Sunday afternoon, Chrismas puddings, mixed, stuff dropped in at the tip, cleaned the kitchen floor, what shall I do ? Sit and watch some yappy goon on TV or.................go for a ride.
Some decisions are easy to make.
Second time out in as many days on my geared bike. I have fettled things and it should be just peachy. It wan't of course, I mean that never happens does it?
Jumping gears I decided were not an out of adjustment derailieur but instead I now think my chain has stretched. 14% and the chain clunking and jumping about all over the place is kind of annoying.
I internalised my irritation and feelings of peace and goodwill returned. Until the next climb anyway.
View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/11725108
Maybe it was the dodgy gears or maybe I am coming down with something but it felt like real hard work all the way round.
A couple of extremely iffy photos:
Looking across from the top of Kearby Cliff towards Almscliffe Craggs
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A view looking west along Wharfedale. You can just make out Arthington Viaduct.
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Almscliffe Crags from Weardley.
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Eccup Reservoir showing a low level for this time of year. Probably 20' down from usual.
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That reminds me of the ride you took me and Calum on a few years back.
I'm still hoping that you can make it to my ride next Saturday, so get those gears fettled!
I did a 31 km local ride today, mainly up and down the A646, but also including a ride up through Cragg Vale to tackle the steepest part of the climb to the open moorland (only about 8%, so not too tough compared to a lot of the local monster gradients), then u-turning and heading back.
The object of the exercise was to test a couple of gear ratios for the singlespeed bike project that I am working on. The bike will mainly be used for the local valleys which only have gentle climbs, but I wondered whether I would be able to do the Cragg Vale climb on either of those gears. I knew that I would be okay on the bulk of it which is at about 2-4%. It was that ramp in the middle that could be a problem ...
I set off from Todmorden in 36/12, which was a nice gear to be spinning along in, but when I got to the short climb to the traffic lights at the bottom of the Heptonstall Road in Hebden Bridge I soon realised that it was slightly too high a ratio. I switched to 36/13 for the rest of the ride. That gave a speed of about 32 kph at my favourite cadence, but a comfortable range of 24-40 kph, which will be fine for most of the valley roads.
36/13 felt a bit overgeared for the first part of the Cragg Vale climb, but it was usable. It certainly wouldn't put me off riding up there.
As for the 8% ramp ... Hmm, that felt like hard work! I did manage to get up it but I was close to the limit of the effort that I would be prepared to make. I could always walk up that section if I couldn't be bothered to make that effort; it is only a couple of hundred metres in length.
After that ramp, the gradient slackens off and the climb to Blackstone Edge will be fine unless there is a strong headwind, in which case it wouldn't be! Mind you, I always check the forecast before heading up there, and I do not intend doing a long climb into a headwind on a ss bike!
There is a flat section on the A58 at the summit, then a fast downhill to Littleborough which would be entirely a freewheeling job with only that gear available. Mind you, I spin out on my geared bike anyway, so not much lost there.
From Littleborough there is a long drag up to the summit at, er, Summit! There should be no problem climbing that on the ss bike. From Summit, there is a very easy ride back to Todmorden.
It looks like I will not be limited to the valley roads on the new bike, but will be able to do my Cragg Vale loop too. I won't push my luck by tackling harder rides though ... climbs of 10-25% gradient and a singlespeed bike are not a good match in my cycling world!
So, I think that a 36/13 ratio is the one for me. I will not actually be using a 36 tooth chainring for the ss project - I have an old Campagnolo Chorus chainset available and will use the 53 tooth ring on that. A 19 tooth sprocket will give me a ratio of 2.79:1, which compares nicely with the 2.77 offered by 36/13. The 59/19 should be slightly more efficient and wear more slowly than 36/13 because the pedalling load will be spread over a lot more teeth.
I have ordered the remaining parts for the bike and will be building it in the next week or two. I'll do the full loop on it to see if my thoughts above work out in practice.
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