The 2017 Half Century (50 KM or 50 Mile) A Month Challenge - Chatzone

[NorthernDave]

Another qualifying ride today, although I did waver a bit at around the ten mile point given that blooming wind! It seemed like it was in my face nearly all the time, no matter which way I turned which is bad enough but it was so blustery, buffeting me every which way.
It was summed up perfectly by a rider who passed going the other way "Bit breezy, innit?"

Glad I stuck with it though and found some hedges to hide behind for at least part of the route

 

[Domus]

Back on the bike after two weeks, 10 days in the Caterham in the Scottish Highlands, too much good food and Water of Life have taken their toll.
Saw some hardy souls last week in the horrible wet and windy conditions struggling to keep upright peddling over Tomintoul.
Still, 36.8 miles in the relative warmish dry conditions today.

Off to Portugal on Sunday taking the bike on the back of the car, hoping for a few sunny rides

More holidays than Judith Chalmers, it really is tough being retired, just keeping track of the holidays is hard work.

 

[Saluki]

I am just in from a brilliant ride. I left much later than I meant to as I had issues with my helmet. It's new, you see, and getting the strap right was a bit of a pain. Then the remaining length of strap was too long so I had to cut it off and melt the ends with a lighter (borrowed from next door as neither of us smoke and my zippo is out of petrol. It's not bonfire season yet. Finally out of the door at 25 past 7. I had a 50 miler planned and was bloody determined. So pleased I had charged my lights up.

I rode off to Bardney and then to Lincoln on the Water Rail Trail, which is flat, tarmacked and lovely. Lots of wildlife to see, it's brilliant. I got to Lincoln and rode along the waterside to the main road. Crossed the bridge to the other side of the water and rode back the way I had come on the other side of the river and then popped over the hump backed bridge and retraced my wheel tracks back to Bardney. I decided to come home by road as I have lost my photocromic sunglasses and need some more - or a trip to a DIY shop for clear safety glasses - and the trail was just bugtastic tonight. I got munched if I stopped so decided that getting the dang things in my eyes was not happening. It seems that the road route is shorter so I had to go up to Mareham on the Hill and home that way to add an additional 4 miles. The hill to Mareham is not really ever an issue, it's barely there but with 46 miles in my legs it seemed to feel steeper.
I took 10 minutes off my last 50 mile time, so deeply chuffed with that.

I am really enjoying the riding here and I will definitely do that route again.

 

[13 rider]

I am just in from a brilliant ride. I left much later than I meant to as I had issues with my helmet. It's new, you see, and getting the strap right was a bit of a pain. Then the remaining length of strap was too long so I had to cut it off and melt the ends with a lighter (borrowed from next door as neither of us smoke and my zippo is out of petrol. It's not bonfire season yet. Finally out of the door at 25 past 7. I had a 50 miler planned and was bloody determined. So pleased I had charged my lights up.

I rode off to Bardney and then to Lincoln on the Water Rail Trail, which is flat, tarmacked and lovely. Lots of wildlife to see, it's brilliant. I got to Lincoln and rode along the waterside to the main road. Crossed the bridge to the other side of the water and rode back the way I had come on the other side of the river and then popped over the hump backed bridge and retraced my wheel tracks back to Bardney. I decided to come home by road as I have lost my photocromic sunglasses and need some more - or a trip to a DIY shop for clear safety glasses - and the trail was just bugtastic tonight. I got munched if I stopped so decided that getting the dang things in my eyes was not happening. It seems that the road route is shorter so I had to go up to Mareham on the Hill and home that way to add an additional 4 miles. The hill to Mareham is not really ever an issue, it's barely there but with 46 miles in my legs it seemed to feel steeper.
I took 10 minutes off my last 50 mile time, so deeply chuffed with that.

I am really enjoying the riding here and I will definitely do that route again.

You seem to have found your cycling mojo again now your away from Cornish hills . The water rail way is a lovely ride .

 

[Supersuperleeds]

I am just in from a brilliant ride. I left much later than I meant to as I had issues with my helmet. It's new, you see, and getting the strap right was a bit of a pain. Then the remaining length of strap was too long so I had to cut it off and melt the ends with a lighter (borrowed from next door as neither of us smoke and my zippo is out of petrol. It's not bonfire season yet. Finally out of the door at 25 past 7. I had a 50 miler planned and was bloody determined. So pleased I had charged my lights up.

