Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post
And then some other people say that Afon Ddu is the toughest climb in the country ..

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/b...in-the-country

I've seen the photos and read the review: skinny rider/lightweight bike, with 23mm tyres, doesn't sound that clever on a rutted concrete road around the 1 in 3 or steeper mark. There is a slight technical problem, in that the biggest sprocket I've ever bought is a 25 teeth. I did cycle over Wrynose and then Hardknott on a 24t, but that was over 20 years ago ...

And then we have a new contender for the steepest tarmacked road in Britain ...

https://blog.veloviewer.com/bamford-...-the-uk-world/
The ride I referred to was a while back done on my reasonably light alloy framed Cube. Lowest gear was a 34x28 and it saw a lot of use that day. I've alway used 25mm tyres and up until then only ever had rim brakes on a road bike. I already had disk brakes on my commuter gravel bike and it was that ride that pursuaded me of the necessity of them on the road bike too after some hairy descending on patchily wet greasy roads and having to use a hedge to arrest myself from careering headlong into an oncoming farm vehicle.

I note the mention of Abdon Burf in the first article. That was another grand day out and probably earlier the same year. It's just about what I would call doable from home - about 100km round trip but maybe nearer 120km by the time you've factored in avoiding any major A roads. It was quite tortuous and as it's quite lumpy just getting there and back, the lights started to go out on the way home. Not been back since. Not sure I'll be paying Bamford Clough a visit any time soon either!