An unremarkable day

The lodger - Cute, eh?

I had a job to do today. That was to evict the lodger. Harder than you might think as I had to find him first. Not only that but we had only seen him on Sunday and were not altogether sure where he was. I was upstairs tapping away on the old keyboard on Sunday night when there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the kitchen. Well, quite a lot of a kerfuffle if I am honest. The Lodger in question was a certain Mickey Mouse and I couldn't find him, but, after exploring under and behind the kitchen cupboards with lights and mirrors, I did find the hole in the wall that the little fella was using. The hole is no more! Poor chap!

After undertaking manly type jobs a ride is deserved, says I, so it is an unremarkable 25 miles nonstop ride to Otley and back. I decided I wanted a bit of fun so I took the Specialised road bike as it's not been out for almost two months. So it was a pretty fast one; even climbing the Chevin at quite a decent pace. Reckon all that bag hauling and hill climbing is paying off.

The other job I had to do was to photocopy all the travel documents that arrived yesterday. Getting scary now!

And another hot & hilly day

View over Lindley Wood

Another sunny day. Brilliant. Early start and another 40 miles training in. The early start was great. By 9:00am I was across Eccup and rolling through the back of the Harewood Estate. There were Red Kites flying above me, rabbits running around on the roadside (probably keeping an eye on the Red Kites!). I even had a little finch flying at the side of me for a couple of hundred yards. A perfect morning really.


 

The plan was to do yet more climbing and I had taken a guess at the route used by Mr Mee. It looked good and was effectively a loop of four reservoirs, Swinsty, Fewston, Lindley Wood and Eccup. On the map its a double loop. To Otley, 15 mile loop up through Asquith to Timble, Swinsty, Fewston, Lindley Wood and Farnley before dropping back into Otley. There is a lot of climbing on this loop. I've climbed 2850 feet on the whole run which is about 70 feet per mile, but it's 106 feet per mile for the loop out of Otley. Not Pyrenean but getting closer. I was also surprised by the number of cyclists on this route. I met one club run climbing up out of Farnley with about 15 riders. Even more surprising in some ways was the mix as there was quite a few female riders and juniors too. That has to be good. I also had a few chats with others along the road. Wearing a End to End shirt usually starts conversations off nicely.






At Swinsty

 

I was aiming at doing the whole route non stop but the legs were feeling it by the return to Otley so I stopped at Mr Dunnes Emporium for coffee and cake before the final leg home. The place was heaving in the sunshine so again had a chat with a couple of guys who will be doing the Great Yorkshire in a couple of weeks. Funny, that has fallen off my radar and it would have been good to go this year. It's only when climbing up the Chevin that you realise that this just isn't a hill in comparison to all the others you have had the pleasure of climbing up. Of course, I also had a 40 mph descent coming down to Lindley Wood. This was not as pleasant as it should have been as the road surface was a bit rough in places and there were motor cycles going up which insisted on overtaking cars even where there was limited room.

A grand day out, to quote my hero, Mr Wallace, even if I was nowhere near Wensleydale. I suppose crackers could have come into it somewhere.

Hot & Hilly!

Cor, what a scorcher today. Don't know what the temperature has been but it must have been in the high 20's at least. Sunny all day too. Well, that's a perfect excuse to do some miles in Espana mode.

At Lindley Wood before the big climb

To cut a long story short I put all the bags on and set off to go out through Pool towards Pately Bridge. There is a good climb across the Washburn Valley up from Lindley Wood. From there around to Knaresboro, Wetherby and then home. It clocked 50.08 miles and I reckon I've guzzled about 5 litres of liquid during the ride.

The road climbing away from Lindley Wood is in the region of 20/25% for about half a mile before it drops to just plain steep. Being hot I got rid of the crash hat for the climb as it's heat building up that causes climbing problems more often than not. I dropped down to tractor gear and down to 3 and then 2 at the back to go steady away. Coped well with the climb despite the heat. Towards the top there is a cyclist rocketing down the other side of the road, and said cyclist turns out to be my old mate Mr Mee. So it's a stop and a chinwag to catch up. Then off again to the top. According to bikehike.co.uk the distance from bottom to top is 1.2 miles with a height gain of about 570 feet. That's near enough Pyrenean for me, except the climbs there go on for 20 or so miles!

Random acts of kindness too. I took a break by the riverside at Knaresboro and ended up talking to a couple about cycling (as you do) and they gave me a fiver to put into the sponsorship pot. Big Society is made up of small acts like that.

After sitting at Knaresboro for a while the energy was being baked out of me by the sun. Despite that I opted for the hilly way back from Wetherby through Collingham and East Keswick.

A hard 50 miles but very enjoyable.

Tractor Gear Tested!

Whoa - a 22tooth chainring really does add something. I went out looking for a hill to give it a run at. I wasn't sure which one but I ended up running out through Wetherby, Spofforth and Kearby so the obvious route home was through Harewood Bridge and then up Weardley Bank. This little beauty goes up Harewood Bank but further down Wharfedale. It's got a longish approach, all uphill, and then two particularly steep sections on the climb proper.

It was well worth while and the steep sections proved no bother at all; in fact I didn't use bottom gear at all. I did realise as I was climbing up that, with panniers and bags on the back, the front end might have a tendency to lift off the ground in low gears. So the next job is to go out with a full load and see how that goes. Somebody has to do it.......

