Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Audax => Topic started by: marcusinbristol on 07 May, 2014, 07:47:28 pm
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Hi, i've posted before about the upcoming Bryan Chapman Audax and you've been brilliant. Now it's only nine days away it is all starting to feel a bit real. This is a bit of a a detailed thing but i hope you can help, at around 218km the route turns due west and around 225km you reach the YHA. From there the route continues to the top and at around 390km you are back at the junction you passed at 218km ( please set me straight if i've got this wrong). Has anyone else/Does anyone else leave stuff at this junction to pick up on the way back to lighten their load. I've not ridden a super distance Audax before and on other adventures i've taken every opportunity to hide stuff in hedges for collection on the way back but i don't want to do that if it's not in the Audax spirit. The main reason is that i've got a very heavy light that is amazing and a very light light that just about does the job. If i was quick i was hoping to be able to dump the light at 218km in the hedge crack on without it and then pick it up sometime in the dark later that night and have it for the remainder of the night. I think this plan works, but i've not done this type of thing before.
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Do what works for you and don't worry about it.
As it happens, I dumped my sleeping bag in a hedge last weekend at the Severn Bridge so that I could ride the BC400 without carrying it.
I picked it up and used it on my way to the Porkers. Then I dumped it in a hedge (marking it as a trackpoint on my GPS) and picked it up again on my way to the finish of the Porkers.
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Are you a researcher for Radio 4's 'The Moral Maze', exploring the quieter byways of self-contained value systems?
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Do what works for you and don't worry about it.
Amen.
There are those that get overly hung up about the spirit of audax and whilst I am not over keen on certain elements of rider support, leaving your shit somewhere to pick it up later is right down at the bottom of the scale of transgressions of whatever the spirit of audax might be.
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I dumped a heavy jersey near the start of a 600 once and when I come back there were some holes where critters had been having a chew. They obviously mistook the willesden green for lettuce!
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Cool, thanks, the other year i rode JOGLE and we dumped some stuff in hedges on the way north which worked out well , mainly because it was still there when we rode south! Another thing we did was post stuff home once it was too broken or filthy to be useful. You can buy plastic postage bags which weigh almost nothing and pay for the postage upfront so that once the night has passed or something is no longer useful you can post it home, This has worked well on multi day rides a well.
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If i was quick i was hoping to be able to dump the light at 218km in the hedge crack on without it and then pick it up sometime in the dark later that night and have it for the remainder of the night. I think this plan works, but i've not done this type of thing before.
Would you mind leaving the charger as well and a grid reference ;)
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Isn't there an actual bag drop at the YHA?
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Do what works for you and don't worry about it.
As it happens, I dumped my sleeping bag in a hedge last weekend at the Severn Bridge so that I could ride the BC400 without carrying it.
I picked it up and used it on my way to the Porkers. Then I dumped it in a hedge (marking it as a trackpoint on my GPS) and picked it up again on my way to the finish of the Porkers.
I will be extra vigilant in future when I stop for a roadside pee on an audax ! ;D
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Just remember to dump the light in the hedge and to take your bike and not the other way round.
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... and around 225km you reach the YHA. ... and at around 390km 412km you are back at the junction YHA ...
Why don't you just leave it at Kings YH? The top loop through Snowdonia to Menai Bridge returns to the same Kings YH. That's what a lot of people purport to do: take just what they need for the 185km loop through Snowdonia and leave the rest at the YH for when they return a few hours later. Or did I miss the point of you WANTING to put stuff in hedges?
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What's the ethics of taking nice kit you find abandoned in hedges :-D
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Isn't there an actual bag drop at the YHA?
This
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Wasn't there a FNRttS once where someone dumped some biscuits, coffee and tea in a tin at the top of Smalldean Lane, and when the riders arrived, looking forward to their 2 am. snack, some bugger had nicked the biscuits?
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Way I see it the junction referred to by OP must be near Cross Foxes?
I can see a justification for dumping surplus weight before descending to Dolgellau and the YH
But.... isn't that dry stone wall country (as opposed to hedges) ?
And anyway, unless you are reallty fast and "not smelling the roses" you'll want your beefy light for the "top loop" and less so for the climb out of Dolgellau in the dawn?
I'd say put your heavy light in your drop bag - take it with you from the YH, and when you get back there, decide if you want it for the epic descent to Dinas Mawddy.
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Your schedule might not be my schedule but after 225km (assuming things are going ok) I will leave the YHA. It will be light. I will ride over the
Llanberis pass. It will be light. I will get to the scout hut just the other side of the Menai Bridge. It will be dimsy. When I leave the scout hut it will be dark. On the way back from Menai there is at least one section where it is totally dark, there are no houses in view. Getting back to the YHA from Menai is when I will need a "light that is amazing"
So don't leave the light anywhere you you need it on that return trip
Unless you are super fast and aim to get to the YHA before it gets dark
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Hope you don't have to take a dump in the hedge.
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What's the ethics of taking nice kit you find abandoned in hedges :-D
If you come across the battery i am planning to dump you'll probably understand why i've left it in the hedge in the first place ;-)
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Your schedule might not be my schedule but after 225km (assuming things are going ok) I will leave the YHA. It will be light. I will ride over the
Llanberis pass. It will be light. I will get to the scout hut just the other side of the Menai Bridge. It will be dimsy. When I leave the scout hut it will be dark. On the way back from Menai there is at least one section where it is totally dark, there are no houses in view. Getting back to the YHA from Menai is when I will need a "light that is amazing"
So don't leave the light anywhere you you need it on that return trip
Unless you are super fast and aim to get to the YHA before it gets dark
What Vorsprung said :thumbsup: It was dark by the time I left the Menai control last time & my 1st 200k was done in 8 hours.
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Do what works for you and don't worry about it.
As it happens, I dumped my sleeping bag in a hedge last weekend at the Severn Bridge so that I could ride the BC400 without carrying it.
I picked it up and used it on my way to the Porkers. Then I dumped it in a hedge (marking it as a trackpoint on my GPS) and picked it up again on my way to the finish of the Porkers.
I will be extra vigilant in future when I stop for a roadside pee on an audax ! ;D
I did consider Porkers riders getting caught short near the end of the ride and knew that I'd be at the back of the field so it would still be there while most people went past it. So I picked a spot where I wouldn't stop for a pee myself. There was a nice gateway opposite where you'd more likely lean your bike against while you had a wee.
Plus it was quite well hidden. I thought it'd gone at first, when I picked it up again.
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I was considering asking my valet to stand ready by the roadside but feared he'd be robbed of his silver salver by some rural scallywag