Eventful...was the word we used to describe yesterday's ride which ended with us both virtually on our knees!
Prior to going I knew I had a problem with my Crank Bros.seat post which was rotating left or right ..and Wayne kindly mentioned that he had a service kit which would hopefully rectify the problem ( but that wouldn't get done prior to the ride as I have the small problem of actually getting the seatpost free! )..this didn't pose too much of a problem when seated on a climb ..but out of the saddle on the descents the slightest touch had it 90 degrees left or right and unless it was perfectly inline ( straight) the post wouldn't drop ..it also worsened the lower the post was dropped ..
It's difficult to explain how much this affected me especially on the descent down Bowderdale where the track is very narrow and sunken in places and you are constantly moving around ..but I was a quivering wreck by the time I got to the bottom of the 5 miles that make up ( supposedly ) England's longest continuous descent ..
However prior to that and halfway up the first climb to Winder it became quickly clear that my cassette wasn't indexing properly ( why does that happen when only three days earlier it had been working perfectly up at Kielder ) ..the fiddling to get it right took a lot longer than it should have but we got there in the end ..
I should also mention at this point that The Western Dale's must have had a lot more rainfall dumped on them than we had in the North East as for a lot of the ride it was like riding along a stream bed ..and there were two genuine river crossings which meant plodging across as they couldn't be ridden ..also because of the strong wind it was contributing to battery usage which meant that Eco mode was being used more than I would have liked !
Fast forward to the second half of the ride when eight miles from home while showing 11miles range and well into the last two bars ..the ( Purion) unit just died ..no display / no power on a skittering section of bracken and gorse bridleway which took me by complete surprise and had me tumbling off the bike to the side of a steep drop ..and a 10min.push had me catching back up to Wayne who was waiting by a gate talking to some Berliner's on holiday .
After trying different button pushing I worked out that although there was no display the motor was still working ( relief ) ..however my good fortune was soon tempered by the fact that 5mins later Wayne's unit did exactly the same thing ..only his had failed completely with no battery power to assist ..and we were still a long way from the finish line on technical singletrack with no obvious way of getting to the road below .
Top marks to my riding partner for battling gamely on ..riding all but the very steepest of climbs ..but I couldn't help feeling guilty ..and trying to offer a pull up the hills didn't really help as we were more likely to crash into each other ...
And so it was that two very tired riders made it back to their cars ..myself with nervous exhaustion due to my erratic seatpost ..and Wayne with physical due to battery failure!
As for the ride itself ..well its been a good few years since I last rode it and increased traffic and erosion have taken their toll on the Bowderdale descent making it a lot more challenging ..and the return leg ( which was always my favourite part) has been blighted by overgrown gorse bushes on the best bits of singletrack ..which being narrow to start with have become even narrower ..
A great ride now being downgraded to just a very good ride ..but still a great day out with my mate
Update :
Arriving back last night and taking the bike out of the car ..the Purion switched on showing a 4mile range in eco ..I then plugged it onto the charger and it went off within 5mins .
Checking this morning it has fully charged but with an error code 51 or S1..checking on Google I can't find this code ..anyone know ?
It will still toggle through the different power modes although I havent turned the cranks in anger ..
Cheers for any help..
The pics for the ride were posted yesterday evening in the "Pic of the Day " section ..
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