23rd March 2006 - Elterwater ride

"Six of us met at the Britannia Inn, Elterwater, including Joel with his newly re-fettled machine. Apparently 'mechanical problems' are now consigned to history as every bit of his bike has been replaced with qualityc omponents. One of the more intriguing upgrades was the swapping of a'Deore' chainset for a 'Deore' chainset.
The ride was up past Hodge Close to Iron Keld Crag and then down the grassytracks to the road and back. The ground was really saturated with lots of mud and patches of old snow.
The barman teased us with promises of chips but then reneged on his word as 'the kitchen says it's not worth heating the fryers up again'. Exactly how much business do English pubs need before its 'worth them doing anything'? They are probably too busy complaining about the recent drop off in tourist spending." Match report by Jim.
Next ride Thursday 30 March at Winster, meet by the church.
(NB: Final nite ride for 6 April still to be determined)

16th March 2006 - Staveley

Well the holiday season is upon us, folks are either away or packing to go away, packing up houses or just... going for more awards.
So there was a bit of snow about, nothing to stop us hardtails...we waited and set off spot on 7pm, Jamie & me choose the usual route and took the right hand lane at Barley Bridge up to Staveley Head. Now the snowploughs had missed this section, so we were in for a fun night... left at Staveley Head and head on over to HP Plantation, strap on the down hill protection and plough on through the snow, it was nothing or something like a 2 wheel drive car without stabilisers sliding on ice, and you couldn't see the boulders. With relief we got down the track and headed back down the lane and home. Check out http://rads-pics.blogspot.com/ for the latest guess who?
Next week Elterwater, meet at Britannia Inn.

9th March 2006 - Lupton

6 riders turned up on a damp evening and met at The Plough Inn. We had one flat tyre at the start, all fixed and off we go... down the track past the pub, through the ford (for one rider at least) then up the track onto Puddlemire Lane and along Town End farm and now a right turn up a muddy track, muddy I hear you say, quagmire more like, anyway a chance to walk uphill and catch up on the latest chat! Top of the track turn right and look for the right track, so to speak... end up on the knott for the first puncture (George) when we all set off Chris had a slow flat and tried to pump it up, but no luck and so had to stop, meanwhile George had his second and it was all stop. Then down the muddy slip sliding track back to the ford...
...now for those who were there, we know what happened next and Thanks for all you did.
May he rest in peace - James Brodie, 1948-2006.

2nd March 2006 - Ambleside, Loughrigg Fell

9 started from the Pelter Bridge car park near Rydal in sub-zero temperatures, so we started off with a little cake to fuel our ride, cheers Ed! We set off south down the lane to then take the ballistic up-hill track to get onto Loughrigg Fell at least the up-hill meant we would warm up. Jim had a slight mishap with some ice, followed by a frozen freewheel problem, Charlie had intermittent freewheel faults (just to keep Jim company). We headed over the top and started down Ivy Crag, where Joel suffered a rare failure to his Marzocchi forks, the seals gave up (maybe 'cause of the freezing cold?) and so no suspension for the rest of the ride, bummer!!
We continued along the lanes by Loughrigg Tarn and took a new path next to High Close hostel and again sampled some of Eds cake, spot on. Then we sampled the delights of an icy Loughrigg Terrace, half way down 4 split off and went via the caves and met the others by the gate, all home safely. A quick change in the car park to dress for the pub, where we discussed when Easter was and which days to book off for the Scottish weekend!
Next week, The Plough at Lupton, for a route around Farleton Knott.