WEC 2008

Summer Woodies

Tyre interface

1 Monk headset

"It should be a short ride tonight!"

Thus the Monk did summarise his intentions clearly for the ride from Woodies, although past experience of exceptionally long, fast rides all the way to Barnes convinced the GM not to attend with his calf injury and he decided to stay at home and sweep some leave (as he did at the weekend). However, Terminator and the GuvNor were both taken in by the Monks fork tongue and decided to attend the ride with a residual injury and a new single speed bike respectively. Terminator wisely decided to play a joker and joined the ride at Ham Gate, the GuvNor thought it would be a great opportunity (on a short flat ride) to test his new steed (Purchased from the Monk!).

The GuvNor soon began to question the credentials of the retailer (Monk). The bike was delivered with no lights, no reflector, no bell, no plastic spoke protector on the rear gear, no mud guards and very little air in the rear tyre which was alsobald! There was such a shortage of air in the rear tyre that the GuvNor suffered a snake bite PIT en route to the start (Woodies).

Nevertheless, 9 grimesters including a new member John, set off from Woodies with 1 virgin single speeder. The route took its familiar journey with the only remarkable event being an equipment failure for Monk (Head set adjustment) prior to entering Richmond Park.

Once in Richmond Park it really kicked off. On meeting the Terminator to Monk had to stop for a Poo stop. Martin suffered a high speed TF whist navigating between tracks in the rough. This was catastrophic resulting in badly bruised ribs for Martin. The Monk and GuvNor managed to cycle into a smelly stream and Gadget cycled into a tree as he was distracted by the generously available eye candy in the park.

The Pond Pork Pie stop gave brief relief. Once out of Richmond Park the route took us in the direction of the Windmill on Wimbledon Common where 3 pipers were making celtic music and the Park Ranger was making sure we stuck to the roads. After much alternating routes and zigg zagging we came across yet another windmill identical to the first also with bag pipes! further on we found even more bag pipes! I never realised there was more than one windmill on Wimbledon common (either that or the Monk was lost).

The Geko GPS soon exposed Monks failings and we were soon back on track towards Woodies after a minor Grime failure which was rectified by the random route taken by the Monk.

A fast track back to Woodies completed the 'short ride' with a total of 25.4 miles under our belts. Terminators legs were tingling (due to fatigue), as were the GuvNors (due to nettle stings). Monks 'Short ride' turned out to be yet another epic although relatively speaking 25.4 miles would be considered short based on previous form. The GM made a wise choice!

The GuvNor