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Breakfast Essex Ride
22 April 2006

Another Saturday morning and Gary has issued his personal invitation to a few to accompany him onto another adventure in Essex lanes. This time we are only going as far as the cafe at Norton Heath which is a spot familiar to many of us who have followed Gary into Essex. Only two others have answered Gary's summons and even before I get to the meeting point I have received a call from Dave Tuckwell asking that we do not depart without him. The real reason for the ride was that Gary wanted to get some more mileage in before the Highland Tour so you tourists have been warned.

Eventually at 07.45 we get started after locating Dave who is in the usual place atop the bridge and Gary and I are waiting under the bridge ready to start. For much of the ride everything went well as we simply rode hard through the built up areas of east London. Once we had gone over the North Circular Road at Woodford we settled down with Dave following me and Gary keeping up with us.

Unlike last week the weather was much clearer and I could see the views back over London as we got to the top of the rise at Grange Hill. We did not stop there but pressed on deeper into the Essex lanes. As I had ridden this route a few times with Gary and specifically I had been with him on the same roads a week earlier the route was very fresh in my memory so there was little or no stopping apart from some slowing down to keep us together.

We eventually got to Norton Heath at 09.45 having covered 43.07Km which incidentally is exactly the same distance as I recorded last week. Is that uncanny or what! Breakfast was welcome as was the opportunity for me to warm up as I had gambled on the weather being warm and as it had been cool in the morning both hands and feet were cold. Choices for breakfast were interesting; Gary had two toasts, one with scrambled egg and the other with beans. Dave had sausage and mash and I had a ham omelette. However both Gary and Dave followed their breakfast with spotted dick with custard an unusual choice and one that Colin Waters will be proud of as he is an acknowledged expert on the consumption of puddings with custard.

After breakfast we decided to carry on riding north for a while through Willingale before heading west via Moreton and High weald then on to Epping. From Epping it was then a straight run for home down the A105 back into Leyton and Clapton. We dropped Dave off soon after crossing the North Circular Road at Waterworks Corner so he could head for Walthamstow. Before that we had the only unplanned stop as I was concerned that my bike was not running well. It turned out that I had a slow puncture in the rear tyre so I simply pumped the tyre up as I had already planned a visit to my friend Terry who runs Action Bikes at Victoria so all I wanted was to get to the end of the ride as quickly as possible then I could use the facilities there to replace the failing tube as well as having the annoying clunk from my bottom bracket/cranks attended to.

Eventually I parted company with Gary at Bethnal Green tube station and rode to Victoria. Once there I used the workshop facility to change the tube in the rear tyre. This proved a little troublesome as the source of the puncture was difficult to find and only became apparent when the tyre was immersed in water and the pinprick was found within less than 1cm of the valve. Before asking the mechanic to check out the annoying noise as I was about to start cleaning up I discovered that the front tyre was soft and had to sort that out. Finding the source of the second puncture was much easier as I knew the tyre had a small cut and sure enough the tube had been damaged there.

After the puncture adventures I was then able to ask one of the guys in the shop to check the cranks and he noticed some movement which is an indicator of bottom bracket problems. The mechanic then had a quick test ride and confirmed the diagnosis but said that simply taking the bottom bracket apart and re-lubricating was likely to cure the noise. The further options were t strip the bottom bracket before replacing the bottom bracket so I still have one further chance if the noise does not go away.

Thanks to Gary for arranging the ride which was noteworthy for the fact that at no time did Gary or myself consult a map as we knew the route so well. Not stopping for map reading certainly helps to keep delay to a minimum.

STATISTICS
Distance ridden: Approx 102.38K
Average speed: Not recorded on the bike I used
Maximum speed: 51.3Kph
Deflates: None, well, maybe two
Weather: Good after a cool start
Overview: Another good ride

Ken

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