A 50 Mile Bike Ride Series || Episode 3 – South

Welcome to the ‘southern leg’ of my little point-to-point 50 mile series, and what was probably the most different kind of riding from the other episodes. A little bit of extra waffle about old cycling routes and why I have a bit of a soft spot for a certain kind of terrain.

Please check out the other episodes in the series here:

Episode 1 – North

Episode 2 – East

Happy cycling folks!

hey folks very warm welcome to this 50m pointto point bicycle ride series here’s ran base just slightly Northeast of Manchester up in the wonderful penine Hills and this little series of videos I’m going to set a 50 m radius around home then travel out to the perimeter the very limits of that radius and do a point-to-point bicycle ride all the way back home and we’re going to work around the clock face or the compass points with a ride starting in the north the East the South and then a classic ride back home from the West Coast hope you really enjoy this series let’s get into today’s ride [Music] morning folks welcome to another little video in the 50- M ride series and we’re just picking our way out of crew on a little cycle path very pleasant start to the ride I think today’s ride very much a a game of two halves and we’re making our way now up towards middle witch not quite to Holmes Chapel slightly to the west and then low overa into nutsford and we’re going to go through the amazing tatan park on the route in towards altringham and then we’ll get closer to Manchester and to stay true to the 50 miles my route’s actually going right through the center of Manchester it’s a very different kind of cycling I think towards the end of the day but uh yeah looking forward to the whole day a bit of flat to start with some Urban cycling and then we’ve got some hills at the end of the day to make our way back up to the penines come along for the ride pun intended and uh let’s see where we get to today [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] just one little Wrong Turn getting through middle witch but uh I realized quite quickly so not tooo many extra yards added to the the mileage and just heading now to nsford beautiful quiet Saturday morning and what better place to be than zipping along 20 M hour flat cheser roads [Applause] oh man I feel like I’m absolutely flying 22 mes an hour bit of a headwind here but cuz I do all my cycling in the penines I just forgotten what it feels like to cycle on flat roads it’s a totally different uh experience and it’s a lot quicker [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] yeah hold just the usual Muppet Tree in nutsford on the Saturday okay not too far from tatan Park and I need to change the bat you on my GoPro run the gaunet every time you go up about Main Street so there’s a little pedestrian turn off to the right and we’ll go in the uh vehicular access which is just a bit further definitely open let’s go free for bicycles yes well busy today so one of my favorite parts of uh chesher really this it’s an old uh Mana house and grounds and uh 2,000 acre Deer Park he and I used to be on all my routes when I uh lived and worked in Manchester so back in the day when I used to live in Manchester live and work in Manchester quite often after work do a big loop out towards home chapel and then come back round and through here through chatton Park and I forget what time the park closes I think it might be like 7:00 p.m. or but whatever time it was I used to enter at the south gate and all the Rangers would be out on the Tano saying the park is going to close in 10 minutes and I just have 10 minutes to Absolut Ely gun it through the park full gas and try and get out the other side before they shut the gate All Seasons all weathers it was a great F and um yeah nice to be back it’s not the penines obviously but it’s not bad so few jelly bab’s consumed and it’s going to get a bit busier now so we’re going to head through and out Park and then down towards I think it’s Ashley probably through hail towards nsford and um there is a lovely route down the Bridgewater Canal um but it’ll be quite busy today cuz it’s Saturday it’s a lovely day it’s probably the first really nice day it’s almost the first really nice day of the year um so I might give that a Miss it’s um nice quiet Offroad but it’ll be really really busy and I haven’t got Bell on my bike and it be a bit stop starty so might just Gun Down washway Road um and then we’re going to get into kind of Manchester urban city center riding um which I quite like and I’ll maybe go into the reasons why I quite like Urban cycling a bit later on in the video but uh yeah I think it’s time to crack on ah so busy watch better on a bike see tatan wall driver segment here if you get a favorable Tailwind I can do about 35 M hour you might get into the top 10 I don’t know I never did and this is what it’s all about beautiful day a big bike ride [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay just passed through hail some might say it’s full of slightly [Applause] pretentious rich and senseless people I couldn’t possibly comment short hot now too Hingham and then uh we’ll start heading towards Stratford and Manchester