Gordon's B-Ride

This was a very enjoyable day, thanks Gordon.

It's takes me ages to write blogs these days, so I've cheated and padded out my words with some moving pictures.

I arrived at Gordons expecting to see a gaggle of freeloaders taking up his breakfast offer, but no, I was the only freeloader! So, after rather nice bacon sandwich and a cuppa, Gordon and I headed for Pease Pottage.

Outside The Black Swan we met Val, Corinne, Michael and Malcolm. From here, Gordon led us out along Parish Lane and then down through the Forest on NCN20 to cross over the M23, through the golf course and out to Oriel School where we met up with John C and John V.

Next we acquired NCN21(The Worth Way) and headed east, over the M23 and on to Rowfant.

This video shows the journey so far:

The weather was very pleasant and the Worth Way was in good condition, so all was right in the world - except for my rear tyre that is - it kept going down, but I couldn't find a puncture. At the first stop I'd just pumped air in as I thought it was a slow puncture. After a second stop, three of us checked the inside of the tyre for thorns or any other sharp intrusion (none found) and I fitted a new tube, but within a few miles the tyre seemed to have deflated again. When I got home I checked both tubes and found NO punctures using both a visual inspection and a water bath - the valves seemed OK as well. As we speak both tubes are fully inflated in my shed and seem to be holding onto their contents. So what was the problem? I suspect a puncture repair I'd done on the first tube shortly  before setting off had not set properly and caused the first problems but that when I'd subsequently removed all the air and rolled the tube up tightly to stuff it away in my bumbag, the patch had properly taken. The second tube is a mystery and my only guess is that the pumps I'd been using out  on the trail just weren't getting enough air in.  I pumped it up with a track pump when I got home and it's stayed fully inflated since....

Anyway, back to the ride. We left the Worth Way at Imberhorne Lane and headed north until we reached the bridleway taking us back west to Gullege. From here we retraced our Worth Way steps as far as Crawley Down where we hit the road going south and endured the steep little climb into Turners Hill. At the top we regrouped and regained our breath before heading west, through Worth Abbey to a refreshment halt at The Cowdray Arms.

After a fairly short stop we carried on along the Handcross Road before turning left into Brantridge Lane - it was a lovely ride down this lane as this video shows:

At Staplefield I had to reinflate my rear tyre (again) and then we headed across to Sluagham and then north on the bridleway through the Slaugham estate to Handcross.

We only briefly entered the western edge of Handcross as Gordon now took us west along the B road before diving to the right onto a farm track bridleway that would take us across a valley and then on up to Plummers Plain and out onto Grouse Road.

From here we only had a mile or so to go back to Gordons House where more refreshments were on offer - Corinne was most impressed, although we had to point out that Gordon is an exception - the rest of us don't lay on such a good spread!