Is how far I cycled today (though it does include the short walk I took the dog on after getting home). Got a lift up to Kendal and picked up my repaired (so far working great) bike from Mapdec, and set off for home. This would have been ~11:00, cycled through Kendal and up past Oxenholm Train Station before following the B6254 which is the old Kendal to Kirkby Lonsdale road. I turned off this just before it crosses the M6 and headed out into the hills. I was only tarmac the whole way home, though I had originally planned a slightly shorter route that used some bridleways, however after I realised one went across a river with the use of bridge/stepping stones/ford/etc I decided that I would stick to the easier way to get home.
Hit Kirkby Lonsdale at about 13:00 (I sent a message home from the bridge on the other side of the Lune at 13:15). I’d at this point only got properly lost once (took a wrong turn heading down into Lunesdale and had to retrace my route (up a bastard hill)). I also got a little lost in Kendal but I knew where I was and where I was trying to get to so it didn’t take much to get back on track. And I was home for about 14:30, took a break before taking the dog out for a little run before I got too stiff.
Some thoughts:
- Even though I plotted out my route well in advance of my journey I had issues getting it to display on my phone, especially the bit in Kendal which I needed most as I don’t know the smaller roads in Kendal. Making sure that I have downloaded the OS map that I use for my mapping app of choice, would have been a good idea, I used to it just working as I have the local maps I normally use downloaded already.
- Don’t wear a pair of new cycling shorts (liners) that you have never worn for a long ride before. The shorts I wore had only been worn for one short ride, which meant I didn’t know that they didn’t fit correctly and ended up being painfully uncomfortable.
- Carry at least some food. Stopped in Cowan Bridge and Clapham to buy food… it was fine but, I could have planned that better.
- Less useless weight in my backpack. And move more of it off my back and directly onto the bike. I’m actually working on that and probably couldn’t have got that much better as I stripped off most of my additions prior to taking it up to Mapdec.
- The bike managed to do the whole distance and I suspect I could probably have managed ~10mi more, so I probably have a rough range of 40mi. I do try and drop down into Eco mode when I’m on the flat or going downhill, which ekes out the distance a bit more.
- Something to block wind noise so I can actually hear Google Map directions would be very useful, I missed a couple of directions because the wind noise was just too high.
All in all a very nice day, achieving more than I ever have in the past – that I know of, though I did once cycle from Leeds to Dent, so that day was probably a little longer and not on an eBike… but I was in my twenties too.
Later
I just worked out the rough route I would have taken in I think the summer of 1999 when I would have been ~23 (it’s a long time ago and I can’t remember how old I was, k?) to cycle from Leeds to Dentdale Youth Hostel where a friend I had made in Raleigh International was working for the summer. While I did get a lift between Settle/Giggleswick and Horton in Ribblesdale I cycled the rest on a decidedly not top of the range mountain bike a Trek something, what these days would most likely resemble a Gravel Bike. Total distance would have been around 55mi (not sure of the distance I got a lift, or precisely where the Youth Hostel was) so the calculated distance was around 60mi (less the lift). RIP David Rhodes dear friend of the family and my sister’s God father, who gave me the lift.