Since my last post, things have happened quite quickly on the bike scene. As some will know, my knee still isn’t right and this has led to a reduction in walking, and hence posting here. Also, my physiotherapist suggested cycling as an exercise to help with recovery. I used to mountain bike years ago, and haven’t been on a bike for about 2 years. So the last couple of months, I have been on my old Marin several times, and during some thought on upgrading it inline with the 21st century, I decided to replace it altogether.
I went upto Hawes a few weeks ago to test ride an Orange P7, and really liked it. So much so that I ordered a couple of Mondays ago, but due to hivering and hovering about sizing, spec etc, I messed up the order. This combined with an Orange stocktake, meant I would have to wait until mid November for the bike.
How surprised was I yesterday, when I got a call from Swinnertons @ cannock to inform me the bike was ready. Although I needed to complete doing our flat roof and the guttering due to the roof leaking, the call of fancy new equipment was too strong, and I picked it up on way back from getting our power washer serviced. At home, I took the obligatory pics and attached a crud catcher and some
frame protection.
My original plans for today were to sit on the turbo trainer for a couple of hours, as I still don’t trust my knee sufficiently to go out proper riding just yet, but the new bike was sufficient to force a trip over Sutton Park, albeit driving their to avoid Barr Beacon. I only did a single circuit of the park, but it was great fun – riding hardtails is so much fun having to actually pick lines rather than tumble over anything on a bouncer. Maybe some of the fun came from the newness factor also though.
Anyhow, it was a good day, and now that I have just sold my old Imac, I have ordered some more tools to treat the bike to some TLC.
The only outdoors thing to happen last week was a further discussion with Phil Sant about a few day trek around the Lakes next year. Probably set up a base camp at Langdale, and do some circulars or hopefully two dayers from there on. Oh, and I have my final knee consultation in exactly 1 month. Just hope the knee is fully mended for than as its been 4 months since last walk and I am eagerly awaiting the call of contour lines again!