Mishaps nearly every mile!

A pretty cheesed off Baz, walks back after his bike packs up in the first 200 yards!

A rest after the hard climb up from the pump house.

Two bandits get together for a talk about riding conditions and how they're treated!!

A catalogue of mishaps today which got underway within 200 yards of the start of the ride when Baz discovered his bike was falling to bits. Naturally there was no sympathy shown to him in his moment of grief but after a quick return to base he climbed on Clive's old Kona and managed to grumble his way round the ride to everyone else's amusement! My brakes were the next to feel the strain after a particularly fast descent down Castlelaw north and played up for the rest of the ride. On the climb back up to the saddle Clive got in on the act with a pinch puncture and then had the misfortune of the valve breaking off on the spare tube, however he had another and eventually we got on our way again. The original plan was to do the Pentland Skyline but with time running short we aborted this plan and instead went hell for leather on the West Kip to the Howe descent. Amazingly nobody was injured in this mad race and good times were recorded on this Strava segment all round. Baz's legs were beginning to feel the pace on the ride back down to Flotterstone so to shouts of  derision he and Dougie, who had to be home by 1pm, went back, leaving Clive, Mark and me to do another 6 or so miles with some more hard climbs before we got back. Over 35 miles done and according to Marks Garmin, though not my one, over 6000 feet of climbing. The good news was that after we got back and had dinner I had a rummage in the garage and found a spare part to fix Baz's bike, so he went home with a smile on his face!!