Saturday 10th January - A moist beginning - Sutton Wick

a damp start is forecast, but this should have cleared by mid-morning. a strong westerly is in the offing so we'll head through the trees on the way back, could be a bit agricultural in places, so best bikes only.

we'll head for sutton wick via chewton mendip. i think i recall a similar venture this time last year on a damp day, but nothing of any real note happened; i wonder whether mr. telford will be out? (get back on that horse!)

route out will be sandford/winscombe/cheddar should anybody wish to latch on; i may treat you all to a new road surface that i've been told about on the way, so you'd better be good.

PS: as tour down under starts 17th january, next saturday 17/1 will be your last opportunity to enter the year long pro-rider sweepstake. £5 to enter; details in separate sweepstake thread on this forum.

Darn... must have just missed you guys!!! Will arrive earlier next time

I thought I did the Axbridge by-pass fast today but you guys nailed it! Got to love a tailwind!

Bad luck Fryup2000. We always leave on time, unless our hallowed leader is late. We only wait for him out of some kind of misplaced loyalty. Oh - and the fact that no-one else knows where we are going!

'Bling' Baxter was showing off his new shiny equipment. Must have been polishing it for hours - I've never seen such a glossy bell end. Mars was impressed at any rate. En route we picked up Jim and Adrian who was running late as he had to extract his saddle from his arse at some point. Apparently he had brought a special spanner to tighten up his nuts in case it happened again. We think we spotted Martin. He appeared to be stuck in a tree after being blown up there along with all the plastic bags and stuff.

Paul, The Dandy Highwayman (Pete) and Nick then joined in at Sandford followed by Paul at Winscombe. Unfortunately Jim had to abandon on the Col de Stinky Bridge due to a mechanical. It was pretty gusty but as we swung around onto the Axebridge bypass the wind was behind and I lost sight of the usual suspects as they hammered it down the road. I was taking it easy having managed a staggering 55 miles over the past 3 weeks and I did not want to expend too much energy on the outward leg. Having said that I was still doing 26 to Cheddar without any real effort. After a brief shower of rain we passed through Cheddar and out the other side before taking a left up on to the Mendips. Bit of a slog so was glad to reach the top where unfortunately Rob had to retire with three broken spokes. That was after last week when he apparently also broke some spokes and had his wheels re-built - guaranteed to last is what I think he was told when he picked them up yesterday.

A reasonable pace was then set across the top before a stupid speed was adopted down to Chewton Mendip. We safely passed Pete's commemorative dent in the road on the way to West Harptree and Sutton Wick. The Dandy Highwayman had suffered a puncture some way back and arrived with the auto-bus some minutes later. Within a couple of miles of leaving the cafe he suffered another puncture. At first it seemed the decent thing to wait but some bright spark decided a small group of us would continue home at a slow pace. I quickly signed up for the slow ride as did about half the group. Thank you to those who did turns on the front into the wind. I was grateful for the tow. We gradually split up for the final few miles and I decided to go home via Banwell and Locking. It was slow going. Let's just say my average speed at Churchill was about 16.5 mph and by the time I got home it was 15.9!

Riders: 16, er 15, no 14 er 7 depending on which part of the ride you are referring to.
Abandoned: Jim, Rob, Bling (I was told his horse refused to go up the hill on to the Mendips!)
Distance: 56 miles
Average Speed: (redacted!)
OJC: 2?
TTCR: 8/10 - service has improved. There are now two people serving at half the speed they did before. That's got to be an improvement!
KFC: 99999999/100000000

Seems like i missed another well drilled (organised) ride :-)
Rather than being stuck up a tree I was at home feeling a bit dissy. Unfortunately no alcohol was involved. According to Mr Google i have Vestibular neuritis (another virus).
Anyway glad to hear you all enjoyed your day out although it sounds like there were far to many mechanicals. Perhaps Jim and Rob could attend Wayne's master class in bike maintenance ie let it rust!

New club jerseys, see post in Notifications section:-

https://westoncg.forumotion.co.uk/t250-2015-jerseys-orders-in-by-21st-february

Get them before all the small ones sell out :-)

I couldn't get no rhythm going up Westfield Lane, because my gears had a mind of their own and changed every time I put the power down. (Worn chain and cassette). I definitely need to replace them before I can go out on another bike ride. I would have said goodbye to everyone put I was in a right hump, because I was also feeling pretty unwell so I decided to do a Lone Ranger and head back home early.

Adrian came first at the top of the hill with the tall beard fella, I don't know the name of not to far behind him. (And no that isn't a sexual innuendo!).

@ Fryup2000: I saw you at the very top of Cheddar Gorge. Yep, that handsome fella dressed in all black descending on Silver with a box of Milk Tray in his hands, was me!

Moist beginning but damp squib ending.

The rest of the story:
The return was of course into the wind and only a couple of miles after the tea stop, Pete had an excellent sounding blow out, his second I understand.  Although everyone stopped, more than half of the group then opted to continue and left the rest of us behind to aid/watch/advise/criticise/ignore Pete in the repair.  

Only a few miles further and there was yet another loud pop and hiss from Pete’s back tyre.  Adrian lent him a tube which also promptly burst.  
Remaining tubes were now becoming scarce.  A second loaned tube worked and we were rolling again, albeit accompanied by strange scraping, crunching sounds from Pauls pedal area. Both pedals were so loose  they looked as if they were going to fall off any time but Paul assured everyone that they had been like that for years.  We continued and so did the noises.  Ivan said Paul would be OK if he didn’t press on the pedals on the hills.  Good advice.  

A few miles further and blow out number 5.  This was a nail through one side of my (new!) rear tyre and out the other, pinning the tube inside.  A different kind of snake bite.  Neil stopped with me but the rest of the group didn’t hear the shout and disappeared.  We resigned ourselves to a lone ride home but just around the corner we came across…. Yes, you guessed it.  Puncture number 6 please.  This time Ivan the lucky customer.  

We continued up to the A38 and as we turned onto Nates Lane towards Wrington were confronted with a flood, depth unknown, for about 100 yds.  Some were ready for re-routing but Ivan was made of stronger stuff and tested the depth.  Satisfied that the water wouldn’t enter his pristine pedals/bottom bracket, Paul followed and then the rest of us. Eventually we made it back to Banwell, still as a GROUP and then beyond.    5 ½ hours since leaving Priory but only 63% of it actually moving.

Thank ye all for the rubber oooh".....actually not bad ride apart from multiple punctchers,bottom brackets etc weather ok entente cordiallll .xxx