Fathers' Day 2012

Father and son bonding took on a new meaning on Fathers' day when Nick (13) joined myself and an assorted selection of fellow Rutters on the Sunday morning ride out from Forest Row. His very first Rutters ride.

We arrived at the start outside Future Cycles to be greeted by a large bang as Nick's rear inner tube burst. Taking off the tyre we found a 28 inch inner tube crammed into the 26 inch tyre. Fortunately the spare he had was 26 inch - we put this on only for the valve to snap half way through pumping it up. We therefore had to resort to putting my spare 28 inch tube on, with the result that we both rode without a spare one.

The ride was around 35km at a leisurely pace - still Nick found the rises hard going, not least perhaps because he had not finished a lengthy football tournament until 6pm the previous evening. I expect big improvements over the next few months though, as he has taken up a paper round up Chapel Lane!

Escaping a narrow boat

Last week saw an eventful little family holiday in a narrow boat up and down the rivers Wey and Thames. The weather was poor and wet and despite the attraction of a couple of persons going overboard during the week, I had bad cabin fever by the second day. Fortunately I had bought my bike and on a couple of days was able to escape for some riding. On one of those days did a decent loop which involved Box Hill again and a section of the route for the fortcoming men's Olympic road race, ending up with a well earned pint by the Thames at Chertsey.