Saturday 13th November Shop Ride - How much mud??????

Apologies – the ‘work’ thing has gotten in the way quite a bit this week. Must try fix that for next week!


We were joined last Saturday by Team BBB’s resident physio Morgan, who is becoming a bit of a regular on the BBB rides (road & MTB) and a new friend of the shop called Richard. On arrving at the shop at 9am we were greeted by them looking what can only be described as pristine. Indeed Richard, courtesy of a very generous wife and birthday earlier in the week looked like he’d just stepped out of the Madison catalogue. They in turn were greeted by Wayne and I looking like we had just run all the way there through a muddy forest. Which in fairness we pretty much had.

We loaded the bikes up and set off to are starting point for the ride which this week was to be the Hole Of Horcum ride via Levisham. After the previous weeks bog fest in Newton we had faithfully promised to avoid the gloopy stuff. Im not going to lie to you – we failed. Spectacularly. In fact I would go as far as to say that it ws probably the muddiest ride I have ever done. Not aided by an epic ‘fail’ in terms of tyre choice. You would think I would no better by now.....

The ride started so well, lulling us all into a false sense of security as we headed out across the Moors on a near perfect November morning. After 30minutes of some fab riding we reached the top of a steep bank that heads down into the valley that would eventually take us alongside the NYM Railway towards Levisham station. With all the group stood taking in the fantastic view I bit the bullet and fired off down the steep moorland singletrack, aiming for the narrow tarmac road in the distance. How impressive it must have looked to those behind as moments later my rear wheel jammed, shifting the back of the bike 90degrees sideways and high-siding me over the top tube. It takes years of practice to perform that particular dismount, still holding on to the handle bars whilst running at speeds Usane Bolt would be proud of through the heather trying to bring the bike to a halt.

With everyone else opting for the more conventional approach of staying on there bikes for the journey down the hill we assembled at the bottom and headed off in the direction of Levisham. The next 60 minutes can be pretty much summed up in the following few words......mud, mud more mud, even more mud, mud, mud, push the bike, swear at the mud, push the bike some more, curse Morgan and his smugness for opting to fit some winter Mud tyres the day before as he rode past us all up to our knees in Yorkshires finest brown stuff, mud, mud, mud........and some heavy duty chainsuck.

By the time we reached the bottom of Levisham Bank the bikes were approximately 20lbs heavier , our hearts similar. So you can imagine the joy on Richards face , a man by who his own admission is “not as fit as he used to be”, when he saw the steepness ahead of him. For those that dont know it / havent seen it the road up to Levisham is probably one of the steepness B roads in the country. And to make it even harder for himself Richard opted to ride up it on Waynes bike (whilst Wayne did some running repairs to his Fuel EX 9) – stood up out of the saddle thanks to the rather high seat position adopted by Wayne.

Once up to Levisham,a picture postcard village, very very pretty indeed, we headed back up onto the Moors for our return leg over to the HoH. With the mud well behind and spirits lifted we settled into the ride once again and had a wonderful blast back, avoiding the plethora of walkers that had decided to make the Moors their home for the morning thanks to the glorious weather. We arrived back at the cars smiling. No major mechanicals and no injuries which is how we intend to keep it.

Looking forward to Saturday morning. With no mud – I promise ;-)



Simon