I went out on the bike on Saturday meeting up with three other local TRF people. The weather wasn’t too nice being think mist/drizzle in the Tyne valley and making riding with glasses + visor a pain. After going around Slaley forest we headed for the Wear valley and there was briefly sun for a while before the stop for lunch in Alston. Just before lunch the CRM developed a tendency to stall and refusal to start which turned out to be an oiled up plug – I had spares. Of note was the group leader falling into the Wear which makes a change from me falling off.
After lunch we headed back via some trails I’ve done before. On a downhill rocky section I picked up a bit of speed I had difficulty losing and ended up dropping the bike and sliding down the rocks with the bike on my leg. I was trapped under the bike for a while until I worked out how to lift the bike off without putting pressure on my leg. The bike boots did their job well and its just a bit bruised thankfully. The bike was fine after a little adjustment of the handguards.
Apart from the CRM stalling whilst holding another persons bike for a gate and refusing to restart, the rest of the trip was without incident. For this trip I had my new Garmin Oregon 300 in a pocket so I can now work out where I’ve been and start contributing to OpenStreetMap. I need to sort out a bikemount/batteries/charger for it but it seems to have kept a reasonable track of my position despite the horrible weather and being in a pocket.