Intermediate course 28/09/2012

Usually doing the safety check on the bikes is an uneventful affair where there is rarely anything wrong that can't be fixed by putting in a bit more air or tightening a bolt. However today's fix was more unusual as Carl's grips turned out to be very loosely attached to his handlebars and we required something sticky to try and stop them from rotating. I was thinking in the line of going to the cafe and getting some sweets when Carl said he had just the thing we needed. He opened the boot of his car and would you believe it, there was a bee hive! Not much sign of sticky wax or honey though, but even better he also had a dusting jar of icing sugar (apparently you dust bees with icing sugar so that when they then groom each other a certain type of mite is removed). So after a liberal amount of icing sugar applied to the handlebars had provided the much desired tackiness for his grips we set off on the ride.

Having someone completely fearless on the course makes my job extremely easy as they have no hesitation in throwing themselves down any slope or drop and Carl was definitely on of those. Thankfully he also turned out extremely well at following instructions and tweaking body position etc to perfect his techniques which made for a fun and efficient day. Even the weather held up and provided us with some nice sunshine by the afternoon.

Carl came away a more confident rider who by adjusting the smaller things have made big changes to his riding and I learned something as well: don't underestimate the power of icing sugar!