BB1539 : Call That A Bike?

Thursday 3rd December 2015

We were in Grizedale Forest on an inclement day preparing for our Christmas special outing.  There were thirteen of us but only ten electric bikes to hire so the unlucky (?) three- Tony, Pete and Graham volunteered to go walking instead.

Comitibus: Grisedale

Off went the BIKERboys into the forest with Andrew leading and me acting as tail-end Charlie. We quickly got used to the power system.  Your right thumb controls a standard set of rear wheel derailleurs whilst the left activates a rocker switch that selects the electric motor power- ranging from off, eco, medium and high. It was similar in many ways to a having a triple clanger.  You have to pedal or the motor switches off.  More disconcerting, the motor is limited to 16 mph so when on the charge you suddenly find that your support has cut out. Probably a wise safety feature although we did hear of someone defeating the cutout and being able to achieve 44 mph!  The most I achieved was about half that.

The forest trails were rather muddied thanks to the rain and the fact that they had just been used for car rallying.  Fortunately a piste-basher was on its rounds removing the worst of the bumps.

Apart from Mike, who had problems with his gears locking and had to return to base, I think we all enjoyed the tour round the forest trail, despite the dampness of the weather.

We returned to the café for lunch determined to have a second expedition after pasties & chips.  However the rain set in with a vengeance and the enthusiasm evaporated.  Let’s leave it for better weather, we agreed.  

Tony and pals were already in the café when we arrived.  When we asked them how far they had been into the woods, they confessed.  Their total expedition had been from the bike shop to the café.  A challenging fifty yards.

Call that a walk, Tony?

Don, Thursday 4th December

PS   In the evening we had our now traditional dinner, at Infusion in Kendal, at which the BOOTbabes are invited to come along and dine at a separate table. Sounds chauvanistic but it works well and Infusion did their usual excellent job of serving fine food with a smile.

PPS My apologies for the photos.  I didn’t take many and most of those were pretty appalling.  Somehow the camera seemed to have focused on the ground in front of me rather than the heroes on the trail.  Or I had water on my lens.  Excuses!

BOOTboys routes are put online in gpx format which should work with most mapping software. You can follow our route in detail by downloading bb1539 .

To discover which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing - although it may not be that up to date - or for the totals of the mileages and heights (ditto) see the Excel file: BB Log.

You can navigate to the required report via the Home Page

Photos have been gleaned from many sources
although mostly from me and other BOOTboys. Likewise written comment.

I apologise if I have failed to acknowledge properly the source or infringed
copyright.  Please let me know and I will do my best to put things right.

Unless stated otherwise, please feel free to download the material if you wish.
A reference back to this website would be appreciated.

Wainwrights

To see which Wainwright top was visited on which BB outing see Which Wainwright When? This may or may not be up to date!

For the latest totals of the mileages, heights and Lakeland Fells Books Wainwrights see: Wainwrights.
Ditto warning!

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BOOTboys 2015

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