Things that make you go Grrrrrrr!!!

For some reason, man was I tired last night. I had done my daily riding session in keeping with cycling every day for a year, doing 10.60 miles on my road bike set upon my turbo trainer, whilst watching Gotham on Netflix.

Which reminds me it's not too late to sponsor me and support Arctic ONE with supporting others via their Forward Motion Grant.

Arctic ONE

I also completed 200 crunch sit-ups, mainly just because I have got into a routine. However, I don't think this is what had made me feel so tired I just think I am in a dreadful routine, what with being off work and still shielding.

So this morning I was awake at around 7:00 am. I knew I would be meting up with John for about 9:15am after he had dropped the bairn off at school, and we were going to go for a ride somewhere. "I may as well get up I thought", and proceeded to manoeuvre myself to the edge of my bed, before hopping around the side of my bed and retrieving my Bartlett Tendon.

My Bartlett Tendon has been living in my bedroom as I use it every day for cycling. When I use it indoors on my road bike I always remove the cams and tendons, as I don't need these whilst riding on the turbo trainer. So the first job of the morning was re-attaching the two cams and two tendons. It's an easy enough task, just requiring 4 special shouldered Allen bolts to be fastened in place and making sure the cam locking pins are fitted.

Job done in no time.


I then popped my silicone liner over old stumpy, I hate this bit in the morning as the liner is always bloody freezing cold. I added my 2 seals over the liner. I am using 2 seals as for some reason I am still losing air with just one seal. My leg has a tendency to drop off, quite literally. I actually went to go downstairs a few months back and my leg fell off and went bouncing down the stairs Oops!

I popped my cycling under shorts on and actually put 3 thin socks and a leg warmer on, before putting on my bike shorts. I retrieved  2 base layer tops from our airing cupboard and on top of these also wore my Fox wind chill jacket. "No way was I going to be cold" I thought to myself, "Be prepared". John had mentioned it may rain so after having a nice cup of char downstairs I put my wet weather Endura over trousers on and my Race Face waterproof Jacket. Dear me I was now sweating like a one-legged man at an arse kicking contest. Especially as I had yet to reach down and fanny on with the laces on my Shimano Boots.

Now here's another thing that really frustrates me however I bet most of you never give it a second thought, and it's getting god-damn shoes on... Boots are even worse. Yeah, they slip on fine on my good foot, but OMG it's like a full on wrestling match to get one on my plastic foot. Ern has bought me this geet long shoe horn, which does make things a bit easier, but I don't always have it when I need it.  Ok boots on, it was still too early to go for John.

Next on the list was what bike to take. I thought about taking my Specialized Turbo Levo, however I have been experiencing some problems with my bike of late. It is actually booked in to Rutland Cycles on the 17th of this month, under warranty. What has been happening, or rather not happening is that when I go to turn the bike on using the on/off button on the top of its frame, well just nowt happens? I have to fanny about with the buttons on the switch on the handlebars to get the bike to turn on, however then it quite often just turns off again.

Well this morning was no different. The bike was fully charged as I managed to get the bike to turn on and have a quick look on the app on my phone. Then itself off again. I got it back on again and this time it said my engine needed updating. I didn't hold out much hope of being able to do this, however miraculously the software began installing and completed and my bike appeared to be working again... Great news... So the weapon of choice was the Turbo Levo.

I had all my gear ready so went for a ride around the Font and the Hospital Bends, coming back through Holly Hill Gardens and home. It was only about a mile or so I just wanted to make sure the bike was ok. The bike looked fine, however my socket, more so my liner was causing some technical rubbing issues and my Bartlett Tendon had an annoying squeak, so I rode home and sorted both issues. A quick removal of my leg and re-adjust my liner and I popped some dry silicone lube on my BTK, jobs a good'un.

Everything sorted I rode up Durham Road and waited outside of John's for him to come from dropping his little girl off. John wasn't long, and I had a ride up and down his road whilst he got his gear and bike sorted. We had a little chat about where to go and decided to head off down towards Tanfield Railway and then head over to Hedley Hall Woods.

We always try and avoid the busy areas, so rode the outskirts of Stanley to get on the C2C and headed down the path towards the factories at Tanfield. We then came out of the industrial estate and onto the main road heading towards Tanfield Village, it's just a short ride to the entrance of the East Tanfield Railway and the trail that leads to the old Causey Arch Bridge.

 

East Tanfield Railway NO CYCLING Grrrrrrr!

NO CYCLING

Now this is where the title of this blog entry comes in "Things that make you go Grrrrrrr!!!". As we approached the trail we noticed there had been some work carried out, the entrance to the trail had had the fencing removed to make the trail more accessible, however two small signs had been screwed to each up-right fence post "NO CYCLING". This really gets my back up, because I like to think of myself as a respectful cyclist. I give way to pedestrians and people on horse back. I always take any litter away with me and keep it until I can pop it in my bin at home. If any trail I ride has obstacles that may be dangerous to other users I try to remove them and I try to maintain and look after areas as they are important and should not be taken for granted.

You are then presented with a No-Go area and just think to yourself about all the other people who are allowed to use these trails who just don't give a (and I could swear at this point) They leave dog crap all over, or worse yet pick it up then hang the bags on tree branches. They come from the picnic area yon side of the trail where the bins are, however decide to drop litter all over the trail.

Now because cyclists, and to be fair there are not that many that use that particular trail, are not allowed to use it, they have to detour using the road, a much less scenic and more dangerous route. It just doesn't make sense to me. I know there will be a lot of people who will disagree, saying it is a Public Footpath, however the Public Footpath legislation is so out dated and why should only a certain minority of people be allowed to use an area?

Never mind moving on, we had to detour and take to the road, which is pretty dodgy riding into Tanfield Village, not only does it get narrower, but vehicles tend to travel quite quickly on that stretch. We were pleased to get onto the less busy back road and ride in more or less the same direction to bring us out on the road near the picnic area at Beamish.

Out the saddle going up past Tanfield Village

From here it's not far to Hedley Hall Woods. Just aim for Silver Hills I think it's called, and you are on the right track. As we rode into the car park at Hedley Hall, that too had all changed. We scoured the large notice board half expecting it to say "NO CYCLES", however we couldn't see any such signs, so we headed into the woods and had a jolly good play around the trails, sharing some banter, reminiscing and having a good laugh.

Hedley Hall Woods

There are lots of fairly used trails and various routes, both John and I really enjoyed exploring. When I was ahead I would say to John, "Left or Right" and let him decide our route, completing a good few loops, both up and down. The mud was thick, with a good amount of like clay in certain areas which really stuck to our tyres and made the going even tougher.

John Bopping a Wheelie

Me having a go

John @ Hedley Hall Woods

A little rest and a bit of a laugh at the top of the hill on the well I don't know what it is Wooden Feature.

Hedley hall Woods Wooden Thingy

Glenn being a Tit

Trying out my new Tripod

Good bit out the saddle riding today

  

Once we had finished here it was the tough up hill ride home, well a lot tougher for poor John as I was on my ebike, saying which mind you I had turned my assist down to 10% from 15%, so I still got a canny workout. Anyone who says it is cheating, be my guest go get your leg hacked off and have a go.

On the way back as we cut through Beamish down past the farmers trail a huge brown rat ran between Johns bike wheels, it was proper funny as I shouted to him "John a Geet Big Rat has just run under your bike", just as well he didn't see it as I reckon he would have freaked out, as he said back to me "I hate rats" LoL