Dawes Karakum on Holy Island

This week has been busy but I've still managed to get out a bit. Ricky is away next week too, so we had a ride out to Denby Dale yesterday which was good. Not an area where I have ever thought of cycling but although it was all on busy A roads, there was some good long draggy climbs. All good practice! I took the touring bike on this, fully loaded and just back from having s service so it did give me some aches. In fact, my cramp levels when I went to bed were pretty bad! How we suffer.....

I also managed an evening ride over to York the day before too, so that gave me 90 miles in 24 hours which I was quite chuffed with. The trip to York was on the best road bike and after riding a mountain bike on holiday this was great fun. It was still a good work out as we were crusing along for parts of the ride at 20 mph+.

Anyway, the Dawes Karakum is now selected as the bike for the Camino. It's been to Edinburgh Cycles for a service and this included changing the inner chain ring from 26 teeth to 22 teeth. My bottom gear is now very low and that's given me some comfort about climbing some of the hills. We didn't have any really steep hills on the Denby Dale run but a couple got steep enough to drop down onto the inner ring (now known as tractor gear!). It worked perfectly. I never got anywhere near bottom gear as it pulled up very comfortably is the middle of the cassette.

I've also started to push the publicity a bit more. I wonder how soon before I start to lose friends!

Just back from a break in sunny Scotland, and very nice it was too. Managed 153 miles of cycling but not a great deal was climbing. To make up for it I was riding the mountain bike (nice and heavy) along with panniers which included a double barrelled foot pump, just for the extra weight! Note below are from some of the days out.

4^th May

A bit of cycling in sunny Scotland! After what seems like several weeks of rain going up to what turns out to be a sunny and warm Oban is a real treat. I’ve brought the mountain bike along so I’ve had a few miles trundling along but today (day three) has given me some good training. A simple 20 mile circuit from our camp site going up the A828 (but finding Sustrans route 78 along the way) and turning right onto the B845 to Bonawe saw some nice climbing up and over a mountain pass.

The first section was undulating and steep, the gradient ever changing for a couple of miles. The climb was through forest so I had the pleasure of hearing streams rushing down the hill and the wind blowing through the tree tops.  Sounds idyllic and it was. Strange then that I should meet Mr Grumpy walking down the road with his staff and clearly focused on his intention not to acknowledge my presence let alone return my cheerful (if breathless) greeting.

About to descend to Loch Etive

The first part of the climb was standing on the pedals steep. The only respite came as I stopped to let a truck pass on the single track road. Strange that even though the road is just one car wide there is a constant flow of 8 wheeled monsters running backwards and forwards to the local quarry. After a couple of miles I thought that I was probably at the top but it turned out to be short descent before a long steady rise up a steeply sided valley for another mile or so. From there it was a tremendous and twisty 40 mph descent towards Loch Etive and the turning back to North Connell.

A good ride and a good workout. Riding single track roads is great especially where there is so little traffic.

Doing the ride the other way around could be equally fun and challenging. The climb up from Inveresragan (the 40 mph descent) looks a cracking climb.

6^th May



Mountain bike waiting for the off in Oban



NCN78 is a stunner! It looks as though it is very recently constructed but like all NCN routes in Scotland it is brilliant. Having cycle track wider than a single track road is a real luxury and today I’ve clocked just over 40 miles following the above from North Ledaig to Port Appin and doing the loop around Loch  Crerran. A fair bit of the NCN route is old railway line so has very gentle gradients but interspersed between all this is the odd bit that links the old track together and that has a few steady climbs. Following the NCN route is probably slower than going along the road but it is far more pleasant. In places the road is running below the level of the cycle track which gives for wide panoramas showing the scenery at its best.  Added to that I took the long way around to Port Appin and this had a few short climbs too.

The scenery around Loch Crerran was stunning. I saw two cars during the whole 6 mile loop. Talk about peaceful. The loch occupies a steeply sided valley and has few houses. One newly constructed house was down by the waterside. It had been constructed over three storeys; the top storey being fully glass with roof overhanging to such an extent that rain on the windows would never obscure the view. Further along I noticed some steps down to the loch side. They seemed out of place as I rode towards them but curiosity aroused, I stopped. This must have been the most photogenic point of the whole loop and the peace was palpable. A good spot to park up with the camper van.

Bike & Bridge over Loch Etive

Again everyone I met on the road was friendly and cheerful. Every other cyclist shared some form of greeting from simple wave to a cheery "Morning". I've realised that the Yorkshire greeting of "'Ow Do?" just doesn't work up here! Drivers too were considerate giving a wave either as I pulled over to let them pass or vice versa. Only once did I meet a motorist who was intent on exerting his superior rights when I had to pull off the road between passing places, but even then I got a wave of thanks. I reckon I didn’t look miffed enough to show my displeasure!

The worst bit of the trip was that I forgot to take any money so could not visit the very nice looking cake stop by the ferry at Port Appin. Worse still was walking down the jetty wondering why my shorts were getting lower. I forgot to take my belt too! Luckily I found piece of discarded blue twine that was pressed into service. Waste not want not!

11^th May

Finished off the holiday with a 25 mile run to Oban. I have managed to cycle 153 miles over the holiday. Not a great deal of climbing but all on the heavy mountain bike and all carrying two panniers with dead weight on board.

Every little helps!!