Yorkshire Dales forum ride from Settle, Sun 26th June

[tubbycyclist]

Thanks to everyone who assisted with company, lifts and patience after my tyre's sidewall decided to part company with the rest of the tyre.

That's one more thing to add to an ever expanding list of spares to take on a forum ride.

 

[IG88]

Thank for the ride Colin, it was like chinese water torture at the end - hills, hills, hills, then just when you start going downhill, another hill appears.
Legs like lobsters, but otherwise great,
Thinking about getting a T-shirt printed. "I went on one of Colin's rides, and survived"..
Thanks again Colin - (Kestevan's mate on the Raleigh)

 

[evilclive]

We were beginning to believe you had enlisted M.C Escher to design the route, as I'm convinced there were more ups than downs.

It's close, but it seems that according to the OS there were more downs than ups. I make it 9 up arrows, 1 double up, but 13 down and 4 double downs.

OTOH I'm not sure there were any flat sections at all.

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/78422

is my GPS's view of the trip.

Nice to meet you all, an excellent ride despite the couple of "showers", and now our legs are feeling all tired. Last time we did a ride that long, we were due to walk to the top of Mt Teide in Tenerife the next day - we're hoping for a rather easier day than that tomorrow.

 

[zacklaws]

Thanks for a good day out Colin and great to meet everyone. According to my Garmin download in Sportstracks, the ride took only 6hrs 50secs, but we was also stopped for 3hrs 47mins, if we cut the stops out we can have 100+ miles, more hills and more fun next time. A total of 7613 feet climbing. Right time to fit my new brake blocks which I should have done last Friday

Paul (I think) the links for the free maps for Garmin Edge's is:-

http://garmin.na1400.info/routable.php

http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm

There is not much in them, I find the first link the best, as the second can route you strange ways in Mapsource, whereas the first keeps you on the road and not cross country, but the second link gives you contours which the first does not, but you can use the contours with the map from the first link if you download and install both.

 

[zacklaws]

At least I had a better journey home than going, but I was nearly wiped out twice, once by a car who pulled out of a junction in front of me, and once by a car racing the lights from the opposite direction who cut across in front of me. I finally got home about 2230 and too late to get out for a pint or two by the time I unpacked.

I was up for 0630 this morning feeling fresh as a daisy ready for another ride but it will have to wait till later as I have too many jobs to do.

 

[zacklaws]

In total all I had to all day on the ride drink was 2 and a 1/2 750 ml water bottles (or Bidon for Colin), half a pack of jelly babies, plus a pint of bitter and the dregs of a pint of blackcurrant and water that would not fit in my bottle after topping up at the pub.

 

[fossyant]

The third pic is mental - look at the hill. And the last !

 

[pubrunner]

My day began early (for a Sunday) - up at 5.30am. A quick shower and then toast & honey for breakfast.

I left home at 6.45am and headed up to Rossendale to collect Shaun (bromptonfb). The roads were clear and I reached Rossendale with no problems. I liked Shaun immediately, he seemed to be a guy with a similar outlook and values and I liked his straight- forward approach to things; a very good start to the day.

Following Shaun’s directions, we soon arrived in Settle. A couple of riders were already at the meeting point – most of whom looked younger, fitter and more confident than I did. FionaN had already cycled over from Kendal !

I was told by Sarah (EvilClive’s tandem partner) that there were 4 b*stard hills on the ride; a little disconcerting, ‘cos I was only expecting 3 b*stard hills.

We set off just after 10am and pretty soon, we started climbing. It was clear when we reached the hills, that certain riders such as Colly, PaulB, Bokonon, evilclive {& sarah} & bucko possessed considerable ability and throughout the ride, they seemed to make light work of the most challenging of hills. Bokonon, in particular, didn’t seem to break sweat throughout the entire ride, which was pretty annoying. Bucko reckoned that he’d only been riding for a few weeks, which is total b*ll*cks, ‘cos he also seemed to manage easily. And Colly ? - he just seemed unruffled by everything.

The first b*stard hill, was a b*stard ! It seemed to have so many summits. I kept thinking that I was near the top, when I’d come around a corner to find that the hill continued. Poor PaulB had problems with his bike and had to re-start the climb from the bottom. The fit old b*stard still breezed past though and reached the summit before most of the other riders.

I soon realised that if I was going to ‘survive’ the ride, I’d have ride pretty cautiously throughout. I’m certain that not knowing any of the climbs was an advantage to me- a kind of ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach; next time, I will worry about them, cos I’ll know just what I’ll be up against.

