Todays ride

[sean_iow]

I've found that my garmin never looses a short ride, only the longer / special ones. I now take a picture of the screen before I turn it off so I have the data to add to strava manually if it doesn't upload. However, since implementing this procedure the garmin hasn't lost a ride

[slarge]

I did a similar ride today. 1:1 hill for 3 miles - KOM was a definite. Bloody Garmin lost it all

[voodoo_simon]

Relaxed pace cycle and so, decided to make a one minute film. Second only time making one, so bear with it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbQkvk2lvDM

[whitestone]

I did a similar ride today. 1:1 hill for 3 miles - KOM was a definite. Bloody Garmin lost it all

I lost yesterday's ride as well. Another 100km ride with 1500m of climbing. I think that unit is well and truly borked, it won't remember settings and I can't change some of them so I'm now an eight year old who's 9 inches high and weighs 4232 pounds!

[ericrobo]

I liked your first film Voodoo... definitely a change from all that boring stuff where you just see the handlebars and a bit of a view of where the handlebars are going..

A great start too, sums up mountain biking...

The nearly last shot showing the canal bridge I found very dramatic, not knowing what the hell that was coming in from the left...

[whitestone]

A bit of nabbing of some VV Explorer squares. If I got it right then my max cluster would expand northwards almost to Swaledale.

Set off from Buckden (again!) and managed to get my second best time on the first climb up through Rakes Wood, on a fat bike! Then up on to Stakes Moss. My first square was between the bridleway and Bishopdale. Hopping over the padlocked(!) gate I headed east to find a new "track" obviously put in by the farm/estate. Made up of fist sized stone it was no match for the fat bike so head out a bit farther than I thought I needed then back to the main track.

The plan was then to reach then follow the watershed around to the road at the top of Fleet Moss. The first square meant keeping to the side of the wall heading south, just as well there was a quad bike track alongside the wall. Another padlocked gate, presumably between estates this time, then a shooters track got me up towards the watershed. A bit of squinting at the map and I reckoned that one of the squares I really needed was well to the left and so the hike-a-bike started.

A wire fence followed the watershed and there was a sort of path beside it. Occasionally I'd come across bales of straw staked to the ground which were useful crossing points for the boggier bits. At first I thought they were to do with the path but then I noticed them elsewhere so I think they are anti-erosion measures.



After a short while I came to one of the most remote trig points in the Dales. With no tracks, bridleways or even paths leading to it I doubt it gets many visitors year on year.



Quite a bit of hike-a-bike followed. There were quad bike tracks but often they headed in unwanted directions so were of limited use. Eventually I got to a junction of walls and fences and needed the map. The obvious way, that had a track!, headed towards Semer Water and wasn't what I wanted so I headed the opposite way and after more quad bike track and hike-a-bike I left the peat haggs and their underlying gritstone to grass overlying limestone. It wasn't any easier but at least it was drier. The sheep trod I was following became more prominent and easier to ride. I could see the Fleet Moss road ahead but I'd taken 1hr40 for the last 8km and it was at least another three kilometres to get there with half of that being marked as bog on the map. Fortunately there was another quad track heading down the hillside to the road so that would do.

The brakes were quite warm by the time I got to the road, it had been a pretty steep descent with little respite. It was another five minutes or so before I saw someone, in a car, it had been three hours since I'd seen anyone. I was almost back at Buckden before I saw anyone not in a car.

30km with 550m of ascent taking four hours. Quite a tough little outing.

[voodoo_simon]

I liked your first film Voodoo... definitely a change from all that boring stuff where you just see the handlebars and a bit of a view of where the handlebars are going..

A great start too, sums up mountain biking...

The nearly last shot showing the canal bridge I found very dramatic, not knowing what the hell that was coming in from the left...

Cheers

Got lucky with that last shot, perfect timing

[RIP]

"Overloaded vehicle officer? Me?" 4-mile round trip to the dump.

20181122_135027 by Reginald Iolanthe Perrin

[NorwayCalling]

"Overloaded vehicle officer? Me?" 4-mile round trip to the dump.

20181122_135027 by Reginald Iolanthe Perrin

Your lucky... we cant access our dump, sorry - recycling center - on a bike or on foot "for health and safety reasons" it has to be in a car !!!!

[RIP]

barmy!

