Turn Turtle

Well put together the PEAK and Royce-Union adding a new front derailleur needed to be a top pull, also replaced the crank bearings ( a hammer worked well as I was ditching the arms) and got Jeff from Caba Cycles to replace the Rear wheel Bearing I dont have the tools to pull clusters or peddle arms later.... Anyway did the adjusting of breaks brakes and all the gear indexing and finally the seat and bar positions... took it for a few circuits of the yard and all seemed cool after a few tweaks so decided to take it for a short circuit. On the way home I bumped into Mark and a mate of his out doing some trail riding, both covered in mud and crap for their efforts, they were going to return over Towners Road and after a quick think I thought it would be good to complete a test ride on a very cheap Junk Pile MTB, (now calledthe "bitsa") with a bit of a bush-bash... It took the gravel climb well and I kept the speed down, just in case????, on the descent. After getting to Jim T's place we started on the "private" section of Towners and all was cool until I tried to get past a simple prone fence post obstacle. I was riding with a pair of strap peddles Joy had picked up at the tip and I had forgotten! Anyway the front wheel came to a stop against the post and I went to put my foot down.... I picked myself up after a somersault with the bike attached to my feet coming to rest on my back... no damage me or the bike... little dirty that's all and a good laugh. Mark was behind me and got a good view from there and helped me by getting the bike off the top of me.. lying like a turtle on my back in the mud!

The bike held up it just requires a clean and some minor adjustments after the cables, brakes and bearings have settled in etc

The most important thing is my dismount was not painful when I actually deliberately tried!