The 2022 Half Century (50km or 50M) a month challenge chatzone
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Sunshine and blue sky, ideal for the November ride. However, some lessons learned, it may be mild at 1.30pm but at this time of year it gets pretty chilly by 3.00pm, so full finger gloves, leg and arm warmers for the next few months.
Also an e-bike ride with a dead battery provides a pretty good workout lugging an extra 5kg of dead weight around.
Also an e-bike ride with a dead battery provides a pretty good workout lugging an extra 5kg of dead weight around.
Just a quick reminder ,don't forget to charge your bike
Domus
Guru
- Location
- Sunny Radcliffe
First ride in November was supposed to be a ride over the West Pennine Moors with clear blue skies, however being the numpty I am I got to Harwood and realised I had left my phone behind. Not wanting to be stuck on the moors I circled round and picked up my phone with 18 Kms on the clock. So a change of plan took me up to Edenfield and The Drop Off Café for an early lunch. A good choice as it turned out, the sun disappeared and the wind picked up so back home for a total of 52 Kms. Alls well that ends well
Ridgeback Roller
Über Member
- Location
- Sussex
I was just glad to get off the bike - 1st time in many years I've experienced the wind whipping my front wheel away to the extent it did on Wednesday
I did the same yesterday! Got 5km on the way and realised I was without my phone. I probably wouldn’t have needed it as I knew the route, but it wouldn’t have helped anxiety levels at home and I would have missed the camera. The positive is that it turned a 90km ride into a century and an extra point In the challenge. It has also made me realise I need to write down some phone numbers so I can get in touch if needed.
Domus
Guru
- Location
- Sunny Radcliffe
Must be an age thing, "I'm a pensioner you know"
Just a quick reminder ,don't forget to charge your bike
It was fully charged, there’s a faulty connection I haven’t found yet.
That's a bit more worrying, range anxiety
FrothNinja
Veteran
Hacked off. Planned to do a long un today - well at least 50km & 1000 metres - forecast great (well, less than 40% rain after 10am) & awoke to bright sunshine. Pissing down with rain by the time I was ready to ride and now forecast to rain until 3pm. I could do what I did a week or so ago and ride the same bit of ground over & over again until I hit the 50km - the 1000m would be harder to do that way without dicing with traffic on a dangerous bit of road. Not an attractive option either. Looks like I will have to make do with a shortish ride when the bl0Qdy drizzle gives up. If it doesn't do that by just after 3 the its half an hour in the rain on the canal towpath 
Noodle Legs
Winging it
- Location
- Coalville, Leicestershire
November done ✅
Off the mark this month with a difference- today’s ride was a meet up in Ashbourne with the boys from Nuneaton Velo for an off road adventure along the famous Tissington and High Peak Trails.
I haven’t ridden these trails since 2010 on my trusty Trek Hybrid, and today saw the use of another trusty Trek- only this time it was of the MTB variety! I hadn’t been out on the X Caliber for a few months but figured as it is autumn and the trails claggy from the endless rain from the past couple of weeks that it was time to dust it down.
Setting off just after 0900 the Tissington Trail started immediately from the car park via a long tunnel which passes underneath the main street in Ashbourne town centre. It was well lit up unlike back in 2010 where I seem to recall there were no lights at all! Out of the tunnel and the start of the 12 mile limestone gravelly trail was immediate.
What also quickly came back to me was the fact that this trail is all uphill- albeit a false flat for the most part which got me thinking how the hell the freight trains of yesteryear would have hauled tonnes and tonnes of quarry minerals up it! The autumnal effect kicked in almost as immediate as the trail itself and we were barely half a mile in and already caked in mud!
By the time we had got to Hartington signal box we were absolutely ditched, I had to take off my glasses as the combination of fog, sweat and mud made it almost impossible to see! Having stopped to take photos we pushed on for another mile where the junctions of the Tissington and High Peak trails met, turning off onto the High Peak Trail where the weather got even more bleak, increased fog and a slight headwind making it very fresh indeed!
Of the two, the High Peak is typically more scenic a trail however due to the bleak Derbyshire Dales weather there wasn’t much to look at, save for grazing livestock in huge quantities.
The Hopton incline (or rather decline going eastbound) was where we left the High Peak Trail, a couple of miles of on-road riding required to link us to the next port of call at Carsington Water. Arriving onto the limestone paths that circumnavigate the reservoir which, was eerily low in level, the plan was to ride round two thirds of it to get to the cafe at the visitor centre however disaster struck. As I passed through a gate which was being held open by one of the other lads, I used the momentum to kick on up the immediate steep climb where I agreed to meet them at the top. The top is just out of view of the gate and as I waited I expected to see them come up into view within a few seconds.
