Manchester Ride - Nov 17th, 2007

Reason
Map

Any takers?

woow 190 miles! that would hurt......are you planning to ride it fixed?

Fixed is too common now.. I'm thinking about riding it with gears.. so much cooler..

do you ride distances like that much?

In 28 years I've ridden that distance 0 times. Last week's 230k to Nottingham was my furthest ever. I don't like distances, I prefer going fast for 30min. :)

so its going to be quite difficult even for the hippy.....

quite tempted. From Oxon i'll meet you at northhampton. Or you guys could come up and then we'll leave....

thats a seriously long ride. id do it in summer for more daylight hours. and dude, you're going over the peak district? going through buxton even (england's highest town). if you survive the distance, the hills will get ya

that said, id love to come along. but im yet to get my road bike! good luck if you do decide to do it. sounds like a real adventure

Yeah.. I know fsck all about Britain's geography.
London is flat. Dunwich Dynamo is flat. Ride to Nottingham isn't so flat. South-west is rolling. Highlands aren't certainly not flat.
The rest is a mystery and google maps doesn't do altitude profiles.. well.. it has a plugin to do it but it doesn't work for me.
Bikely would but it's quicker to get google maps to plan the route and then 'bend' it to suit. I suck at map making AND map reading.

"Peak" district doesn't sound promising though. Not for a single day ride.

Could train out of London and get a head start? Ride the good bits rather than do it just to clock the kays.

hippy, have ridden in the peaks a number of times. glorious country and you don't want to spend time pissing about on the edge of london when you can be going thru that country. i haven't looked at your map but i would suggest 50k in the peaks equals 90k on the flat.

oh, and can't ride on the 17th. i think like fatboyralph said this would be a good ride to do with a bit more sunlight

A random but slighty linked question. Given a flat surface, how much further can you get on a geared bike than on a fixed gear bike for the same amount of effort. My brother's doing 50 miles at the weekend and asked me if I'd be up for going but I don't think I could do 50 miles. The most I've done is 10 miles but whenever I'm on the bike I'm going as fast as I can. Am I just an idiot who needs to learn to conserve energy?

andrew: Ride slow at the start, save your energy and you will make 50mi.

jonny hippy, have ridden in the peaks a number of times. glorious country and you don't want to spend time pissing about on the edge of london when you can be going thru that country. i haven't looked at your map but i would suggest 50k in the peaks equals 90k on the flat.
oh, and can't ride on the 17th. i think like fatboyralph said this would be a good ride to do with a bit more sunlight

Maybe it would be best to train out and then ride. I mean, a one-way ticket costs basically the same as a return! So it would make sense to use it.

now, dont get me started on train prices in this country. fly to scotland. could be cheaper!!!

yeh trains to manc is a quick train ride (virgintrains). get off at stoke-on-trent (bring weapons just in case) or macclesfield if you want to go around the long way through peaks. virgin train's not for last minute decisions tho. gets expensive and you have to book the bikes in advance. got kicked off once coz i did not book my bike for the train ride.

Yeah really, seriously, if you're going up that way then take the opportunity to cycle in the peak district. Don't waste time on Stevenage, Corby (home of the trouser press) or Melton Mowbray - unless you want a pork pie. Which I would. Maybe you could train up to eg. Coventry, head up to the peaks and take on Snake Pass.

I rode through Melton Mowbray on the way to Nottingham and there were no pork pies. I was expecting whole families out front of their houses flogging hordes of tourists their best porkies.. or maybe not..

Snake Pass sounds ominous..

hippy Snake Pass sounds ominous..

it isn't though. it's not steep at all, just long. goes on and on. oh, and of course it has some bends in it. cool going down it heading towards glossop. if traffic ain't too busy you might be looking at that 80kph mark you have not seen enough of

What's the fastest downhill over here? Combination of straight, clear and steep..
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :)

dunno really. i have done too many miles fixed so never really felt the benefit of a good downhill. definitely a few in the peaks but probably none much better than that one on catford hill climb ride.

Coming down towards Mytholmroyd (sp?) in Yorkshire they have the "Longest continuous gradient" in the country. Still, it's teeny compared to what you get in the alps!

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Mytholmroyd,+Hebden+Bridge&sll=54.162434,-3.647461&sspn=16.725074,26.235352&ie=UTF8&ll=53.690811,-2.006035&spn=0.131736,0.204964&z=12&iwloc=addr&om=1

andrewleitch86 A random but slighty linked question. Given a flat surface, how much further can you get on a geared bike than on a fixed gear bike for the same amount of effort. My brother's doing 50 miles at the weekend and asked me if I'd be up for going but I don't think I could do 50 miles. The most I've done is 10 miles but whenever I'm on the bike I'm going as fast as I can. Am I just an idiot who needs to learn to conserve energy?

unless you die while riding it is possible to ride that distance...it may hurt a bit but it is possible.
no pain no gain!

Just so we're clear on this, Brazilians are totally banned from this ride!*

Not 100% sure if I'm doing this, just didn't really want to solo it and wanted to suss interest.
Thinking about the train out option. Saves taking an hour to get to Harrow.. ;)

*unless they are able to ride a bike

i'd like to train and bike it

hippy Just so we're clear on this, Brazilians are totally banned from this ride!*

That's just what Ian Blair said!

Ordinarily, I'd be a definite for this. Riding it too. None of this train sh1t. BUT on this occasion I am riding at Calshot velodrome and really don't want to miss it. You should definitely do it though...it'll be awesome!