It was a reduced number of Easy Riders who assembled on Drury Lane today. The long ride, led by Tim, pedalled off to Perrywoods in Tiptree, while the short and medium rides led by Gifford and Mick headed off to Kelvedon, via Coggeshall Hamlet. Today, I was extolling the virtues of the frozen water bottle. I had two water bottles, one frozen, the other not. As I drink the defrosted water from the cold bottle, I decant the room temperature from the other one into it, thereby giving me more cooled water. It took us about an hour to pedal to Coggeshall Hamlet, and by then, my totally frozen bottle had no ice left. I was surprised how quickly it defrosted. Other ways of keeping a water bottle coo
Some of the Easy Riders may know I thoroughly enjoy being a student, and my latest foray has been into poetry. I’ve struggled writing my essay over the last few months, so decided to try verse, as a different format. Class members described poetry as ‘a stockcube of language’ (ie short and powerful) or ‘a song without music’ (gets young people to take it seriously). The class was designed to introduce complete beginners to various different forms of verse, each of which I have interpreted with the theme of riding a bike. Acrostic These have a word running down the capital letters, and here uses the word Braintree. Theme of where we live Bike ride to Maldon Riding downhill Across the rai
This week, Bill Twinn and I were leading and tailing the 11 riders on the short ride, heading to Greenstead Green. The medium and long rides went out to the Black Horse café at Earls Colne. Bill led us north to Bocking, and we toiled up Bocking Church Street, crossed the A131 and pedalled past Lyons Hall. Here Brian had some problems with his gear changing and the group were soon round him assisting with a repair. Between them, he was able to resume, but with only one gear option. Bill took us at a steady pace up to Plaistow Green, and gave us regular rests to catch our breath on the hills to the north of Braintree. I caught bits of conversation between other riders – Peter R, a Francophile,
My plan for today, was to ride 21 miles to the visitor centre at Abberton reservoir, meet Jim for a cup of tea and elevenses, put the bike in the back of the car to go home, then meet Mick et al at the Scout fete. Famous last words! About 9am I pedalled off down London Road and turned left opposite the King William to take the footpath running parallel to the south side of the A120. As I rode up the slope, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a magpie attacking a squirrel at the edge of the field. The squirrel shot out into my path! I ran over it with my front wheel, it spun out and hit my foot, then I ran over it with my back wheel. As I glanced back, I saw it contorting violently into th
And today was my first time as Ride Leader. I got off to a bit of an inauspicious start – I looked at the route description, and my map and could not work out some of the instructions. No matter, I thought – I’ll take my map and ask Mick to point it out. Except when I got to Drury Lane, I’d left the map on the kitchen table! As we were heading down London Road, I reminded my group of the 5 rider rule, and off we set. I was concerned about the new roundabout at the bottom of London Road, as there were about 13 of us, and I did not want friction with car drivers, anxious to get past us, as we toiled uphill towards the King William pub. So we went past the roadworks, and reassembled on the foot
