What time did you get in ?Guests have appeared - my report will have to wait until tomorrow!
York-Humber Bridge, Saturday, 13th July, 2019
- Thread starter ColinJ
- Start date
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OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
About 23:15 at Tod station, and home is 5 minutes from there. A long day, given that I set out at 06:30, having got up for the ride at 05:45!
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
My guests have gone, so I'll file my report before watching today's Tour de France highlights...
It was an early start for me. I caught the train from Todmorden at 06:45, which got me into Leeds about 40 minutes before the 08:24 that I was aiming to catch with colly. I could have caught one train later from Tod, but would have missed the 08:24 if it were significantly delayed, and that would have meant me catching the 08:49 to York instead, which would have got me in late...
The reason is that you were on the right platform for the 08:49 as opposed to the right platform for the 08:24!
I toyed with texting you at 08:15 to see where you were, but thought that you might be catching the train at Cross Gates or Garforth instead.
Anyway, the hold-up meant a delayed departure from York for we 2 Colins.
We made reasonable progress towards Howden where we were due to meet Paul (Soltydog) but we were going to be late so I texted him and he decided to ride towards us. We found him waiting for us a few kms up the road from Howden and we rode on together for a short stop at the new Co-op in the town. I thought that £1.50 for a 500 mL bottle of Coke was a bit steep, but that was put in the shade by WHSmith charging £2.19 at York station on the way home!
The weather kept changing but was pretty fair on the outward leg. Sometimes cloudy, just a few tiny spots of rain, with a bit of a tailwind to usher us along. It was pleasantly warm rather than hot, but that suits me. I am happier riding at 15-20 degrees than 20+ degrees.
As we approached North Ferriby my bike starting to make a creaking sound from its transmission. I was hoping that it wasn't my chain starting to fail because a broken chain on singlespeed can't be fixed by just shortening it. I was carrying a spare length of chain but I wasn't 100% sure that it was the correct type, or that I had the right quicklinks. (I've just set an alarm on my phone to remind me to check tomorrow.) I didn't want to mess about that close to our cafe stop so we carried on, but with the noise becoming progressively worrying.
I liked the TPT along the Humber foreshore. It was a little bit rough in places, but not too bad. Paul said that it can be slippery when wet, but it was dry yesterday, so not a problem for us.
We crossed over the bridge to the visitor centre cafe at Barton Waterside.
After our lunch break I took a look at my bike. I had an inkling of what the problem might be, and I was right ... The transmission had been made singlespeed by fitting one sprocket from a cassette, plus a big pile of spacers. I had recently changed wheels when I couldn't undo the lockring on the old wheel. Its freehub had got so sticky that it was tending to drive the chain round when it should be freewheeling, but I broke my chainwhip trying to get the thing apart to service it. Fortunately, I had another spare rear wheel. What I didn't have was enough spacers of the right type so I improvised with a couple of others that I had lying around. It turns out that this led to the problem out on the road ...
Paul told us that there was a bike shop in North Ferriby, on our return leg, not too far from where we were. I nursed the bike up there and was about to enter the shop when I realised that my front tyre was going flat, so I had 2 problems to sort out, rather than just 1! I took the bike in and explained the problem, then removed the front wheel to take it outside to fix the puncture. (I didn't want to do it in the shop because they had the Tour de France on their TV and I wanted to watch the highlights when I got home!)
It took a lot of searching to find the source of the puncture. It turned out to have been caused by a tiny piece of glass embedded in the tyre. I could not feel it with a fingertip, and I couldn't see it either until I flexed the tyre at a suspicious-looking mark. I saw light glint on the glass. I dug it out and completed the repair.
I went back into the shop and found that the owner had fixed my loose transmission for me. He had used a very thin extra spacer to give the locking something to bite against. Apparently, I'd had the lockring done up as far as it would go so as soon as the spacers wore down a smidge, the ring had loosened. I'm fairly sure that the splines on the freehub would eventually have been damaged by the sprocket flopping about. Anyway, the noise had been driving me mad so it was great to have the sprocket firmly in place again.
I asked the owner how much the repair would set me back and he replied 'no charge'! So, a HUGE thanks to the excellent Vive le Vélo in North Ferriby, near Hull. If you live in the area, or are passing through, be sure to drop in. They are friendly and helpful, and have some lovely-looking bikes and lots of parts and clothing for sale.
My bike felt much better to ride and was MUCH quieter.
We now encountered the biggest climb of the day, from Welton up the fringes of the Wolds to High Hunsley. It isn't steep enough to cause problems on singlespeed or fixed, but is steep enough to require a reasonable level of effort.
