November 21st, 2005
Bamfest 1.0 - Dambusters
Late to bed, late to rise was the motto today. It was nearly midday before we managed to set off for a ride round the Ladybower reservoirs. Even so this wasn’t quite enough time for Merlinman to recover from the effects of the night before. Cue amaretto vomit at the top of the first climb.
Blimey it was cold. Every climb was in the sun and every descent was in the cold. Which meant unzipping everything and sweating like a pig for 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes of freezing our tits off and avoiding the patches of ice.
Our large group overcame any problems of intimidating red-socks by straggling. I was definitely one of the stragglers. Fortunately Glenn was behind me to spot my dropped Oakleys.
Our only major incident of the day came from Tim and Bee who managed to launch their tandem off a rock step and destroy the rear wheel on landing. It seems that they managed a one-in-a-million impact bang on the pinned joint. As well as splitting, a three inch section of rim broke free, the rest of the wheel folded to protect the mech and they ground gracefully to a halt. An airlift was called in and they were rescued back to the bunkhouse while the rest of us made like a gaggle of kids for the café stop. Tea and cake all round.
The ride Part II consisted of yet more climbing to Spitfire skies. before I got cross-rutted on the descent and managed to lose a pedal and take a lump out of my ankle on my sharp-edged CNCed cranks. Ouch!
After a whole bag of Tangfastics and a deliciously hot shower there was a vague plan to ride to the Travellers Rest for Merlinman’s celebration meal but some numpty had brought all his lights and forgotten the mount. Doh! Still, the walk was a nice chance to talk to people not seen for ages.
Here’s what some other people had to say about the weekend:
Rob showed some of the effects of the previous nights activities by throwing up halfway up the first climb - good effort :-) Took a while to get used to riding frosty trails but soon realized that there was actually a reasonable amout of grip available, well apart from where there was sheet ice right across the trail - there were a few slippy moments!
The celebrations continued long into the small hours and then we rode on a crisp, frosty, perfect English winter day. The trails were mostly dry and grippy, the hills were steep and rocky and the riders were all over the place (well, those that actually managed to get out of bed and go riding were).
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November 23rd, 2005 at 5:08 pm
Was a cracking ride :)
November 18th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
[...] The lack of frost only struck me when someone pointed out that it’s a year since we were riding out in deep frosts in the Peak District for Bamfest. [...]