England : North Yorkshire Yorkshire Dales forum ride - 'The Settle Spectacular', July 25th 2015

[ColinJ]

Colin, had a chest infection all week and was hoping to be fit by tomorrow. I just can't shake it off so afraid I will have to pull out of this ride.

It's a bit too long and hilly to ride below par.

Apologies for any inconvenience and hope everybody has a great ride.

I'm sorry to hear that. I remember you nearly coming on one of my other rides but not quite making it!

I think it is a wise decision because this isn't really the kind of route to do when feeling rough.

GWS and I will hopefully see you on a ride in the future.

 

[ColinJ]

Aargh - 4.5 hours sleep - I am getting too old for this!

Forecast still ok, though a bit windy.

Off to force down a breakfast that I don't fancy but will need to burn later. Then it will be a quick test ride to make sure that my fettled freehub actually works!

See y'all soon.

I will post a short report below when I get home and a longer one tomorrow in 'Your Ride Today'.

 

[ColinJ]

Well, that was a fine day out on the bike in great company - thanks lads!

Extra special thanks to busdennis for picking me and pal Bill up at Bramley station this morning, adding 20 miles to his journey, and then being kind enough to drive us up from Keighley on the way back and drop us at the summit at Cock Hill to give us a 'free' 4.5 mile descent to Hebden Bridge!

I added a bit more distance by cycling round to a friend's house to water her plants while she is away. My total distance for the day was 131 km/82 miles.

More details, including some photos tomorrow.

 

[Sea of vapours]

A fine day out, Colin. Thanks for organising it. Good to meet a few people from here, as well as Bill; and yes, the company was good. Also extra points for organising easily the best day's weather we've had here for over a week. My distance came in at 151km, with 2,736m of ascent, including getting to and from Settle. Oh - no points for organising the gusty, 15-20mph headwind I 'enjoyed' cycling home ;-)

 

[busdennis]

thanks to all for a great day on a fantastic route, we need to do it again 2016 before im too old

 

[ColinJ]

thanks to all for a great day on a fantastic route, we need to do it again 2016 before im too old

You're on.

I'm just about to write about the ride in 'Your Ride Today' and will update this post with a link once I have done that. I will include a selection of photos. I would have liked to have taken more but didn't want to hold you all up even more than I did.

PS Bill did the ride aged 61-and-3/4 and I am nearly 60 so you should have a good few Dales rides left in you yet!

 

[busdennis]

doug and Mike think im 5 years older than u m8

 

[Sea of vapours]

Yep - that's mainly since he said so; repeatedly .... Well,OK, so we repeatedly misheard, to be fair. And further in our defense, we were both suitably incredulous/impressed.

 

[doughnut]

Yes, excellent day out Colin. That was a superb route and great company. My longest ride ever and the steepest hills I've ever seen while sitting on a bike. Only managed to stay on all the way up Fleet Moss because I saw the pensioner, busdennis, up front - I swear he was still on the big ring as well.

 

[ColinJ]

My full report is HERE!

 

[ColinJ]

Something has been at the back of my mind since the ride on Saturday ... This view seemed vaguely familiar, despite the fact that I had never ridden that road before the weekend.

And then I remembered - I got a supplement in one of my cycling magazines recently and was knocked out by one of the pictures. I thought that I would love to ride THAT road one day ...

That day came sooner than expected!

 

[wormo]

Which road is that Colin?

Thanks

 

[Sea of vapours]

How serendipitous :-)

Edit: It's the road between Stainforth and Halton Gill, looking westward from the top of the short climb up from Halton Gill, with Penyghent on the right in the distance.

 

[ColinJ]

Which road is that Colin?

Thanks

Sea of vapours has just beaten me to it while I was copying it from my route map!

 

[wormo]

Ta