We were now encountering showers. The forecast had been that any rain would stay over Leeds and Bradford but in the end it came over as far as us.
I can't remember exactly where Paul left us, but it wasn't too long before he did. Colly and I pressed on and were trying to make up for earlier delays and get back in time to catch the 20:12 train from York. We were making good progress and I was confident that we would make it in time. But then I got another puncture and my confidence evaporated!
This puncture was on the rear wheel, but it turned out to be a clone of the earlier one on the front wheel - another tiny fragment of embedded glass. I didn't remember going over any broken glass. I'm wondering if it had been on the rough foreshore path? Anyway, another delay. I had spare patched tubes but colly and I didn't fancy a 3rd stop later if any of my repairs failed, so he donated a new tube to me. I dug out the glass from the tyre, replaced the tube, put enough pressure in to get back to York, and then off we set again.
More rain. Then sunny spells ...
Eventually we got onto the cycle path between Stamford Bridge and York and suddenly the heavens opened! We got absolutely drenched on the last 10 minutes of our ride. Kamikaze drunken revellers were leaping at us from all directions. I don't know how York doesn't have 10+ drunks killed every summer weekend evening - the daft buggers just blunder into the road without looking.
We had missed our train, so we had a bit of a wait for the next one. I had £2.19 burning a hole in my wallet so I bought that rip-off Coke to take the edge off my thirst while we were waiting.
Eventually we were on our way. Colly was able to get off at Cross Gates which meant that he didn't have to do battle with drunks in Leeds on the ride home. I got quite a few on my train back from Leeds to Todmorden but they generally behaved themselves apart from being very loud and falling over a lot!
I eventually squelched home at 23:25, after a long day out. I would have preferred to have got home earlier, but it had been a nice ride and another one to cross off my 'Lunacy Challenge' - 172 kms (107 miles).
Thanks to colly and Soltydog for the company!
It was an early start for me. I caught the train from Todmorden at 06:45, which got me into Leeds about 40 minutes before the 08:24 that I was aiming to catch with colly. I could have caught one train later from Tod, but would have missed the 08:24 if it were significantly delayed, and that would have meant me catching the 08:49 to York instead, which would have got me in late...
The reason is that you were on the right platform for the 08:49 as opposed to the right platform for the 08:24!
I toyed with texting you at 08:15 to see where you were, but thought that you might be catching the train at Cross Gates or Garforth instead.Anyway, the hold-up meant a delayed departure from York for we 2 Colins.
We made reasonable progress towards Howden where we were due to meet Paul (Soltydog) but we were going to be late so I texted him and he decided to ride towards us. We found him waiting for us a few kms up the road from Howden and we rode on together for a short stop at the new Co-op in the town. I thought that £1.50 for a 500 mL bottle of Coke was a bit steep, but that was put in the shade by WHSmith charging £2.19 at York station on the way home!
The weather kept changing but was pretty fair on the outward leg. Sometimes cloudy, just a few tiny spots of rain, with a bit of a tailwind to usher us along. It was pleasantly warm rather than hot, but that suits me. I am happier riding at 15-20 degrees than 20+ degrees.
As we approached North Ferriby my bike starting to make a creaking sound from its transmission. I was hoping that it wasn't my chain starting to fail because a broken chain on singlespeed can't be fixed by just shortening it. I was carrying a spare length of chain but I wasn't 100% sure that it was the correct type, or that I had the right quicklinks. (I've just set an alarm on my phone to remind me to check tomorrow.) I didn't want to mess about that close to our cafe stop so we carried on, but with the noise becoming progressively worrying.
I liked the TPT along the Humber foreshore. It was a little bit rough in places, but not too bad. Paul said that it can be slippery when wet, but it was dry yesterday, so not a problem for us.
We crossed over the bridge to the visitor centre cafe at Barton Waterside.
After our lunch break I took a look at my bike. I had an inkling of what the problem might be, and I was right ... The transmission had been made singlespeed by fitting one sprocket from a cassette, plus a big pile of spacers. I had recently changed wheels when I couldn't undo the lockring on the old wheel. Its freehub had got so sticky that it was tending to drive the chain round when it should be freewheeling, but I broke my chainwhip trying to get the thing apart to service it. Fortunately, I had another spare rear wheel. What I didn't have was enough spacers of the right type so I improvised with a couple of others that I had lying around. It turns out that this led to the problem out on the road ...
