5/6 Bewl Water Season Begins & Flat Shoes/Pedals Fail The Test

At last, June had arrived so it would be the start of the Bewl water off road season on Fridays

For those that don't know it, Bewl water is a man made reservoir near Wadhurst. There is a 13 mile mostly off road path all the way round it. just right for a lap on a Friday evening after work or two laps for those fitter riders. Most of the old bewl water veterans were there (myself, paul B, ivan , malc D and derek ) as well as Bewl water virgin Pete Baker.

Just Time To Take A Quick Photo!

It was an unusually warm and humid evening, having been held up in traffic I only just arrived in time for the off at 6;30 prompt and was grateful that I was already wearing my flat cycling shoes so all I had to do was just the bike out the van and hop on.

 For years I have suffered with a morton's neuroma in my left foot, which has left me unable to ride in anything less than look delta pedals with their massive cleats and carbon road shoes. These are great for the road but a nightmare for off road as they are impossible to walk on, the delay in clipping/unclipping means you cant put your foot down when necessary and worse of all the rocky terrain wrecks the carbon (last year my brand new carbon road shoes were ruined after just one season). Having tried every  make of off road pedal , my last resort was flat pedals (with pins) and five ten flat shoes. For the last three weeks I had been using these for commuting and loved every minute of it. No foot pain , no discernible loss of power and the freedom to just hop on and off the bike without unclipping, but how would they cope in a more challenging and competitive environment?

Everyone set off at a blistering pace so myself and derek were dropped out of sight within  ten minutes.In the early part of the course, care had to be taken negotiating around a number of dogs and their sometimes stroppy owners. One dog stands out in my mind. It had decided to plonk itself right in the middle of the path where the small craters force you into that direction , I managed to slow down and carefully negotiate around it but when Derek got there the dog must have taken humbrance at these annoying cyclists and lept up attempting  to attack Derek's leg, but was held off by the large mass of spinning schwalbe rubber.

Fortunately no more dogs were to be seen on the rest of the route. I had forgotten just how bumpy the route was . Although I was bit quicker than Derek on the early smooth part of the course, the advantage was soon  with Derek (full suspension) as I was bashed up and down (hard tail) over the infinitely large number of bumps while Derek gracefully glided over them all. From here on we would ride the rest of the route together.

About a third of the way round we came  to the road section. This is about three miles long, almost all uphill and nasty . Riding this with a road bike would be quite tough but on a much heavier mtb with fat knobbly tyres its a struggle. At least you have the super low gears to help you. I could now feel the disadvantage of flat pedals and shoes compared to being clipped in. It wasn't so much the slight loss in power than bothered me but rather the fact that pressing hard on the soft soles of the pedals was making the soles of my feet ache (but at least the neuroma was happy)

Finally we had got through the road section and flew down the steepest off road descent back down to the main trail. This is when I felt the benefit of flat pedals, knowing i could put my feet down instantly gave me a confidence boost.

The middle third of the route is on most flat but bumpy terrain with a few wooded sections. the wooded sections do hang onto any mud that has formed and sure enough there were a few slippery sections but nothing too major. It was about here I realised another disadvantage of flats. Despite the shoes being impressively sticky you do need to make a conscious effort to keep your feet down on them all the time. Being a 'bear of very little brain' I was finding this mentally tiring.

A third disadvantage of flats was also discovered. Ironically because the shoes are so sticky, when you lift the shoes off the pedals you have to try to get them in just the right position when you put your feet back down, you can't just slide them along the pedal a little bit, you have to lift them up and plonk them down again in hopefully the correct position!

Sadly These Pedals Will Have to Be replaced By Look Deltas!

The final third of the route is from the reservoir's  concrete barrier wall onwards. This begins with a rapid road and firm path down to the barriers walkway followed by speedy riding along the walkway and into the forest. This section has some slightly downhill wooded sections and a few interesting sharp turns and steep little climbs before seeing Bewl bridge and where you started. It was in one of the woods where we spotted pete ahead. Pete had got dropped by the other three and never having done the route before had been forced to slow down and keep checking to see if he was on the correct route.

Arriving back at the vehicles we were surprised that Paul, Malc and  Ivan had left for the pub without us! I guess the lure of beer was too strong to resist.. Sure enough by the time we got there they were were well into their second pint.

Its great to be back at bewl. Shame about the pedals but they just don't cut the mustard, oh dear ' its back to carbon shoes and look deltas for another season, better start bidding on ebay now for a replacement pair of carbon shoes. I will however keep the flats because for commuting they are brilliant and well worth it for the convenience of shopping etc.

Steve C