Ten minutes pass….. no sign. Back down I go….
Turns out one of the lads fell off his bike and landed awkwardly on his hip and he couldn’t walk, let alone ride! Despite our pleas to let us call him an ambulance he insisted on just getting back home and going to a local A&E, so me and one of the lads deviated from the planned route to take a quicker and shorter on-road dash back to Ashbourne to get the car to fetch both man and bike.
Arriving back at the car I’d done 35 miles which was enough to get me the point I needed to stay in the challenge. Dave had decided to go back on his own to pick up Rich so I said my goodbyes after checking again that he was alright and headed home.
An eventful day…..
**EDIT** it turns out that my mate has fractured his hip following his fall so all the best to him for a speedy recovery.
Off the mark this month with a difference- today’s ride was a meet up in Ashbourne with the boys from Nuneaton Velo for an off road adventure along the famous Tissington and High Peak Trails.
I haven’t ridden these trails since 2010 on my trusty Trek Hybrid, and today saw the use of another trusty Trek- only this time it was of the MTB variety! I hadn’t been out on the X Caliber for a few months but figured as it is autumn and the trails claggy from the endless rain from the past couple of weeks that it was time to dust it down.
Setting off just after 0900 the Tissington Trail started immediately from the car park via a long tunnel which passes underneath the main street in Ashbourne town centre. It was well lit up unlike back in 2010 where I seem to recall there were no lights at all! Out of the tunnel and the start of the 12 mile limestone gravelly trail was immediate.
What also quickly came back to me was the fact that this trail is all uphill- albeit a false flat for the most part which got me thinking how the hell the freight trains of yesteryear would have hauled tonnes and tonnes of quarry minerals up it! The autumnal effect kicked in almost as immediate as the trail itself and we were barely half a mile in and already caked in mud!
By the time we had got to Hartington signal box we were absolutely ditched, I had to take off my glasses as the combination of fog, sweat and mud made it almost impossible to see! Having stopped to take photos we pushed on for another mile where the junctions of the Tissington and High Peak trails met, turning off onto the High Peak Trail where the weather got even more bleak, increased fog and a slight headwind making it very fresh indeed!
Of the two, the High Peak is typically more scenic a trail however due to the bleak Derbyshire Dales weather there wasn’t much to look at, save for grazing livestock in huge quantities.
The Hopton incline (or rather decline going eastbound) was where we left the High Peak Trail, a couple of miles of on-road riding required to link us to the next port of call at Carsington Water. Arriving onto the limestone paths that circumnavigate the reservoir which, was eerily low in level, the plan was to ride round two thirds of it to get to the cafe at the visitor centre however disaster struck. As I passed through a gate which was being held open by one of the other lads, I used the momentum to kick on up the immediate steep climb where I agreed to meet them at the top. The top is just out of view of the gate and as I waited I expected to see them come up into view within a few seconds.
Ten minutes pass….. no sign. Back down I go….
Turns out one of the lads fell off his bike and landed awkwardly on his hip and he couldn’t walk, let alone ride! Despite our pleas to let us call him an ambulance he insisted on just getting back home and going to a local A&E, so me and one of the lads deviated from the planned route to take a quicker and shorter on-road dash back to Ashbourne to get the car to fetch both man and bike.
Arriving back at the car I’d done 35 miles which was enough to get me the point I needed to stay in the challenge. Dave had decided to go back on his own to pick up Rich so I said my goodbyes after checking again that he was alright and headed home.
An eventful day…..
**EDIT** it turns out that my mate has fractured his hip following his fall so all the best to him for a speedy recovery.
Last edited:
T4tomo
Legendary Member
Its a nice ride that, providing you don't fall off and break your hip, we did that as part of a cycling weekend based in Ashborne.
Noodle Legs
Winging it
- Location
- Coalville, Leicestershire
Yeah it’s a cracking part of the world, accidents notwithstanding!
Jon George
Mamil and couldn't care less
- Location
- Suffolk an' Good
Post-Covid update: Getting a qualifying ride in this month is most definitely going to go down to the wire. I went into town today for the Remembrance event and had a struggle. It feels like the power of the body's engine is still there, but either I've got the wrong air-filter installed in my lungs or there's something stuck in my body's equivalent of a carburettor. I am improving, but, as I say - watch this space. 
FrothNinja
Veteran
Post-Covid update: Getting a qualifying ride in this month is most definitely going to go down to the wire. I went into town today for the Remembrance event and had a struggle. It feels like the power of the body's engine is still there, but either I've got the wrong air-filter installed in my lungs or there's something stuck in my body's equivalent of a carburettor. I am improving, but, as I say - watch this space.
Just need a few tune ups and a couple of test runs and you'll be running smoothly
