Afternoon
The weather in the last few weeks has been pretty nice, I’ve been going out most days for rides on the bike, even though I’ve been having issues with it, most days I have been able to get 10+ miles ridden, often closer to 20+. But the one thing I have been annoyed about is the cold easterly winds, everywhere I wanted to ride I seemed to be riding into this annoyingly strong cold wind. And even though the sun makes it nice and warm out of the wind, I’m having to layer up if I want to go anywhere.
I’ve been watching the weather for a few days, I’m sure it’ll break soon and it’ll snow or something unpleasant – and it’s not like we don’t need the rain, we do. It’s very dry round here, I got damp today a couple of times but compared to what I have seen in the past it really wasn’t that wet, in fact I found dust to be more annoying.
So having watched the weather I decided that today I would go out on a longer ride, I was planning on a 30mi loop that I could break down to shorter loops (after ~1/2 or 2/3) if needed, if I had an issue with my bike or I injured myself.
Not going to do a major write up of the route (proceeds to do so):
- Down to Austwick
- Up to the top of the hill behind Austwick via Crummock
- Down into Ribblesdale then along the road past Selside and nearly up to Ribblehead, then turning right toward Hawes
- After the Outdoor Centre (I forget the name) take the right onto the byway open to all traffic that heads over into Wharfedale until it meets the Pennine Way at Cam End and turn down (right) there
- Follow this track down to Old Ing and then follow the Pennine Way down into Horton in Ribblesdale
- Then follow the rest of the route…
We’ll go into why I stopped there in a moment. The route up to the turn toward Hawes I have done before, nothing new. Hordes of young ladies who I assume were starting their DofE adventure laden down with massive packs roamed the landscape and in at least one instance prostrated themselves right across the track – at times like this an action camera would have been handy, I don’t think they’d have liked me getting my phone out to take pictures for my blog (if I ever posted any pictures).
After the turn the road is not bad though the turn down onto the byway is dangerous especially with idiot motorcyclists screaming round the corner every 10s. But I made it and enjoyed heading up the long hill to Cam End (I think this is Cam High Road) it follows for some of it a Roman road. The track from Cam End to Old Ing is less well maintained, I found it difficult to ride in parts just because it was so rough and because I was starting to have issues with my bike.
Bloody Bike
Actually I have been having issues with it since it arrived, mostly with the drive train (gears etc) which I have already written about. However right form the start now and then it would change some of the settings on the display – I assumed I was touching the buttons in some way without noticing doing so. It’s also occasionally turn off for no obvious reason. I was fairly sure it was an innocent issue that I might be causing somehow.
But the turning off randomly that started out as once a ride (maybe) has been gradually getting worse. Today riding down the lane from Cam End to Old Ing it turned off 20-30 times. It didn’t matter which assist setting I was in, what gear I was in, whether I was pedalling or not, or whether or not I was climbing or descending (or even on the flat). It was definitely worse when I was on a rough surface, but it turned itself off even when on relatively pothole free roads (though much less often).
I had a look at the wire that links the display to the battery/controller and it is held together by a small connector, the connector is held together with electrical tape, I don’t see why this would be loose enough to cause an intermittent error such as this, the tape doesn’t look that old. But it doesn’t give me confidence that other less accessible parts of the electrical sub system isn’t potentially faulty. So I will be talking to Tredz again tomorrow.
Honestly at this point after a month of issues with the drive train, I’m starting to think I want to just refund the bike and get something different. A horse maybe…
The Ride
I had a wonderful ride apart from the issues with the bike, so I cut the potential 31mi I had planned down to ~24, missing out the section into Settle by part of the Settle Loop and then home via Buck Haw Brow, instead going home via Helwith Bridge and Austwick. Came home pretty tired, poked my bike a bit to see if I could diagnose any obvious issue (apart from the fact it’s buggered anyway). Had some tea which was went less well than I had planned mostly as I am too tired to cook/eat had a can of Oliver’s Cider & Perry: Guilty Pleasure and wished I’d bought another can – it’s very good.
Going to have a shower and then after screaming a bit over the huge graze in my leg I think an early night is called for.