I can sympathise with John and his broken axle. My bottom bracket
broke near Clapham Junction when I was leading a PHC ride last
year. I also had a rear axle break on a bike of mine about 25 years
ago (~ June 1983) when I was cycling back from Brighton after
already doing the London to Brighton ride (an ~125mile day.........I
was younger and fitter then!)

When I eventually struggled up most of Toys Hill to the Fox & Hounds
PH today (Sun 22 Feb), I found a mountain biker there with his
broken bike. He and his friends were carrying spare inner tubes,
puncture repair kits and multi-tools, but part of the rim of his
rear wheel had sheared off on a mountain bike which he'd borrowed
and fixing that was beyond the limits of their toolkits/spares. He
was waiting for his girlfriend, who had pedalled home and came back
to collect him and the broken bike in her car!

Cheers
jim

--- In pollardshillcyclists@yahoogroups.com, "Mark PHC" <mark@...>
wrote:
> Here's this week's reports & news....
> ===
>
> RIDE REPORT
> THE ALTERNATIVE RIDE (24/02/2008)
>
> John B had offered to lead an alternative ride at our usual pace. 4
> riders headed out towards Beckenham Place Park for a morning stop.
> Afterwards they headed towards Dulwich where the leader's rear axle
> snapped in half! Fortunately, having taken out cycle breakdown
> cover, help getting home was easily come by. One other rider had
> to be home early so the ride was abandoned.
>
> ===
>
> THERE ARE 300 OF US!
>
> Congratulations to Meghann for being the 300th person to join this
> email list. Whilst not everybody has email access and there are a
> couple of you on the list who haven't made it onto a ride yet, I
think
> this fairly represents the amount of people who've been out with
us.
> After two and a half years, we of course now have a revolving pool
of
> regulars but we're still getting plenty of new faces out on the
rides
> as well.
>
> Locally, from the leisure rides groups, only the mighty Southwark
> Cyclists and Greenwich Cyclists can claim to have more people on
their
> email lists. Whilst this doesn't really mean too much, it's a good
> barometer of how successful we currently are. Wouldn't it be great
if
> all 300 could come out and celebrate our 3rd birthday in July? Or
at
> least half so we can beat Addiscombe CC's record of 122 on a club
> ride!
>
> ===
>
> NEXT WEEK
>
> We've called it the Sensible Route to Gatwick but you could easily
> substitute that for Scenic. An ingenious way of getting up onto the
> Chipstead plateau makes this ride suitable for everybody, as long
as
> you're prepared to push your bike for about 60 yards up a steep
stony
> bridleway. (I'm tempted to offer a prize to anyone who rides up!)
> Oak's Park provides the most sensible stop on the way out but if
we're
> making good time, we'll definitely drop into Fanny's Farm for a
quick
> look if anyone hasn't been there before. Lunch is at the cheap and
> cheerful town centre Wetherspoons in Redhill so bring a lock. No
> afternoon stop is planned as we're going to get a train back from
> Gatwick, using the secret cyclist's lift to get into the South
> Terminal. The ride is partly on tracks but it should suit all
bikes as
> they're well surfaced, with the exception of one rutted farm track.
> 9:30am at the library. Train tickets as low as £2.60 for the
return to
> East Croydon using Group Save.
>
> Mark
> PHC Co-ordinator
> 07711 688189
>
> http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk
>