Subject:  Last Weekend |
Author:
Joel
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Date Posted: 09:57:22 05/01/03 Thu
Hi All
Despite cancellations due to bad weather and lack of numbers some of us still managed to get out and do a bit of riding.
On Saturday afternoon I met up with Graham and Mike Whitehouse and young Beth in the pub. After a couple of beers and a bit of nosh we decided that it would be cool to go down to the sea front and drop the short, but fun paths down onto the main prom. This is a great location to teach beginners like Beth because of the slow and non-technical slopes with good run-outs. After a bit of practise beginners can then advance to Old Biddy dodging.
Anyway, we left the pub, stopped off at mine to pick up the Luge and headed off to Grahams to pick up his bike. As we pulled up onto the pavement outside is house there was a yummy scraping sound, this was the beginning of a whole category of disasters! The front tyre on Grahams car had a nice big nail in it causing a flat; because of this the car had grounded on the pavement as we pulled up. OK, time to change the tyre, can we get the spare out of the boot, can we ****! Eventually, with a crow bar and a lot of effort we managed to break off the nut that was holding the tyre in and hauled it out. So the spare bounces to the ground, a groan goes up from all of us, looks like the spare is almost as bad as the flat and has almost no tread!!! We take a risk and fit it on, thank God it was almost ok and we decide to risk it.
With the car fixed it is time to put the bike together, Graham hauls it out of the garage only to find that it also has a flat!!!!!!!!!! A new tube is put in and other problems are fixed. Finally with everything sorted, including my gut (sorry again Beth), we cram 4 people a Luge and a gravity bike into a fiesta sized car (oh the fun!) and head on down to the sea front.
Good times were had by all of us down at the beach; Beth loved her first time on a Luge (she seemed to find lying on her back surprisingly natural). Unfortunately she didn't seem very good at cornering or braking so we were constantly covering our eyes when she started to head towards curbs or lampposts. Due to low speeds (10mph max) and a lot of luck she and, more importantly, my Luge came out ok.
While Beth and myself rode the Luge while the twins played on the bike, always one or two of us doing marshalling and crowd control. We attracted a lot of attention from people of all ages and had quite an audience at times, everyone seen very interested and a couple of kids had a go as well (in return for a go on their electric scooter ;-D ).
After a while I noticed that we were getting some interested from the local fuzz. At about that point Beth comes zooming down the hill and towards the coppers. Seeing them at the last minute she screeched to a stop while going past them. Huge grin on her face she ran back towards us, they walk!
"That looks very fun, but you know what I'm going to say.” says the policewoman. "Yeah," I reply, "Go on, have a go, for the camera."
We didn't receive a proper telling off, but for safety reasons we were asked to move on, to which we politely agreed. The police refused to have a photo taken, so during the talking to I discreetly flicked the camera to video mode and pressed record. I may make the video available later, e-mail me if you are interested.
We mosied along the prom. For about a 1/2 mile until we reached Durly chine. Unfortunately it was too wet to run safely without protection, etc. so we entered the Durley Inn for another booze and Nosh session, lovely! A big thank you has to go to Beth at this point for some HUGELY entertaining and amazing stories, drunken girls are great! ;-)
The next day we (now including my housemate) headed up to Face Plant Hill for some real riding. The forecast was for rain and I had a train to catch at 4pm, but nothing was gonna stop us, not event a diversion (empty roads are great!). This hill is about ¾ of a mile long and very steep, the tarmac is pretty rough and on either side there is a mud bank and dense trees. This is not a place to fall off so is not rideable for beginners, on out first visit Graham came off on the bike face first into a bank and ended up in hospital. As it turned out the weather was great and so was the riding, Graham and Mikey hit 55mph on the bike, on the Luge I hit 65mph and Mike hit a hedge (he was fine, and the passers by who were following the chase car had a good laugh). Thanks to Jim for shuttling us up the hill and to Beth and whoever wasn’t riding for marshalling, stopping cars and using the camera. I also have a video of myself and Graham or Mikey (not sure who) running the hill, again e-mail me if you are interested in seeing it.
Anyway, despite cancelled races, a bad forecast and car problems we all had a fantastic weekend. Looking forward to Gurston this weekend, see you there.
Joel
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