Friday Night Ride to Somewhere Random 29/10/10 Whitby Weekender

[Kim]

Unless your upwrong miraculously solves all your knee problems, it sounds like you're going to be far better off letting you knee rest for a few days (or weeks).

Astoundingly, it looks like it might...

I did the 43km loop again just now and while the knee's feeling a little tired (as is the other one, tbh), there's no actual pain.  Even on the stairs.

I think the only reasonable approach is to go out and attempt ~60km or so tomorrow.  If I can do that without trouble, I reckon I'll be good for Whitby.  If not, I'll be sensible.

[TimO]

Oh that sounds surprisingly promising. Good stuff.

[TimO]

That looks alright to me - damp, but mild and with a tailwind.  Two outta three ain't bad.

Still, it's far too early to trust these things.

At the moment, it's lucking pretty much dry, a significant wind, but largely a tailwind, and temperatures around the 10°C mark.

All very promising.

XCWeather for York
XCWeather for Goathland (a convenient location near to the middle of our journey over the moor).
XCWeather for Whitby

[damerell]

Unless your upwrong miraculously solves all your knee problems, it sounds like you're going to be far better off letting you knee rest for a few days (or weeks).  I suspect abandoning on this ride is going to be a lot harder than it was on the FNRttC, given the lack of running trains.

As the voice of irresponsibility (I did 3 1/2 days of the E2E with a dodgy knee and lots of Ibuprofen), I figure if you've got enough gear to sleep warm, you're never more than 10km or so from the NYMR on the road over the Moors (and it's generally downhill) - in extremis you can always pile off to the nearest station and sleep until you hear a steam whistle. There's still Pickering->Malton (and what a shame it is that the NYMR did not get that chunk of the line) but that's 8 miles the next day and as flat as a pancake to boot.

[TimO]

... There's still Pickering->Malton (and what a shame it is that the NYMR did not get that chunk of the line) but that's 8 miles the next day and as flat as a pancake to boot.

Except that Malton to York is replaced by a Bus Service on this Saturday, so you need to be able to convince the Bus Driver to let you take a bike on, which they don't have to.

[damerell]

... There's still Pickering->Malton (and what a shame it is that the NYMR did not get that chunk of the line) but that's 8 miles the next day and as flat as a pancake to boot.

Except that Malton to York is replaced by a Bus Service on this Saturday, so you need to be able to convince the Bus Driver to let you take a bike on, which they don't have to.

Hmmm. In that case the best bet would be to go to Whitby and go back to York via Middlesborough. Takes forever, but you'd have no riding at all once you'd limped down to the NYMR.

[TimO]

... There's still Pickering->Malton (and what a shame it is that the NYMR did not get that chunk of the line) but that's 8 miles the next day and as flat as a pancake to boot.

Except that Malton to York is replaced by a Bus Service on this Saturday, so you need to be able to convince the Bus Driver to let you take a bike on, which they don't have to.

Hmmm. In that case the best bet would be to go to Whitby and go back to York via Middlesborough. Takes forever, but you'd have no riding at all once you'd limped down to the NYMR.

Yes, it's the emergency option, and it's also damned expensive.

Whitby 8-52 to Middlesborough 10-18.
Middlesborough 10-24 to Darlington 10-54
Darlington 11-03 to York 11-32

Which takes 2 hours 40 minutes, and £24-80 is the cheapest fare.  If cost is a problem then you can do it for £11, but you have to wait until 16-05 to leave!

[CrinklyLion]

Kim, IF you decide to ride (and you're the only one who can decide if that's a stoopid idea or not - I'm not being encouraging as that might warrant The_Look from a spork-wielding Barakta!) and IF your knee goes pop, if you get yourself to a NYMR station and hop (literally!) on a train back to Pickering I can probably arrange an emergency rescue from my little sis (who, funnily enough, is called Aunty Cake).  Have a look at the stations and the route and decide if the weather and the lungs rule it out as an in-case-of-emergency plan.  Small car, so it would only take one person+bike but she could bring you back to our place to wait til trains to Mordor, and assuming you've booked a sensible-ish time train back the bods riding back would be in York early enough for there to be a sufficiency of people to help get you and a bike to the station without you having to ride or walk it.

