England : North Yorkshire July 1st, 2017 - the annual Settle Yorkshire Dales forum ride

[ColinJ]

That's a good effort one way and another to get to the ride.

Drizzle now stopped, so about the worst we should have to face wet-wise is dodging the occasional puddle.

I'm looking forward to checking out the 2 climbs that you will be doing with us - I haven't done those before. I have ridden pretty much all of the rest of the route at one time or another; love it all!

The bit that I am slightly dreading is the ride back up from Keighley to the summit at Cock Hill. We do that towards the end of the Spring Into The Dales audax and it always feels hard after what has gone before, which is significantly less than I will have done by that point tomorrow. It is particularly tough when there are windy conditions and that is what will be facing me tomorrow evening. The saving grace is that there is a lovely 7 km descent to Hebden Bridge from Cock Hill. I will still have another 7 km along the A646 to Todmorden after that, but that isn't too bad. My task then will be to stay awake long enough to eat my pizza and watch the Tour de France highlights show!

 

[Sea of vapours]

You'll like the descent from Grinton Moor - smooth and sweeping and such good things. I find it near-impossible to believe that you won't think Fleak Moss from the north to be an excellent climb too; my favourite in the Dales as I think I probably said. I've actually not done the Cray climb in the south to north direction. Must be about the only notable thing around here left to metaphorically tick.

I don't envy you the train / hill / A road return very much ... At least you will have had a decent break before the climb out of Keighley though. It might help!

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm looking forward to checking out the 2 climbs that you will be doing with us - I haven't done those before. I have ridden pretty much all of the rest of the route at one time or another; love it all!

The bit that I am slightly dreading is the ride back up from Keighley to the summit at Cock Hill. We do that towards the end of the Spring Into The Dales audax and it always feels hard after what has gone before, which is significantly less than I will have done by that point tomorrow. It is particularly tough when there are windy conditions and that is what will be facing me tomorrow evening. The saving grace is that there is a lovely 7 km descent to Hebden Bridge from Cock Hill. I will still have another 7 km along the A646 to Todmorden after that, but that isn't too bad. My task then will be to stay awake long enough to eat my pizza and watch the Tour de France highlights show!

Shame Bill isn't going to be with us, a climb-off between him and @Sea of vapours would have been interesting.

My money would have been on youth beating experience.

Pleased to hear you have the pizza plans in hand.

It wont be a proper forum ride unless you fall asleep in the front of the telly half way through your dustbin lid sized veggie.

 

[Sea of vapours]

My money would have been on youth beating experience.

You may have omitted the word relative in that sentence, but thanks ;-)

 

[Pale Rider]

You may have omitted the word relative in that sentence, but thanks ;-)

I recall what Colin's friend Kevin said when you attacked a climb on a forum ride.

"He's a bit out of our league, but that's alright so long as there's more of us on the ride than there is of him."

 

[oldfatfool]

@ColinJ so long as it is fine and the knee is holding up I am good to go. A while since I did over 100k with climbing, so hope I won't hold you up. Yup that's still my number give me a ring if you get delayed beyond 10.30, if I ain't there by 10.15 just go on and I will try and catch you up. ATB

 

[robjh]

Just seen this thread. I'm in Hawes tonight, en route for Edinburgh, but unless I get up really late I should be gone before you all pass through. Have a good ride everyone, I am.

 

[Pale Rider]

Just seen this thread. I'm in Hawes tonight, en route for Edinburgh, but unless I get up really late I should be gone before you all pass through. Have a good ride everyone, I am.

Hawes is after lunch, so I'm guessing we won't get there until after 3pm.

You would, of course, be welcome to join me at Aysgarth at about 12.45pm, but I expect you will want to be on your on way elsewhere by then.

 

[robjh]

Hawes is after lunch, so I'm guessing we won't get there until after 3pm.

You would, of course, be welcome to join me at Aysgarth at about 12.45pm, but I expect you will want to be on your on way elsewhere by then.

Thanks, but I hope to be steaming northwards by then.

 

[ColinJ]

Just seen this thread. I'm in Hawes tonight, en route for Edinburgh, but unless I get up really late I should be gone before you all pass through. Have a good ride everyone, I am.

How did you find the Fleet Moss descent? (You clearly survived the 'step'!)

 

[robjh]

How did you find the Fleet Moss descent? (You clearly survived the 'step'!)

I think I never even saw it because of the fog. I was descending carefully thanks to your advice, and yes I survived!

 

[ColinJ]

@ColinJ so long as it is fine and the knee is holding up I am good to go. A while since I did over 100k with climbing, so hope I won't hold you up. Yup that's still my number give me a ring if you get delayed beyond 10.30, if I ain't there by 10.15 just go on and I will try and catch you up. ATB

It is supposed to be a bit overcast until noon and sunny spells after that so the weather shouldn't put you off!

I hope your knee will be okay. We certainly won't be going any quicker than we did on the other rides that you've done with me.

If there is going to be a significant delay before 10:15 then I will text you, SoV and PR.

 

[ColinJ]

LAST CALL!

You lot are missing out, but if you are in the area and up at this unearthly hour (preferably after more than the 3.4 hours sleep that I managed!) you still have time to get yourselves down to Settle to meet me off the 09:48 train or be at the little bridge between Stainforth and Little Stainforth at 10:15!

It is a super route and the weather looks ok for today.

Anyway, enough of that. I have to get ready because I have to cycle over this damn thing to get to Keighley to catch a train to Settle!

I could catch 3 trains to get there but it would only take 1 of them to be significantly late to completely mess up my journey. I'll have to do the same thing in reverse this evening, by which time it might be raining. That should be fun ...

 

[oldfatfool]

Great to meet Col again along with Pale Rider and Sea of Vapours. Absolutely fantastic route and company, and sorry to bail out at Hawes but the leg cramps were and still are dissabilitating never known anything like it, need to get back to some sort of fitness if climbing over 2000m with 20% + Ramps! However judging by how the rain started shortly after setting off from Hawes in the car I was semi gratefull not to be riding, hope everyone got/ gets home OK.

 

[Pale Rider]

Today's ride was tougher than expected even though I only did 35 miles of it.

A gusty headwind for much of my circuit added to the difficulty of the long Dales climbs.

Castle Bolton up to Grinton wasn't so bad, but there was worse to come after Reeth in the shape of Fleak Moss.

I was further hampered by having my 20" wheel ebike on which the front wheel tends to lift on really steep stuff due to the bike's short wheelbase.

The front wheel popped up a couple of times on the first nasty ramp, but I kept going.

It was then time for the bit @seaofvapours describes as 'the wall'.

Goodness knows what the gradient is, but half way up I pulled a couple of big involuntary wheelies, so what with the wind, I had to get off.

I'm now in the worst of all cycling worlds, knackered, cross at having to stop, and marooned on a steep hill with an arthritic hip and a heavy ebike to push.

Oh well, no one said it was supposed to be easy.

The descent on the other side was shorter and therefore steeper, which made me (almost) glad we'd tackled it from the side we did.

It's an undulating few miles from the bottom of Fleak Moss into Hawes, made a hard undulating few miles today by the headwind.

Me and @oldfatfool turned for Hawes town centre, him to get picked up, me to head back to Aysgarth.

That's an about turn for me, so I had a stiff tailwind as I rattled along the A684, which wasn't very busy, and the sight lines were good.

Perhaps not to be generally recommended for cycling but it did the job of getting me back to my start point.

It was a pity having to push for a short stretch today, but it is an excellent route if you are not hill-phobic.

Good company - as usual - although this wasn't such a chatty ride as we were all concentrating on getting the job done.