York or therebouts-ish ride 12/3/11 - Lungs and Knees and Weather permitting!

[interzen]

Plenty of parking round my way but a) I'm likely on the 'wrong' side of town for most people and b) it's an extra 5-6 miles just to get into town. I can provide directions for interested parties though.

[CrinklyLion]

Unless we end up with more than half a dozen cars, parking'll be fine in the streets round ours.  Several of the bods arriving by train have been to the den before.  It'll be reet

[Kim]

Tickets bought .  ETA York station 09:35

On which note, rower40 and I are due to arrive at 09:30, so we can meet up and ride over to the Den together...

[tiermat]

Tickets bought .  ETA York station 09:35

On which note, rower40 and I are due to arrive at 09:30, so we can meet up and ride over to the Den together...

Might be worth myself and Mr Charly hanging around for you, I will be able to grab a coffee and stuff...

[CrinklyLion]

andrewc - you've been to the den before, haven't you?  And Kim and Rower40 will surely have at least 3 gps devices.  Probably each   What could possibly go wrong?

[rower40]

And Kim and Rower40 will surely have at least 3 gps devices.  Probably each   What could possibly go wrong?

Oh now there's a challenge.  "Bring more GPSs than the other person..."
Made more difficult if I have to know how to work them.

[interzen]

Assuming I don't do my usual trick and get out of bed 15 minutes after everyone has left, I'll likely be stopping off at the station for a bit of pre-ride fuelling myself. As mentioned previously, I'll be easy enough to spot - a black bike with fat tyres, a fat rider and two GPS units (one of which is quite fat itself)

[CrinklyLion]

my suggestion would be to gather up round at ours, aiming for a 10 o'clock kick off on the Saturday.  10 minutes pootle across York from the station, and usually a reasonable amount of free on-street parking available.  Experimentation has shown that we can fit a reasonable quantity of cyclists and their assorted steeds in and around the Den, so long as they don't all want to sit down at the same time.  Coffee, Tea, _CAKE and potentially bacon butties can be provided for anyone that's early.  This has the added advantage that I theoretically shouldn't be late.  How does that sound?

To all those talking of pre-ride fuelling, might I remind you of the above?  I might not be very good at navigating, or estimating timings, or getting up the hills, and my cat-herding skills are yet to be tested (other than on chiddlers) but catering I'm reasonably confident I can do!

[CrinklyLion]

OK - I'm definitely on for this. Had my pass out approved last night (I've had to cook the evening meal 10 nights in a row to get it !!!) and I have rail tickets.

Unfortunately they are not on the trains I'd been planning (some git has beaten me to it and pinched the bike space both ways...) so I'll be at York by 8:30 and have to catch the 18:56 home. I was half considering joining Deano on the way down as the east coast site kept messing me around, but common sense has prevailed.

Missed this before!  Not to worry, you know where we are - kettle will be on, bacon/porridge can be provided

[jogler]

I can recommend the porridge

[mrcharly-YHT]

Assuming I don't do my usual trick and get out of bed 15 minutes after everyone has left, I'll likely be stopping off at the station for a bit of pre-ride fuelling myself. As mentioned previously, I'll be easy enough to spot - a black bike with fat tyres, a fat rider and two GPS units (one of which is quite fat itself)

Is it the rubber-band bike? I'm looking forward to seeing this.

[CrinklyLion]

Nah - rubber band drive (plus gears-inna-can) is Rower40.  Interzen is many-many-gears-inna-can!

[interzen]

Nah - rubber band drive (plus gears-inna-can) is Rower40.  Interzen is many-many-gears-inna-can!

I do canned gears and fixed gears but not belt-drives - I like to fiddle with gearing too much, and belt-drive really isn't conducive to that.

I believe that there's a kit available to allow the use of rubber bands with the Alfine-11 (Alfine 11 Belt Drive Cog « Phil Wood & Co)

[CrinklyLion]

I can recommend the porridge

But will you be partaking of porridge, m'dear?  Or are we only seeing you up here once next month?

[jogler]

I can recommend the porridge

But will you be partaking of porridge, m'dear?  Or are we only seeing you up here once next month?

Not yet decided,
Yhpm

[Arch]

She makes much better cake than me... 

Hang on a minute.

I find this hard to believe.  How can your cake be topped? I would say, by having more of it, but there's always about half a tonne of it distributed among riders!

I'll agree that Marj's fruit cake was something special, but as you don't do fruitcake, there's no competition...

[Deano]

Darlo-Osmotherley-Hawnby-Wiggy-York is the current plan.

How deep is the ford at Hawnby likely to be - or have they built a bridge these days. It's years since I've been there but remember getting very wet...

It's been a bridge for as long as I remember - except for a few years ago, when the Rye flooded and it was washed away.

[CrinklyLion]

She makes much better cake than me... 

Hang on a minute.

I find this hard to believe.  How can your cake be topped? I would say, by having more of it, but there's always about half a tonne of it distributed among riders!

I'll agree that Marj's fruit cake was something special, but as you don't do fruitcake, there's no competition...

Well, she has a lot more practice, and a far wider range, for a start!  And she's the one I nicked the coffee cake and Mildenhall cake recipes from - although they have been adapted a bit,

And you haven't tried Marj's other cakes.  A very very fine chocolate, for a start.

[jogler]

& she's just recently perfected a recipe for Raspberry Oat Slices: a sort of flapjack-thing that qualifies as food of the gods.

[CrinklyLion]

& she's just recently perfected a recipe for Raspberry Oat Slices: a sort of flapjack-thing that qualifies as food of the gods.

Hmmm..... what are the chances of some of that making it to York or thereabouts I wonder?  I think that greedy guts me the Cubs would appreciate some  

[jogler]

what are the chances of the flapjacks having a life-expectancy greater than the travelling time between here & York

[Mobbsy]

Me, and my boys, are still definite/maybes Crinkly. We may join for the start and wander off at some point along the way, possibly. More to follow.

[CrinklyLion]

Cool.  If you want (don't know how well you know round pocklington) I can plot you a couple of alternative routes that skip out the middle bit with the lumps (and the lunch stop, although there are plenty of options in Pock) So you could have a long break there and then join us again for the return trip.  Although that middle bit is possibly the nicest bit...  The other option - and I also wondered if this might appeal to MsCharly - if you are driving would be to drive straight to Stamford Bridge, park up and meet us there.  Then it's a 35-ish mile loop, which they might find a bit more manageable?  The only downside is that would not include the pub stop.  But you could always drive over to the pub

[andrewc]

andrewc - you've been to the den before, haven't you?  And Kim and Rower40 will surely have at least 3 gps devices.  Probably each   What could possibly go wrong?

I managed to get lost in the streets near your house though and had to ask for directions! Think I've still got the route in my GPS.
Just realised that this will be my first "proper" ride of the year     ....

[CrinklyLion]

I'm quite pleased that I've managed to get out for at least a half-way decent ride about 8 weekends in a row now.  Just need to get the Boy back into the habit of it now.... 

And this really isn't a difficult route, won't be fast and will be stopping plenty.  There's a few bumps on the landscape in the middle bit, but even I've managed to ride up all of them, albeit with the odd pause for breath.  The ride out to Bishop Wilton and back from Pock is flat, with the exception of a very small lump at northgate lane, even by Crinkly standards.

Right, must go and make the boy get dressed and ready to set off to Granny's.  Since the furthest he's gone since November is the school/nursery run, less than 2 miles even if they go the long way, I suspect that this might be challenging!