Hello from the South West

[Mandragora]

I've just joined, and by way of introduction would just like to say that I'm a happy weekend and holidays cyclist; for me a 'long' ride is anything over a couple of hours. I love the 'pro-cycling' attitudes of French cycle route planners, and spend as much time in the summer over there as I can cycling the coastal paths along the Landes coastline, between Bordeaux and Biarritz. At home a good day is one spent up on the Tarka trail. I have ambitions and dreams of doing more substantial and challenging things, but I may not get there - timidity in traffic and a terror of going down hills without the brakes on at anything more than 20mph being enough to stop me joining my cycling-mad friends in their bigger Alps tours adventures

 

[ScotiaLass]

from Scotland
My longest ride so far was 33 miles. As I am gaining confidence and building up my fitness after a long term illness, I am finding I want to do more!
I ride a Specialized 29er Mountain bike but have just bought a Dawes hybrid
I hate hills (both up and down!) and I hate roads. I am starting to overcome my fear of both

 

[welsh dragon]

Hi. Welcome from powys. Hope you enjoy the forum

 

[Mandragora]

Thanks - I'm looking forward to it. Hi, too, to ScotiaLass - good luck with the recuperation. it's a great way to go to get back to fitness, I think.

I'm just a timid person on a bike, I think (not my normal stance in 'real life' so don't have your justification for being cautious!). My longest ride recently was 64 miles, but most of it was on the Tarka Trail (ie most of the route, up and back), with an accidental four miles out and back along the hilliest, busiest road in North Devon, as a result of my husband saying 'I'm sure the pitch I'm playing cricket at today is near the coast - why don't you come with me and pick up the trail from there?'. A vicious beginning and end to the ride, but everything in between was ridiculously easy! I'd heartily recommend cycle routes along former railways lines as a simple way to get a mileage that sounds impressive when you casually mention it at work on the Monday, without having to deal with the terrors of the road or trials of the hills. Obviously, casual boasting at work is also NOT my style, and I've never done that myself

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Hi and Mandragora

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Welcome @Mandragora, from another over cautious rider
Don't think I'm gonna change now, at my time of life

 

[Mandragora]

Thanks for all the kind welcomes. I only realised what a 'careful' cyclist I had been all my life the first time I went skiing. I had no problem with the skills, and could do the actual skiing fine; however, after four days of misery, I got to the bottom of a slope and caught myself thinking 'Great! Now what? Oh. I'm supposed to go up that mountain and skid down it again.' I went to the bar to reflect and consider this, and it was then that the penny dropped. I'd never known it, but had a sudden revelation that all my life I'd been cycling down hills with my brakes on, and that also summed up the approach I'd instinctively taken to using while skiing. Needless to say, that was my last day ever on the slopes with skis on - but it hasn't put me off cycling!!

 

[Berties]

welcome to cycle chat,just enjoy riding

 

[Bryony]