SHORT NOTICE! Flat metric century ride from Garforth via York, this Saturday (13th Nov, 2021).

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Location
London
One doesn't need to be online to validate the ticket. It's just a question of clicking "Activate" on the ticket itself which makes the barcode readable.
Ah ok, thanks. But still the app could misbehave? I still don't get it though - if the ticket is for a fixed train, is valid on no other, I don't understand why there is a two-step process.
Still, northern does allow you to travel without a paid ticket,you can just get a promise to pay slip from the machine on some lines at least and then pay on the train
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Although my phone is reliable and I (generally) like technology and am happy with it, I can do without the stress of something going wrong with an electronic ticket. If there was a fallback option in case of problems of giving them a reference number to prove that the ticket had been bought, I'd be happy with that.

Having to buy a replacement ticket for a local journey such as this one would be annoying, but only an extra fiver or so. I'd be mightily peeved to have to pay almost £100 for a replacement ticket to Devon though!

I go to the station 5 times a week anyway so picking up printed tickets from the machine isn't much of a bother, just a waste of a small amount of thin cardboard.
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Have a good ride - sorry I can’t make it.
Thanks. I had thought about 'tagging' you about it but the trouble with doing that is that some people inevitably get forgotten and might think 'why THEM, but not ME'! :whistle:

I did think about setting up a tag list for any rides that I organise. Anybody who wanted to be tagged would have to ask to be added to the list and then I would copy and paste the list to each new ride thread.
 

Julia9054

Guru
Location
Knaresborough
Thanks. I had thought about 'tagging' you about it but the trouble with doing that is that some people inevitably get forgotten and might think 'why THEM, but not ME'! :whistle:

I did think about setting up a tag list for any rides that I organise. Anybody who wanted to be tagged would have to ask to be added to the list and then I would copy and paste the list to each new ride thread.
It’s Al’s birthday and I am taking him out for pizza early as he has a concert in the evening.
I would have been up for it as I haven’t done a great deal of leisure cycling - just commuting - for the last few weeks due to real life getting in the way so it would have been fun.
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Count me in on the list.
I hope you've faffed about already as it's getting late and you need to go to bed. :ohmy:
I gave way to temptation and watched a couple of episodes of Bosch!

Just off now so I should get about 4.5 hours sleep, assuming that I am not thinking too much and struggling to get off. I'll set 2 separate alarms to make sure that I don't oversleep! :okay:
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Aaaargh - must start going to bed earlier! :laugh:

See you soon, Brian.
 

Soltydog

Legendary Member
Location
near Hornsea
Sorry I cant make the ride, already had other plans today, have a good ride all :okay:
Just a quick heads up re York station, there's now a small Sainsbury store open where the old ticket office was. Prices are more reasonable than other shops on the station if you need any supplies whilst there 👍
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
It turned out to be a very good ride. The weather was great for this time of year. I took long-fingered gloves for backup, but didn't feel the need to wear them. We did get a few dark clouds for a while later on, and I felt a couple of spots of rain, but that was it. As expected, the wind was significant, but not horribly so. We spent about half the ride being hindered by the wind but we didn't feel like we were killing ourselves to do a reasonable speed into it. The other half of the ride was wind-assisted and felt very easy.

No problems on the trains, so we arrived at Garforth on time and headed north on the road that we use on the Garforth imperial century ride. This time though, our route took us east on Parlington Lane, a bridleway across an old country estate through woodland near Aberford. This is currently a very nice, quiet path which I was able to ride (with care) on my narrow and slick-tyred singlespeed road bike. A little bit muddy in a couple of places, and of course at this time of there are lots of damp leaves lying on the surface. I say 'currently' because plans are being developed to build a new garden village just north of the path. If the village IS built, then that path will end up with lots of people going up and down it.

Littgull at Nellie's Tree on Parlington Lane...

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Close-up of the sign...

