Well, I got back about an hour ago, and I still have a big beaming grin over my face.
That was so much fun --- alternately blasting and pootling along the Flitch way in the dead of night, in the rain (albeit a bit light for OD who'd worn his rain-kilt and rubber fetish wear especially).
But, I get ahead of myself... as I already mentioned upthread, I was without my first choice bike for this trip.
It seems that some unearthly power was trying to prevent me from taking part tonight: when I started wheeling mrs_o's bike out of the garage, sometime after 5:30, I noticed the rear brake rubbing badly. A quick check of the wheel revealed it to be just as out of true as mine had been earlier.
Fearing some attack of the dreaded rim-rot spreading through the stable, I quickly checked the condition of the hoop and gladly, it was fine. What wasn't fine however was the broken spoke
.
I considered taking the road bike, but decided in the end to try and fix mrs_o's bike in time to take that.
Luckily I still had chief's bench vise borrowed from the last time I had to remove the freewheel on mrs_o's bike, and i had as many donor spokes as I could ask for on my recently deceased rear wheel (once I got the cassette off there), and so in the nick of time (I was just finishing up truing the wheel and putting the tyre back on at about 10 past 6) I was able to get changed, pack some essentials into a pannier and head off to OD's place, probably about 5 mins late.
We rushed off to the S&C, arriving back on the nominal schedule at 1900, and installed ourselves in the bar with a pint of stoker's to wait for Tokamak. Unfortunately the "doughnut" was in the wrong Compasses (although he did meet chief there, who gallantly had a pint to keep him company
).
We made it to Rayne via Great Notley country park, just a few minutes late, and met up with Auntie Helen, Tomsk and chief.
A couple of annoying "motorbike barriers" later and we were off down the Flitch Way.
For those that don't know it, the Flitch Way is a former railway line, converted to a cycle path, of the sustrans hard-packed fine ravel type. From Rayne to Dunmow, by and large the FW is slightly downhill, so the outbound leg included large stretches of hooning along at 16/17 mph, ostensibly off-road, with trees either side, suicide bunnies darting across and light rain falling in the glare of our LEDs. I had the biggest grin imaginable during this bit.
We negotiated the plank (although the concrete footbridge before it was more of an obstacle, requiring all our powers of innuendo and smuttiness to get across "It's OK - I've got hold of your rack"), left the Flitch Way and started the on-road uphill drag to Dunmow. OD took u on some secret sustrans route through some folks' ack gardens, and we arrived at the curry house.
chief hopped inside and got a nice chap fro the restaurant to open the back gate so we could park inside, and we headed in to get to dinner.
The food was superb. The Doom Bar with which I washed it down was also excellent.
Tomsk, being near home, peeled off here, and the rest of us made our way back to the FW. The ride back was equally fun, if a little slower since slightly uphill.
A really, really enjoyable night's riding. The bizarreness of being (nominally, but at times not so nominally) off-road, in such quiet surroundings, in the dark, riding for such a long distance in a perfectly straight line was both incredibly fun and slightly surreal.
stats:- 39.75 miles at 11.3 mph