100-and-a-bit km forum ride from Leighton Buzzard, SUNDAY, 24th September, 2017

[ColinJ]

As promised, another forum ride from Leighton Buzzard is coming up ....

This time the ride will take place on a Sunday because I will be attending my sister's birthday party on the Saturday. I am hoping that @shirokazan is up for it again and comes up with a route as good as the first one which we tackled a month ago!

We said that it would be north of the Chilterns this time, just over 100 kms again, and we will seek out a decent cafe about mid-ride.

Start at 09:00 outside Leighton Buzzard station. Steady, chatty pace, probably about 14 mph average riding speed.

Meanwhile I will give a shout out to those who rode last time, and also to those who couldn't make that ride but who expressed an interest in this one - @Dogtrousers, @toffee, @Aravis, @jayonabike, @biggs682, @Pennine-Paul, @CharlieB, @steverob, @velovoice, @MOB, @Nigel182, @cappers - I hope that some of you can make it this time

If you are interested, express your interest below!

I will edit this post later to add more details ...

 

[toffee]

Will be interested in it. Not sure if I can make that day yet.

 

[Nigel182]

@ColinJ
Sorry got to keep close to home that weekend have a good one though and I'll keep an eye out for others in that area not been that way much want to change that sometime

 

[biggs682]

sorry no can do but thanks for thinking of me @ColinJ

 

[ColinJ]

My sister will be living down there for a couple of years until she retires and I should be visiting her several times a year so there will be more of these rides to come. I will keep posting them, so if you can't make one, just keep an eye open for the next.

 

[velovoice]

Sorry, will be away that weekend.

 

[shirokazan]

@ColinJ Welcome back from your various travels. I'll try to devise a route but can't guarantee a café stop as it's the "Empty Quarter" where we plan to go.

Speaking of which, did you see how stage 7 of the Tour of Britain used bits of our previous route? Ringshall to Tring station, and then Cublington to near Chearsley (but going the opposite way)? I wasn't as adventurous as @steverob who ventured further afield: I merely cycled the five miles to Cublington to see it pass through - impressively, there were about another 200 people there too.

This time we could try and include the ToB's cat 3 climb of Brill.

 

[Aravis]

I'll be interested to see the route. It's sounding as though there could be an element of "let's climb this because it's there" which isn't quite my usual preference.

At the moment I classify myself as "probable", but a few things do need to click into place.

 

[steverob]

Unlikely I'd be able to make this as I think I'm busy on the Sunday (free on the Saturday annoyingly), but there may be a chance of a last minute decision so I'll keep monitoring the thread just in case.

Also I wouldn't be quite so keen on doing the same route over Brill that the ToB did - that was the descent where I had my crash! Admittedly there are four ways down from Brill (if you include the way you came up) and one of them is much shallower than the others, although that would mean quite a detour, but it's an option I suppose.

 

[shirokazan]

I thought about going through Brill (which I mentioned in the other thread) because Colin likes his climbing and this would be the only significant one of the probable route; and there's an excellent view over the surrounding area from the top - I mean, who wouldn't be impressed by the (remaining) cooling towers of Didcot power station? Bring your binos and you should be able to see the "dreamy spires" too.

@steverob, did you crash descending the windmill road, or Oakley Road? Ordinarily, I ascend from Chilton direction and descend Tram Hill, or vice versa if I'm doing an anti-clockwise route - either way, this wouldn't involve the ToB route but I had thought about changing at least one of my usual roads.

Anyhow, I'll plan a couple of routes: one with Brill, one without.

 

[steverob]

@steverob, did you crash descending the windmill road, or Oakley Road? Ordinarily, I ascend from Chilton direction and descend Tram Hill, or vice versa if I'm doing an anti-clockwise route - either way, this wouldn't involve the ToB route but I had thought about changing at least one of my usual roads.

I was coming down the road towards Oakley at the time (the first time I'd tried that side of the hill in either direction). There's a series of potholes and other rough patches of road on the steepest section of that descent which proved my downfall (literally). I've only been up the Chilton side (e.g. the easiest one) and down the Tramhill side, but have done the Windmill side in both directions.

 

[ColinJ]

I was looking at Brill using my patented hill-finder ... In Memory Map I draw a straight route line from the starting point and about 40% of the desired overall length of the ride. That allows for a bit of meandering about and for a similar return ride. I open an elevation window to show a cross-section of the terrain that the line passes over. It is simple to move the endpoint around and watch how the elevation profile changes.

Here is a line through Brill from LB ...

Obviously that line does not correspond to actual roads but it would help me to pick out places to visit or avoid if I were responsible for plotting the route. It is what I do for my rides 'oop north'.

I'm still catching up on the ToB coverage and haven't got to the stage through Brill yet.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm thinking of opting for @shirokazan's non-Brill route because I will probably be riding singlespeed and Brill definitely would NOT be brill in a 52/19 gear!

This is the proposed alternative (tackled clockwise) ...

And its elevation profile (vertical scale exaggerated for clarity - the climbs don't seem too bad if you calculate the gradients. I think I could get up most of them on the singlespeed, maybe having to walk a few short, steeper ramps) ...

I have now attached the GPX file for the route

Does anybody fancy joining shirokazan and me?

 

[toffee]

Don't know if I can make it yet. I cycle some of those roads quite regularly.

 

[ColinJ]

Don't know if I can make it yet. I cycle some of those roads quite regularly.

I hope that you can make it in the end.

I finally bought my rail tickets today. I left it too late to buy cheap Advance tickets this time so the trip is costing me £18.35 more than it needed to - hmmmph!