I rode off to Bardney and then to Lincoln on the Water Rail Trail, which is flat, tarmacked and lovely. Lots of wildlife to see, it's brilliant. I got to Lincoln and rode along the waterside to the main road. Crossed the bridge to the other side of the water and rode back the way I had come on the other side of the river and then popped over the hump backed bridge and retraced my wheel tracks back to Bardney. I decided to come home by road as I have lost my photocromic sunglasses and need some more - or a trip to a DIY shop for clear safety glasses - and the trail was just bugtastic tonight. I got munched if I stopped so decided that getting the dang things in my eyes was not happening. It seems that the road route is shorter so I had to go up to Mareham on the Hill and home that way to add an additional 4 miles. The hill to Mareham is not really ever an issue, it's barely there but with 46 miles in my legs it seemed to feel steeper.
I took 10 minutes off my last 50 mile time, so deeply chuffed with that.

I am really enjoying the riding here and I will definitely do that route again.

If you've not been in, you must go into the cafe at the heritage centre in Bardney. The fella that runs it is a right character.

 

[Saluki]

You seem to have found your cycling mojo again now your away from Cornish hills . The water rail way is a lovely ride .

Riding mojo has been found, polished and is loving life Just back from a slow 15 miler to turn my legs in the sun (have new music on my CheesePod is the real reason)

If you've not been in, you must go into the cafe at the heritage centre in Bardney. The fella that runs it is a right character.

It's on my to-do list. I have a riding buddy through the week so will be checking the Bardney cafe opening times.

 

[NorthernDave]

Nearly melted doing an imperial half this morning.
By 'eck it's 'ot.

Report will follow once rehydrated

 

[Bazzer]

Deliberately planned a challenging ride as getting >6 continuous hours in the saddle in preparation for this week's Fridays ride to Hull wasn't going to happen this weekend and I had to be back home by 11.30 today. And boy did a combination of legs a little tired and the sun make it challenging. Going up the road from Todmorden to Bacup I find is hard work but the heat even at 9.30 made it harder, so goodness knows what riders later in the day would have experienced.
Another qualifying ride, but my "break glass in case of emergency" stash of jelly babies (do 4 count as a stash?), had to be paced out from my return through Rochdale. Running on empty for the last 4 miles or so and I think if someone had passed me on certain parts, they would have thought I was a madman talking myself home.

 

[steverob]

Feeling very frustrated at the moment. Having done a short ride yesterday evening, today was meant to be my first 50k "in one go" ride since my crash and also my first real climb since that day as well; although understandably, it was the descent I was more apprehensive about. However, it turned out that those weren't major problems at all - while my speed does need some improvement (a lack fitness for the climb, lack of confidence for the descent) - my issues ended up laying elsewhere.

First problem came when I rode over some recent resurfacing work; in this heat, the tarmac had started to melt and parts of it got stuck to my tires, which of course meant that within seconds I now had all the road debris stuck to my tires as well. Stopped as soon as I could to avoid a puncture, but it turns out it's very difficult to see black tar on black tires in order to scrape it off. After three attempts, eventually got enough off to make the bike rideable again, only to suffer a major mechanical just one mile later when my left crank fell off. I had been hearing "clicking" noises from my pedal earlier in the ride, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong when I stopped (admittedly didn't check the crank itself as I didn't figure that was the problem), so had carried on riding. Not having the right tools on me to fix this, I ended up have to call the wife to pick me up - thankfully I was doing a route "round" my town; even at its furthest point I was just eight miles from home.

In the past eight months I've had about seven punctures, four "mechanicals" (two of which cost serious money to fix) and my crash, which laid me up for five weeks and caused me to miss two sportives I had really been looking forward to. I really could do with a major boost to my cycling luck right now!

 

[Effyb4]

It was my cousin's wedding this weekend, so we decided to cycle to the wedding venue on the Friday and return home today. We took the tandem and loaded it up with front and rear panniers. It was quite a challenge going up hill on it, but managed two qualifying rides of around 36 miles each.

Ready for the off

At the top of the first hill.