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Once we got to Aberford, we took the road and cyclepaths north that we use on the other Garforth ride, but only as far as Bramham. From there we headed off via Boston Spa as far as Little Ouseburn, and then turned to the NE to cross the Ure/Ouse*** at Aldwark toll bridge. Yes, it was free for us to cross! :okay:

Once over the bridge we turned towards the SE and headed down to York. The last 5.5 km into the city were on the excellent NCN 65 path. There were a lot of people out walking their dogs and/or with their kids on little bikes so we had to take it easy and watch out, but we weren't in a hurry. We decided fairly early on that it wouldn't be a relaxed ride to aim to catch the 15:28 train home so we took our time and our backup plan was to cycle into Leeds from Garforth if it would be quicker than waiting at Garforth station for a later train.

When we got into York, the discussions above about Scarborough bridge turned out to be irrelevant - the bridge was closed for maintenance! We improvised another route to the station for a quick pee-break, then headed off to the TPT to Bishopthorpe.

We did do the detour to the But First cafe. We ate our own food on a bench across the road from the cafe, then called in there for coffees. A nice little place. It was pretty busy, but we got seats outside. It isn't often that I have been happy to sit outside in mid-November - normally it would be quite cold, and it is easy to get chilled when sitting around after exertion.

It was clear that we would be doing about an hour of riding in the dark but we had lights so that shouldn't be a problem.

We went further south on the TPT than I have been before. It really is excellent down there. One day I will do the full length down to Selby. A deer ran across just in front of us. It wasn't close enough to cause problems, but we got a good look at it before it ran off into the trees on the other side.

We left the cyclepath at Riccall and headed west into the sunset. @Littgull will be along eventually with the photos that he took, which include a sunset picture.

Eventually, we got to Aberford and headed back along Parlington Lane in the dark. That was a bit spooky, and especially when Littgull got significantly ahead of me because my front light isn't really good enough to see to ride safely on leaves and mud on a slope in the dark... Especially when you hit a bump which causes your light to switch itself off - that was a bit scary! :eek:

We did the last road section into Garforth and had got our timing about right. We had to wait, but not long enough for it to be worth riding into Leeds.

The train we changed to at Leeds was not going to stop at Littleborough so Brian had to alight with me at Todmorden and then head off into the night for another 9 kms. He could have waited for the next train from Tod, but was quicker to ride home.

It was around 108 km/67 miles for me; more like 117 km/73 miles for Brian.

A very good day out, and a route that we will probably do again next year as well as the original Garforth route. We will give more notice next time and it will be a month or two earlier in the year.

*** I was trying to remember the other name for the river. I knew that it was the Ouse as it passes through York, but it is called the Ure further upstream and the name changes near the toll bridge. I just read a few articles about where the names come from, and I could summarise the geographical historians' verdict as "We have some ideas, but we don't know for sure"! Some combination of old English/Viking words being corrupted over the centuries... :wacko:
 
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Venod

Eh up
Location
Yorkshire
I have ridden the track through the Parlington estate on many occasions but never seen the tree, must have been going too fast, did you go through the tunnel or round the top of it, if its a bright day it can be disorientating entering the dark usually muddy tunnel.
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
I have ridden the track through the Parlington estate on many occasions but never seen the tree, must have been going too fast, did you go through the tunnel or round the top of it, if its a bright day it can be disorientating entering the dark usually muddy tunnel.
We went through the tunnel and it is long enough that lights were needed to get us through the middle section before we could see the light from the other end. The tree is about halfway through the woods, on your right coming from Aberford.

I just found THIS ARTICLE about the tunnel.
 

colly

Re member eR
Location
Leeds
Why don't I look in more often?? I could well have made this. :sad: As it was I spent the day sodding around with repairing the garage roof.

Well I'm glad it turned out ok for you.:okay::okay:
 
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ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Why don't I look in more often?? I could well have made this. :sad: As it was I spent the day sodding around with repairing the garage roof.

Well I'm glad it turned out ok for you.:okay::okay:
Oh, that's a shame!

Right, I WILL start my forum ride tag list then! I'll post this at the start of every new ride thread in future...

***** ColinJ's forum rider tag list *****
Fellow forum riders, I am planning another ride!

@colly, @Littgull, @neil_merseyside, @Sea of vapours

If anybody wants their name to be added to the list, let me know. :smile:

(If anybody wants their name to be removed, let me know, but... :cry:)

NB Make sure that you have enabled tag alerts in your account preferences - HERE (tick 'mentions you in a message')
************************************
 
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