What a miserable 12 miles?! I've done 15 today just shopping!Had a pleasant 12 mile ride with my wife today (just to 'break her in' after a winter of not using her ebike!) from Heysham up to Hest Bank and back along the wonderful Morecambe prom - a brilliant largely traffic free avenue next to the sea.
I can proudly state that when I returned home, my battery was still fully charged - and where I had left it in the garage
I know the feeling....Breaking in the wife, John - she's not the woman she was
Awesome ride Phil. How did you get the ascent info?Had a day to myself today so went for a round trip across the Bowland Fells. A total of 35 miles, and lotsa battery - there's some long hills up, and some wonderful rides down too, but they're hard work to get to even with a battery
I started near Ingleton, and headed through Low Bentham up onto Slaidburn Road; a great 'quiet lane' with few motorists. Passing Fourstones, and getting on to Lythe Fell Road, the view back of the Three Yorkshire Peaks, and Gragareth (left - modern Lancashire's only remaining mountain!) was notable
for the lack of cloud around Ingleborough's top - although, as you can see, it was an overcast day, with a light wind - perfect cycling weather. The pull up Whitray Fell to the Cross of Greet is ferocious, and it just keeps going for a kilometre - the last 500m to the summit is between 14 and 20%.
From the summit however, the reward is a fantastic roll for nearly 3km down to Cross of Greet bridge, followed by undulating terrain generally down to Slaidburn.
Light refreshment at the Hark to Bounty, and then it was a steady climb along the B6478 back towards Settle. Before reaching Tosside (a Yorkshire village now uneasily straddling the border of modern North Yorkshire and Lancashire) a left turn took me down to Gisburn Forest and Stocks Reservoir. I avoided the forest trails and stayed on tarmac and followed the single track road as it veered northwards, and once again got into some serious uphill.
A 150m stretch of steeper than 20% saw me capitulate; I got off and pushed (with the aid of walk mode, helping nicely with the weight of the bike) for some 300m or so, then remounted as the upslope became more manageable, heading for Bowland Knotts, at the watershed of the Bowland Fells
From here the terrain is a delight - 2.5km of steady downhill, a short upslope and then a further 2.5km downhill, crossing Clapham Common and dropping into the Wenning valley.
At Dubgarth I took a left turn onto Reeby's Lane, which forms part of the 'Way of the Roses' - a 170 mile route across Lancashire and Yorkshire from Morecambe in the west to 'Brid' on the east coast.
At the Forest of Mewith I turned north to return homewards through Bentham - three hours well spent and 2 10Ah batteries nearly spent!
And finally, for anyone interested, the profile:
The vertical scale may be a little distorted
Just edited to add: Total ascent/descent = 4,268 feet!
I plotted the route in Memory Map when I got back. I don't trust the mounting for my phone, or I would have used cyclestreets.
50Cycles have a shop about 25 miles away from me, and I'm guessing that they might well have a demo bike.
on my Freego Eagle where my mother and sister live its only about 35/40 mile round trip but it includes some stunning scenery and the rout ! is good from Exeter to Dawlish using the canal and past the Double Locks and Turf Locks (you can see where this is going??) but after the Turf Locks it gets a bit rough for about a mile & half (it loosened and lost all but one of the screws on my control box cover !!) ts then part road and part cycle lane and you go past !! the lovely Ship Inn at Cockwood ?? and then trough Dawlish Warren and then into Dawlish ( how many people on here have had a holiday around here !! so I suppose Im lucky) anyway after Dawlish is where it gets tough its one lone steep hill after the other and I mean long ( before the storms of the winter you could goo down to Smugglers Cove and cycle along the sea wall but its still closed because of the storm damage) the last bit is the best as its about halff a mile down hill and quite steep and I've got to near 50mph down here overtaking cars on the way down !!!!! (shut your eyes and pray??) but it is a good ride and the pics are of the area around the Turf Locks and Tiegnmouth sea front.
And of coarse you have to go back past the same lovely scenery and the odd Pub !!!! does this qualify? went to Maldon with OH, then to bradwell, bumped along the seawall, wondered at the flat featurelessness of the sea and countryside, a lot like Netherlands. then, as we thought it was the end of an uneventful un-uplifting day we got lost, ended up in a various fields on the wrong sides of ditches, contemplated passing through the newly built/building bradwell nuclear reactor, became more desperate, contemplated a night of straggling around in the dark and finally miraculously found our way out. There IS a very old monastery built on the remains of a roman fort that is very spiritual/impressive. mostly the relief at not spending the night in a field next to a newly built reactor trumped any joy I've felt for weeksCare to share the photos ?
We havent had any interesting stories of peoples rides recently with lovely pics of the countryside ....it would be nice to get some inspiration of places to visit.
I did part of the Sharpness/Gloucester canal last week (sorry no pics
Lynda
