It's autumn in Spain, we're on the road again

[Wanders from Glos]

They obviously don’t make chains like they used too..

They are a lot thinner than they used to be because there are so many more gears, each cog on the cassette has a narrower gap between it and the next one. They may have something to do with it.

 

[jumar]

We've gone rural tonight..

 

[jumartoo]

I've put another 40 km's on my chain today .

We followed a local rider's Wikiloc route today and it was interesting. Just why it descended to the bottom of a gorge and climbed back up again we couldn't work out. It didn't go down to visit anywhere in particular. We think we could have stayed up high and, if we ever ride it again, we'd explore that possibility.

It went through farmed land, mainly almonds, along the canal, down and up the gorge and then kilometres of mainly smooth, slightly downhill, track through a pine forest to pass some new, modern, pig buildings and then into a Badland area, where we stopped to photo some peppers (four of them are here with us). We then rode another long slightly downhill, newly graded, track. We ignored the sign saying there was no exit (we were on bikes anyway) and right at the end, where we could see the road, the track came to an abrupt end where the floods had caused some real damage. We managed to get the bikes through this bit and up a narrow path into someone's garden area . We hurried down their concrete road and escaped without being challenged.

Back at the van, bikes loaded up, and we drove 6 km to our present spot at a recreation area in a tiny hamlet of La Alquería, with more, cave houses. This is, so far, sleepy city. The most noise has been from the sheep.

 

[Mullet Man]

I swap the chains religiously every 1000km to even the wear on all the components...this way I can get good service out of the cassettes...each bike has 2 active chains..when it's time to change the cassette the whole lot, chains and all get scrapped.
What may have happened yesterday is a troublesome chain guide came off, jammed against the chainring and forced a link open..I was going on flat surface about 10kph turning right on gravel..putting another chain on this and checking everything...did finish ride yesterday with shortened chain..

One of the reasons I went for belt drive on my ebike,coupled with a 14speed Rholoff hub gear.Virtually maintenance free drive train. The belts do stellar mileages but actually finding out when to change one is proving difficult. When I had chain driven bikes I did as you do and knew where I was. I'm going to buy a spare and carry that when I come over in January.

 

[jumar]

One of the reasons I went for belt drive on my ebike,coupled with a 14speed Rholoff hub gear.Virtually maintenance free drive train. The belts do stellar mileages but actually finding out when to change one is proving difficult. When I had chain driven bikes I did as you do and knew where I was. I'm going to buy a spare and carry that when I come over in January.

When my new YT arrives when built, we will be back to 4 eBikes at home....4 others have been sold on in our neighbourhood and one went to a Polish guy in Alicante... I've never had a belt driven eBike..but shouldn't say never...,

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[Wanders from Glos]

I've put another 40 km's on my chain today .

We followed a local rider's Wikiloc route today and it was interesting. Just why it descended to the bottom of a gorge and climbed back up again we couldn't work out. It didn't go down to visit anywhere in particular. We think we could have stayed up high and, if we ever ride it again, we'd explore that possibility.

It went through farmed land, mainly almonds, along the canal, down and up the gorge and then kilometres of mainly smooth, slightly downhill, track through a pine forest to pass some new, modern, pig buildings and then into a Badland area, where we stopped to photo some peppers (four of them are here with us). We then rode another long slightly downhill, newly graded, track. We ignored the sign saying there was no exit (we were on bikes anyway) and right at the end, where we could see the road, the track came to an abrupt end where the floods had caused some real damage. We managed to get the bikes through this bit and up a narrow path into someone's garden area . We hurried down their concrete road and escaped without being challenged.

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Back at the van, bikes loaded up, and we drove 6 km to our present spot at a recreation area in a tiny hamlet of La Alquería, with more, cave houses. This is, so far, sleepy city. The most noise has been from the sheep.
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I have friends like your local rider. They like to do the challenge of a tough hill with no electric. I don’t get it tbh.

 

[jumartoo]

I have friends like your local rider. They like to do the challenge of a tough hill with no electric. I don’t get it tbh.

The local guy that posted it, posted it as an ebike. The descent was a bit scary because of the recent water damage. It just went down then back up. There's a perfectly good track that stays high that we climbed back up to. That would also be more in keeping with his grading of easy.

Maybe he followed a previous route of riders like your friends

 

[Wanders from Glos]

The local guy that posted it, posted it as an ebike. The descent was a bit scary because of the recent water damage. It just went down then back up. There's a perfectly good track that stays high that we climbed back up to. That would also be more in keeping with his grading of easy.

Maybe he followed a previous route of riders like your friends

Ha ha maybe.

 

[jumartoo]

We had a very short, circular, stroll this morning before we left La Alqueria to head to our present spot at La Peza, to the west of Guadix.

 

[jumartoo]

We turned off the motorway after passing Guadix. Our first stop was at the parking area (motorhomes allowed) of the Embalse de Francisco Abellán. There were two motorhomes already there. One where the occupants were sitting inside having lunch and the other ...

They were both in vans registered in the same country. One knows the rules.

We had a quick look around and continued.

We're now at the official, serviced, area of La Peza.

It's very nice and the town looks interesting. Unfortunately it's getting a bit cloudy, but we are very close now to Sierra Nevada so mountain weather has to be expected.

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[jumar]

A Brief Reminder.
To all the current visitors to Spain...next weekend will be a long holiday...starting Friday 6th...and in some areas extending into Monday too, as Sunday 8th is a national recognised holiday too, but falling on that day may be taken on Monday...so my advice is stock up and enjoy the ride...

 

[jumartoo]

Just a short ride today, starting with a visit to the castle ruins, and then picking up an old (2008) route. I'd checked it carefully on Google and all seemed good. In fact, the tracks from a certain point were newly surfaced.

We detoured to a viewpoint overlooking the reservoir we drove past yesterday but we couldn't see the water. We did see lots of graffiti and a certain type of litter. What a shame.

Martin pointing to Sagra.

Snow on Nevada.

We were back at the van early so we decided to drive to our next chosen parking area. This is another new, serviced, area at the village of Marchal. There are a few motorhomes here. It's another very nice, free, spot.

I've just found out (last night) that the Camino Mozarabe comes through this area. I'm going to research it for a possible multi day ride.

 

[cyberyacht]

They are a lot thinner than they used to be because there are so many more gears, each cog on the cassette has a narrower gap between it and the next one. They may have something to do with it.

Never had this sort of problem with a 3 speed Sturmey-Archer.