Phew. Good job I took out the 'low maintenance' singlespeed tonight!

Over a dozen of us out tonight at Ayton. Chris Tedman led the social group of about seven or eight riders, I think. Steve Hopper led the anti-social fast group, of Nigel the skills, Hackness Mike, Pickering Dave (back out after a break), Andy, and me.

We set off up into Raincliffe, climbing up to the top track. We zipped along that, whipping past the nettles and holly bushes, then I had Mechanical Number One. I'd pulled the back wheel over in its horizontal dropouts and the chain was making 'about to snap' noises from running on a sprocket and chainring that no longer lined up…. Nigel was coming back down the track to see what had happened to me, Andy and Dave, when we met him, finally rolling again.

We dropped down to the field in the middle of Raincliffe, then climbed up that deeply channeled steep climb to the top corner of the top track. Hackness Mike cleaned it, for the first time ever.  Steve Hopper didn't.  I saw him dab! Nigel and Dave rode up it, but like me Andy decided to stretch his legs for a bit.

At the top, Mike discovered the dog poo. It was on his tyres. Then we rode down that lumpy bridleway that comes out at the mere. Me and Mike had to stop to switch our lights on part way down, while Andy had a lie down in a holly bush further on.

From the mere, we rode over to Scalby, no one going anywhere near Mike's  bike, in case anything was flicking off his tyres. Over the stone bridge, we turned left on that bridleway that runs up towards Broxa past the farms.

Mechanical Number Two. I got a front wheel puncture. I fitted my spare tube, ignoring Nigel's completely correct advice in favour of brute force. 

We carried on uphill, past the farms, taking it in turn to open gates. At the top (Hackness Mike beat Steve Hopper - and I wasn't racing, honest, just trying to turn over my one gear!) we did that bit of singletrack over to Silpho. Dave gave the ground a close inspection along the way. Everything was in order.

We took that bridleway down from the farm at Silpho towards Hackness. Steve didn't manage to run into the big rock in the grass at the bottom this time, but I did manage to get Mechanical Number Three: another puncture, this time on the back wheel. Luckily the tyre wasn't covered in sheep poo. No, wait - the opposite.

I'd used my only 29er inner tube. Nigel gave me a 26in tube. It kind of went in, but under protest. It was a fight getting the tyre back on. Me and Mike wrestled with it, once again ignoring Nigel's sensible advice ('press the tyre down into the well of the rim!'). Being covered in sheep poo, it was hard to get a grip on the tyre. But eventually, we got the it on again. Only trouble was, there wasn't enough valve stem for a decent pump to fit on it.

Luckily, I didn't have a decent pump: I had the world's tiniest mini pump. With Mike bracing the tyre and valve stem, and Steve talking about how good tubeless tyres were for the millionth time, I gave it some back and forth hand action. 'I hope nobody sees this and mistakes what's going on,' said Mike.

Where the proper pumps failed, the world's tiniest mini pump succeeded. Clearly it's what you do with it, not how big it is. The tyre had enough air in to ride. It wasn't exactly round, but it was rideable. 

We got back to Ayton and The Forge pub. I got into the bar late, having been washing my hands thoroughly. Mayor of Sawdon Nick was there, as was Chris Tedman. 'Apparently tubeless tyres are quite good,' said Chris, having clearly been briefed. I took it on the chin. You can't fight the puncture fairy. I've been years without a puncture before this year, and this ride. Clearly she's been storing them up.