Le Tour de Scammonden - a lumpy little forum ride from Hebden Bridge. *** Saturday, Oct 21st, 2023? ***

[GuyBoden]

Really enjoyable ride, we a had a lot of banter and laughs all the way. Colin's rides are at a nice steady pace, which is great for my lack of climbing ability. The views are spectacular, once you get on top of the hills, the descents are fun too.

I especially enjoyed Colin's puncture as it gave me time to eat more food and have lots of banter.

My FOBB (fat old bloke hill climb bike) didn't let me down, but the 30t front and 46t rear low gear wasn't really low enough.

When I was driving home in the car, I saw Bill riding the exposed bit of Craggvale, I shouted out of the car window to him, but he was too concentrated on the climb or he thought that I was obnoxious car driver.

Big thanks to Bill, @ColinJ and @Dadam for the company, and for waiting for me to slowly spin up the hills.

 

[Dadam]

We joined up again in 'royd and rode over to Sowerby Bridge where I got slightly stroppy when the other 3 rode off up a very steep climb ahead of me while I struggled at the roadside with a chain that refused to shift. (I bent the derailleur cage in slightly and that sorted the problem out.) I have lost people on rides before when they didn't know the route and guessed the wrong way, which happened again this time! Fortunately, they turned and came back down to me because I wasn't about to deviate from the planned route to try and catch them!

Sorry Col, I hadn't realised until reading this you were delayed with a mechanical, or I'd have waited. Bill or Guy shouted "which way?" and you replied "follow your GPS", but I assumed you were talking to one of those two as while I had the route downloaded I hadn't set it to start navigation. So when Bill set off up that road I just followed.

 

[Dadam]

I was happy to finish the ride having only just used 50% of the Orbea Gain's battery which I was pleased with. I was turning off assist for the easier climbs and trying to stay in level 1 or 2 for the moderate ones. I did use L3 for the steepest ones though. In contrast the last one of Col's Calderdale rides in May I used 78%, although that was 5 miles longer and another 200m or so of climbing.

I do think when it comes time to change the cassette I'll look at getting a bigger bottom cog, maybe a 36.

 

[ColinJ]

Sorry Col, I hadn't realised until reading this you were delayed with a mechanical, or I'd have waited

Just one of those things that can happen on rides...

I was explaining on the ride that I had bodged the triple chainset onto the bike.

The bike had a 53+39 double chainset when I bought it but I was struggling to get up steep stuff in its 39/30 bottom gear.

The 28/30 that I have now is much more friendly. The problem is the bodgery is a bit borderline so sometimes the chain won't go to the little ring.

That's what happened at the foot of that climb. I knew that attempting it in 36/30 would risk triggering the sporadic A.F. that I can suffer from if I push my system too hard!

I will take another look at the bike. I probably only need another couple of mm of travel on the front derailleur to get reliable shifting.