Cragg Vale by eBike
For many years I’ve ridden past this sign on my motorcycles and wondered what it would be like to ride up Cragg Vale - or The Oliver Collinge Ride as it’s now known - on a pedal cycle.
The incline formed part of the 2014 Tour De France “Grand Depart” when it came over to Yorkshire. We came to the village the night before the event and there was a good atmosphere with people dressed up in yellow and having a few beers etc. I regret not staying over and watching the peloton go past.
I’ve had my eBike now since January and have had chance to get a bit fitter and know the bikes limits battery wise etc so decided it was time to give Cragg Vale a try.
By taking off the front wheel we could get it in the back of Mrs K’s car. EBikes are relatively heavy because of the motor and the battery pack, but we managed to squeeze it in.
I genuinely had no idea whether I could do this or not so the plan was that Mrs K armed with her Amazon Kindle would wait at the bottom near the sign and act as the ‘support vehicle’ lol and set off after 30 minutes or so, keeping a look out for someone in a crumpled heap at the side of the road. I wasn’t sure if there’d be a mobile phone signal or not.
The bike offers up to five levels of assistance but if you stop pedalling, it just comes to a halt. I was determined to use the least possible level to make it as big a challenge for me as possible. Also the more assistance that gets used, the more of the battery charge gets used and I didn’t want to run it down before the end.
I did a bit of reading up beforehand and one article said the average time to do the climb was 28 minutes, but Google Maps suggested it would take 44 minutes on a bike. I read somewhere that the record is about 14.5 minutes!
I’m delighted that I made it. I wasn’t sure where the official end point is so I did 5.9 miles whereas I think it’s actually supposed to be 5.7 but I made it up in 27 minutes (including a short ‘comfort break’!).
At no point did I use more than assistance level 3 and it used two fifths of the battery charge. I used some of the lower gears on the really steep bits.
At the top I put in a call to the ‘support vehicle’ which had already set off, to let them know I fancied coming back down. The views and the moorland at ‘golden hour’ were amazing and the air was crisp at that time of day. Coming down was really fun. By law the assistance cuts out at 15.5 mph on these bikes. At one point I got up to 32.7mph in a 30mph speed limit - oops. There wasn’t much traffic about but at the fastest point a lad in a Ford Focus ST came up behind so I slowed down which was probably for the best. Coming down averaged 19mph.
I won’t say exactly how old I am but I was around when The Beatles released their first record, so as a bit of an (fairly unfit) old codger, I’m delighted to have ticked this off the bucket list. I do have a non eBike (ie no electric assistance) so maybe I will try that one day. It’s so much easier by Kawasaki, but not quite as much of a challenge :-)
As a reward we stopped at Hollingworth Lake on the way back for an ice cream, to put all those burned off calories back on again.
Cragg Vale by eBike
For many years I’ve ridden past this sign on my motorcycles and wondered what it would be like to ride up Cragg Vale - or The Oliver Collinge Ride as it’s now known - on a pedal cycle.
The incline formed part of the 2014 Tour De France “Grand Depart” when it came over to Yorkshire. We came to the village the night before the event and there was a good atmosphere with people dressed up in yellow and having a few beers etc. I regret not staying over and watching the peloton go past.
I’ve had my eBike now since January and have had chance to get a bit fitter and know the bikes limits battery wise etc so decided it was time to give Cragg Vale a try.
By taking off the front wheel we could get it in the back of Mrs K’s car. EBikes are relatively heavy because of the motor and the battery pack, but we managed to squeeze it in.
I genuinely had no idea whether I could do this or not so the plan was that Mrs K armed with her Amazon Kindle would wait at the bottom near the sign and act as the ‘support vehicle’ lol and set off after 30 minutes or so, keeping a look out for someone in a crumpled heap at the side of the road. I wasn’t sure if there’d be a mobile phone signal or not.
The bike offers up to five levels of assistance but if you stop pedalling, it just comes to a halt. I was determined to use the least possible level to make it as big a challenge for me as possible. Also the more assistance that gets used, the more of the battery charge gets used and I didn’t want to run it down before the end.
I did a bit of reading up beforehand and one article said the average time to do the climb was 28 minutes, but Google Maps suggested it would take 44 minutes on a bike. I read somewhere that the record is about 14.5 minutes!
I’m delighted that I made it. I wasn’t sure where the official end point is so I did 5.9 miles whereas I think it’s actually supposed to be 5.7 but I made it up in 27 minutes (including a short ‘comfort break’!).
At no point did I use more than assistance level 3 and it used two fifths of the battery charge. I used some of the lower gears on the really steep bits.
At the top I put in a call to the ‘support vehicle’ which had already set off, to let them know I fancied coming back down. The views and the moorland at ‘golden hour’ were amazing and the air was crisp at that time of day. Coming down was really fun. By law the assistance cuts out at 15.5 mph on these bikes. At one point I got up to 32.7mph in a 30mph speed limit - oops. There wasn’t much traffic about but at the fastest point a lad in a Ford Focus ST came up behind so I slowed down which was probably for the best. Coming down averaged 19mph.
I won’t say exactly how old I am but I was around when The Beatles released their first record, so as a bit of an (fairly unfit) old codger, I’m delighted to have ticked this off the bucket list. I do have a non eBike (ie no electric assistance) so maybe I will try that one day. It’s so much easier by Kawasaki, but not quite as much of a challenge :-)
As a reward we stopped at Hollingworth Lake on the way back for an ice cream, to put all those burned off calories back on again.