[Kim]

Cor, thanks for that.  Barakta is in the other room at the moment, so isn't around to give anyone The Look.   

This particular flavour of knee-fail isn't the going pop kind, so much as the steadily increasing pain-to-speed ratio kind, which isn't quite so bad for getting stranded in completely stupid places, even if it does mean trundling to slightly less stupid places at 8mph with lots of stops.

Obviously I'm not going to decide anything until I've done some more riding tomorrow.  If I'm reasonably confident that it'll get me most of the way across the NYM without complaining, I think it'll be okay.

This is, realistically, going to be my last serious ride of the year^[1], so I'm slightly more inclined to stupidity than I would otherwise be.


[1] The Tunnels Ride doesn't count, as it's:  a) local  b) best not taken too seriously

[CrinklyLion]

Any chance of getting a bit of a roll-call of who is heading round to ours, with some kind of idea of times?

I know Tigerbiten is heading this way sort of early evening-ish, and lots of other people at various other points.

Tiermat, you may be interested to know that we have some cafetiere-ground (freshly done today) monsoon malabar in the fridge.  I don't know if this will influence your decision....

[Kim]

Assuming I come, my train gets into York at 21:45, and I'll head over to yours then, so tenish?

[CrinklyLion]

I also have a Very Important Question.

I went to buy CCCBs today, and they didn't have any plain ones.  What would the panel prefer to top their coffee cake:

1) Irish cream flavour chocolate coated coffee beans
2) ginger chocolate coated coffee beans

I s'pose I could make some of each.....

[Deano]

... There's still Pickering->Malton (and what a shame it is that the NYMR did not get that chunk of the line) but that's 8 miles the next day and as flat as a pancake to boot.

Except that Malton to York is replaced by a Bus Service on this Saturday, so you need to be able to convince the Bus Driver to let you take a bike on, which they don't have to.

Hmmm. In that case the best bet would be to go to Whitby and go back to York via Middlesborough. Takes forever, but you'd have no riding at all once you'd limped down to the NYMR.

Yes, it's the emergency option, and it's also damned expensive.

Whitby 8-52 to Middlesborough 10-18.
Middlesborough 10-24 to Darlington 10-54
Darlington 11-03 to York 11-32

Which takes 2 hours 40 minutes, and £24-80 is the cheapest fare.  If cost is a problem then you can do it for £11, but you have to wait until 16-05 to leave!

There are also direct trains Middlesbrough-York, so if you caught one of those, that may cut the price a bit. It'd also be easier to get a bike on, as the Trans-Pennine trains are usually pretty laissez-faire.

However, the steam option looks far more sensible.

[Deano]

Any chance of getting a bit of a roll-call of who is heading round to ours, with some kind of idea of times?

I know Tigerbiten is heading this way sort of early evening-ish, and lots of other people at various other points.

Tiermat, you may be interested to know that we have some cafetiere-ground (freshly done today) monsoon malabar in the fridge.  I don't know if this will influence your decision....

I'm on the train which arrives at 22.57 - looks like t. and SC are on the same train.  Expect three scary-looking individuals shortly after 11.

[TimO]

On the subject of Cake, either would be fine with me, which isn't very helpful, but I suspect I'd happily eat both.

As to arrival time, I'm a bit unsure about when to leave, let alone when to arrive.

Various computery things keep on telling me that the travel time to York from home is 4½ hours, but I don't believe this.  I have a magic GPS that supposed to know about things like traffic, but I can't use it all the way, since it will only last 3 hours or so on it's battery, and until I do some engineering to the car's electrics, I can't plug it in (there's no cigarette lighter fitted to the car), so I'm planning on keeping a bit of power for the last bit of travel into York (ps I may be looking for a power plug to charge this up before the return journey!)

