Every week we try and get out in the evening for a session of night mountain biking. This involves fitting a very powerful light to the bike and then heading of into the woods for some scary high speed trails. It is amazing fun and hard to describe the sensation correctly. I think its a bit like skiing as you"zone" into the light path in front of you.

Last night it was such a warm barmy evening that David, Matt and I left at 7.00pm which is well before it gets dark and cycled through the woods in the twilight. There are still bluebells out in the woods and the warm, calm night was hard to beat. We are creatures of habit on our night ride and tend to do the same route every week. One of the highlights is a steep climb out of Little Missenden. It is a stony bridle path that gives you 5 mins of very hard climb. My heart rate gets up to max (180 bpm for an old guy) but it does mark the end of the hard stuff and once we are at the top we can glide back down thru the woods to the pub.

When we had completed the climb and worked our way into the woods my chain snapped which can be a big problem if you don't have specialist tools with you....and we did not. However we did manage to limp to the pub and as we pulled in to the court yard two other drinkers looked over and offered to help. They both happened to be bike mechanics from Cycle Fleet in Great Missenden. Even they could not fix the chain without the tools but they did give me a lift home and we lived happily ever after. So thanks to Andrew and Nigel from Cycle Fleet and we will come out and see you as new customers!