Before I arrived at Ashbourne, I has discovered that there was a special bike path that started there and went into the Peak District National Park. I found out that it was called the Tissington Trail and it went from Ashbourne to Buxton. By adding another trail, a loop could be created to go to Matlock Baths and then, via a B-road, back to Ashbourne. This would be a 30+ mile ride if I did the whole thing.

I decided to rest in the morning and tour the town. Right up from where I was staying was a bridge over a running stream.

Here is a view of one of the main streets of Ashbourne.

This might be considered the main "square" (triangle, really) of town. Just behind this building is a large car park lined with pubs and restaurants.

Before I could take my daily (unloaded) ride, I had some work to do on the bike. I had discovered a broken spoke on the way to Ashbourne the previous day that needed repair and wanted to do any other necessary maintenance.

After checking out the bike, I realized that the broken spoke was on the gear-side of the rear wheel (all the spokes that broke were on the gear-side of the back wheel!). To replace the spoke required removing the rear-sprocket, which I didn't have the tools for. As it turned out, the place across the street sold auto and bike parts and also had a shop in the back. Unfortunately, the spokes they had were a bit long for my wheel and the auto mechanic wasn't in that day.

No worry! The older man behind the counter was willing to pull the sprocket and grind down the spokes for me. He pulled the sprocket and I went back to replace the spoke. After replacing the spoke (and getting it ground down at the store across the street) and screwing on the sprocket, I was truing the wheel when I broke another spoke on the sprocket side. Back I went across the street, bought another spoke, got the sprocket removed, installed the spoke, got it ground down, got it all put back together, and managed to true the wheel without further damage.

When all this was done, it was too late to ride the full loop and I wasn't all that confident about my repairs. I decided to take the bike up the trail to test that the work I had done would hold up the next day. I rode 6 miles out and back and the bike performed well. The trail was an old train track that had been converted for biking and hiking. I saw many people doing both on my short ride. The way out was all uphill and I was able to coast the entire way back, a full 6 miles. Here is a typical view up the trail.

That evening, I was back at the Chinese place for dinner and on to the Commonwealth Games on TV.

Wednesday, August 7: Ashbourne to Melton Mobray
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