 

[Katherine]

Feeling very frustrated at the moment. Having done a short ride yesterday evening, today was meant to be my first 50k "in one go" ride since my crash and also my first real climb since that day as well; although understandably, it was the descent I was more apprehensive about. However, it turned out that those weren't major problems at all - while my speed does need some improvement (a lack fitness for the climb, lack of confidence for the descent) - my issues ended up laying elsewhere.

First problem came when I rode over some recent resurfacing work; in this heat, the tarmac had started to melt and parts of it got stuck to my tires, which of course meant that within seconds I now had all the road debris stuck to my tires as well. Stopped as soon as I could to avoid a puncture, but it turns out it's very difficult to see black tar on black tires in order to scrape it off. After three attempts, eventually got enough off to make the bike rideable again, only to suffer a major mechanical just one mile later when my left crank fell off. I had been hearing "clicking" noises from my pedal earlier in the ride, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong when I stopped (admittedly didn't check the crank itself as I didn't figure that was the problem), so had carried on riding. Not having the right tools on me to fix this, I ended up have to call the wife to pick me up - thankfully I was doing a route "round" my town; even at its furthest point I was just eight miles from home.

In the past eight months I've had about seven punctures, four "mechanicals" (two of which cost serious money to fix) and my crash, which laid me up for five weeks and caused me to miss two sportives I had really been looking forward to. I really could do with a major boost to my cycling luck right now!

Wishing you better luck and plenty happy miles.

 

[Bazzer]

Feeling very frustrated at the moment. Having done a short ride yesterday evening, today was meant to be my first 50k "in one go" ride since my crash and also my first real climb since that day as well; although understandably, it was the descent I was more apprehensive about. However, it turned out that those weren't major problems at all - while my speed does need some improvement (a lack fitness for the climb, lack of confidence for the descent) - my issues ended up laying elsewhere.

First problem came when I rode over some recent resurfacing work; in this heat, the tarmac had started to melt and parts of it got stuck to my tires, which of course meant that within seconds I now had all the road debris stuck to my tires as well. Stopped as soon as I could to avoid a puncture, but it turns out it's very difficult to see black tar on black tires in order to scrape it off. After three attempts, eventually got enough off to make the bike rideable again, only to suffer a major mechanical just one mile later when my left crank fell off. I had been hearing "clicking" noises from my pedal earlier in the ride, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong when I stopped (admittedly didn't check the crank itself as I didn't figure that was the problem), so had carried on riding. Not having the right tools on me to fix this, I ended up have to call the wife to pick me up - thankfully I was doing a route "round" my town; even at its furthest point I was just eight miles from home.

In the past eight months I've had about seven punctures, four "mechanicals" (two of which cost serious money to fix) and my crash, which laid me up for five weeks and caused me to miss two sportives I had really been looking forward to. I really could do with a major boost to my cycling luck right now!

Probably not what you want to hear after forking out cash, but maybe a change of tyres to something more resistant to the fairy, albeit less comfortable, might help? Just to up get your confidence on that aspect of rides up a bit.

 

[steverob]

Probably not what you want to hear after forking out cash, but maybe a change of tyres to something more resistant to the fairy, albeit less comfortable, might help? Just to up get your confidence on that aspect of rides up a bit.

Actually I should clarify there - all those punctures came in a short period of time (about 4 weeks, Nov to Dec last year) and it turned out to be due to tyre wear on the inside, which is why it took so long to diagnose. After changing them, have not had a problem since. Or rather, problems with everything else, but not the tyres any more!

 

[ColinJ]

And boy did a combination of legs a little tired and the sun make it challenging. Going up the road from Todmorden to Bacup I find is hard work but the heat even at 9.30 made it harder, so goodness knows what riders later in the day would have experienced.

That hill CAN feel like hard work. I am generally ok on it these days but wouldn't fancy it in temperatures close to 30 degrees!

I did a 21 mile loop yesterday including the long Cragg Vale climb and waited until 7:15 pm to let temperatures fall a bit before I set off.

 

[13 rider]

Plenty of days left but just 1 weekend so scores on the doors
We have 29 riders fully posted and half way
Which leaves us 7 short so @Rustybucket , @GuyBoden , @Milkfloat , @Sbudge , @tallliman ,@john59 and last and not least @ColinJ please update if you done your rides (@tallliman I know you've done a ride ) if not 8 days to go