Paul told us that there was a bike shop in North Ferriby, on our return leg, not too far from where we were. I nursed the bike up there and was about to enter the shop when I realised that my front tyre was going flat, so I had 2 problems to sort out, rather than just 1! I took the bike in and explained the problem, then removed the front wheel to take it outside to fix the puncture. (I didn't want to do it in the shop because they had the Tour de France on their TV and I wanted to watch the highlights when I got home!)
It took a lot of searching to find the source of the puncture. It turned out to have been caused by a tiny piece of glass embedded in the tyre. I could not feel it with a fingertip, and I couldn't see it either until I flexed the tyre at a suspicious-looking mark. I saw light glint on the glass. I dug it out and completed the repair.
I went back into the shop and found that the owner had fixed my loose transmission for me. He had used a very thin extra spacer to give the locking something to bite against. Apparently, I'd had the lockring done up as far as it would go so as soon as the spacers wore down a smidge, the ring had loosened. I'm fairly sure that the splines on the freehub would eventually have been damaged by the sprocket flopping about. Anyway, the noise had been driving me mad so it was great to have the sprocket firmly in place again.
I asked the owner how much the repair would set me back and he replied 'no charge'! So, a HUGE thanks to the excellent Vive le Vélo in North Ferriby, near Hull. If you live in the area, or are passing through, be sure to drop in. They are friendly and helpful, and have some lovely-looking bikes and lots of parts and clothing for sale.
My bike felt much better to ride and was MUCH quieter.
We now encountered the biggest climb of the day, from Welton up the fringes of the Wolds to High Hunsley. It isn't steep enough to cause problems on singlespeed or fixed, but is steep enough to require a reasonable level of effort.
We were now encountering showers. The forecast had been that any rain would stay over Leeds and Bradford but in the end it came over as far as us.
I can't remember exactly where Paul left us, but it wasn't too long before he did. Colly and I pressed on and were trying to make up for earlier delays and get back in time to catch the 20:12 train from York. We were making good progress and I was confident that we would make it in time. But then I got another puncture and my confidence evaporated!
This puncture was on the rear wheel, but it turned out to be a clone of the earlier one on the front wheel - another tiny fragment of embedded glass. I didn't remember going over any broken glass. I'm wondering if it had been on the rough foreshore path? Anyway, another delay. I had spare patched tubes but colly and I didn't fancy a 3rd stop later if any of my repairs failed, so he donated a new tube to me. I dug out the glass from the tyre, replaced the tube, put enough pressure in to get back to York, and then off we set again.
More rain. Then sunny spells ...
Eventually we got onto the cycle path between Stamford Bridge and York and suddenly the heavens opened! We got absolutely drenched on the last 10 minutes of our ride. Kamikaze drunken revellers were leaping at us from all directions. I don't know how York doesn't have 10+ drunks killed every summer weekend evening - the daft buggers just blunder into the road without looking.
We had missed our train, so we had a bit of a wait for the next one. I had £2.19 burning a hole in my wallet so I bought that rip-off Coke to take the edge off my thirst while we were waiting.
Eventually we were on our way. Colly was able to get off at Cross Gates which meant that he didn't have to do battle with drunks in Leeds on the ride home. I got quite a few on my train back from Leeds to Todmorden but they generally behaved themselves apart from being very loud and falling over a lot!
I eventually squelched home at 23:25, after a long day out. I would have preferred to have got home earlier, but it had been a nice ride and another one to cross off my 'Lunacy Challenge' - 172 kms (107 miles).
Thanks to colly and Soltydog for the company!
Last edited:
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I just went to repair my 2 punctured tubes. The first one had the expected tiny hole caused by the small piece of glass. The second one was scary!!!
I pumped the tube up and immersed it in water to look for a tiny hole. Instead, I saw a stream of bubbles coming out from under a previous patch. I thought that it must not have been stuck down properly but it took some effort to lift. This is what I found underneath ...
The tube is ripping apart along a seam! That could have led to a catastrophic failure of the tube. It was annoying to have to replace tubes out on the road, but at least the tyres had deflated slowly. I've had tubes blow out in the past and ended up crashing, fortunately not too seriously.
I pumped the tube up and immersed it in water to look for a tiny hole. Instead, I saw a stream of bubbles coming out from under a previous patch. I thought that it must not have been stuck down properly but it took some effort to lift. This is what I found underneath ...
The tube is ripping apart along a seam! That could have led to a catastrophic failure of the tube. It was annoying to have to replace tubes out on the road, but at least the tyres had deflated slowly. I've had tubes blow out in the past and ended up crashing, fortunately not too seriously.
Last edited:
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
It looks like the patch has pulled the top of the seam away. That could have been from me pulling it off, or it might have happened on the ride, causing the puncture?
