Manchester - Llandudno Saturday 18 May 2019

[Kestevan]

From my perspective, the nicest edition of the ride we've had. Really good bunch of people doing the ride, a nice combination of old friends and new participants. Weather (particularly bearing in mind the forecast only two days earlier was for rain all day) was a mixture of "acceptable" and "bloody good". I think the new hilly route was an improvement on the previous version and most people managed to do the ride they planned to do (with the exception of @Alan7 and his Crewe train disaster).

Repeat rides are not too difficult to organise so, providing people want to ride, we can do it again next year

In this weekend's "bizarre things I've seen" I offer the following

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That's just up the road from "Fish Tram Chips" on Sunday morning.

Welsh "ladies of the night" doing their walk home probably.....

 

[fossyant]

PS Nick, were you up early again and going on a wander.

 

[nickyboy]

Sheep? On the road? In Wales? That's normal!

Goats...they're wild ones that live on the Orme. The tramdrivers were trying to shift them by tooting the tram horns but with little effect

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks, @nickyboy - I enjoyed my day out, to Eureka with you all, 52 km of the way back with @GuyBoden, then a solo effort to Walkden on the Bridgewater canal towpath and the Roe Green loopline path.

My total for the day was 172 km (107 miles). Not bad on singlespeed. Let nobody tell you that the route to Eureka is flat - doing it in a 52/19 gear soon reveals the truth! A couple of the slopes were a bit tough but I did manage to get up them. It may have been a lot less hilly than my usual rides in Yorkshire and Lancashire but I still clocked up 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) of ascent.

The towpath from Dunham to Monton has a good surface, but was perhaps a tad long when riding solo. I got bored of playing 'dodge the dog walkers, their dogs, joggers, and families out for a stroll'. I couldn't go fast enough and I could tell that I would miss a train by a minute or two so I slowed down a bit, relaxed and got in about 15 minutes before the train that I ended up catching.

The Roe Green loopline is a delight! It has a very good surface and follows a gradually ascending cutting in woodland. It too is popular with walkers etc. but it is much wider than the towpath so I didn't get held up; I just had to watch out for wandering dogs and children. Oh, and a rather erratic rollerblader going in the same direction as me - he had earphones in and was oblivious to my approach. Where I got off the loopline I just had to go up some steps to get to the road above, then it is only a couple of hundred metres to Walkden station. As @Katherine had told me earlier, there is a convenient gutter up the hillside next to the steps in which to wheel bikes up or down.

I got home at 20:30 rather than the usual 23:45 and I saved a lot of money on the rail fares so I think I will do the same thing next time. If I had more money and was still a drinker then I would come to Llandudno and go out on the town with the rest of you, but as an ex-drinker I get tired (and slightly jealous!) of watching other people getting p***ed...

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The reason that Skolly was in place in time to take that photo was because he had got to the footbridge before everybody else and simply hopped his bike up the steps onto the footbridge, somehow ridden it across the bridge (come on, look how narrow it is - the rest of us struggled to even walk the bikes over!), then hopped off at the far end.

Two good pics Katherine - you did well to persuade 15 cyclists to line up for the second one.

I've been playing 'spot how many I know/have ridden with', my score being six or seven.

Here you go...

Especially enjoyed the ride to Eureka along the canal and railway path, I'll be using that route in future. Big thanks to @nickyboy for organising.

Had an enjoyable ride and chat back to Warrington with @ColinP, always impressed with his riding up hills on his single speed bike.

Ha ha - that is an in-joke. I had been behind a hedge taking my 8th leak (?) out of about 15 when the group cycled past and I heard @nickyboy suggesting that I should change my forum name to that. Well, I can't because the name has already been taken! (The member in question is probably wondering why he was tagged in this thread ... )

I enjoyed the ride back with you too, Guy.

 

[StuAff]

someone was in a 911 RS 2.7, though... something like £250k).

Actually, Googling suggests at least double that, really historic/mint ones into seven figures. Wow.

 

[ColinJ]

Nothing to do with this ride, but I once saw a blood red Ferrari parked in Manchester city centre - the number on its registration plate was SEX 1...The car must have cost hundreds of thousands, but I'd guess that the registration number cost as much as the car!