Our recycling blokes all came out of their little hut to see what was going on, with one asking 'can I help you Sir?' in that tone which usually means can I help you to bu88er off Sir. By the end though they were all very interested - first time they'd had a bike 'delivery' apparently. Usually bikes go IN the dump not TO it .

Hope all's well with you 'Calling - I still remember that insanely fast group departure from Stu's with you on WRT 2015. Nearly wrecked me that did. Anybody would've though we were desperate to get to Golden Sands chippy before they closed .

[fatbikephil]

Went in search of now and failed! Even at 725m. Annoying that the southerners have beaten us Scots to it (I'm ignoring the heelanders as they always get snow first) This time last year there was tons.....

[frogatthefarriers]

Actually, Wednesdays' ride but Hey-ho...
A ride along the Llangollen canal with my daughter. I ride up and down here a lot but this time the water was unusually clear. Look what I spied and fished out::-


Judging by the rod brakes, it's from the 1930/40's and by the rusted-away wheels it's been there a while. I left it propped against the fence. I 'xpect it'll be back in the canal next time i'm down there..

[NorwayCalling]

barmy!

Hope all's well with you 'Calling - I still remember that insanely fast group departure from Stu's with you on WRT 2015. Nearly wrecked me that did. Anybody would've though we were desperate to get to Golden Sands chippy before they closed .

Ah the golden sands... gone all misty eyed remembering that fateful day.... Yes, all good, working in Norway and looking forward to getting back to he UK for "the festive period" in a fe weeks. .

[RIP]

'Went in search of now' - I like that, quite a while since we had a decent philosophical thread/post . A very BBB aim methinks. Am reading an interesting book about cosmology and time at the moment, and even the greatest physicists/cosmologists of today are having trouble defining 'now'. Let us know how the search goes HT . Of course, at 725m your now might be different to ours as time really does pass quicker at higher altitudes.

[whitestone]

I decided to have an amble around the local parts of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, obviously not as hardcore as Stu and Mike but there you go . A bit of road down to the village then over to the canal. It wasn't long before I found the first casualty:



Further on is a WW2 memorial to seven Polish aviators who died when the wing spar of their Wellington failed. In the field behind this is an old settlement thought to be from the iron age but it hasn't been fully examined yet.



On in to Skipton where there was the annual Santa fun-run taking place. Perhaps not well known is that there's this statue of Fred Truman by the canal - out for a duck? (IGMC) - unfortunately on the opposite side of the canal to the towpath and a bit of a detour to get round there for a closer shot.






Interesting carving on a lock gate near Gargrave.

I'd now a dilemma: which cafe should I head for? The one in Gargrave was the sure bet but the one further on at East Marton was better placed I just didn't know if it would be open having never been to it before. I took a chance and went for the second one. It was just beginning to rain when I got there and I was rather muddy so a copy of the local paper served to protect the (very posh) furnishings



Suitably refreshed it was onward and eventually upward.



Obviously this bridge wasn't good enough so they added another on top!





Finally it was time to leave the canal and head home so a bit of road then an accidental diversion, I wasn't lost honest , to get to the start of the climb back home. I've only done this climb once before hence the slight geographical misplacement in finding the start. 45Nrth Vanhelgas have a lot of grip so even though it was steep and slightly muddy there was no spinning. A very short bit of tarmac and then it was across moorland to get to the highest point of the ride. The first bit is bridleway but is boggy, the second bit is very cheeky as the start of it isn't even a footpath! The last bit to the summit is legally footpath but it follows a stone pitched track. Crazy that legally I can ride across a bog potentially cutting it to shreds but not along a stone track where you'd be hard pushed to spot I'd passed over it. Anyway. The descent is a cracking bit of moorland track, you just have to lift your bike over the stile at the end. All that's left is a short descent and bigger climb to reach the road back home.

[JohnClimber]

Pedal out


Inflate pack raft, strap bike to said pack raft


Paddle home

[Zippy]

"Overloaded vehicle officer? Me?" 4-mile round trip to the dump.

20181122_135027 by Reginald Iolanthe Perrin

Reg, do you own anything with an internal combustion engine?

