Helly Hansen, Hills and a broken Hub!!

There is no getting away from winter, so to keep the base miles racking up, I have decided to get out as much as possible. As I have said a few times before the right kit helps to achieve this. Tonight was promising to be a cold ride, and as I walked home from work the wind seemed to be picking up too, not as strong as recently, but it helped to bring the temperature down. To face the elements and give myself a chance of enjoying the ride, I decided to layer up. Tonight's kit consisted of a Craft base layer top, then a full Helly Hansen top and Bottoms layer, Campagnolo Heritage Bib Tights, Le Col winter Jacket, Campagnolo Ultra light Heritage Windshield, Castelli Thermo Skull Cap and Campagnolo Gloves. No one can say I don't use the cycling gear I buy, even if it is all in one go! It worked though, even when the Temperature dropped to just above freezing I was comfortable.
There were 5 of us braving the elements tonight, and we decided to head into West Kirby to do a couple of loops of the hill, then along to Hoylake and back to Greasby.
Every ride we have seems to end with a story! Tonight it was the turn of Paul, who by his own admission, is becoming a regular incident attractor!
We had finished a tough segment of the ride into the wind along the front between Hoylake and Meols, Jon and Owen had worked with me to take turns at the front, but Paul had dropped off a little, he was on his tourer tonight as his Kuota is in the shop for a service. When we got onto a side road Paul noticed a noise, and thought it was his mudguard. As the ride continued the noise got worse so we pulled over in Moreton to have a  look. On closer inspection it sounded like the front wheel hub had a bearing problem. We decided to ride back to Paul's with him, All for one etc etc!!
As we rode back Paul decided that it was time to retire the Tourer and invest in a newer model, so for posterity there had to be a photo for the blog.

I think my Garmin may have been playing up again tonight, It kept auto pausing whilst riding, and resulted in my average speed being less than Paul's and the distance travelled less, even though I did extra after we had left Paul to get home? I suppose Technology doesn't like the cold either!

We are meeting tomorrow night, a little later at 7.45. Don't forget, there is no bad weather just bad equipment.

Tonight's unreliable ride details: http://app.strava.com/rides/3774740