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John and Terry were both off work today. The sun was shining. They went for a ride! Nowt unusual really, although unlike Andy and Jason, these two rarely get the opportunity to ride on any other day than Sunday due to work. So the Gollum drove to Johns and Cramlington was the start of a nice leisurely fill-in ride to keep the muscles working for Sunday.

We began by heading for Blyth sea front. That would give us a round trip of about 16 miles, just right. Our route took us out of Crammy's cycle paths via Shankhouse at the A189 spine road/A192 junction. We then turned left towards Bedlington then right at Bebside Hall down to the Bebside crossing over the A189 again. We made a left into the Kitty Brewster Industrial Estate and onto the south shore of the River Blyth. Since the Power Station disappeared this place has changed dramatically, all the way up the coast, and now there are nature trails and plaques all over the place, visitors welcome. Ten years ago they would have had an inch of noxious dust lying on them from those massive, overwhelming, landscape-blotting chimneys.

We popped out of the riverside path at Kitty Brewster Farm and decided to try and follow the north bank to Mount Pleasant Farm. This was a bit exciting for a midweek spin and it was great watching poor John fighting for grip on the clarty climbs, still getting used to his clipless setup. Finally we ran out of road and had to concede to pushing our bikes over a footpath across the farm. No bad Reivers influences on us today. Emerging onto rough tarmac again we continued up the side of the A189 to the hamlet of East Sleekburn and more desolation with all of the Power Station land having been largely flattened but left rough. Some good biking bits in there but high fences and "Keep Out" signs abound. The locals all stared at us and sniggered amongst themselves, even the rabbits being hauled up the main drag in their hutch by two kiddies. Must have been getting lunch ready. Serves you right, bunnies!

We continued coastward to Cambois (pronounced "camis", stranger) where we decided to have a look at the beach for a giggle. John's old man used to tell him about this place when he was a nipper but he hadn't seen it yet. Expecting what you would expect, given it's reputation and situation, you'd be completely wrong. The beach was fantastic. Clean, long and flat. Broken only by a long, thin, black pipe carrying red kryptonite waste from the local houses, and most beaches have these. You could have a very pleasant lounge around this beach on a nice summer day, and it's not likely to be very busy. There's a good tarmac path along the edge of the dunes and we sat at a newish picnic table for our refreshments. Good place to collect your thoughts, it is.

Time to start back now, so we continued up to the south shore of the River Wansbeck and rode alongside it until we arrived at the weir at North Seaton. Didn't know all this lock gubbins was here. Amazing what you find that you never see in a car. We crossed over the weir to the north bank then after sampling the last section of a juicy-looking four-piece concrete staircase continued west along the riverside. It could be that this was a footpath, maybe, I think perhaps yes. Anyway, we got off it and hid every time we passed a walker. You do believe me, no?

Sunday's ride with the Reivers left me with a very sore bottom bit, and now this damn seat on the Cuda had me in the same state again. Must get rid of it. To add to my misery, the rear brake with new Hayes pads fitted last night was binding badly, so poor old Golly was completely knackered but still a good way from home. John just grinned.He had his own problems, like, he hadn't brought a book to read while he waited for the Gollum to catch up. This riverside path is absolutely superb - ducks and swans - wide, flat river - kids canoeing - clean, tidy grass expanses - another great picnic spot and it stretches for miles. 

We crossed back to the south side at Stakeford Bridge and made the mistake of trying to stay on the riverside. That cost us a double loop behind a housing estate before we finally climbed out of a dead end and headed for Guidepost. We were moving west above Hepscott when the Gollum spotted a bridleway south. We studied the map at the gate and decided it was worth it to cut off the corner, and it was off-road through nice trees instead of houses! Unfortunately, however, it proved to be a bit of a maze - we could have got lost in there easily, and almost did. It's been a while since we hit solid undergrowth on a MidAirCrisis ride, but here it was, and those massive thorns really hurt. My little legs are ripped to shreds.

Now you may recall me telling you about my recent uptake of Slime in the inner tubes of both the Barracuda and Coiler. Well, I can at last report a result. Today I got a puncture. In the front of the Cuda. So Slime experiment a failure, then? Not! We just puffed it up after it went soft, and it's stayed up since. I reckon it was a thorn because there were so many of the evil things in these bushes at Choppington. But I'm not going to investigate it, I want to run this tube now until it completely expires. Then I'll strip it and see exactly how much damage it's suffered. So far though, I'm very impressed. See elsewhere for more Slime talk. I know it works in a motorbike and in car tyres, so why not in bike tubes? And yes, I am aware that you can buy Slimy tubes now, but sticking it in yourself the way I have is a bit new-fangled. Watch this space...

When we broke free of the jungle it was tarmac time again on the A1068 down to Bedlington (actually "up", and John let me sample the Kikapu when he saw how done-in I was. The Kona fairly whizzed me up the hill to Bedlington Town centre - what a difference a couple of pounds and a comfy seat makes!) and then via Hartford Bridge and it's nasty little climb back to Cramlington. Somehow we covered 26.6 miles and were out for 5 hours with 3hrs 14min rolling time. No wonder I can't walk, this is Reiver territory!