In some ways, the descents were more worrying than the climbs – but not for evilclive ! The tandem stormed past everyone; I’ve never seen anything like it. It was awesome !

evilclive seemed to be totally unperturbed by the steepest of descents; tight bends & and dangerous curves ? No problem ! The tandem handled it all with ease ! I was clutching the brakes all the way down; I soon realised that when it came to the descents, I was the Reginald Molehusband of the group – I was overtaken by everyone. To add to my worries, PaulB told me that some riders who use the brakes too much, have had their inner tubes ‘pop’ from the heat of the rims.

I was pleased when we hit a pub stop; to my surprise, most opted for a pint of lime and lemonade or orange squash. I had a great pint of guinness and chatted with PaulB about our experiences in running . . . . . . . PaulB’s being at a much higher level than my own.

ColinJ told me that an ‘advantage’ of the Fleet Moss climb, was that it could be seen in its entirety. I decided to treat it with respect and approached it at a very comfortable speed – no point in ‘killing’ myself, before I reached the steep part. At first, the climb didn’t seem too bad; worryingly though, I could see that others ahead of me were walking. I changed to lowest gear and tried to conserve my energy. The climb was very tough indeed. I thought it was achievable, but very near the top I was beginning to have my doubts. The gradient increased and boy, I was struggling – weaving all over the road; at one stage, I thought that I was going to go over the edge.

Those who had finished the climb, shouted encouragement (& possibly abuse) {cheers guys!} which gave me a ‘lift’; I cursed and then cursed again and just made it to the top. It is certainly the toughest thing that I’ve done in many a year; my legs were wobbling so much, that I found it hard to get off my bike. Bokonen still looked as if he’d just stepped off a bus – fit b*astard.

Since I hadn’t spoken to him much, I decided to inflict myself upon ColinJ and I spent the rest of the ride in his company. We discussed many weighty topics and settled into the ‘easy’ part of the ride. Except that, it wasn’t easy. I found the remaining hills to be as tough as those which had preceded them.

At one point, I mentally reckoned that we’d get back to Settle for 6.30pm. It was, in fact, after 8pm when I arrived back at my car.

Since Shaun was getting a lift back with bucko (who also lives in Rossendale), I had to find my own way back. All was well until I hit the junction to get onto the M60 . . . . . . . which was closed. It took me so long to get through the diversions, that I didn’t get home until 11.15pm.

As I prepared to take a shower, I noticed that I’d certainly been ‘caught’ by the sun. In fact, this morning, I've been asked if been away abroad on holiday. I hadn’t really noticed the weather on the ride, since I’d been concentrating on getting up & down the hills – which pretty much describes the entire outing. There were very few flat sections.

After my shower, I basically emptied the fridge of anything edible. I’ve even raided the kid’s sweet jar and scoffed a few kitkats. I found it very difficult to get to sleep, ‘cos I felt so hot. The next morning, I was so dehydrated, that I drank three pints of water.

Surprisingly, my legs feel fine. Another positive, is that my ancient steed provided no problems, though lower gears would be useful (mandatory) for next time.

A big ‘Thank You’ to ColinJ for doing all the organising; at times, it must have been akin to herding cats, since once or twice, riders seemed to be heading in all directions. But it all turned out fine and I’m sure that all would agree that ColinJ deserves many plaudits for his efforts.

If I can, I’ll certainly be out again with the group.

All in all, an epic ride ! Great scenery, great company, camaraderie & humour.

ps Great pics, Zack !

 

[Bokonon]

Good ride with some fun hills. Thanks to Colin for organising it and thanks to the other Colin for the transport.

 

[Fiona N]

Good day out even though I got caught in a heavy downpour for about 20 minutes climbing back up to Garsdale head. Unusually things were drier as I passed down through Garsdale village and into Sedbergh. Then there was just the small matter of the climb over the hill back to Kendal and Black Horse Bank was no easier than I expected - for the first time ever I had to walk the 17% section at the bottom which is a good indication of how fried my legs were by this time - I was overtaken by three smug tourists on mtbs laden with sleeping bags and panniers - all twiddling away in a 20inch gear.

Total effort for the day was 152km and 2225m of ascent.

BTW thanks to whoever it was noted that my back wheel was out of true. I knew that for some reason the back wheel wasn't quite in the middle of the forks although the axle was fully in the dropouts but on the way back the rear brake began to bind and I realised that the back wheel was getting worse. So a gingerly descent of the rather rough road back to Kendal and the bike will be going in for some TLC from Hewitts.


