She had the savvy to try the other direction, however, and quickly caught up with one of the search parties. A bit of bridleway followed, taking us to a narrow bridge over the Wear before discussing the best place to stop for lunch. Mick suggested we go on to the limit of our outward loop, that being the Country Park just south of the Penshaw Monument. Before that, however, there was a nice little hill to climb - the one the Monument is mounted on, and it sure got the blood flowing, although luckily the wind was at our side going up. Then it was time for another little treat, Mick leading the charge down a very tricky singletrack, narrow and extremely slippery. Somehow we all stayed upright. On reaching the Shiney Row to Herrington road below, we crossed over into the Park and a much needed noshup.
We stayed around 20 minutes before Speedy got itchy feet and decided to try riding up the amphitheatre grass steps. There followed several more failed attempts to follow him. Back on the road, it seemed to have turned very cold, and we now had the prospect of climbing the hill to the Monument itself, for the benefit of those who hadn't been there. Pretty good view from the top, and there was England in the distance - Silverlink Sundial! We resumed after a bit of sightseeing, Mick gathering us at the top to issue a warning about an up-coming "gap in the ground" on this fairly fast pasture crossing. Yet again, we all got over without issue. The next bit was a small wood where the local kids had developed a few jumps. We blasted through the Cross Country bit of it, avoiding the steps at the end helped by warnings from the dozen or so kiddies playing in there. After surviving that excellent descent we hung around at the foot of the jump run to be suitably impressed by 3 or 4 of the older kids as they leapt across the track - "gap jump" I think is the correct term.
We stopped being impressed when rider number 5 came blasting down the hill and took off skyward in a magnificent vertical takeoff. Unfortunately, he came down vertically aswell, skewering the ground with his front wheel in a suicidal forward roll. Ouch. He'd have probably done it right if we hadn't all been lining the side of the track to watch him. I reckon the bandages would be out when he got home. Anyway, he was breathing and crawling shortly after so we took our leave. Another little pasture crossing set us onto a wide waggonway. Just as we hit it, the Prof's left crank fell off. That's the second time in two rides Tim has been left with one leg pedalling, but it looks ungainly so he stopped to refit it. A masterful bodge by the Gollum got it spliced nicely with two small splints and cable ties through the bottom bracket. Thank goodness for Hollowtech! However, Tim had leaned on the allen key too hard and jammed it all up, so we had to dispense with the secondary fixings, although it held together OK to the finish. This bridleway went on for a mile or two before Puncture Number Four hit us, or at least hit Andy. Surely that's the last of the day? New tube in (lazy boy!) and on we rode through another tricky section of very narrow, steep-sided, wheel-grabbing singletrack and again the sun got in our eyes (going east?) as we passed another of those red warning signs...
We emerged just to the west of Rolls Royce at Pallion and from there joined the cycle path (proper one!) back to and over the Alexander Bridge. We then rode through Southwick into Roker and back onto the sea front on Dame Dorothy Street before the last bit of welcome freewheeling down to Seaburn and the cars. Couldn't find Rachel to congratulate her on sticking with it when she'd been ready to call in at her folks close to Penshaw, but now I can - well done, kidder! And well done to Ainis, travelling God knows where with a bunch of total strangers in a strange country - bottle! He looks a bit useful on two wheels aswell - probably another young nutter to join the rest if he comes out again. While we surfed around the car park watching Chris D dump the Mongoose into his motor, Speedian, Andy and Stewart decided they'd enjoy riding back up north rather than sitting in a nice, warm, dry van. Well, see what they got -
Here's what happened, in Speedian's own words, after they left Jon and Golly to ride home:
Not quite sure what time we left you at the car park but eventually arrived home at 5 40, we moved quite swiftly until we reached Souter Lighthouse. Once we turned around the headland we were riding directly into a force eighty gale - fortunately the rain kept off. When we dropped into Shields seafront the wind sort of dropped. We approached the ferry knackered but sh@t wasn't it just leaving!
That would be a thirty minute wait so we rode to the pedestrian tunnel which felt like it was getting further away each pedal stroke, at least the escalator was working when we got there. Stewart bade farewell by the Rosehill bridge - he rode up the left hand side and me and Andy rode up the right and guess what, we still had enough energy left to do the singletrack to the east of the Dene, hooray! Loads of nettle stings to take our minds off the pain, Under the Coast Road and home via the Rising Sun in the dark. An extra little workout was appreciated by all, well once it was over it was.
Ta for that Ian. I was so knackered I had my earliest bedtime ever, without the return ride! And note how only an NMBC nutter could string those words together - "rising sun in the dark" !!! - sorry, my crooked sense of humour at work again.
Anyway, that ride equated to about 27 miles for most of us, plus an erxtra 17 or so for the Three Stooges (sorry, you're all too young - I forget).
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