If I left Croydon at 2pm, and it takes me five hours I'll arrive at 7pm.  If it takes me eights hours, I'll arrive at 10pm.  On past experience of driving long distances either duration is possible!  It's possibly a case of how early can I turn up and not be a nuisance.

[Kim]

there's no cigarette lighter fitted to the car

You really don't use the car much, do you?

(I spent a delightful afternoon installing an extra seekrit always-on cigarette lighter socket in the back of the glove compartment on my last one.  Surprisingly handy.)

[CrinklyLion]

I'll be back around lunchtime, if all goes to plan.  Bit later if it all goes a bit pear-shaped which, with the week I've been having, is not massively unlikely.  So anytime after that is fine!  I think my sister has made it up from Brighton to York in not that much more that 4 hours on occasion - although she has also taken 8 hours once. 

[Deano]

I'd prefer the irish cream thingies to ginger, given the choice.  I don't need gingering up any.

[TimO]

...than 4 hours on occasion - although she has also taken 8 hours once.  

That's always the problem with car travel!

Interestingly, andygates Munky Maps on my Garmin has your address on it.  They're obviously some OpenStreetMap enthusiasts in the vicinity of York.  The Garmin has decided it can't find a route to York, probably because it's configured to find a bicycle route by default, and it probably wants to use the motorways!  If all else fails I can get this GPS out when in York, and use it to find your place, although driving whilst peering at a handheld GPS is probably not best advised!

[Kim]

Last time I did a significant car journey, I made use of a Mk 1 lump of blu-tac to wedge the eTrex in a convenient position up against the A-pillar.  Worked surprisingly well once I'd told it I wasn't on a bicycle and found a more appropriate level of zoom.

[SlowCoach]

1) OK - I've been banned from wearing the halloween costume for the ride - apparently I'm quite scary enough without one.

2) Kim - do you want me to bring the tow rope just in case? It's been done before but you have to promise not to overtake down Blue Bank

3) If the station manager turns up at 11:45 again with a worried look on his face when he thinks he has a dozen cyclists on the station forecourt all heading for the last train of the night... the story is this time, folks, that we are all intending to catch that train   That really will make his night...

[tiermat]

Tiermat, you may be interested to know that we have some cafetiere-ground (freshly done today) monsoon malabar in the fridge.  I don't know if this will influence your decision....

How on earth can I say no to that?

Myself, SC and Deano should be there about 11, unless either of those two want to hang around the train station with the drunks

As for a bail out, Kim, Mrs T is due to meet me at helmsley on Saturday morning, in my renault scenic, I am sure, if needs be she can be persuaded to navigate a bit further towards Whitby (all the way if necessary)  and collect us to return to York or Northallerton, as needed....

[Arch]

I think I'll take advantage of being the most local person to the station and stay at home on the Friday evening to get a nap rather than detouring to join the party chez Crinkles...    What's the rendezvous time at the station?

Tim, once you're on the A64, which I assume will be your trajectory into York, it's pretty easy to find CrinklyLion's place - get the correct exit off the A64, the A1079, and then follow it in towards the city, and her street is only two turnings off that - we can suggest numerous landmarks to help you.  If you find yourself at a set of traffic lights facing the city walls, you've overshot.

Irish cream please, CL.

Slowcoach, I have a vision now of you being dragged, screaming, backwards down Blue Bank by Kim on a tow rope.

[CrinklyLion]

Right, the cub and I are finally heading off for our somewhat abridge camping trip.  Don't know what signal I'll get, so I may drop off the radar til tomorrow.  Will check back in when I get back tomorrow lunchtime.  See you all tomorrow.

[Arch]

Right, the cub and I are finally heading off for our somewhat abridge camping trip.  Don't know what signal I'll get, so I may drop off the radar til tomorrow.  Will check back in when I get back tomorrow lunchtime.  See you all tomorrow.

Have a great time!  See you tomorrow...