During the week it was all sunny and the trails dried out almost to dust. I was doing stoppies and having a blast.
Friday it rained hard all day. On my way home from work I passed through sleet over near Coulsdon. Some roads were flooded in the Caterham valley.
Today the trails were back to being muddy again. It was also cold at 3 degrees C with a nasty wind. There was rain in the air and at one point it tried to snow. The North Downs can be a nasty place to ride a bike, and today was just one of those days. I saw quite a few mountain bikers give up and ride road sections.
Do you really need to know where I went or what I did? You just want to revel in my mysery don't you?
Well I'm not going to go there, I'm not going to tell. My solo ride of near three hours was cold, wet and really quite muddy.
S'all you need to know.
Actually you need to know more, you need to know how my test of cycle specific cleaners is going. For years I've just used a reasonable quality car shampoo, the ones that you dilute. But over the past few months I've tried a few cycle specific cleaners, the ones that come in spray bottles for around £7. You spray them on, leave for a bit, then rinse off. They're all OK but not outstanding and I was left wondering what all the fuss was about. Today I went back to hot water and car shampoo and the results were far better. I think the trick is doing what the Army suggest; clean your kit before you clean yourself. This was the muck doesn't get a chance to dry and cling to your bike. But by heck it was a hard regime, and I got really cold. It was tempting just to leave the bike dirty, it really was.
Friday it rained hard all day. On my way home from work I passed through sleet over near Coulsdon. Some roads were flooded in the Caterham valley.
Today the trails were back to being muddy again. It was also cold at 3 degrees C with a nasty wind. There was rain in the air and at one point it tried to snow. The North Downs can be a nasty place to ride a bike, and today was just one of those days. I saw quite a few mountain bikers give up and ride road sections.
Do you really need to know where I went or what I did? You just want to revel in my mysery don't you?
Well I'm not going to go there, I'm not going to tell. My solo ride of near three hours was cold, wet and really quite muddy.
S'all you need to know.
Actually you need to know more, you need to know how my test of cycle specific cleaners is going. For years I've just used a reasonable quality car shampoo, the ones that you dilute. But over the past few months I've tried a few cycle specific cleaners, the ones that come in spray bottles for around £7. You spray them on, leave for a bit, then rinse off. They're all OK but not outstanding and I was left wondering what all the fuss was about. Today I went back to hot water and car shampoo and the results were far better. I think the trick is doing what the Army suggest; clean your kit before you clean yourself. This was the muck doesn't get a chance to dry and cling to your bike. But by heck it was a hard regime, and I got really cold. It was tempting just to leave the bike dirty, it really was.
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