491 Miles / 790 Km
Today I was looking forward to the ride… I have 50-ish miles, of mostly flat and I was looking forward to an actual rest day tomorrow! I left Conwy at 8, and enjoyed the quick cycle downhill into town. Then I hit the coastal route, along the beach for about 20 miles of smooth, flat riding with a gentle wind behind me and warm weather… ahh finally. I definitely more of my riding would be more like this but apparently the UK is quite hilly.
After the first 20 miles I went back onto an A road and carried on a pretty flattish ride all the way to Flint, where a shirt uphill took me into the Wirral. I had bashed out a ton of miles today before midday. I had about 12 miles to go by noon. At this point my bike is feeling and sounding like its going to break…. metal is grinding on metal, there are some bearings that are screwed and my break pads are minimal…
Once I get close to the town I google a halford’s and take my bike there for what I thought would be a quick and easy inspection and fix. Nope. Their bike mechanic wasn’t in today. The dude at the counter did manage to find someone to at least replace my brakes so I was gonna die going down the hill but I still had the bearings issue. Biking 2 miles back the route I just came from I find another cycle store – K2. The guys there were awesome… no having to wait 5 days to look at the bike, there was an actual bike tech there. They replaced my bottom bracket, and now I have functioning bearings! A little hefty on the price, but at this point I just needed the bike fixed. I didn’t have 5 days to wait for it. At this point its 3 o clock, I’m exhausted and beat from the last couple of days. Im 3 miles from Liverpool city centre and I was originally planning on taking the ferry over. At this point it was way more convenient and easy to hop on the train and take that over the water. So 30 minutes later on the train Im in the city and at the hostel. Unpacked, repacked and showered! Ready to meet with a friend and spend the night in the city!
The evening was wonderful, catching up with an old camp friend who I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. Sharing stories and adventures and reminiscing about camp days. We ate at a fantastic burger place called ‘Almost Famous’ where the burgers were ridiculous…. and tasted great. A cocktail and beer down and we move on to a good old Wetherspoons pub to enjoy beer that is £2.15 a pint… now that just seemed crazy cheap. A couple of those and then we’re done for the night… not quite the party animals we used to be hahaa! Tomorrow we will meet another friend from camp in the city and I’ll enjoy not having to get on the bike!
🙂
