England : West Yorkshire Forum ride - Hebden Bridge to Otley, 15th July

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

this will be my 3rd 200km this summer, first one fixed tho. looking forward to it, tho a lot of walking i think.

 

[ColinJ]

Sorry to have left it so late - circumstances beyond my control - but I can now confirm that I'll be joining you on Sunday.

Yay!

Rider list:

• ColinJ
• bromptonfb
• Pennine-Paul
• Alun
• skudupnorth
• SlowerThanASluggishSloth
• potsy (Haribo-loaded)

Guest appearances

• tubbycyclist (Hebden Bridge to ... Steeton maybe?)
• colly (After Langbar to cafe)
• phil_hg_uk (hello at cafe)

A bit worried though as I've not had a day out since the wonderful Hawkshead Brewery ride and that was in April

Blimey - that time went quickly! I haven't done as much riding as I should have done, but I have done more than that!

What condition is the car park in, Colin? If I recall correctly it's not a million miles from the line of Hebden Water.

The car park is above the flood line. You don't really notice when there isn't flood water about but the centre of the town has a couple of dips which is where the water tends to go. That is especially true of the A646 which floods in the same places every time.

To get to the car park you have to climb about 1 metre or so over the bridge and that extra metre makes all the difference. It would probably take more than double the amount of water to flood that part of town via the river.

The second recent flood, however, wasn't caused by the river rising - it didn't rise enough to trigger the flood warning siren. What happened was that a very intense rain storm parked itself above the Old Town area and dumped a typical July rainfall in 3 hours! The streams and drains couldn't cope and the ground was already waterlogged so the water just cascaded down the roads and hillsides into town, bringing tons of mud, and gravel with it.

I walked up to Heptonstall on Saturday and looked across the valley at the opposite hillside where the flash flood originated. It is obvious when you look at it that there is effectively a huge natural funnel to collect rainwater. Normally that trickles down through the drains and a stream through Nutclough woods. On the day of the flood there were raging torrents coming down there!

Apart from a few mucky tidemarks on the outside of buildings, the town looks back to normal until you begin to notice how many closed businesses there are and how many skips containing flood-damaged material there are outside.

 

[ColinJ]

this will be my 3rd 200km this summer, first one fixed tho. looking forward to it, tho a lot of walking i think.

My route will be 101 km of that so you must be adding a fair bit to and from your house to make it 200! It must be about 50 km by the obvious route so you are finding another 50 somewhere!

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

ay that's the plan, long way there, long way back...simples.

 

[Speicher]

Hey, I'm a slug, not a bulldozer

 

[ColinJ]

ay that's the plan, long way there, long way back...simples.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

when are you putting the route up? the fixie people will need to plot a route round the goose eye grovel. it's a bit pointless on fixed, a long walk for no reason when it's straight back down iirc from last time.

 

[Pennine-Paul]

Goose eye is easy enough to avoid
Down into Keighley from Oakworth then the old Skipton rd to Steeton
the rest of the route is a magical mystery tour for me though

 

[ColinJ]

I have already listed the places that the route goes through in the first post. I haven't put a map up yet but will do later. (Done - here)

I don't mean to be funny Shaun, but the ride is what it is! If you want to go off and do your own route that is up to you but I can tell you now that if you are worried by Goose Eye then tremble in fear at Brunthwaite, avoid Langbar at all costs and don't even contemplate Otley Chevin, to name but a few! There are probably 5 or 6 separate climbs that you won't be able to get up on fixed. I always thought your motto was 'If it is quicker to walk, then I will walk' rather than 'I don't have the right gear so I will ride the long way round'!

It is about as fixed-hostile a route as they come but I didn't choose it to be nasty to fixed riders - it is just what most of my forum rides are like.

If you, Paul and Skud want a more fixed-friendly route then the best I can suggest is that you avoid Oakworth altogether (you have to do a steep valley descent/climb just to get to Oakworth) and ride on to Keighley from Haworth and go to Steeton that way. Then you would have to use the main road from Silsden to Addingham (to avoid Brunthwaite) and you could avoid Langbar by riding to the cafe in Weston via Ilkley. Return by the same route in reverse. That will come up short in distance and you won't be riding with the rest of us, but you could aim to get to the cafe at Weston at about 13:30 and we might bump into you there!

Alternatively - come with us, walk where you have to and regroup at the summits as usual.

 

[sdr gb]

Room for one more?
It's about time I tried one of Colin's rides.

 

[potsy]

Room for one more?
It's about time I tried one of Colin's rides.

 

[ColinJ]

Room for one more?
It's about time I tried one of Colin's rides.

Certainly - as long as you feel able to cope with the tough hills and you are happy to bimble along with us enjoying the scenery. If you want a quick ride - this one isn't it!

If you are slow, it won't be an issue because I will be climbing very slowly on the steep stuff, and I think there may be some walking too!

For bromptonfb and anyone else who is interested: here is the Route map on Bikely. (We will be tackling the loop in the route clockwise.)

 

[potsy]

Certainly - as long as you feel able to cope with the tough hills

Colin, you may not remember sdr-gb from the Jodrell ride, he weighs about as much as one of our legs, he'll be flying up those hills

 

[ColinJ]

Colin, you may not remember sdr-gb from the Jodrell ride, he weighs about as much as one of our legs, he'll be flying up those hills

I had a total lapse of memory! I'll go and check the photos of the JB ride to remind me ...

Actually, all the photos reminded me was that there were a lot of us, it was very wet and my leg was killing me that day.

Sorry sdr gb - I think I have hit some sort of limit remembering new CycleChat faces! There have been so many on my rides now that it takes 3 or 4 rides before I start to remember who people are. (Unless they are women - it is much easier to remember 1 of 8 (ish) rather than 1 of 90 (ish)!)

 

[potsy]

On the right of shot-