Bikes and Beer, One For The Ditch#
Saturday ride.
I like beer (Stouts, porters and milds, not so keen on bitter) and I like mountain biking and I occasionally mix the two. I’m not great on a mountain bike; I still can’t pull a decent wheely, and I can’t drink a lot of beer; 3 pints is about my limit. A recent ride with a local mountain biking club showed me how much better I am at the former than the latter.
Adam regularly rides with the “One For The Ditch” crowd in Settle and I’d heard lots of tales of short rides and sessions in the bar. I joined them last Saturday and we set off from Giggleswick heading for Austwick. Well, The Game Cock in Austwick, to be exact, one of their sponsors. I think one of their other sponsors is a pub as well.
It would be fair to say that most of the lads were bigger than me; it gives them a distinct advantage in absorbing alcohol but hopefully meant I’d be able to keep up with them on a bike. I normally pootle along at first to warm up but after about 100 metres we were grinding up a hill and I discovered a distinct lack of easy gears due to me previously fettling my bike. God this was hard! Luckily we stopped at every gate to recover.
Before I’d managed to learn anyone’s name we were inside the pub and I was looking forward to a pint of Crafty Devil, my current favourite pint. By the time my pint was pulled and handed over one of the lads had finished his! I savoured / nursed my drink whilst they had another three. When we left they appeared exactly the same as when we entered whereas if I’d had 4 pints I’d be asleep. By now I’d learnt and remembered a few names; Chris, Doug and Nails, because he’s hard as. They should have called him Bottomless by the way he drank.
From there we were heading to the Helwith Bridge but unfortunately they went a different way and we lost track of them. A flat tyre (once again caused by my crapness at jumping and bunny hopping - stop laughing Rider) and a mechanical lost us too much time and daylight so Adam and I headed back to Giggleswick and a pint in the Harts Head
Brownie points earned - zero, better than minus though.
Thursday night ride.
With the promise of less beer, more riding, Adam once again gave me a lift to Giggleswick for the meeting at Vinces’ house. This was very kind of him considering that he had to lend me a towel to sit on last time to protect his leather seats and this time I’d neglected to bring anything of my own to sit on for the return journey. I’d also forgot to bring any money for the pub but he’s a generous lad! Plus he has to lift my bike in and out of the back of his pickup because it’s a bit too high for me. I may make him ride my bike as well next time and I can start and finish in the pub. I wonder if he’d clean for me afterwards?
Vince is so dedicated to the club that he has cleared out his kids toys from his garage and put them in a shed so the club has somewhere to meet. I will definitely be quizzing him about how he got away with this as I have plans for part of Sues’ garden. It was a larger group this time and I learnt even fewer names than on Saturday. With a combined light output of at least a million lumens we set off up the same hill as on Saturday but this time a lot faster. God this is hard! I’d like to describe where we went but I can’t, I haven’t got a clue. I know the rough area on a map but as to the actual route, no idea at all. It was dark, muddy and everyone seemed to ride like a demon.
I do remember the Harts Head where I actually managed two pints!
Brownie points earned - minus 5 for getting back late. Hopefully to be regained by giving Sue a lift tomorrow. Anyway Sue, it was Adam’s fault (remember New Year!) and it would have been rude to leave early.