I lived in Coventry for 20 years but I didn't hear of the Lickey Hills until about 20 years after I left. (I didn't used to look at OS maps back then. These days, I am forever studying different parts of the country and planning future rides.) I have still never been to them, and may never get round to it now since visits back to the Midlands with a bike are becoming increasingly rare.
I get that a lot on my singlespeed bike, which gives me no assistance at all over TDC, unlike the chain on fixed. I have modified my pedal stroke by dropping my heels before TDC to allow me to push the crank more from the back rather than the top. That helps but only up to a point. I can manage short stretches of 10% but not much steeper than that, and only for a couple of hundred metres.
That's why I put a triple chainset and biggish cassette on my best bike - I can get up about 99% of UK climbs in a 28/30 bottom gear.
Neat trick.
Sliced and buttered.Can't beat having a spotted dick
Used to be a day trip out with my Mum & Dad, on the bus from Sparkhill to the Lickey Hills. It seemed so rural when I was little.
That made my eyes water
The slicing or the buttering?That made my eyes water
Slicing of course.....it regularly gets buttered.
There is supposed to be a good meteorite shower after sundown.
Son no 2 was working out of Great Yarmouth and commuted every weekend for a while to Oban. He had a new company vehicle, one of these large Japanese pickups. In the outside lane on the M6 the engine cut out suddenly when he was doing at least 70, probably 80mph. Had to make an emergency drift to the hard shoulder but fortunately a lorry driver had noticed his problem and blocked all overtaking by straddling lanes until he got over. That particular vehicle he said spent more time on recovery trucks than actually driving and since it was a contact hire he handed it back after several incidents. The service managers wife even got stranded at the Rest and be Thankful when delivering it back to Oban after one abortive repair. Nobody could find out what was actually wrong with it. Some unlucky soul would have bought it eventually.Yikes! My sister just rang and told me that she and my niece had been driving along the A30 in Devon a couple of days ago when the car's engine suddenly cut out. The road there is a very busy dual carriageway. Sis managed to coast over to the left, then both of them scrambled up a grassy embankment to safety. They phoned for a breakdown truck, but that took 3 hours to arrive. After a few minutes a brave (but foolhardy?) motorist stopped and shouted that the dead car was in a very dangerous position and volunteered to push it up onto the embankment. He pretty much managed to get it off the road.
That could have gone very bad, very quickly!
I've just had a shower and ready for bed
