Laggan Disaster

Well almost...

We got up there in plenty of time and headed up around the hill, climbing to the top of the upper red before completing the first descent, as I stood waiting for Stuart I decided to adjust my seat back to a better height for climbing, as I tightened the seat clamp 'snap!' was heard, leaving me with the lever in my hand, and attempt was made to keep the clamp tight with a tie wrap but this failed so back to the shop we headed.

I must have put a curse on myself due to a comment I made to Stuart "I bet they wont have a clamp small enough, being a steel frame and all the other bikes in the shop are alloy". Sure enough the shop didn't have what I needed, so I chose to hire a bike instead.

This gave me a chance to see if the craving I have for a full suspension bike should be warranted, I popped outside, had one look and went straight for the Yeti ASR7, a rather tasty 7 inch travel bike which should swallow up most things out on the trail, I paid my money and headed back up the hill.

We arrived once more at the top of the upper red and began the descent, within one corner I stopped to put my gloves back on and let Stuart past, then decided to go mad and chase him, as predicted the bike just floated over the first rock garden without a hint of the brakes needing to be applied, I rounded the next corner with the back of the bike sliding around alarmingly followed by a nice crack on the back wheel from a rock, the back tyre was flat as a pancake. I shouted for Stuart to stop but he couldn't hear, so I set about fixing the puncture myself, only it turned out to be a snapped valve rather than a puncture, so I was left with a long walk back to the car park, part number two of the day broken!

With a new tube in the back wheel, we headed back up the hill for a third lap, the climb was a bit of a struggle with tired legs and Stuart was beginning to flag, but I had to get one clean lap in without anything going wrong! The descent was superb, the suspension system just seemed to flatten everything in its path, it even let me get away with really bad line choices mainly due to going too fast to make a corner and having to cut it, if I didn't have tired legs already, I recon it could have been even faster, or ended up with me in a tree, but it has given me the taste for speed, and going absolutely mental on the bike!

I got home only to make a quick turnaround and head to the Lemon Tree to see a presentation by a landscape and nature photographer John Beatty, the images were stunning and the life he has led and places he has been made me quite jealous, what a fantastic way to live.

Once the presentation finished it was time to head home, shattered, stiff and exhausted.