Show us your.......newbie progress! [4 Sep 2012 - 4 Oct 2014]

[boybiker]

Agree with Steve there, I used to drive some of those roads, so I know what they are like.
What lights did you get Elliot.

I use one of these : http://www.flashaholics.co.uk/sunwayled/sunwayman-t40cs.html with a fabricated mount I've made and I bought some smaller cree lights off ebay for about £13 as a back up. The light is excellent and gives me the confidence to ride at 20+ mph with ease on totally unlit roads. There's loads of good lights on that website, the main problem is having to make a bracket to mount them with. That flash-light I use gives me 500m of visibility on medium which gives me 8 hours battery life. With flash lights you have a choice of a tight beam pattern and distance or less distance and more spill. If you get a tight light and one which spills you have the best of both worlds. It's better than a magic shine as are many of the lights on that site. The T40CS, is used by search and rescue teams, divers etc because they are so good and reliable.I dont understand why people buy these 'cycling specific' lights for mega money which are rubbish IMO the only advantage is they come with a mounting system.

 

[spooks]

I'm getting a bit freaked out about having to do 54 miles in early June. My longest ride so far is 19 miles but from now on I have only got 2 days a week on which I have time to go out (work getting in the way) and I just can't see how it's possible to improve enough in time. I know people say the London-Brighton is easy because you just get swept along with everyone else but what if I don't actually make it to the finish??

 

[stu9000]

I use one of these : http://www.flashaholics.co.uk/sunwayled/sunwayman-t40cs.html with a fabricated mount I've made and I bought some smaller cree lights off ebay for about £13 as a back up. The light is excellent and gives me the confidence to ride at 20+ mph with ease on totally unlit roads. There's loads of good lights on that website, the main problem is having to make a bracket to mount them with. That flash-light I use gives me 500m of visibility on medium which gives me 8 hours battery life. With flash lights you have a choice of a tight beam pattern and distance or less distance and more spill. If you get a tight light and one which spills you have the best of both worlds. It's better than a magic shine as are many of the lights on that site. The T40CS, is used by search and rescue teams, divers etc because they are so good and reliable.I dont understand why people buy these 'cycling specific' lights for mega money which are rubbish IMO the only advantage is they come with a mounting system.

Thats not a torch, its a light sabre!

 

[SWSteve]

I'm getting a bit freaked out about having to do 54 miles in early June. My longest ride so far is 19 miles but from now on I have only got 2 days a week on which I have time to go out (work getting in the way) and I just can't see how it's possible to improve enough in time. I know people say the London-Brighton is easy because you just get swept along with everyone else but what if I don't actually make it to the finish??

try and add little extras, you have 7 whole weeks to build up before june, if you add 2 miles a ride (at 2 a week) you'll be just shy of 50, and then just being at the eve will allow you to put in the extra bit

 

[kerndog]

Hi All, thought you might like to see this... I went for a great ride yesterday (already posted about that on, bear with me..), one of the guys I ride with (sometimes) has been riding for 4 years or so, and is very quick. When he rides with us he does stuff like blast up to the top of the hill we're all struggling to get up, ride back down and do it again in the time it takes us to crawl our way to the top. Anyway he came on the first part of our ride and continued on to do this, just for a ride...

http://app.strava.com/activities/47507677

Bonkers!

 

[stu9000]

Did 14m in the sun yesterday., through serbiton and down to the river. Lovely. Bikes feeling better and better and now I've fitted cross levers I can vary my grip which stops my wrists twinging. I am finding multi maps cycle routes superb and have discovered parks and cycle routes I never knew existed.
The x bar pouch isn't particularly aesthetically pleasing but it makes a great phone/satnav holder.

Hoping to do Nonsuch to Richmond and back tomorrow which will smash my daily max.