Thanks ColinJ for your efforts rounding us all up and keeping us on the road - like herding cats, I know

 

[zacklaws]

In some ways, the descents were more worrying than the climbs – but not for evilclive ! The tandem stormed past everyone; I’ve never seen anything like it. It was awesome !

evilclive seemed to be totally unperturbed by the steepest of descents; tight bends & and dangerous curves ? No problem ! The tandem handled it all with ease !

Thanks for reminding me about that, I was trying to forget about it as I had visions of having nightmares about it last night, I only felt safe when it was in front of me on the descents, it was one of the most remarkable things I have seen and one of the most memorable moments to see it in action on the ride and I for one would not have gone on the back for love or money, I would have just screamed all the way down the hill and I think it would have been a clean underpants needed moment on some of those bends, and after having my hands prised off the bars to get me off, I would have just been a gibbering wreck for days.

Maybe we should do the route in reverse one day, just to see if there was more uphill than downhill

 

[ColinJ]

Well, what a ride!

Let's start at the beginning.

Steve H picked me up in Hebden Bridge and we had an eventful drive over to Settle. When we got to Ye Olde Naked Man cafe, I could see a lot of familiar faces sitting outside, and quite a few new ones. It was the biggest turn out ever on one of my forum rides, despite the fact that it was the hardest route yet.

I had a quick chat to swarm_catcher who had just come along to say hello to us all. She had done a hilly '200' the day before and had decided to be sensible and rest her legs yesterday.

Just before we set off, Pennine-Paul started attacking his bike with a blunt instrument! That rather worried me ... He had problems with his bike on every little climb early on. It turned out that his bike's bottom bracket was terminally wounded. He ended up having to abandon his ride before we even got to Ingleton, and head back to Settle.

There was a big spread of fitness, from the superb, to the poor (me!) The fit riders waited patiently at the tops of all the climbs (as usual).

Kingsdale was the first major dale of the day and it is a lovely one. Traffic conditions were pretty awful, mind!

I'd only ridden Kingsdale once before, and that was in heavy mist so I hadn't really taken it all in on that occasion. Heading NNE up the dale, it is mainly a steady climb, with just a few steep little ramps. We got to a maximum elevation of about 475m (1,550 ft) and then the road just plunges down in the most stunning and scary fashion towards Deepdale. I don't know if any of the other riders stopped to take a picture of that view, but it is truly stunning.

The descent is frightening; I'm writing this as someone who is used to doing 50 mph on steep descents! The road drops away alarmingly and snakes about. And ... there are gates across the road! I was really glad that we were not having to climb that brute!

We were supposed to be meeting tubbycyclist in Dent after a weekend camping trip in Cumbria but he was waiting for us at the foot of the descent from Deepdale. He said that Dent festival was in full swing and the village was absolutely heaving with tourists. We decided with go elsewhere to have our first break ...

We headed down Dentdale to Cowgill and about another 5 minutes down the road was a quiet pub with a beer garden. We enjoyed sitting in the sunshine there a while, contemplating the b*stard hill to come but all too soon, we had to saddle up and be on our way.

The Dent station climb is a tough one. I was in full grovel mode from the bottom. I'd got a head-start on some of the others and suddenly I heard a grunt and a clatter behind me - man down! New CC member bucko had come to a dead stop and toppled off his bike! He got away with a spot of road rash.

PaulB got held up and the road is so steep that he couldn't get started again, so he rode down to the bottom and got a clear run at it.

The thing about that climb is that even when the b*stard steep section is finished, there is still a long steepish climb up to the summit which had several people off and walking.

At long last we regrouped at the summit and began another terrifying descent. What made it even more scary was the absolutely crazy intrepid tandemists evilclive and sarah shooting past at about 40 mph shouting "On your right!" ... It was one of those things - you know it is mad, but can't help being impressed when you see it!

It was a quick A-road dash down to Hawes where there was another festival taking place. We split into 2 groups for our main stop of the day.

Most of us went to the Penny Garth cafe. There wasn't a lot of room outside; bikers were sitting at most of the tables. Strangely enough, there were plenty of empty tables inside so that's where most of us sat. We soon found out why it was so quiet inside - it was like dining in a sauna!

The portion sizes in that cafe are enormous. The chip butty consumed by tubbycyclist was enough to feed 2 people!

Eventually, meals over, time to face Fleet Moss!

PaulB had gone on ahead because he was in a hurry to get home. Fiona N was riding back to Kendal (I forgot to say goodbye to you at Hawes, Fiona - sorry).

I'd noticed that omnious black clouds had been building up, and I feared that my worries about lightning on Fleet Moss might come true. We did get some heavy rain showers, but fortunately there was no sign of thunder & lightning.

