Lumpy 82 km/51 mile forum ride from Mirfield, Sat, 21st Sept, 2024

[ColinJ]

The weather forecast is still looking ok...

I plan to ride from Todmorden to Hebden Bridge to catch the train to Mirfield. On the way back I will get out at Mytholmroyd and ride home from there. That will give me near enough a metric century, and I will do what I need to back in Todmorden to achieve that.

*** PS - MORE RIDERS WANTED - SIGN UP BELOW!! ***

 

[ColinJ]

I plan to ride from Todmorden to Hebden Bridge to catch the train to Mirfield. On the way back I will get out at Mytholmroyd and ride home from there. That will give me near enough a metric century, and I will do what I need to back in Todmorden to achieve that.

My pal Bill will be joining us. I will check train status before we set off. If all is well, we will do as described above. If our train is shown as cancelled, Bill will drive us over.

 

[ColinJ]

We have a surprisingly favourable weather forecast for the ride tomorrow! Sunny intervals all day, mild to pleasantly warm, little chance of rain. Maybe enough wind to make progress harder at times but we change direction a lot so at other times it will be helping us.

@Dadam, @Buck - will either or both of you bring a lock for the cafe stop? My u-lock is way too heavy to carry in my backpack!

I am just slightly concerned about the reliability of our train service. If the train from Hebden Bridge were to be cancelled then there would be a 1 hour delay before the next one. Hopefully, there would be enough notice of such a cancellation that a check before setting off would spot it. If so, Bill and I would drive over instead but a last minute cancellation could catch us out. It would probably take longer to ride back to Todmorden to get the car and do the drive than to just wait for the next train. Ditto cycling to Mirfield. Fingers crossed that the trains don't let us down!

I will post again in the morning before setting off.

Anybody who has been toying with joining us feel free to speak up now!

 

[Dadam]

Ooh need to sort that train now, cheers for the reminder.
I'll bring my cable lock.

 

[ColinJ]

@Buck (or anyone else) - do you know if Julie's café in Penistone has seating outside? It seems to be on a back street or industrial estate that the Street View car didn't go up.

I StreetViewed the entire route last night. Apart from the urban bits and a few stretches of slightly busy road, a lot of it looks really good!

I am just charging up my devices. I will navigate using my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2 but I'll carry my old Garmin Edge 200 for backup. The Wahoo is nicer to use but I have had it glitch a couple of times and haven't yet worked out what the cause of the problem was. (The device suddenly stops displaying the route on the map.) The route is too complicated for me to ride from memory. I will be GPS central - an old Edge 500 will be used for ride stats. The 500 is unreliable for routing though, hence the 200, which is very reliable.

 

[Dadam]

Train ticket purchased, off peak day return with bike res for the 9:08. Need to collect from the machine at Morley, so hope that's working. Not sure what happens if it isn't, as the email doesn't constitute a ticket.

 

[Dadam]

@Buck (or anyone else) - do you know if Julie's café in Penistone has seating outside? It seems to be on a back street or industrial estate that the Street View car didn't go up.

Not a lot but looks like there's at least one wooden picnic table outside from the Google review in March this year:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.526...try=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MDkxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

 

[Buck]

It has some picnic benches outside yes 👍🏻 (or did last time I passed there!)

I’ve got a cafe lock which I’ll bring too.

The back half of the route is nice. if the suns out we are in for some nice views.

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, and a handy bike shop next door!

Pal Bill has just been round to discuss plans. We were debating train vs car. Train travel is cheaper, quicker, and less stressful... unless something goes wrong, in which case it ISN'T! We are still going to come by train though unless we see that there is a cancellation before we leave Tod.

Assuming the weather is as forecast I would sit or stand outside the cafe anyway so bike security shouldn't really be an issue.

I think that I will ride my best bike. It is tempting to ride my former singlespeed bike (now 6-speed) because I can use a pannier on it but it is a nice route for my triple-equipped Cannondale. Maybe I will prefer the 28/30 bottom gear somewhere where the 42/29 would have felt a bit overgeared?

 

[Buck]

That gearing will be fine ! It gives you many options but I’m sure you’ll not need the smaller front ring.

 

[ColinJ]

Hebden Bridge train seems to be on time.

The Morley one is slightly delayed.

See ya soon...

 

[Dadam]

Just got to station and heard that announcement. 11 minutes they said

 

[Buck]

See you later !

 

[Dadam]

@Buck on our way

 

[ColinJ]

How did the ride go?

It went very well, thanks!

I will post a much more detailed reply tomorrow when I am not feeling so tired...

(I didn't have the energy to cook this evening so I decided to make do with a large bowl of fruit and muesli. I sat down to eat it and woke up half an hour later with half a spoon of muesli in my mouth, and the other half a spoon hovering in mid-air a few cms away from my face. I have no idea how I didn't choke or spill the muesli! )