downfader
extimus uero philosophus
- Location
- 'ampsheeeer
Was not a good ride there. I have a bad back and I hit something in the road and felt an almighty pop and flex of the back of the bike. I was with my brother who riding up front failed to hear me shout out. I stop, check over bike and cant find any damage. Havent a clue what it was. Brother has disappeared though.
I go around a side road and cant find him, down another and he's now riding towards me. Pull up in front and think I've let him catch up (I was going VERY slowly), look behind and he's gone again. Finally, after waiting at some lights he appears behind me and starts berating me for leaving him.
Finally we arrive at the park, riding down a cyclelane next to the river I hear another pop and something is jammed in my rear mudguard. So I have to get off and deal with that. Lots of sticks and tree rubbish about and hard to avoid, it being a park.
Catch up with him again and I take my turn at the front. I'm chatting away to him look around and see a bemused stranger riding behind me. What the..?! Wheres he gone now!? 30 seconds later he reappears. I guess the many dogs and prams in the cyclepath have slowed him down... or he went for a leak.
Right, so the Southampton Bike Festival.... there were about 20 stands there. Two of them were food ones. Southampton Cycling Campaign and Sotonia Club were there, as were Hargroves Cycles doing free bike checks.
There was another stand also doing bike checks and basic maintenance - in fact the entire line of people was parents with their kids bikes. I'm presuming, judging by what I saw today, that many of those bikes were bought a christmas or two ago and had a) never been set up right, and were a fair bit unsafe to ride full stop. Parents should know better! They'd all forced helmets on their kids (some knee and elbow pads) so why never check the brakes?
Some plonker racing his kid (old man on an old upright, and teenlad on a chopper) was having a stupid game of push each other off, and the older git nearly rode it right into my back wheel. Lucky I saw him not watching and dragged the bike over.
I'm afraid it was the most half-arsed cycle festival I'd ever seen.
Oh and add to that some old boy tried to rear end me off the road. I'd shoulder checked, as you do, when navigating parked cars, and as I looked saw him flying up at a rate of knots. I was doing a casual 16mph uphill at the time and he must have been doing 50. I shouted out to my brother "WATCHOUT FOR THE OLD PLONKER, HE DOESNT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!"
Oh and the last thing I will say about the cycling festival - SO MANY cars around the area with cycle racks on. Shame on you people!
I go around a side road and cant find him, down another and he's now riding towards me. Pull up in front and think I've let him catch up (I was going VERY slowly), look behind and he's gone again. Finally, after waiting at some lights he appears behind me and starts berating me for leaving him.
Finally we arrive at the park, riding down a cyclelane next to the river I hear another pop and something is jammed in my rear mudguard. So I have to get off and deal with that. Lots of sticks and tree rubbish about and hard to avoid, it being a park.
Catch up with him again and I take my turn at the front. I'm chatting away to him look around and see a bemused stranger riding behind me. What the..?! Wheres he gone now!? 30 seconds later he reappears. I guess the many dogs and prams in the cyclepath have slowed him down... or he went for a leak.
Right, so the Southampton Bike Festival.... there were about 20 stands there. Two of them were food ones. Southampton Cycling Campaign and Sotonia Club were there, as were Hargroves Cycles doing free bike checks.
There was another stand also doing bike checks and basic maintenance - in fact the entire line of people was parents with their kids bikes. I'm presuming, judging by what I saw today, that many of those bikes were bought a christmas or two ago and had a) never been set up right, and were a fair bit unsafe to ride full stop. Parents should know better! They'd all forced helmets on their kids (some knee and elbow pads) so why never check the brakes?
Some plonker racing his kid (old man on an old upright, and teenlad on a chopper) was having a stupid game of push each other off, and the older git nearly rode it right into my back wheel. Lucky I saw him not watching and dragged the bike over.
I'm afraid it was the most half-arsed cycle festival I'd ever seen.
Oh and add to that some old boy tried to rear end me off the road. I'd shoulder checked, as you do, when navigating parked cars, and as I looked saw him flying up at a rate of knots. I was doing a casual 16mph uphill at the time and he must have been doing 50. I shouted out to my brother "WATCHOUT FOR THE OLD PLONKER, HE DOESNT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE!"
Oh and the last thing I will say about the cycling festival - SO MANY cars around the area with cycle racks on. Shame on you people!