Canal ride to Buxworth

A few weeks back we went on a ride up the Peak Forest Canal up to Buxworth. Just with the aim of heading up there and back on a sunny day.

Starting off on the River Tame path to get to the Canal at Apethorn Lane in Gee Cross.

There is a big set off steep steps just before the weir which has a nice channel scored out by countless bikes that have been pushed up and down here. All choosing to do this rather than ride up and around the NCN route that uses some residential roads on a big detour.

Coming out of the Woodley Tunnel. This is a very long and almost pitch black in the middle tunnel underneath the main road in Woodley. It's a bit disconcerting in the darkest parts of this tunnel, because the black painted handrail vanishes from sight entirely and you feel like you will fall in the water at the next step.


This is Marple Locks, a flight of 16 locks which a obviously a very popular spot on a nice day. These locks are alot of fun to ride back down at pace and we'll have to visit again on a quieter day to race down them properly (bloody hooligans!)


My experience of canals has always been of the run down industrial and fairly unused Manchester canals, so it was a bit of a suprise to see so many boats running up and down as well as row upon row of moored boats.

Mummy duck has been busy.

When you reach the Bugsworth basin you ride along what used to be the tram track beds and come across this nice 3D map before reaching the Navigation Inn pub.

Another group arrived whilst we were having a pint, one bloke riding this extremely nice Indian built Hero bicycle.

On the way back I got chance to photo this nice little egg shaped tunnel which is part of the Marple lock flight.


Sharp eyed viewers will notice some cunning vandalism has been done to the information board next to Marple Viaduct.

A little ride up to Sowerby Bridge

I'm miles behind with posts, but here's a little collection of photos from my solo trip up to Sowerby Bridge a few weeks back to join Mr.C's night time canal ride back to Manchester. I had planned to make my way there mostly by road with the main aim being to cycle up the A58 to the Whitehouse pub beside Blackstone Edge reservoir and back down the otherside through Cragg down Blackstone Edge Rd which is the longest continual slope in the country to reach Mytholmroyd. 

On the way up there though I found by chance that a bit of disused old railway has been surfaced since the last time I was up here (probably 7/8 years ago), so I took that and headed towards Oldham.

Oldham is signposted but it doesn't actually get you there. I would probably make for a nice days riding to explore this valley but I didn't have the time so after a look at the supposedly closed bridge I headed up to Lees New Rd and back onto the roads to vaguely head towards Shaw on the North side of Oldham.

Before getting to Lees New Rd I went up Alt Hill Rd which is Tameside's 'Quiet Rd'. All seems a bit odd to me. This area is quiet anyway, since there is nothing around. Plus the idea of having a 'quiet' road then posting it as 30mph is...well... basically stupid. - aha! a new slogan for Tameside Council - 'Basically Stupid'

Fast forward through the boring typical north british streets of Oldham, Shaw, Milnrow, Hollingworth (Nice lake) & Smithybridge and we get to the base of what I presume is Blackstone Edge Hill and the A58 that climbs it. It's about 1000ft of climb and the red arrow is pointing at the pub!.

View from outside the Whitehouse pub looking back down the hill.

After a bit of recovery I carried on down Blackstone Edge Rd, which although downhill now it's such a wet & windy bit of moorland that the pedalling is almost as much hardwork as the ascent up here. Only once you've dropped a couple of hundred feet does it become a fast and fun descent, winding all the way down to Mytholmroyd.

Once in Mytholmroyd I tried to start follwing the National cycle route signs, which is easier said than done at some points. i.e. three signs pointing in all directions for the same route. But eventually found my way up the train station ramp to get to a path which runs alongside the railway line for a few miles until crossing over and joining the canal up to Sowerby Bridge.

Novelty wooden signs

The signage along this bit is all pretty good and I found my way quite easily. Eventually crossing on this bridge to get to the canal.

Of course now canal trip in spring is complete without seeing lots of baby ducks!

