Staxton is on my own patch and is not that bad in reality. But it took me years to pluck up the courage to do it. I had a stigma about it from an occasion when I was following a minibus towing a trailer up it in my car, when it ground to a halt, everyone in the mini bus piled out and started pushing and that stuck in my mind for years.
One morning about 0500, I said to myself, I'm off to do it, jumped out of bed, got ready and 25 mile ride there. rode to the bottom, turned around and found it was nothing, six and a half minutes later I was at the top, then a 25 mile ride home. Since then I have done it a few times. It is a 17% but its just the bit at the top where it gets hard.
A harder hill is just to the East of it which runs parrallel to it, Flixton Hill, don't know what gradient it is, but its one of those you get well over 50 going down it and I've even seen cyclists walking pushing their bikes........................... down it!!!!!!!!
But Staxton could be a different ball game with a lot of miles in your legs and in the dark when you do not know where the top is. Just like Kidstones on the "Old 240", I have never got up it in the dark and crack just before the top not knowing how close I was to it.
Always remember, if a hill gets too much, there is not much to loose by walking time wise. I have found the cracking point is about 2 -3 miles an hour....walking speed, so I just jump off and get walking.
