Tales from today's utility ride

[Fab Foodie]

First use in anger of Beryl the Elephant bike (as posted elsewhere). I bought this as it was my aim to do more by bike. The Brompton has brought a lot of extra cycling utility over the last 12 months, but capacity lacks for bigger shops.

Test success!

Ok, it's a smaller shop this week than usual but I still had spare capacity. The old Karrimor panniers also hang on the side of the trolley which helps.
Will raise the bars and the seat a tad for a more sit up and beg position.
No food was damaged in this trip ....

 

[Pale Rider]

The aim of my utility ride today was to do some route finding and pick up some inner tubes.

Me and my mate Steve both wanted to find a more direct route to Durham City from Sunderland, but still avoid a nasty stretch of the A690 known locally as Houghton Cut.

We were only partially successful, but arrived in Durham City with under 13 miles on the clock - about four miles fewer than the usual route which takes in several pit villages, but is a lot more bike friendly.

The next task was to collect the 'click and collect' inner tubes from the new Evans store at Pity Me, just outside Durham City.

The tubes had yet to arrive, no surprise as we had set off at 7am and were at the store not long after 9am - too early for that day's delivery.

Time for a coffee and snack in the nearby Arnison Centre.

Charming and friendly waitress, who seemed very interested to see we had arrived by bike.

That illustrates one of the less obvious benefits of cycling - I doubt she would have been so chatty had we got out of a car.

Not wanting to retrace our route, we carried on to Chester-le-Street, then Birtley, before picking up the C2C path towards home.

The path was pretty as a picture under a covering of fresh snow, and also a welcome relief after what was - for us - a bit too much main road/dual carriageway riding.

About 33 miles, and while we failed to achieve two of our aims, we did achieve the most important one - having a good time on our bikes.

 

[Arjimlad]

My car needed new tyres and brake pads so this morning I drove to the garage in Patchway in my cycle gear with bike in the boot, and rode the 2.5 miles to work.
I smiled at the shared use path which gives you a choice of a diversion around some pretty daffodils or riding past a queue of people waiting for the bus.

 

[mjr]

Yesterday's utility ride was to the dentist, which meant my frequently-ridden 2.5 miles of cycle track by the A10, half a mile or so of industrial estate road, half a mile of cycle track, then a mile and a bit of housing estate roads with short sections of cycle track that let us cycle where motorists can't reach. I remembered the rarely-ridden-by-me far end of the route right first time, which is a challenge because the signs aren't all there. Still no parking spaces at the dentist, so I locked to their sign again - shouldn't the NHS insist on cycle parking as part of its contract with providers?

My wired back light failed on the way home, so I put the battery one on - I'll prod the wiring with a multimeter later and try to figure out if it's a plug fault as I suspect. Stopped off at a shop to buy fresh stuff for dinner and as we rode in on its access road, a motorist behind honked aggressively, but when I looked around, the driver behind was waving both hands in a "it wasn't me" sort of way. I wonder if it was a motorist behind them (I don't think so) or if their passenger hit the horn. Not great to see the driver behind me take both hands off the steering wheel for several seconds, though. Odd.

Avoided being gritted by turning back onto the road just after the gritter passed but still rinsed the bikes once we were home.

 

[jayonabike]

I cycled up to the cash point at the local shops. There and back, just over a mile. I saw a neighbor walking his dog and gave him a wave. He waved back (the neighbor, not the dog!)

 

[Pale Rider]

My utility ride today involved the supermarket and two visits to the bike shop.

It was only going to be one visit, but on my way to Morrison's I remembered I had forgotten my lock.

The Rose has a frame mounted wheel lock, but I would be foolish to use just that outside a shop.

So I nipped into the bike shop on the way to borrow a lock.

I returned the lock after shopping and also picked up my latest bike(ish) related purchase - a Park Tool Spork.

I have no need of it, but after seeing one on here I just had to have one.

It will make its debut on tomorrow's group ride when I'm determined to buy something to eat with it at the cafe stop, even if I'm not hungry.

 

[RoubaixCube]

First use in anger of Beryl the Elephant bike (as posted elsewhere). I bought this as it was my aim to do more by bike. The Brompton has brought a lot of extra cycling utility over the last 12 months, but capacity lacks for bigger shops.

Test success!

Ok, it's a smaller shop this week than usual but I still had spare capacity. The old Karrimor panniers also hang on the side of the trolley which helps.
Will raise the bars and the seat a tad for a more sit up and beg position.
No food was damaged in this trip ....

Jesus, those red panniers remind of the days i used to lug a similar one over my shoulder back when i worked for the post office

 

[Matt1705]

My utility ride today was to go and pick up my new trailer that I bought off eBay. Went on my new bike too, also an eBay bargain
Holy cap the trailer is massive!!!!!!! And the 17 mile journey home was a bit tough but looking forward to using it for my shopping next week when I get paid.

 

[mjr]

Interesting shopping ride today. The last half mile there was pushing a trolley with my right hand that someone had left in the park. I cycled along the old wall walk but dismounted at the cobbles because the trolley stopped rolling smoothly.

I was testing the floppier Basil panniers. They still hold a lot of stuff but don't catch the wind so much when empty so I might keep using them for the rest of this winter... if I can figure out how to mount them securely without heel strike.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Fab Foodie how is the steering on the elephant bike when front loaded?
What about the braking?

 

[Fab Foodie]

@Fab Foodie how is the steering on the elephant bike when front loaded?
What about the braking?

Steering's fine, braking's OK, nothing special, but it works. It has very stable handling when loaded.

 

[Pale Rider]

Interesting shopping ride today. The last half mile there was pushing a trolley with my right hand that someone had left in the park. I cycled along the old wall walk but dismounted at the cobbles because the trolley stopped rolling smoothly.

I was testing the floppier Basil panniers. They still hold a lot of stuff but don't catch the wind so much when empty so I might keep using them for the rest of this winter... if I can figure out how to mount them securely without heel strike.

Leading a shopping trolley - reminds me of when I used to lead a second bike occasionally as a child.

Wouldn't try it now, it would end in a tangled heap of rider and bicycles.

As regards the panniers, angling the leading edge down a little would give more heel clearance.

Might not be easy to do, although one of the expensive makes - might be Ortleib - has mounts that allow it.

One way might be to deliberately mount your presumably level carrier on a slope, pointing downwards towards the seat tube.

 

[Jayaly]

Less than a mile to take Smallest Boy swimming. Oh my lord, I could barely cycle the mile home afterwards, and I felt the front lifting on the hill without the counterweight of the basket I normally have on. The child seat may be officially retiring soon if its occupant insists on continuing to grow.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Just a short trip on the fixed today, over to the barber to have my thatch thinned out, with a call in to the post office on the way back, I'd seen an anniversary card last week but had my Good Lady with me so had to wait till today to buy it, trip done in civies and MTB shoes. My car is parked round the back of the house and it was a lot quicker and easier to take the bike, and a lot more pleasant.

 

[annedonnelly]

My utility ride today was to a sportscentre about 5 miles away for a Pilates class. I've finally got my act together and found a class that I can get to. Unless I discover some aches & pains tomorrow I suspect it's not quite as difficult as the class I used to go to, but I do like the combination of riding there and back & doing an hour's Pilates in between.

It was a lovely bright morning though the wind turned out to be a lot colder than I'd expected. The skylarks were singing loudly on the way back - but that's for the wildlife thread...