[RIP]

Hi Zip, fair question.... erm...erm... I used to have a lawnmower..... Nah, seriously, of course we have a motor same as most (beaten up 13-year old wreck), and I can be interested in the associated technology the same as I'm interested in most things. But where I'm possibly different to many is, as others here have also mentioned, that I'll pick the car as a last choice: bike first, or walk, or train+bike, or train+walk, or bus, or lift-share/lift-scrounge, then finally motor. There's all the usual reasons for doing so, but another reason is biking often results in something interesting/unusual happening, there's more people interaction, etc.

Erm, any chance of a lift to the Winter Event? Only jokin' - have got me bike ticket .

[BigdummySteve]

Don’t you own a train as well? That’s real commitment

[RIP]

Ah yes. It's big so easy to forget .

[whitestone]

Today didn't look too promising but I'd a plan to tick off some more VeloViewer Explorer squares in the Dales. Heading up the dale to Buckden the weather really didn't look that nice and there was a lot of water around so I decided on plan B, which was actually mostly part of plan A but didn't involve silly - i.e. climbing to the top of a 700 metre peak then bashing across moorland, so I continued on to West Burton.

A quick look at the waterfall on the edge of the village - in July this was just a trickle, little more than a domestic shower in strength.



A bit of steady climbing on road then a steep bit of road led to the first bit of bridleway which continued the upward theme for a while before it became a fine bit of moorland track. Apparently there are old coal mines up here.



A couple of km of this then there's a bifurcation (split) in the bridleway, the RH looks on the map as if it's just a farm/shooting track down to the road so I cut left through a gate to pick up a fine bit of moorland singletrack. In htrider's terms it would be nadgery Actually it's not but would be a good introduction to such riding, let's grade it N1 . Another gate and the downhill bit began, or it would have done if I'd not decided to follow an animal track rather than the bridleway A few minutes pushing through rushes got me back on the right line. The photo below is at the start of the steep bit. It's grassy at first and the main problem is avoiding disappearing down some rather large rabbit holes. After a gate it gets a bit technical with the line following alongside a beck, a few slippy rocks and you don't want to fall off to the right!



A bit of road got me to Carlton and the start of the bridleway leading back to West Burton. A very Irish looking way post Actually both meet up again after about 1 1/2 miles by a (locked, I did check it out) hunting lodge. I took the RH route as the LH is tarmac for quite a way.



All this section was in to a very strong head wind so was slow going (my excuse), you can just make out the line of the BW to the left of the lowest point of the horizon on a steep section. That was one of the few bits I had to push but mainly because of the wind, probably not too bad otherwise. Anyway, there's shadows, i.e. sun!



Eventually I got to the col. This is the start of the descent back to West Burton. It was a struggle to see as the wind was that strong my eyes were streaming just standing there. My original plan included the mid skyline as far as the step where a BW leads off the other side. A great descent, nearly 300m of height loss in under 2km.



Got back to the car absolutely filthy! I'd had very little rain, just catching the edge of passing showers really, the ground was really wet though and while my top half was fine my lower legs and feet were soaking. Just over 19km with 600m of climbing. Probably got the best of the day as heading back home it was absolutely chucking it down in Wharfedale.

[fatbikephil]

Nice one Bob. I last road that last trail when it was still getting used by trail bikes - twas proper clarty! Now looks mighty fine. Must get back there next year....

[summerwastin]

Just thinking about the Mossdale disaster, the radio programme mentioned at the end of the article is still available on the BBC website here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b009fwy6

Also, (and sorry if you've answered this question before) - how do you like the Jones riser bars?

[sean_iow]

I had the day off so I've been on a 40 mile loop on the Island stopping off for brunch at a lovely cafe. It's nice to be riding in the daylight as I've been too busy at the weekends recently to get out.

There is a bitterly cold wind here, hopefully it won't be like that at the weekend for those of you on a winter bivvy

[whitestone]

Just thinking about the Mossdale disaster, the radio programme mentioned at the end of the article is still available on the BBC website here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b009fwy6

Also, (and sorry if you've answered this question before) - how do you like the Jones riser bars?

I'll have a listen to that, ta.

The Jones Riser Bars are fine. I got them as I'd bought the fat bike off Ian Barrington who's a little shorter than me so a normal set of Jones Bars are set too
low (the steerer on the carbon forks has been cut to suit him) so I didn't quite get on with them, much happier with the Risers.