January 31st, 2006
B-17s and Spitfires
 Image © & courtesy Matt Booth |
We took the tandem to Delamere on Sunday with some cheeky friends. Not that we had much chance of being cheeky on such a beast. This was the first time Kirsty had done a ride with any of the cheeky crowd since Glentress back in 2001.
Surrounded, as we were, by a bunch of agile little singlespeeds, and walkers I got some ideas of how B-17 pilots must have felt heading towards Germany circa 1944. Not being so manoeuvrable we had to maintain a heading and speed, doing our best to avoid the Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs of walkers and dogs, whilst around us friends flitted backwards and forwards like Mustangs and Spitfires on escort duties.
While the singlespeeds merrily skipped away down singletrack we faltered, shipped timing chains, got whipped by trees, and demolished small obstacles. Being a full on downhiller of a tandem of course we had to visit the jump spot. We managed a small wheelie on our first trip into the bombhole, which resulted in a suitable amount of laughter and awe. My subsequent efforts might have been more impressive if Kirsty had still been attached.
 Image © & courtesy SteveM |
SteveM and stever then gave us a tour of some of Delameres best cheek as we wound our way to the Shore section. A little too narrow and curvaceous for the tandem we thought, as well as requiring the ability to lift the front wheel. I think we can be forgiven for standing aside and watching Simon and Bill head towards each other in a game of chicken, that neither was aware the other was playing.
As posted here it’s a while since we’ve been out on the tandem, and as those who ride them will know, the back can be an unforgiving place to sit - even with 4 inches of plush. After 3 hours Kirsty was getting a little tender and we called it a day. But what a day.
Matt has pictures here and SteveM has pictures here. Sadly Punkass’ Mac is still poorly and we haven’t seen the results of our photo-gimping for her.
And we still owe Matt couple of quid for parking. Cheers Matt. Don’t let us forget.
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February 1st, 2006 at 1:43 pm
It was a fun afternoon :)