6/8/22
Hard to believe that I haven’t been out on any bike, apart from test rides, since the end of May. It’s now August, and my plans for getting fit for a trip to Mid and South Wales are in disarray.
I’ve just been overwhelmed with domestic stuff, and some health issues. Still, I’ve had the trike front wheel rebuilt with a drum brake, so a delta trike with 3 wheels and 3 brakes now. The Linear has been in bits to fit a frame reinforcing plate.
Apart from some short test rides this is the first respectable ride I’ve managed since putting it back together. It felt a lot stiffer during those rides. Everything is well greased up so there should be no squeaks or creaks. Tyres all pumped up, brakes adjusted, gears OK. Bound to be something that will need looking at.
So today I set off in a short sleeved check shirt, nondescript black drainpipe trousers and a reasonable pair of shoes topped off with a sun hat and shades.
Out of the back gate, adjust mirror and head off to the uphill traffic lights. A stale green but green long enough for me to get through. Rolling easily to the A54 roundabout, little traffic, a green light so straight across to Delamere st. and Chester road. Feeling pretty good even into a persistent headwind. Turned right into an estate road, a long downhill but many speed humps so turned left into a short steep lane and wriggled through an “A” frame barrier to sports fields. Through a car park, on to Grange Lane, down a gentle downhill to a section with a broken surface. The newly stiffened frame transmitted the bumps quite sharply and I contemplated dropping the rear tyre pressure but unlike my floor pump in the garage my get you home pump doesn’t have a gauge so I toughed it out. I came to the Whitegate Way and turned left up the steep gravelly ramp.
Curiously, though others have mentioned experiencing a spongy feel with hub gears I’ve never come across it. However, today in Low gear on the hub I felt that there was an unusual amount of pedal movement before the drive took up on each pedal stroke. It was as if the rear wheel was spinning or as if the tyre had low pressure. The adjustment seemed right, the tyre was fully inflated and it was fine as the slope eased. Too much tyre pressure? Nothing has changed. Perhaps the wheel nuts need some more tightening. Curious. The wheel was straight. Changing up with no problems, I continued along the rail trail. In due course I came to the old station, and the cafe was open. I stopped for an ice cream. Defibrillator not working. If you're going to have a heart attack, don't have it here.
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I pressed on along the trail. There were a few cyclists and walkers about but not as many as I would have expected. I overtook a family group on bikes and soon was overtaken by a small boy on a well proportioned mountain bike. After overtaking he slowed down a short distance ahead and kept up the same pace as me. Eventually he slowed down and I passed him. A few minutes later there was a ting ting and the same small boy and what I assumed was his brother came past. A man on a mountain bike then overtook me and joined them, leading them up the ramp to Kennel Lane bridge where I had planned to turn off. They stopped by the bridge, perhaps waiting for the mother in the group, while I attacked the ramp. Still the strange spongy feeling. I had to stop and reverse a little as the turn at the top of the ramp was a bit tight. I went up the last steep pitch before the bridge and one of the boys said, “that looks hard”. I was wondering if I’d put a bit too much air in the front tyre as the low speed stability wasn’t the way it was the last time I rode this bike. I pressed on down Kennel Lane with the alternate dark and light spots from sunlight and shadow making getting a clear view of the sandy and gravelly surface a little sketchy with my shades on. As usual, the bike picked its own line and eventually I came on to the tarmac surface as I came into Sandiway and met the A556.
After waiting for a gap in the traffic I turned right, just arriving at the traffic lights as they turned green and pushing straight through. From here there was a dual carriageway but after a slight dip and rise there was a good downhill so I could get a bit of speed up after all the slow stuff, before my turn off to Chester Road en route to Hartford. An initial short sharp climb then the road trended downhill, with the opportunity for some lazy speed. I stopped in Hartford to photograph a couple of plaques.
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Then out to the junction with the A556, across the road to an alleged cycle path that was so overgrown with shrubbery that I had to ride on the grass. It improved further on and I followed it to just before Hartford Bridge. There were road works on the A556 though that didn’t bother me as I planned to turn away from all that on the lane that leads to Vale Royal Golf Course which is on the site of the original Vale Royal Abbey. There is an “A” frame barrier and a kissing gate along here but I would deal with those when I came to them.
