Riding tonight now. Get bike ready. All going wrong. Unpack car as 'other' retrobikers return from their sortie. Loose brake bolts in car. Find them. Phone has no charge, leave it. Spill trail mix in boot. Is nature telling me to abort? Straight into woods. Search for a song to accompany the ride - Johhny Cash - 'If I were a Carpenter'? Wet under tyre, warm under jacket. Bognor's lights shimmer against the sea. Ride through 'Highland Lakes'. Slipping all over the place. Johnny Cash - 'One Piece At A Time'?Golden moon. Owl. Rabbits. Quiet. Silence broken by the early warning system of a King rear hub. Johhny Cash - 'I Walk The Line'? Hard climbs, heavy breath, good feeling. Top of the Downs. Beautiful sky, empty of cloud, filled with stars and bats and planes. This really is what mountain biking is all about for me. Johnny Cash - 'A Boy Named Sue'? See a green and yellow caterpillar bumbling through the valley - the 8.06 out of Arundel taking the unlucky few to London. Down. Up. Car. Oatcakes. Home. Johnny Cash in my soul, pizza on my plate. Chat with friends on the site. Best ride of my life.
BAIKU
- Thread starter Augustus
- Start date
Joe
Retro Guru
Wu-Tangled":27ixqyim said:I don't ride to the music, it's just hard wired into the soul so I can imagine it playing...
Yep! I've still got "one piece at a time" in my head this morning.
Baiku:
clear night
Cold enough to hurt
look at the sky
look at the stars
look at the city lights
look at all the little people plugged in to their TV sets.
If only they knew what they're missing.
If only they cared.
Sweep on through the darkness.
Yesterday evening decide to take a risk - organise ride with someone off STW. Gulp. He shows up, young, thin, on a Kobe Ti with big forks. Gulp again. Will I be too slow? Choose Inbred as ss may be my only excuse. Head to Woods on half a mile of road and plunge into slop. Emerge out of slop cursing lack of crudcatcher. Onto rooty uphill singletrack, working hard. Muddle through. Caught out by small bomb hole, other guy leads. Points out that I'm supposed to lead as "trail guide" (sarcasm? Nice guy so probably not). I fail to point out that trail guides can usually ride. More even rootier twisty singletrack - bike going well, rider hanging on. Ooops, big muddy area. Bounce off tree. Reach top of Woods in record speed, lad still looking serene. Head off for slight downhill singletrack, let him go first. Ride like the wind and find him waiting patiently at bottom. Right, brambles and ferns follow. Crash down a rocky path. Hairy moment. Emerge blinking onto stony path. Light failing so dash home. Perfect timing. Top ride. Precious little public humiliation. Still a bit of life in the old dog yet.
Ride to work. Still no front brake. So have to be careful. Seating at road side one blooded cyclist. Didn't stop as other cyclists helping. Black cab also at road side. No prise for guessing what's just gone on. Nearly wipe out other cyclist cuting in from my right. I then nearly get wiped out by mini bus. Didn't indicate going left.
So a normal work ride through London
Getting cold in the mornings
So a normal work ride through London
Getting cold in the mornings
