Weekend Roundup Jan 24th/25th

[Dr Dave]

Excellent ride today - Cockayne anti - clockwise. Bright with clear skies and a brisk North -Westerly wind.
11 left the square including most regulars - John B, Graham, Simon, Dr Joe (with new toy), Stuart, Jon G, and Richard along with Toby from York Uni and another couple of riders whose names I failed to retain.
Steady pace out via Slingsby (where the group had been trimmed to 9) and on over the A 170. We then split into a breakaway & grupetto for the loop.
Lovely views as always - although it never gets any easier . A few traces of ice but nothing too serious.
Lunch in the Ice-cream Parlour then back via Harome and then R at Hovingham through to Farlington. The crack riders were given the nod to scoot home on the drag out of Hovingham leaving the grupetto to plod after them as darkness fell. Must say I was flagging by the time the 4 of us hit town. Hoping the hares all got home safely.
John B is going to select a suitable route next Saturday - have fun!

[Jon G]

Thanks for the ride Dave and to all the other regulars. Good to be out again. TBH I was a little anxious about what the road conditions would be like but really no drama. Very picturesque to see the remnants of the snow other the moors. I think it's the first time I've ridden cockayne in 'winter' conditions. Despite my lack of miles felt quite strong. Good to see how you compare to others.

As Dave states a standard route back but it was difficult to keep things together at times with different abilities on show. Good call to split after Hovingham Dave and thanks for marshalling the group back. The temperature was plummeting by the time we got back to York.

By the time I got home it was very dark and cold I was glad to get in the shower to warm up.

110 miles door to door. So have more than doubled my longest ride since November.

Will be out on the reliability ride next week hopefully weather permitting.

Jon

[Pub Landlord]

Great route! Thanks for the tow, without you guys could've still been out until Tuesday

[Rob]

Sunday gang took the route oft' traveled; out via Alwalk Br, Staveley, Markington to Brimham. Down Summerbridge Bank to the cafe, then back via Birstwith, Penny-pot, Pannel and Tockwith.

8 in The Square. Emmanuelle, Muzzy, Steen, Broomy, AndynotGraeme, IanH, AndyM. All completed the 75 miles without incident. The wind picked up so the ride back became fairly brisk. And by the time we were back it was almost mild.

I'll be giving The Reliability a miss next week. So if you'd prefer a normal clubrun, I'll see you in The Square as normal. Driffield.

[Broom Wagon]

As above, it was the Sunday club run for me and I'm happy to report it was the usual format: good company - tick, well planned and captained by Rob - tick, lovely Yorkshire country - tick. We all like sunshire but I like all the seasons in their own way, so when we crested the final rise before Brimham the view with white patches of snow and a deep foreboding cloud bank further away into the Dales was quite something.
For me the big change between this week and last was my bike. Last week I had an unnerving shimmy at the back when pedalling around corners, brakes that stopped me slower than a super tanker, and a sticky rear mech which wasn't pulling back so the gears were slipping - to be honest my bike was dangerous to ride and pretty nasty too. So as per Jesse's diets, this week, I have been mostly removing racks, fitting a chain and cassette, brake blocks, bottom bracket and removing and cleaning a rear mech. My bike is nothing special, a cheap ali Trek I bought second hand but what a difference a few new components made - I really like riding it again. Suppose if you're going to ride as much as we do - you've got to like the bike you ride, so it's worth looking after it.