Terrible surface for the first 50 yards but very pleasant to be enclosed by trees on both sides and the surface quickly improved.
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Nobody about though I could hear people amongst the trees. Some footpaths went off to the right into the trees so I imagined there were walkers lurking in the shrubbery. Some more downhill followed so I took it easy until I came to the viaduct where the West Coast Main Line crosses the Weaver. I had to pedal for a bit then some more downhill. I came to a gate across the road with an “A” frame barrier alongside it. On the other side some enterprising individual had made a gap, so it was easier to ride through that. After the gate the trees and shrubbery closed in with an uphill stretch to the next gate (padlocked) and a kissing gate. This was an entrance to Vale Royal Golf Course.
I checked the space available and wheeled the Linear backwards into it. I stood it on its back wheel. The swinging gate naturally swung to the uphill side, so I swung it across to the other side, rotated the bike slightly, then let it down on to both wheels and pushed it out while holding the gate back with my foot. Once out, I let it shut. There was a steep gravelly climb from this point to the tarmac and a car park but it was straightforward enough. I rolled sedately past the elegant buildings that comprise the clubhouse and set off to the wooded uphill path that leads into Whitegate village. Through a select estate, right into Mill Lane then downhill and left into Grange lane.
Grange Lane starts from this end as an ordinary looking country lane with some secluded cottages and houses but soon becomes a bridleway, with a row of bollards stopping motor traffic. At this time of year the bridleway looks more like a centre parting, with a footpath like strip hemmed in by luxuriant plant growth. Over twenty years ago this was a lane, which I drove up many times, but it was often potholed and tough on your suspension. It was resurfaced several times while I lived in this area but it was eventually downgraded. The stretch between Whitegate and a nearby farm doesn’t look like a lane at all, just a path through the woods. The rest of it up the hill into the outskirts of Winsford is rutted and potholed and mainly a farm access. I’ve never come across a horse on it. The Whitegate end makes you wonder how rapidly the natural environment would reclaim man made roads “after humans”.
I plunged into the green lit tunnel of vegetation. Immediately the outside world became a memory as I plodded between various scratching and stinging plants, occasionally lifting one arm or the other to avoid contact. Much as I like underseat steering, in some places it has its drawbacks. I stopped at a spot where the path widened. On the right, the Pettypool Brook was barely audible as it trickled its sandybottomed way to join the river Weaver. Tall trees whispered in the wind and somewhere up there a wood pigeon sounded constantly surprised. I leaned on a large tree and ate a snack.
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I lingered longer than I should have, lulled by the peaceful ambience. Nobody passed by and it was as if no one else existed. Getting under way again, the path narrowed even further than before, with plants snatching at me as I passed by. It became quite nadgery with the front wheel wanting to explore the greenery rather than stay on what there was of the path. Definitely need to lose some front tyre pressure. Eventually I came to the spot where it widened, full of dried mud ruts. The mud was dry and powdery and the bike cut through them like a ship through waves until they evened out onto the lane with wheel ruts either side and a slight ridge in the middle. It was then a case of finding the least worst route between the potholes while climbing the steep slope to the top of the lane. Quite pleased to be climbing with no problems after a couple of months off the bike.
There was a closed gate at the end of the unsurfaced section with a small gap at the side made narrower by more prickly plants. After getting through unscathed it was then plain sailing as I freewheeled down a gentle slope with a good surface. Past the bridge abutments of the Whitegate Way then down a badly surfaced dip and easily up the other side. Through a scattering of houses to the sports complex car park which was surprisingly full making me have to go round the parked cars rather than diagonally across as usual. I was soon on the path which led to the “A” frame barrier which I wriggled through and trundled easily up the slope on the other side.
Through an estate, left on to Delamere St and with a following wind made good progress, across the A54 roundabout then downhill through the traffic lights and home. Some detective work and adjustments to be made before the next outing.
17.25 miles, Max 28.4, Average 6.4 mph.
Total Ascent: | 621 | ft | |
| Total Descent: | 621 | ft | |
| Start Elevation: | 191 | ft | |
| End Elevation: | 191 | ft | |
| Min Elevation: | 75 | ft | |
| Max Elevation: | 277 | ft | |
76 feet per mile ascent.