 

[Reece]

Hi All, thought you might like to see this... I went for a great ride yesterday (already posted about that on, bear with me..), one of the guys I ride with sometimes has been riding for 4 years or so and is very quick. When he rides with us he does stuff like blast up to the top of the hill we're all struggling to get up, ride back down and do it again in the time it takes us to crawl our way to the top. Anyway he came on the first part of our ride and continued on to do this, just for a ride...

http://app.strava.com/activities/47507677

Bonkers!

Had the same yesterday. A club friend, John, who got dropped of the main group on route home with decided to ease up after 50miles so he had plenty energy to get home (had a lot further than me) and then had a second wind and took the scenic route home lol!

http://app.strava.com/activities/47502669

 

[Reece]

Out for the club ride today. Felt a slow and easy ride compared to yesterdays lol!

Wish I'd booked my place for the Shakespeare 100 before it sold out (waiting for payday but missed out) and also missed out on the extra they opened up. Would of been great weather to ride in too

 

[kerndog]

Had the same yesterday. A club friend, John, who got dropped of the main group on route home with decided to ease up after 50miles so he had plenty energy to get home (had a lot further than me) and then had a second wind and took the scenic route home lol!

http://app.strava.com/activities/47502669

I just cant imagine being able to do that!

 

[Supersuperleeds]

20 miles today with our lass, took us two hours to do, but she enjoyed it and it let me get over 300 miles for the week for the first time. The ride also took me over the 500km mark for the Strava Challenge.

 

[boybiker]

I'm getting a bit freaked out about having to do 54 miles in early June. My longest ride so far is 19 miles but from now on I have only got 2 days a week on which I have time to go out (work getting in the way) and I just can't see how it's possible to improve enough in time. I know people say the London-Brighton is easy because you just get swept along with everyone else but what if I don't actually make it to the finish??

If you can do 20 miles you can do 60, how fast you can do it is another question.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I'm getting a bit freaked out about having to do 54 miles in early June. My longest ride so far is 19 miles but from now on I have only got 2 days a week on which I have time to go out (work getting in the way) and I just can't see how it's possible to improve enough in time. I know people say the London-Brighton is easy because you just get swept along with everyone else but what if I don't actually make it to the finish??

I did 50 miles within two months of starting, just do as been said and increase slightly every time you go out.
Well I did this, which is a local clubs loop, and I moved up from bottom to 2nd from bottom out of 45. However i did manage to shave 11 min 19's off the time. and increase of 2.2mph and have a lower H.R. than the last time I did it in Feb.
http://app.strava.com/activities/47662005#832131731
and this segment the lights and rail crossing were in my favour so I managed to beat a p.b. set in Sept.
http://app.strava.com/activities/47662005#832131715

http://app.strava.com/activities/47662005

 

[simmi]

Great club ride today, Sun 2 Sundays in a row, we are being spoiled!
66.4 miles in 4:09:20 at 16.0 mph http://app.strava.com/activities/47660639
Quite a long ride today, a bit of waiting about, one guy was not having a good day, first his chain came off, then he fell off and caught his hand in his back wheel then to top it off he got a p******e.
A flat start and finish but lots of hills in between, a total of 2486ft of climbing.
All in all a real good workout.
Now sat on the sofa watching the Paris Roubaix, come on Cancellara!

 

[philinmerthyr]

Now sat on the sofa watching the Paris Roubaix, come on Cancellara!

That was a superb race. A track sprint to finish. Well done Cancellara

 

[Goldcoast]

Great ride today (please let this be the start of nice weather).

https://www.strava.com/activities/47653822

Just done 22 miles, well 26 if you count the first 2 miles it took me to remember the iPhone - d'oh!

Feel really fresh and feel like I could have carried on for at least a couple of more hours.

Bit disappointed with the avg speed, I could have pushed on quite a bit more but as never ridden that far before I wasn't sure how hard I should be pushing. How do you know how hard to push, or is it down to experience of previous ride? The last part of my ride also really hurt my avg speed, on the map it's down as a bridle way / cycle path - well a tractor would have struggled getting through it. So I had to walk the bike until I could get back to the main road

Overall really happy and sitting here with a big grin and planning tomorrows route.