My guests have gone, so I'll file my report before watching today's Tour de France highlights...
It was an early start for me. I caught the train from Todmorden at 06:45, which got me into Leeds about 40 minutes before the 08:24 that I was aiming to catch with colly. I could have caught one train later from Tod, but would have missed the 08:24 if it were significantly delayed, and that would have meant me catching the 08:49 to York instead, which would have got me in late...
The reason is that you were on the right platform for the 08:49 as opposed to the right platform for the 08:24!
Anyway, the hold-up meant a delayed departure from York for we 2 Colins.
We made reasonable progress towards Howden where we were due to meet Paul (Soltydog) but we were going to be late so I texted him and he decided to ride towards us. We found him waiting for us a few kms up the road from Howden and we rode on together for a short stop at the new Co-op in the town. I thought that £1.50 for a 500 mL bottle of Coke was a bit steep, but that was put in the shade by WHSmith charging £2.19 at York station on the way home!
The weather kept changing but was pretty fair on the outward leg. Sometimes cloudy, just a few tiny spots of rain, with a bit of a tailwind to usher us along. It was pleasantly warm rather than hot, but that suits me. I am happier riding at 15-20 degrees than 20+ degrees.
As we approached North Ferriby my bike starting to make a creaking sound from its transmission. I was hoping that it wasn't my chain starting to fail because a broken chain on singlespeed can't be fixed by just shortening it. I was carrying a spare length of chain but I wasn't 100% sure that it was the correct type, or that I had the right quicklinks. (I've just set an alarm on my phone to remind me to check tomorrow.) I didn't want to mess about that close to our cafe stop so we carried on, but with the noise becoming progressively worrying.
I liked the TPT along the Humber foreshore. It was a little bit rough in places, but not too bad. Paul said that it can be slippery when wet, but it was dry yesterday, so not a problem for us.
We crossed over the bridge to the visitor centre cafe at Barton Waterside.
After our lunch break I took a look at my bike. I had an inkling of what the problem might be, and I was right ... The transmission had been made singlespeed by fitting one sprocket from a cassette, plus a big pile of spacers. I had recently changed wheels when I couldn't undo the lockring on the old wheel. Its freehub had got so sticky that it was tending to drive the chain round when it should be freewheeling, but I broke my chainwhip trying to get the thing apart to service it. Fortunately, I had another spare rear wheel. What I didn't have was enough spacers of the right type so I improvised with a couple of others that I had lying around. It turns out that this led to the problem out on the road ...
Paul told us that there was a bike shop in North Ferriby, on our return leg, not too far from where we were. I nursed the bike up there and was about to enter the shop when I realised that my front tyre was going flat, so I had 2 problems to sort out, rather than just 1! I took the bike in and explained the problem, then removed the front wheel to take it outside to fix the puncture. (I didn't want to do it in the shop because they had the Tour de France on their TV and I wanted to watch the highlights when I got home!)
It took a lot of searching to find the source of the puncture. It turned out to have been caused by a tiny piece of glass embedded in the tyre. I could not feel it with a fingertip, and I couldn't see it either until I flexed the tyre at a suspicious-looking mark. I saw light glint on the glass. I dug it out and completed the repair.
I went back into the shop and found that the owner had fixed my loose transmission for me. He had used a very thin extra spacer to give the locking something to bite against. Apparently, I'd had the lockring done up as far as it would go so as soon as the spacers wore down a smidge, the ring had loosened. I'm fairly sure that the splines on the freehub would eventually have been damaged by the sprocket flopping about. Anyway, the noise had been driving me mad so it was great to have the sprocket firmly in place again.
I asked the owner how much the repair would set me back and he replied 'no charge'! So, a HUGE thanks to the excellent Vive le Vélo in North Ferriby, near Hull. If you live in the area, or are passing through, be sure to drop in. They are friendly and helpful, and have some lovely-looking bikes and lots of parts and clothing for sale.
My bike felt much better to ride and was MUCH quieter.
We now encountered the biggest climb of the day, from Welton up the fringes of the Wolds to High Hunsley. It isn't steep enough to cause problems on singlespeed or fixed, but is steep enough to require a reasonable level of effort.
We were now encountering showers. The forecast had been that any rain would stay over Leeds and Bradford but in the end it came over as far as us.
I can't remember exactly where Paul left us, but it wasn't too long before he did. Colly and I pressed on and were trying to make up for earlier delays and get back in time to catch the 20:12 train from York. We were making good progress and I was confident that we would make it in time. But then I got another puncture and my confidence evaporated!