I saw bromptonfb and tubbycyclist at the side of the road trying to fix tc's rear puncture. They told me to go on and they would catch us up later. In fact, bfb rang me about 10 minutes later just as I was getting towards the steeper part of the climb. The tyre was kaput. I decided that I would ask the other riders if any of them had a spare tyre, but first I needed to conquer the climb. Er, walk the top bit, that is!

I rode all the way up Fleet Moss in 2006, but it looked horrendous this time. I've lost so much fitness and gained so much weight in those 5 years that everything looks different now. A climb that looked "Tough, but doable" in 2006 was now "Not a bloody chance, mate"!

No spare tyres were forthcoming so we came to a decision. We phoned bfb and tc and told them to walk back down the hill to Hawes. Bucko kindly volunteered to drive back to Hawes from Settle to pick them up later. In order to reduce the amount of time that everyone would be hanging about, bucko and the other faster riders went on, and I rode at my own slow pace. Steve H was somewhere between the 2 groups. Pubrunner was riding with me and chatting. We caught Steve H, Kestevan and IG88 on the stiff walk up from Arncliffe. I'm sure that quite a few people rode it, but I certainly didn't!

Kestevan and IG88 rode on ahead, and Pubrunner, Steve H and I brought up the rear.

That last section of the route really did seem to drag on forever, but eventually, after another rapid descent, we got back to Settle. Pubrunner didn't need to give bfb a lift home because bucko had volunteered, so we said goodbye to him.

Steve and I had to wait in Settle for bucko to drop tc off so Steve could take us both back to Hebden Bridge. I bought us sandwiches and crisps to refuel us while we waiting for the lads to get back. Suddenly, they did! (I think bucko might have been driving quite quickly back from Hawes...)

I got home in time to get some beer before the shops closed, but I was too tired to drink it!

The weather conditions had varied from hot and sunny, to warm, with heavy rain and everything in between, always humid. I'm glad that we didn't have clear blue skies all day because it would have been horrendously hard.

The routes itself was horrendously hard in places, but the scenery was fantastic.

One again, my fellow CycleChatters made the ride special. These days, I never feel motivated to go and out do a ride that hard by myself. Okay. it half-killed me because I am way out of condition, and it meant that the fit riders were having to do an awful lot of hanging about for yours truly and some of the other slower riders, but nobody complained and in a perverse way, I still enjoyed myself.

Thanks all!

PS I'll be doing a much easier ride from Hebden Bridge next Sunday if you are free. I'll start a new thread soon.

 

[pubrunner]

it was one of the most remarkable things I have seen and one of the most memorable moments to see it in action on the ride

Yep, I agree - my abiding memory, will be when it hurtled past me on the descent from the first b*astard hill. And all credit to evilclive & Sarah - they managed to cycle all the climbs.

I for one would not have gone on the back for love or money, I would have just screamed all the way down the hill and I think it would have been a clean underpants needed moment on some of those bends, and after having my hands prised off the bars to get me off, I would have just been a gibbering wreck for days.

I wouldn't go on the back of it either - well, not on the descents. Sarah must have enormous faith in evilclive's abilities. To be fair, he did steer it with considerable composure; more nonchalent ease, actually. I still wouldn't go on the back though.

I think that even a crazy, nutter, mad b*stard biker such as bucko, would think twice about sitting on the back of that tandem on some of those descents.

 

[pubrunner]

Looking back on this thread, before the ride, it's amusing to see these comments from evilclive . . . . . . .

If it turns out we're too slow, we're entirely capable of riding our own way home :-)

(be interesting to find out how well we mix - we're likely to be slower up the hills, but faster down them)

Just a 'tad' faster.

evilclive & Sarah are CycleChat legends - I think that on such rides, we should be paying them appearance money. On some of the steepest descents, I thought I was going to fall over the front of the handlebars; whoever designed the hydraulic braking system on the tandem, knows his stuff.

There is a section of road near where I live; it is wide, open, fairly straight and three miles long. I reckon that the tandem could get comfortably get over 60mph . . . . . . . with evilclive in control.

C'mon, evilclive & Sarah - we need to hear your version of the events; how you whizzed past (humbled) all those namby pamby cyclists - some of whom, had uber-light carbon fibre frames.

All bow to the super tandem !

 

[ColinJ]

Maybe we should do the route in reverse one day, just to see if there was more uphill than downhill

I was thinking about that ...

I reckon the last set of hills between Arncliffe and Settle is about the same from both directions. Fleet Moss is definitely easier the other way, though still tough. I'm sure that the climb from Garsdale Head would be harder than Dent station. As for the climb from Deepdale To Kingsdale, that would be much harder than the long drag up Kingsdale that we did.

All in all, I'd say we did it the easier way round!