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NEWARK NOTES from the SecretaryApril 2007 What are we going to do with all this nice weather? As I write this, the TV weather people are going on about what a fine April we've had. I can't say I'd disagree with them, though is it just me or have there been a lot of windy days? March wasn't too bad either, if my memory serves me well. In all this fine weather, did we make any amazing journeys? Well, not really. The Saturday run went to Gunthorpe, Fulbeck, Muston, Whisby and Gunthorpe again, among a few other destinations, whilst on Sunday we went to Fulbeck, Gunthorpe, aaargh!! Well actually those were short days, we also went to Bardney, Heckington, Bracebridge Heath,and Woodhall Spa. Do you get the impression that the wind was in the East quite a bit? So did anything out of the ordinary happen on any of these? Well, there's another trouble- with-locks story. As the Saturday ride were preparing to leave Fulbeck, Dave couldn't find the key to his lock, despite having locked it with the key when we arrived. Fortunately the café is in a craft centre, and the craft centre has a blacksmith, and the blacksmith has an angle grinder. Let's just say that it took him much longer to get his electric cable out to the bike than it did to destroy the lock (about 3 seconds..ed). Okay, this was a cheap discount-store lock, but I use something very similar on my own work bike. Hopefully the ne'er-do-wells who hang out outside Morrison's and other places where I park my bike don't usually carry angle grinders. And I'd like to think the rather more expensive lock I use on my rather more expensive bike would last a little longer, though conventional wisdom is that very little will resist an angle grinder for long. The guys at Sustrans probably won't thank me for saying this, but on my trip to Woodhall, I noticed the old railway line under Kirkstead Bridge was being surfaced, so I went down to investigate. Right on cue another cyclist came the other way, and he told me that the track was nowhere near complete but rideable in the dry, so it was into Indiana Jones mode for a bit of exploration. The first half mile or so was on the crushed stone bed, being prepared for tarmacing, but not a lot worse even in this state than the old track between Selby and York. From there it was the old track bed, bumpy but rideable, even without suspension, before more crushed stone and eventually tarmac at Southrey, where the people in the pub garden suggested that the track had already brought an increase in trade. It was tarmac for about another mile before joining a rather bumpy farm track; I believe that for winter an on-road alternative is recommended. Anyway, by the time you read this it looks like this section of track will be more or less complete. According to the information boards, the plan is to eventually go all the way to Boston, which will make this quite a little ride in itself. On a related topic, at Five Mile Bridge a few weeks later, I noticed that the steep steps on the bridge had been replaced by some nice new ramps, making it easy to cross the Witham at that point. Some of you may remember our French trip last year. We enjoyed it so much (the others tell me) that we're going back again this year. This time 12 of us are planning to descend upon a large Gite in Normandy for a fixed-centre break so that we can have varying rides according to our abilities. But first we've got to get to Portsmouth and to that end our old trailer was woken from its slumber in Peter Border's back garden. Pete was extremely glad to see the back of it but our problems had just begun. The wooden deck, past its sell-by date when it was last used, was completely rotten, so much so that it left a trail of rotten fragments all the way to John's place where further work was to be carried out. And some of the tyres needed replacing, which was not unexpected. Archie replaced the timber with some recycled metal roof cladding and re-built the front end to incorporate some storage space. A work-party recently did some painting, greased and adjusted the wheel bearings and made some sense of the old bike mountings, which had become rather incomprehensible once removed from the trailer. Looks like it should all be back together in time for a test run before we use it in earnest. Having spent the time and money on doing it up, I hope that we can use it a bit more to extend our range, possibly for a weekend Youth Hostel trip some time.
Mike Graham Page updated 17/05/2007 |