This puncture was on the rear wheel, but it turned out to be a clone of the earlier one on the front wheel - another tiny fragment of embedded glass. I didn't remember going over any broken glass. I'm wondering if it had been on the rough foreshore path? Anyway, another delay. I had spare patched tubes but colly and I didn't fancy a 3rd stop later if any of my repairs failed, so he donated a new tube to me. I dug out the glass from the tyre, replaced the tube, put enough pressure in to get back to York, and then off we set again.
More rain. Then sunny spells ...
Eventually we got onto the cycle path between Stamford Bridge and York and suddenly the heavens opened! We got absolutely drenched on the last 10 minutes of our ride. Kamikaze drunken revellers were leaping at us from all directions. I don't know how York doesn't have 10+ drunks killed every summer weekend evening - the daft buggers just blunder into the road without looking.
We had missed our train, so we had a bit of a wait for the next one. I had £2.19 burning a hole in my wallet so I bought that rip-off Coke to take the edge off my thirst while we were waiting.
Eventually we were on our way. Colly was able to get off at Cross Gates which meant that he didn't have to do battle with drunks in Leeds on the ride home. I got quite a few on my train back from Leeds to Todmorden but they generally behaved themselves apart from being very loud and falling over a lot!
I eventually squelched home at 23:25, after a long day out. I would have preferred to have got home earlier, but it had been a nice ride and another one to cross off my 'Lunacy Challenge' - 172 kms (107 miles).
Thanks to colly and Soltydog for the company!
Strewth @ColinJ, what an exhaustingly long day and late arrival home! Hats off to you for your stoicism in the face of adversity. @colly and @Soltydog too.
EasyPeez
Veteran
- Location
- Cottingham, East Yorkshire
Wow, I'm knackered just reading about all that - what a day!
I'm impressed by Vive le Velo - they're a very high end set up and experience teaches me that it's usually the other end of the bike shop spectrum that are more likely to be friendly and do an emergency fix for free, but glad to see my prejudices are misplaced in this case.
Glad you all had fun (even if lots of it was more type 2 than type 1) and hope to catch you on another ride soon - maybe the Scarborough one?
Cheers.
I'm impressed by Vive le Velo - they're a very high end set up and experience teaches me that it's usually the other end of the bike shop spectrum that are more likely to be friendly and do an emergency fix for free, but glad to see my prejudices are misplaced in this case.
Glad you all had fun (even if lots of it was more type 2 than type 1) and hope to catch you on another ride soon - maybe the Scarborough one?
Cheers.
Pale Rider
Legendary Member
Far be it from me to offer advice to such an experienced cyclist as yourself, but I think you may need to up your pneumatic game a bit.
You had inner tube problems on this ride two or three years ago.
Regrettably, money will probably need to be spent.
Either on some new, sturdy, inner tubes, or on some new, sturdy, tyres, or possibly both.
Plenty of discussion about the passage of time wearing out rubber.
I wonder if a tube should be replaced after five or so years even if it hasn't punctured.
Soltydog
Legendary Member
- Location
- near Hornsea
Is that even possible? Not sure I've ever had a tube last for 5 years. My winter bike is over 3 years old & don't recall ever having a puncture on the front & I've just changed tyres, so that might make it, but I'm probably tempting fate now
Cheers for sorting the ride @ColinJ was a great day out & wish I could have stayed a little longer on the return, but had to keep the other half happy
Domus
Guru
- Location
- Sunny Radcliffe
Tired just reading it.
I hope you have better luck in Cheshire.
I hope you have better luck in Cheshire.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I was pretty worried that I might get a third puncture in that final downpour! I really would NOT have fancied that ...
Funnily enough, I was thinking before this ride that I haven't had a puncture for a long time!
@colly kindly said that he would donate 2 tyres to me that are surplus to his requirements but have plenty of life left in them.
See ?......That's where it all went wrong.
OP
OP
ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
Oh, I forgot something really funny that @colly and I encountered on an otherwise quiet country lane between Stamford Bridge and the cycle path taking us back into York ...
We spotted two cars parked in the gateway to a field. Standing next to the cars were two men playing bagpipes... After we had ridden past them we discussed what we had just seen and concluded that their respective families and/or neighbours had propbably banished them to the countryside for their weekly bagpiping practice!
We spotted two cars parked in the gateway to a field. Standing next to the cars were two men playing bagpipes... After we had ridden past them we discussed what we had just seen and concluded that their respective families and/or neighbours had propbably banished them to the countryside for their weekly bagpiping practice!
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