Cheshire ride #2, Sat, 31st August, 2019 (100+ miles from Walkden, 120+ kms from Dunham)

[ColinJ]

Thanks for the invitation! I can't ride on Saturday mornings and I'm nt enthusiastic about riding 100 miles+.

Also I'm doing the Manchester 100km to help The Christie where my late sister in law had excellent treatment.

I did the 100 miler a few years ago, pleased to report that I didn't experience any of the problems you encountered.

Well, the total will be as close to 100 miles as I can make it, but that will include 44 kms (~27 miles) two-ways between Walkden and Dunham so the Cheshire loop will be just over 73 miles.

Sorry about your sister-in-law. I raised a few hundred pounds for The Christie over the years, plus some other charities. It became a bit of a pain getting the sponsors to cough up what they had promised though!

 

[ColinJ]

Sorry Colin. I will be in Grange preparing for The Way of the Roses.
Have fun in my absence.

And enjoy TWOTR!

(If I didn't already warn you and you are riding west to east - take great care on the descent off Greenhow Hill into Pateley Bridge! )

 

[Pennine-Paul]

Well pencil me in, weather dependent of course, it's looking 50/50 at the moment

 

[skudupnorth]

I would come, but currently nursing a broken radius. Off the bike now til October if you fancy rearranging it to then

Get well soon, nothing worse than not being able to ride

 

[Littgull]

I would come, but currently nursing a broken radius. Off the bike now til October if you fancy rearranging it to then

That's rotten luck, Simon.

All the best for a swift recovery.

 

[ColinJ]

I have updated the first post with details of the route, meeting times etc.

It looks like the weather will be cooler, which probably isn't a bad thing for a long ride. It is too far off for an accurate forecast, but fingers crossed that we can avoid rain this time!

Anybody else fancy a day out in Cheshire?

 

[Littgull]

I'm hoping the weather forecast for Saturday improves. It's currently suggesting we will be battling a 20 mph headwind for most of the outward leg from Dunham to Venetian Marina with a fair bit of heavy rain too!
Plenty of time for that to change for the better though.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm hoping the weather forecast for Saturday improves. It's currently suggesting we will be battling a 20 mph headwind for most of the outward leg from Dunham to Venetian Marina with a fair bit of heavy rain too!
Plenty of time for that to change for the better though.

Ouch!

If the weather IS bad on Saturday then maybe we will have to consider one of the shortcut options?

I will try putting my Crud Roadracer mudguards on my singlespeed bike. I'm not sure that there will be enough clearance with the 25C tyres that colly gave me recently.

If the Cruds don't fit then I might have to ride my CAADX again. I'm slightly nervous about the bike since Cannondale issued a recall for iffy forks! TBH - the bike is probably perfectly ok but one person was killed and 2 badly injured after CAADX fork failures. Cannondale said it was a precautionary recall measure and warned riders about riding bikes that had suffered crash damage, so I think that the failures probably resulted from previously damaged forks breaking. Still, it isn't something I want to be thinking about when riding ...

 

[skudupnorth]

I’m easy with Saturday’s ride, there is nothing worse than being miserable on a long ride if the weather is bad

 

[Littgull]

The forecast is very changeable. It's currently looking much better for Saturday than it did 24 hours ago, with only light rain in late afternoon and the strong wind speed lessened quite a bit. So let's hope it stays that way.

 

[ColinJ]

Fingers crossed on the, er, weather front!

My Crud mudguards are no go... They only just fitted with 23C tyres on the bike. I took a look at the clearance with the current 25C tyres and there is no chance of getting them on without severe rubbing and a risk of actually locking the wheels. It might be possible to bodge just the rear half of each guard on, but I can't really be bothered to

I think I will ride the singlespeed with just the Assguard clone that I have on it. That means I will get wet if it rains a lot. Maybe I will wear my overshoes to offer my feet some protection.

I'd like to get the imperial century in, but even the shortest of the shortcuts would give us a long metric century, Walkden-Walkden.


Time for a headcount...

• ColinJ
• @Littgull
• @skudupnorth
• @Katherine - Walkden-Irlam?
• @GuyBoden - Dunham-Dunham loop
• @Pennine-Paul - Dunham-Dunham loop?

 

[Littgull]

@ColinJ
I can loan you a spare rear mudguard if you like. It's a clip on the seat post type so tyre clearance wouldn't be an issue. Very quick to fix as just one screw using Allen key. It was on my mtb but I took it off as the pannier rack serves as a mudguard.
I can easily bring it the 300 metres or so from my house to Littleborough train station for the same Walkden bound train you will have boarded at Tod. If you have a few inches of seat post available you probably wouldn't need to relocate your rear light.

 

[Littgull]

Here's a photo of the mudguard.

 

[ColinJ]

@ColinJ
I can loan you a spare rear mudguard if you like. It's a clip on the seat post type so tyre clearance wouldn't be an issue. Very quick to fix as just one screw using Allen key. It was on my mtb but I took it off as the pannier rack serves as a mudguard.
I can easily bring it the 300 metres or so from my house to Littleborough train station for the same Walkden bound train you will have boarded at Tod. If you have a few inches of seat post available you probably wouldn't need to relocate your rear light.

Thanks for the offer, Brian, but that reminds me that I have a very similar one on my mountain bike which I could fit. I also have a downtube-mounting front 'Crudguard' which I could put on. I'll check the forecast tomorrow evening and decide whether to bother.

 

[skudupnorth]

Are we still on for tomorrow ? Weather looks up and down in the morning so it will be a challenge