I'm not sure whether I was more impressed by the design of the car, the sheer bravado of the owner driving around with that number, or the naive belief that you could leave a car like that in the centre of Manchester for more than a few minutes without it being stolen or having a coin dragged down its side.

 

[StuAff]

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@Adam4868 between you and Diddly, Tom (NOTP, or OTP, I know not) on your other side, @BRounsley on the end next to Nick. And @StuAff not in this photo

 

[theclaud]

Excellent day out as usual, thanks @nickyboy for again assuming the mantle of chief cat herder.

Just arrived home, after picking up the other car in Manchester... A feat not helped by the entire centre being closed for a bunch of joggers....

Now on way to optician to try and replace the 2 pairs of glasses I managed to lose on some god forsaken Cheshire canal towpath.

To lose one pair of spectacles may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

 

[doughnut]

Hey, I've been robbed!!!

I followed the same route as everyone else and Strava says I did a touch under 3200 feet of climbing. Everyone else did around 4000. Even @nickyboy who according to the official record joined the ride at Weaverham got nearly 4000. Robbed, I tell you.

 

[nickyboy]

Hey, I've been robbed!!!

I followed the same route as everyone else and Strava says I did a touch under 3200 feet of climbing. Everyone else did around 4000. Even @nickyboy who according to the official record joined the ride at Weaverham got nearly 4000. Robbed, I tell you.

We only have your word that you didn't do the flat route. You were last seen in Shotton, then you rematerialised at Bike Hub

 

[StuAff]

Hey, I've been robbed!!!

I followed the same route as everyone else and Strava says I did a touch under 3200 feet of climbing. Everyone else did around 4000. Even @nickyboy who according to the official record joined the ride at Weaverham got nearly 4000. Robbed, I tell you.

Robbed by your device, actually. Just did the elevation correction option on Strava, mine went down to 3550ft. Bloody Garmin elevation....on the thing's own elevation data, it under-reports massively, and even when you load it up into Data Site Of Your Choice, figures are still out....

 

[Kestevan]

To lose one pair of spectacles may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

I prefer to think of it more as a natural talent....

 

[I like Skol]

Hey, I've been robbed!!!

I followed the same route as everyone else and Strava says I did a touch under 3200 feet of climbing. Everyone else did around 4000. Even @nickyboy who according to the official record joined the ride at Weaverham got nearly 4000. Robbed, I tell you.

It doesn't count the bits you pushed up

 

[Wobblers]

Tony and Tom for the karaoke (don't ask)

You can't possibly expect not to be asked after saying something like that you know. So, do tell all about the karaoke. And is there anything (hopefully) incriminating up on youtube?

 

[Wobblers]

Your audience is waiting...

Well, my previous reply appears to have disappeared in a puff of electrons, and we've yet to hear the sordid details of this karaoke, so I'll be brief (to many sighs of relief...)

I liked the new route: swapping Prestatyn and Rhyl for more of the charms of rural North Wales seems a very fair exchange. Good choice, @nickyboy! The journey was made all the more pleasant in the convivial company of Claud and Adam - and, yes, you certainly did appear to be floating up those hills Adam!

The chips and scampi were as good as always, and so was the Trapps. Even if Skolly did manage to force one or two extra pints at me . It was here that I found out that @doughnut had tackled the hilly route despite only just being back on the bike - well done that man! Also nice to see @wanda2010.

The journey back... well, I thought I was going rather well in fact. Until, after about an hour I chanced upon a sign saying:
Llandudno: 5.
Wait, what? Check the garmin. Check it again. Zoom the map out. Zoom it out a bit more. Zoom it out a lot more. Sigh. Because, yes, I'd just spent the last hour going round in a circle. Which was less than pleasing as I resumed my journey (in the right direction) going past the very same drunks as I had a sodding hour ago. (I just know that the words I told you so are rushing to your keyboard right now so let me just point out that this is all Skolly's fault.)

So, the return journey turned out to be 69 (ha) miles and an extra hour than intended. Still, you bunch of reprobates made it worthwhile.