okay folks I hope you can hear this okay we’ve got you on the chest cam now uh so I need both hands for busy traffic riding for a few miles now just see Old Trafford now legs are still feeling pretty good to be honest and uh remember running up here in the Manchester Marathon a few years ago it’s like mile I don’t know mile two or something I’m thinking bloody hell there’s a long way to go it’s a lot easier on a bike I can’t show you cuz the camera’s fixed at the moment but just going past Old Trafford cricket ground and might be too small for you to see I can see all the skyscrapers in the city center Straight Ahead used to just be one the Hilton hotel Back in the day but they’ve uh got a bit King with the uh City Center developments in the last few years Oh wrong gear so think I first came to Manchester in about 1995 and uh I did a couple years of University and then took a year off and uh don’t tell my parents I wasn’t planning on going back to be honest and uh I got a job as a a motorcycle Courier in leads and uh the firm I was working for had a contract with cosgro film studios in Manchester so been quite a lot of runs over here I used to come off the M60 and then go down Berry Old Road past strangeways and just think Bloody all this place trying and be good and stick to the Cy lines yeah bloody H this place is grim but uh yeah it was good fun knocking around here on a motorbike and uh you know time is money as a career so it really didn’t hang around of course A year later in 1996 the IRA blew the out of the city center you might remember Corporation Street was obliterated and uh it’s debatable about the connection between that and subsequent regeneration but in the years to follow Manchester really did start to change beyond all recognition and you know arguably for the better as well so yeah year um zipping around on a motorbike back in the ’90s and subsequently many years commuting on these roads it’s kind of giv me a little bit of a soft spot for City Center cycling you really got to keep wits about you and it’s a whole different ball game in heavy traffic it’s kind of problem solving very high stakes obviously but it’s a weird kind of fun as well at the same time there’s a kind of satisfaction about uh getting through the city in a kind of a smooth flowy efficient way and uh obviously getting through unscathed I don’t know it’s not they’re not rides I seek out now I much prefer the tops of penine Hills but every now and again like today so yeah back in uh 1996 I didn’t really have a plan but if I hadn’t uh had a motorbike accident in Manchester on the career job I uh wouldn’t have got some insurance money and I wouldn’t have gone away to uh I bether with some friends who were graduating that year and I wouldn’t have stopped riding motorcycles and gone back to University to finish my degree proper Concrete Jungle around there my uh bike computer is not very happy with me I think it wants me on the cycle Lanes that’s the uh Hilton hotel which uh that when I was working Manchester was the only highrise in the city and it’s one of very many now those of you know Manchester you’ll know this is uh B mine gate this is all new this uh little bit of infrastructure for bicycles very welcome and we’re going to take a right here go up towards town hall and Central Library try and avoid pedestrians at don’t bother looking when they cross the [Music] road these uh tram lines are absolutely lethal for cyclists I just stay well away from them [Music] I think that’s the thing it’s just exercise extreme caution and ride really defensively y okay almost out the other side unscathed I’m really feeling these Hills they they’re not steep it’s just this gradual climb up out of Manchester but you definitely feel it in the legs I think I need to experiment with uh using some electrolytes in my drink maybe drinking a bit more as well or I could just get fitter anyway here’s where we are still pretty quiet it’s uh actually not that bad this like so every now and again a uh little Vista appears between the buildings and uh I’m starting to see the the open Morland of cold and a very welcome site it is too well folks uh it’s just probably 3 miles or so to go just St into those Hills you can see on the horizon probably a good place to sign off though uh what a cracking ride it’s been today bit of everything beautiful chashi roads just quiet lovely Countryside all the craziness of Manchester briefly and uh that long kind of sustained climb part of Manchester so thanks for following along and uh checking out this kind of Southern leg of a 50 m bike cide series uh messing around a little bit with continuity so all being well this will be the third video of the series um it’s actually the first ride I’m doing uh just in terms of the time and the weather conditions and the logistics just made it uh better to do it this way around um but yeah thanks so much for watching um please do consider liking and subscribing uh All That Jazz if you be so kind it really does help me out and I really do appreciate every single person that uh follows the channel follows along uh till next time please stay safe take care happy cycling I’ll see you on the next one bye oh [Music] [Music]