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

[CrinklyLion]

I just came back from Whitby as a passenger in someone's car, and from Whitby to Pickering we did the same route (but in reverse) as the ride.

In the cold clear light of a lovely autumn day, there's rather more figments of my imagination than I noticed at the time!  And the Christmas tree is still there 

[Kim]

That's a definite advantage of night riding, that.  Especially if you have crap lighting, or don't climb fast enough for the dynamo to generate much in the way of useful power.  It's always steeper in the daylight.

[CrinklyLion]

I did look at some of them and think "did I actually ride  up/down that?" In daylight I suspect I'd have given up on a few more. Lovely views tho!

[jogler]

What the eye don't see,the heart don't grieve over:as they say.

[Arch]

I did look at some of them and think "did I actually ride  up/down that?" In daylight I suspect I'd have given up on a few more. Lovely views tho!

So what we cyclists need (or at least those of us who find figments of the imagination to be more of a nuisance than some), is some method of turning the daylight off at will, in order not to be able to see what we imagine is ahead.  And then to turn it back on at the 'top' of the figment, to see the view.

I suppose closing one's eyes would do, although there might be issues around staying on the carriageway...

Did the drive bear out our therory of the slopes being steeper on the Whitby sides of the hills, than on the Pickering sides?

[CrinklyLion]

Dunno about the steepness in one direction or the other, other than that the stabby corner on Blue Bank is proper stabby going up - a car a few ahead of us clearly struggled.  I don't remember any of the climbs, apart from the one after Blue Bank, seeming particularly bonkers (just a bit long!) but going the other way some of the downs seemed potentially quite entertaining.  I s'pose that we had the wind on our side too.

I heartily recommend tandem-stoking for the potential to ignore hills/traffic/scary big roads etc by the way.  Shut your eyes, keep pedalling and leave it up to someone else to be scared 

[Arch]

I heartily recommend tandem-stoking for the potential to ignore hills/traffic/scary big roads etc by the way.  Shut your eyes, keep pedalling and leave it up to someone else to be scared 

I'd need an actual blindfold.  I've tried stoking, and hated it.  And the captain quickly gets fed up with all the 'watch out!' and screaming. With two exceptions: the Altena recumbent tandem bike (the recumbent seat just felt much more secure), and the MicWic back to back (facing backwards I couldn't see what was coming).

[Kim]

Shut your eyes, keep pedalling and leave it up to someone else to be scared 

This method can also be used for high-speed darkside descending, with varying degrees of success

[CrinklyLion]

I've tried stoking, and hated it.  And the captain quickly gets fed up with all the 'watch out!' and screaming.

Nah - you just need to find the right captain    

I heartily recommend the Stokerised by Wowbagger_TM experience for nervous stokers.  The Thorn has a certain imponderable stateliness, and has been witnessed balancing uphill at a dizzying rather less than 2mph without falling over.  And Wow is fairly tall and broad of beam - so if you're a shortarse you can't actually see where you're going and have no call to screech 'watch out'!  I fairly rapidly adjusted to the staring at the scenery, and I'm a complete control freak usually.

Shut your eyes, keep pedalling and leave it up to someone else to be scared 

This method can also be used for high-speed darkside descending, with varying degrees of success

tom_e, I do believe, used a variant of it i.e. 'realise that your lights aren't as powerful as the road is steep' on Blue Bank thus showing his faith in the council's highway maintenance department at very nearly 50mph

[Kim]

I heartily recommend the Stokerised by Wowbagger_TM experience for nervous stokers.  The Thorn has a certain imponderable stateliness, and has been witnessed balancing uphill at a dizzying rather less than 2mph without falling over.

It's uncanny - he's got a gyroscope hidden in his beard, I reckon.

tom_e, I do believe, used a variant of it i.e. 'realise that your lights aren't as powerful as the road is steep' on Blue Bank thus showing his faith in the council's highway maintenance department at very nearly 50mph

There's a variation on that involving unexpected fog and headtorches that I've used to good effect, assuming you count shrieking and SillyHot brake discs as 'good'.

[Tigerbiten]

Shut your eyes, keep pedalling and leave it up to someone else to be scared 

This method can also be used for high-speed darkside descending, with varying degrees of success

tom_e, I do believe, used a variant of it i.e. 'realise that your lights aren't as powerful as the road is steep' on Blue Bank thus showing his faith in the council's highway maintenance department at very nearly 50mph

I use a variation of that trick.
At any speed above 40 mph my eyes water so much that its hard to see the road.
So a lot of my high speed decents are just blink to keep my eyes clear and pray I pick up corners ..... 

[Deano]

I did look at some of them and think "did I actually ride  up/down that?" In daylight I suspect I'd have given up on a few more. Lovely views tho!

So what we cyclists need (or at least those of us who find figments of the imagination to be more of a nuisance than some), is some method of turning the daylight off at will, in order not to be able to see what we imagine is ahead.  And then to turn it back on at the 'top' of the figment, to see the view.

I suppose closing one's eyes would do, although there might be issues around staying on the carriageway...

Did the drive bear out our therory of the slopes being steeper on the Whitby sides of the hills, than on the Pickering sides?

[/b]

No theory - I'm sure I've mentioned it somewhere on here, and to Arch on the ride.  We went the easy way up them there hills.

[Arch]

I did look at some of them and think "did I actually ride  up/down that?" In daylight I suspect I'd have given up on a few more. Lovely views tho!

So what we cyclists need (or at least those of us who find figments of the imagination to be more of a nuisance than some), is some method of turning the daylight off at will, in order not to be able to see what we imagine is ahead.  And then to turn it back on at the 'top' of the figment, to see the view.

I suppose closing one's eyes would do, although there might be issues around staying on the carriageway...

Did the drive bear out our therory of the slopes being steeper on the Whitby sides of the hills, than on the Pickering sides?

[/b]

No theory - I'm sure I've mentioned it somewhere on here, and to Arch on the ride.  We went the easy way up them there hills.

Excellent planning, I must say.  How clever of you to arrange the geology in advance so as to be so suitable.... 

[Deano]

And the tailwind I so thoughtfully laid on

[Arch]

Well indeed.  Weather, landscape...

Hang on! Are you God?

[Kim]

...and if so, I'd like a word about the design of these knees.

[Martin109]

I heartily recommend tandem-stoking for the potential to ignore hills/traffic/scary big roads etc by the way.  Shut your eyes, keep pedalling and leave it up to someone else to be scared 

Except for the occasional need to indicate!  I wasn't scared, honest!

[Arch]

...and if so, I'd like a word about the design of these knees.

Ah well, God can't be infallible I guess...

Oh...

[Deano]

Well indeed.  Weather, landscape...

Hang on! Are you God?

Well - there are those who worship me..

[jogler]

& others who consider you to be merely heroic

[SlowCoach]

I don't know if anyone else caught the local (North East) TV news tonight. Our route was on (looked like the top of Blue Bank). It's a good job we arn't planning to ride it this weekend - the snow looked to be several feet deep across the road 

[Arch]

I don't know if anyone else caught the local (North East) TV news tonight. Our route was on (looked like the top of Blue Bank). It's a good job we arn't planning to ride it this weekend - the snow looked to be several feet deep across the road 

I saw that road mentioned earlier in the week as having deep snow on it. 

We'd have got through.  The recumbents would just have bored a tunnel, using our whirling chainrings...