 

The perils of undertaking lorries

It's not just bikes that should avoid undertaking lorries..... especially big long articulated ones with those flashy little orange things on the corner...in the left turn lane......turning left......oops.

Fixing stripped threads on a Sturmey X-FD axle

A while ago I bought a Sturmey Archer X-FD 70mm Front Drum brake hub off ebay. I got it a bit cheaper than one would normally go for because the threads on either end of the axle were damaged. Presumably from somebody forcing either the wrong nut onto the axle or over tightening a small domed nut - most likely the later.

The damaged section of threads did not extend too far, but did mean it was impossible to fit a nut or remove the ones still on the axle. The solution was to recut the damaged threads using a thread cutting set. Except it wasn't quite that easy because the Sturmey Archer axle appears to use an M9/1 thread. Needless to say our thread cutting set doesn't have a cutting bit for this size.

So instead the damaged threads got cut with a smaller M8/1 thread. This way they would still be the correct pitch, but at a smaller diameter, meaning the axle nut could screw over the damaged area and reach the undamaged threads further on.

The same technique could be applied to any valuable but damaged hub axle if needed.

Brompton on a bike

Unfortunately a temporal rift opened up in the space-time continium resulting in my bike being at work but it's rider at home.This little pickle would normally mean participating in somekind of vulgar act such as paying another £2.80 to a bus driver who thinks he's Lewis Hamilton. Thankfully a Brompton folds up small enough to fit on the normal rack of my Nexus. so I rode that in then the Nexus back. Just 4 bungess and a bit of cardboard to protect the paintwork. Even enough room for my pannier to sit in it's normal place.

Turns out those stupid barriers on the bridge do have one use. On that same note, as this exact spot, last week I passed a man pushing his wife in her wheelchair. They were using the cycle path as the pavement is too awkward (thanks to the barrier). What I wasn't expecting was a little old lady to mutter 'f*cking barriers' in the form of thanks for me pulling up to let them past.

Cree LED in a vintage bicycle headlamp

Take one old style front bicycle headlamp bought from ebay for about £4. (this is a Halfords lamp, posher Raleigh etc ones will cost double+)

And one Cree torch of somekind bought from China of ebay. Mine is a 3xAAA powered 5W Zoomable Cree Headtorch which cost £5 posted. 

Remove the rather sparce internals of the original lamp

Disassemble the Headtorch.

Go 'Ooooh' & 'Aaaah' at the tiny lens on the Cree LED. Decide whether or not you want to keep the larger glass lens & the zoomability. I decided against as the original lamps lens created a good light spread.

These are the only bits that we'll need from the Headtorch now. the LED unit has been de-soldered from the board to get it out of the casing. It will be resoldered later.

Discover that the LED unit and the Halfords lamp unit's reflector dish were made to measure for eachother.

Then discover that the headtorch's little on/off button is the exact fit for the original lamps red running light. - glue on/off switch in place. Remove rust/paint to your choosing.

Work out nice position for the battery pack and Alraldite in place. Work out some way of keeping batteries from falling out later - tape will do for now. 

Put it all back together. Paint the bracket in Black Hammerite. & fit to the bike.

For other inspiration: Here's one made earlier by my brother using a Raleigh vintage lamp, painted with cream Rustoleum (Great stuff), a switch on top and using a Cree, powered by a large 18650 battery.

The cargobike bloke....

Who is he. Nobody knows. He's a Manc mystery on wheels wrapped in an 3/4 length enigma. He pops up in more places than Droopy the Master Detective and even has his own 8 Freight fan page. Well here he is now on tape. Well ok his backside on tape. ....Never noticed the cargobay on 8 Freight was uncentred til now. Interesting that.

p.s I'm not wheelhugging. It's just a cheapo camera that's not very wide angle.
p.p.s @ 0.55 it sound like a tram honks at me!.....it was actually warning an ipod zombie about to cross the tracks.