A lot of moaning going on about the weather, but, 32 years ago, this type of weather bothered us less. It was I believe February 1978 when Mick Ayliffe, Nick "Dinky" Dunkley, Steve Edgar and yours truly set off on one of Mick's 24 hour training rides to Bognor Regis on snow covered roads. Yes, 120 miles in really bad conditions.
But we were hard men. No overpriced bits of polystyrene on our heads. No fancy overshoes or gortex gloves. We just used to get on with it. However, were cautious and rode down Givens Grove because of the icy conditions.
It was of course an epic ride. Nick riding ahead of us by 20 yards for no reason for parts of the ride and getting soaked in slush from a passing vehicle. Slogging up Bury Hill, arriving in Bognor for eats looking like coal miners who had just finished a shift.
On the way back my left hand crank came loose and thank God for those old dumbbell multi-spanners. Mick whacked the crank on with a brick and it was tightened back on and lasted until I got home. What a day it was, the sort of day that one remembers and when the weather turns bad thinks "I've been out in worse conditions than this!"
On another topic, Robert Douglas and I went on a ride to Hindhead in freezing conditions, a good 80 miles, and on reaching Milford on the way back I found that my bottle had frozen decending Hindhead!
Don't beleive the climate change scaremongers, it has been as bad as this before!
Thursday 14 January 2010
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I remember that ride; Nick Dunkley crested a hill, turned around to look back in disdain at the rest of us, and got hit full in the face by a "wave" of slush from the wake of a passing lorry. I laughed all the way home.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing was that with Nick being Nick he denied that it happened.
ReplyDeleteHave you still got the Holdsworth Steve(or any of teh bits?)?
No bike or bits but I've still got my old Flandria jersey, it seems to have shrunk in the wash over the years though! Maybe you should do a post about your favourite bits of retro kit. I can still remember being cold on that Bognor ride, thank god for neoprene overshoes...
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