I rode into work this morning, 12 miles of mainly off-road fun along the North Downs to Reigate. Unfortunately it was not without it’s niggles.

The biggest one was that when I came to switch on my rear light it wasn’t working. This was strange because it was only about four weeks old and had only been used for about nine hours in flashing mode (if you’re interested, it’s a Blackburn Mars 3, and very good it seemed too).

Giving it the benefit of the doubt, I decided maybe my son had managed to switch it on and the battery had run flat. So I left it in place on my saddle bag with the idea that I’d swap batteries when I got to work, found my spare lamp and set off.

Two miles up the road, for some reason I decided to put my hand down to check the lamp was still there… and it had gone! I couldn’t believe it, £13 down the drain and now I can’t decide whether to replace it or not. If it’s going to fall off the bike that’s one thing, but if it wasn’t working through damage that’s quite another. Until it stopped working I rated it as one of the better lamps I’d come across as the output was very bright.

Other niggles also came up which I’ll relate another time. In spite of events conspiring to speed me on the path to becoming a grumpy old man, the ride was great.

I doubt the actual temperature was that low but the air temperature was freezing. All the mud was frozen solid so it was like riding on dry trails in the summer and I flew along, riding east to meet the rising sun as it was a fantastic clear sky this morning.

Getting to work, my toes took some time to thaw out (painfully, as it happens because they were completely numb) but the hot shower and bacon roll more than compensated for my morning’s efforts.