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

[Stonechat]

V wet here today
Dad is now in hospital, depending on length of stay, may lead to other complications

We have people coming this afternoon and dog has been a nuisance, overnight he ate two hard boiled eggs and a pack of butter (I kid you not)
Will be off to Chertsey tonight to see Dad. Sister is currently with Mum but she will have to go home some time soon.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@SpokeyDokey Part of the reason I did it was to see how I improved, I can now (generally) manage 15mph+ avg which is what I aimed at I can do quicker, but it does depend on terrain, from the new year, I will track distance, time, hr, cad elevation, the new database will work out some other stuff, but not on the same scale as the spreadsheet does, all the data I will be using will be from the unit.
Clearing up here as well.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@Stonechat not a religious person but my thoughts are with you, and hope things go ok.

 

[Tcr4x4]

Horrible day here today, so staying in with a roaring open fire, lamb roast and formula 1

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Horrible day here today, so staying in with a roaring open fire, lamb roast and formula 1

That's my short walk done so settling down now - we have open fire too and it is blooming lovely!

My (late) dog used to hog it and was constantly burning his face as he got too close. Mrs SD used to nag him constantly for being a Fire Hog Dog but we both wish he was here hogging it right now.

 

[puffinbilly]

Although the weather was truly awful, I still went out. Had a ride down into Newcastle then did a social ride with a group of nice folk. The ride home was into a real nasty cold head wind with a good splash of rain.
Still enjoyed it though

Some good results from you all again

Was that a ride from the Cycle Hub by the Tyne? I was due to go down there but unfortunately work called.

I'm desperate to get out - just finished some work and seems to be drying up - missed one day.....definitely getting addicted. I'm finding that I'm going the long way round - 34 mile trip to see parents who live 3 mile away!

Nigel - re the spoke reflectors - they're excellent - what convinced me was a couple of winters back while driving, I was sitting at lights and suddenly saw two circles half a mile away across a pitch dark field brightly reflecting light - did a double take and realised it was a bike not Martians (who usually circle far higher around these parts). Thought they were an excellent idea and went out and bought some.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Was that a ride from the Cycle Hub by the Tyne? I was due to go down there but unfortunately work called.

I'm desperate to get out - just finished some work and seems to be drying up - missed one day.....definitely getting addicted. I'm finding that I'm going the long way round - 34 mile trip to see parents who live 3 mile away!

Nigel - re the spoke reflectors - they're excellent - what convinced me was a couple of winters back while driving, I was sitting at lights and suddenly saw two circles half a mile away across a pitch dark field brightly reflecting light - did a double take and realised it was a bike not Martians (who usually circle far higher around these parts). Thought they were an excellent idea and went out and bought some.

Its more how they look on the bike the rest of the time

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Well hopefully they were effective as I didn't get knocked off, 42 miles @ avg of about 14.4mph in the dark and rain and wind (well breeze), you didn't think I was going to let you lot have all the fun, did you.

 

[spooks]

Got a little damp around the edges today! I like it when it's drizzling though. The warm shower afterwards is amazing. Haven't been on the bike much recently because I've been stupidly busy. Had to switch down to the 40 mile ride last week on the Wiggle New Forest ride because my legs just couldn't do 70. Did my nice 31 mile ride this morning. I had planned to join the local cycle club for the first time today but got up too late!

 

[Phoenix Lincs]

Hammering down here, has been all morning and forecast all day.

I decided to have another go at mapping a 10 miler when the rain eased off this morning. The dry spell didn't last long though and I got soaked. The 10 miler still needs work as I went down a dead end road too. Still not got it quite right. I've tried an online mapping site so I'll try and ride it in person within the next couple of days.
Hopefully everybody has dried out by now, although I just nipped to the Spar for something and got wet again

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I decided to have another go at mapping a 10 miler when the rain eased off this morning. The dry spell didn't last long though and I got soaked. The 10 miler still needs work as I went down a dead end road too. Still not got it quite right. I've tried an online mapping site so I'll try and ride it in person within the next couple of days.
Hopefully everybody has dried out by now, although I just nipped to the Spar for something and got wet again

Well I was nice and warm and dry for the most part, thighs got a little wet, about 30 miles was in the dark about 70% of that was on dark country roads, and and 20% of it was in the rain, and this was at the highest most open parts, still like I said nice and warm, the Aldi Jacket must be the beat £15 I have spent on clothing so far..
http://app.strava.com/activities/88877823#1850452179

 

[Exile]

Given the weather here I was lucky to coax the O/H out for a quick 8-mile ride. Being fair, we did do 20+ last Sunday, but the weather today was a million miles from the sun we had for that. Blowing rain, gusting headwinds that seemed to follow you around and a very noticeable chill if you dared slow down too much . Thinking it's getting to be time for the shorts to get put away until spring...

Also think it's time to take the bike to the LBS and get it checked over. Caught the rear wheel on a not-so-drop-kerb as I got home and now there's a bit of side play in it. Probably not as big a crisis as I initially made it out to be (anyone would've thought the bike had spontaneously combusted after insinuating something about my ancestry by the language I used) but I'm still very much new to this bike maintenance thing so it might as well have collapsed into a pile of components as far as me knowing how to solve the problem goes.

Was planning on taking the bike in for a check-up at between 400 and 500 miles anyway, just to make sure everything was still mechanically sound (never can trust these cheap bikes, or so I've been told) so I guess that's just being brought forwards to the 300 mile(ish) mark. Ah well, the rear rack will just have to wait a little longer. Again...

 

[DaveyM]

@puffinbilly
Yeah that was the ride from the hub, they have a lot of rides out from the Hub.
slow and steady with some nice folk.
If you ever fancy any company let me know.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@Exile Who told you cant trust cheap bikes, my cheap Viking (£300) and I have covered over 10,000 miles since June 2013, mind you, its hardly the same bike. I trust it almost 100% these days.

 

[stevey]

Went for a 1 mile run earlier first time in over 30 years ....Got soaked.... Fun though