G5 "hard men of cycling"

After quite a rainy night, the sun came out and shone on us for the G5 ride to Cranleigh on Saturday morning.

Steve, Peter, Matthew, Stuart, Leeson and myself departed the drome and headed down through Newdigate and Ockley to well known Weare Street on slightly damp roads, but all quite pleasant in the sun.  This was where the after effects of the rain - those pesky fints that get washed out - gave Steve a puncture which he repaired reasonably fast.  However, part of the valve sheared off in Matt's pump on reinflation, so he had to do it all again...that was two inner tubes.

Soon we were on our way again and cruising along near OakwoodHill towards Ellen's Green and "whoosh" - this was Stuart's rear tyre losing its contents pretty pronto.  Another punctured tube to add to the collection!  Quite a nice location to pause though.

We got out heads down and put in a good effort to get to the Cromwell Coffee House in Cranleigh where we had some good refreshments - this is a nice cafe and is reasonably priced.  Just as we were about to depart, Stuart's bike let out another "whoosh" and moved forward on its own..oh no another one!  It turned out a flint had damaged the tyre sidewall on the first puncture and the tube had gradually burst through the hole.  Problem solved with another repair with the inclusion of an energy bar wrapper between the tube and tyre.

The ride back was happily puncture free and the roads had dried up by then too.  I believe Stuart was going tyre shopping on Saturday afternoon and probably stocking up on inner tubes too.

I think Steve is still trying to remove himself from the inner tubes that gave him that "hard man of cycling" look!

Event / Article Type
Road Rides 03-11-12
Michelin man Steve