Saddle Sore.(Connaught's Coffee House, Attleborough)

Connaught’s Coffee House,

Attleborough,

Open Mon-Fri 8.30-4, Sat 9-4, Sun 10-1,

Highly Recommended

Followers of my Facebook Cake Crusader Page (https://www.facebook.com/Cafecycletour/) will know that I'm about to go cycling crazy over the summer months. I have recently been concentrating on endurance running which sadly involves no cafe stops or cake. But this is about to change. I have a number of recommendations for cafes to visit that I need to follow up on. Then I have another trip on a National cycle route followed by the search for the best cake along the River Danube. If that's not enough, September sees me travel to the French Alps to see if they do better croissants than the Pyrenees offered up last year. There is also the climax to my sofa to sportive project and the continuing hunt for fruit scone of the year #FSOTY. 

But where to start? Well obviously with a ride to Attleborough with Mrs Crusader of course.

At this point you have a choice. If you want to know all about bicycle saddles and seatpost adjustments then read on. If however, like most people, you just want to know if the cafe was any good then I suggest you skip the next couple of paragraphs.

Mrs Crusader had been having saddle issues. The saddle itself is apparently super comfy but if the bike goes over a large bump a saddle rail pops out of the seatpost clamp causing it to slope backwards. On further analysis it became apparent the rails were oversized oval ones whereas the clamp was for a normal round rail. Because there are no standards in the world of seatposts then it's not possible to just replace the clamp so a new seat post had to be purchased.

Despite it being a very fiddly job I was very pleased to have joined the new saddle with the post for its maiden voyage yesterday. However before we had got down the street Mrs Crusader was complaining that the saddle was too far back, and as she only has little arms, could no longer reach the handlebars. So we stopped while undertook the first adjustment of the day. Unfortunately the saddle couldn't be moved far enough to completely rectify the problem so after a few more miles it was time to stop again. I suggested the old trick of turning the post round so it sloped forward meaning the saddle would be further forward too.

One of many seatpost and saddle adjustments to Mrs Crusaders bike on the ride

This meant a longer stop but I was very pleased to successfully make the switch. Although it was a further improvement I was informed that it was still not right. It took a total of six stops until I eventually got approval that the saddle was now back in the correct place. I was relieved to get it sorted today as Mrs Crusader is a key component in my summer cycling plans.

Much later than planned we arrived at Connaught's Coffee House on the outskirts of Attleborough town centre which I had been recommended to go to as the scones were meant to be very good. 

Outside Connaught's Coffee House

After locking our bikes up against the nearby railings we went inside to check out the cake selection. As well as the scones there was the largest chocolate cake I had ever seen. In fact, however tempting, it looked too large for even me to try so I went for the more manageable lime and blueberry cake and Mrs Crusader a fresh cream strawberry sponge cake. It was a fine selection so got a high effective cake selection (ECS) score. 

Cake selection featuring an enormous chocolate cake

We sat down and, expecting congratulations on my saddle adjustment skills, I foolishly asked if the saddle was really ok. Like the Princess in the Princess and the Pea Fairytale would have been if she had a bike then Mrs Crusader told me that it now needed to slope forward by a further one or two degrees to be properly comfy again. So back outside I went to retrieve the saddle seatpost combination from the bike and returned to try and undertake this precision alteration.

Our cakes and drinks arrived and I was very pleased with the hot chocolate offering which had a proper strong chocolate taste and got a deserved high Hot Chocolate Quality (HCQ) mark. Mrs Crusader thought her black Americano was a good one too. As for the cakes they were fabulous, in fact Mrs Crusader felt her strawberry sponge cake could have been the best she had ever had, especially when she discovered the odd piece of white chocolate in it as well.

Todays drinks and half eaten cakes

On adding up the scores it was clear that Connaught's was a top rated cafe and the best I had visited this year so I highly recommend a visit. 

To avoid any further opportunity for future saddle adjustments then I insisted that Mrs Crusader formally signed off the new saddle position as being 100% correct.

With saddle now officially 100% correct and the wind behind we flew back, that is until I noticed that my seat post had not been properly tightened and had slipped down as I sheepishly requested we stop while I adjusted it. 

The focus now moves on to taking my sofa to sportive team on their next two 'training rides' before undertaking a trip from Dover to Norwich on NCR1 so watch this space.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.75	8	7.7	9	6.75	8.04

Map of route

Click here to download 31 mile Norwich Attleborough loop gpx file for your GPS