It was take two for todays ride as I had to cancel the Sunday ride because of the bad forecast-which turned out to be a nice sunny day-you can`t win them all. There was 4 of us at the start, Myself, Graham B, Andy & Dave Oatway, Dave Newman had the start of flu, Larry was having his flu jab that afternoon.
We set off towards Bittaford & turned left under the railway arches for a nice climb to shake the cobwebs out, Andy & I struggled up after the other two on their e-bikes, Andy dreaming of when his bike would be electrified & hoping to get his kit by the end of the week. Passing Moorhaven village we turned left again & headed for Owley, the lanes were knee deep in autumn leaves, at times it was a job to make out the tarmac, this proved a problem for the whole ride. Arriving in Aish we headed for Shipley Bridge & found we where to early for the tea wagon, so it was on to Bloody Pool Cross and the back lanes to Buckfastleigh. On these lanes coming down the long hill towards Deancombe there was a loud pop from my rear wheel and I had a puncture. Stripping down my wheel to repair the puncture with the thoughts of running my fingers around the tyre to find the offending thorn, my inner tube seemed stuck in & I found the offending object of my puncture, a metal pin like a nail about 3- 4 inches long through my tyre and innertube.
Back on the road again we passed through Buckfastleigh, Pridhamsleigh & headed for Landscove and our first coffee stop to find it closed on Mondays till the 22 March, dam!!. This place used to be closed all winter, but the last time Graham & Myself were here they said it would now be opened all winter, not mentioning that it would be closed Mondays. So it was plan 2, & we headed off for Ben`s farm shop at Staverton. On arrival with the sun out and blue sky`s we sat outside to enjoy our refreshments.
Fully refreshed & our stomachs recharged, it was on the road again to skirt Rattery & on to South Brent, as the afternoon progressed we started to get a couple of drizzly showers to dampen us down a bit, but these soon passed. Coming into South Brent we decided to stop again at the converted pub come cafe for more refreshments, tucking in to Beer & Cider, with Andy abstaining for a cup of tea. After a nice stop and reflecting back on our teenage years around a table with our alcohol, it was then the final leg back to the Station carpark and our farewells for another week after a nice ride with good company and 36.8 miles covered.
Trevor
We set off towards Bittaford & turned left under the railway arches for a nice climb to shake the cobwebs out, Andy & I struggled up after the other two on their e-bikes, Andy dreaming of when his bike would be electrified & hoping to get his kit by the end of the week. Passing Moorhaven village we turned left again & headed for Owley, the lanes were knee deep in autumn leaves, at times it was a job to make out the tarmac, this proved a problem for the whole ride. Arriving in Aish we headed for Shipley Bridge & found we where to early for the tea wagon, so it was on to Bloody Pool Cross and the back lanes to Buckfastleigh. On these lanes coming down the long hill towards Deancombe there was a loud pop from my rear wheel and I had a puncture. Stripping down my wheel to repair the puncture with the thoughts of running my fingers around the tyre to find the offending thorn, my inner tube seemed stuck in & I found the offending object of my puncture, a metal pin like a nail about 3- 4 inches long through my tyre and innertube.
Back on the road again we passed through Buckfastleigh, Pridhamsleigh & headed for Landscove and our first coffee stop to find it closed on Mondays till the 22 March, dam!!. This place used to be closed all winter, but the last time Graham & Myself were here they said it would now be opened all winter, not mentioning that it would be closed Mondays. So it was plan 2, & we headed off for Ben`s farm shop at Staverton. On arrival with the sun out and blue sky`s we sat outside to enjoy our refreshments.
Fully refreshed & our stomachs recharged, it was on the road again to skirt Rattery & on to South Brent, as the afternoon progressed we started to get a couple of drizzly showers to dampen us down a bit, but these soon passed. Coming into South Brent we decided to stop again at the converted pub come cafe for more refreshments, tucking in to Beer & Cider, with Andy abstaining for a cup of tea. After a nice stop and reflecting back on our teenage years around a table with our alcohol, it was then the final leg back to the Station carpark and our farewells for another week after a nice ride with good company and 36.8 miles covered.
Trevor