How I Survived The Hardest Bike Ride of my Life! Fred Whitton Challenge 2022 

Very good stuff 👏 👍

Thanks glad you enjoyed it, I enjoyed making and sharing it so the lovely comments encourage me to do more content like this

Ouch hope you didn't hurt yourself too much David?

That is awesome!

Hey Greg thanks for the amazing words those last few miles were an absolute blast, I was just focused on getting as close to 7 hours and leaving everything on the road. Was definitely running on fumes though. See you next time!

Cold Fell was a hard slog wasn't it!

@@davidarthur Sure was. Great effort though David with a good time. I've already got the buzz and want to get back on next year 🙈

Good to hear I captured you giving it some beans Richard!

If I'm tired on a long ride I always slow tight down when descending as my reaction times and perception of distance and speed are out of whack. Same driving long distance.

Very very sensible Glenn I also follow the same approach too

That is a bonkers idea!

Thanks Allan

You 100% should John you'll love it

We were so lucky with the weather, can't imagine how much harder it would have been with rubbish weather

My first one about ten years ago was really cold and wet. Calder Bridge feed station was more like a field hospital.

I always say weight isn't everything :)

Thanks Chris I too was glad of a 36t sprocket out back, not sure what I would have done without it. Sorry to hear you didn't quite clean it but plenty of reason to go back and conquer it - it was definitely tough with so many people walking and weaving across the road

I managed to get up only because I copied your Shimano chainring bodge and switched my 36 for a 34 (and got a GS rear to squeeze a 34t on there too). Mentally thanked you at the top of Hardknott!!!

36t FTW!

​@@alfaromeo1996hi, sorry to ask but I'm thinking of doing the Fred next year. What is the chainring bodge you mentioned.

@malcolmlightbown9273 Just switching the inner chainring on my 52/36 for a 34t. That and a 34t cassette gives me a 1:1 gear. Anything harder and I’d have been walking up! Great event though, can’t recommend it enough.

@@alfaromeo1996 thanks for replying, that would save a lot of cash not switching both chainrings! Did it work ok for you? I've already bought the 11-34 cassette. I see Dave had SRAM 33 chainring to 36 cassette

It's on the list :)

Thanks Kennedy, the KOM is something I'd love to try one day so maybe I'll add it to the list

Golf was looking very appealing at one point during the ride! But been out on the gravel bike today and loving cycling again :)

Yup all on the GoPro. Smallest enough to carry in a pocket and attach to the bike and the quality is really good with the latest models

Thanks Richard. I had a 36t sprocket on my cassette!

Only in the description... I recorded 181km and 3,532m climbing

Now that is a big day of climbing. Awesome work

Very compact gearing... filmed a bike check will publish this week

Easy 🤣

@@davidarthur The weather makes a huge difference, but beyond that with the right gearing and feeding it's as hard or as easy (within reason) as you want to make it. Treat it as a race and you can make it very hard. But it is a very nice event and I'd recommend it.

Very small gears Ben I'll happily admit, just working on a bike check video actually for release hopefully tomorrow

@@davidarthur Looking forward to it!

Publishing a bike check and talk about my gearing choices today. But in short I had a 10-36t cassette. I'd seriously consider the 11-34 there's really no reason not to have the lower gears

@@davidarthur I ll be sure to check out the video. Thanks for the reply 👍

Several hundred quid investment to get 1:1 ratio gearing though , for one climb …. Is this reasonable

@@logohigh1 less than the admission fee, travel costs, and not worth the hassle at all right? shouldve just stayed home i guess. but yea i guess you have two choices, walk up the hill or get sub compact rings, like 30/46 for a couple hundo.

Absolute black ? , I didn’t realize this was possible actually . I’d still need yet another cassette myself

@@logohigh1 theres a few of em

@@logohigh1 really you can get a cheap 34 cassette, and use a compact chain ring set. 50/34. the large chain ring should be what you dont have because you never use it unless you like to pedal hard at 40 plus miles an hour which for most of us would be down a mountain. even pro's only average 25-30mph and only some of those pro's use the fastest gears for sprinting. so your set up should at least be compact and therefore the only thing youll need is a cheap 11-34 cassette and a new chain dura ace is 40 bucks. road bikes with 52 or 53 rings is antiquated. and then if 34/34 ratio isnt good enough then the sub compact are an option. on your next group ride no one is going to out gear you if they have a 53 vs your 50.

There was a marshall asking people to walk on the left but guess when you're that exhausted it can be difficult to think of anything else than just getting up the climb

I got mugged by a squirrel 😜

😂😂😂😂😂

HJC helmets. Loving the fit and comfort of them so far