Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Angelfishsolo]

A very pleasant 32.75 miles from my home to Merthyr and back via the Cynon and Taff Trails. I averaged 14 mph as well (on my behemoth of a rigid MTB kitted with a semi slick on the front and trail tyre on the rear)

 

[gbb]

I used to think the rain waited on the horizon...waiting for me to leave work
Todays been very forgiving. Windy as hell all day...then it eased a bit in time for my commute.
Its rained quite heavily this afternoon, then stopped and dried out...just in time for my ride home.
God must be looking over me today...

Slightly extended route home tonight, not too many miles...a long day at work, legs are tired...cant be bothered.

I've got to be careful....i'm struggling to motivate myself at the moment.

 

[marinyork]

Took the new bike out on my regular loop for the first time. Was quite good as when I went out last night it was howling gales and you don't really feel it on drops, although there was still a bit of wind about tonight. Not sure whether I should fit a speedometer to it, despite having a crude average speed a lot better than my personal best it seemed a bit disappointing.

 

[colly]

Very early morning ride in the sun. 30 miles.
Nary a car to be seen or heard. (almost all the way round)


www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=7462

 

[ACS]

Sunny......wet.......wet and sunny.........wet.......cold........very wet.........sunny........

 

[bonj2]

42 miles on the summer bike, in 2:10 , cos i made the shrewd move of heading west first thus getting the head wind out of the way and then being able to absolutely hoon it back... the opposite would have been the case if i'd done the audax i was going to do today
saw a VERY low flying plane as i was grinding up hill into the wind - so low it looked as if it was about to land in a farmer's field - in fact could have been a glider from the gliding club.

One thing i noticed today - that white stuff on all the fields is not chemicals but some sort of cloth! What is it and why do they put that down?

 

[bonj2]

Took the new bike out on my regular loop for the first time. Was quite good as when I went out last night it was howling gales and you don't really feel it on drops, although there was still a bit of wind about tonight. Not sure whether I should fit a speedometer to it, despite having a crude average speed a lot better than my personal best it seemed a bit disappointing.

If you're in two minds about whether to fit a cycling computer to your bike the answer is probably no. If it tells you you've gone slow, then it's just depressing. If it tells you you've gone fast, then it makes the NEXT ride depressing when it isn't as fast.
I did used to have one on the bars but turned downwards pointing towards the floor so i couldn't see it, just for the purpose of knowing how far my tyres had done, but i ended up forgetting to put it on most of the time so it was largely pointless, so in the end i just did away with the wires and sensor as well.

 

[ianrauk]

55 miles with a few chums, recceing a ride for the Bromley and Lewisham cyclists groups. Tonbridge to Hastings via Bredbury Forest, Sandhurst, Bodium Castle, Ewhurst Green for lunch. Rye, Winchelsea and Hastings. 5829ft of climbing.. so a good workout

 

[RedBike]

100miles in the peaks
cat and fiddle, snake pass, winnats, axe edge and the Gunn.

It stayed fine all day but OMG it was windy towards the end of the day.

 

[HLaB]

Sunny......wet.......wet and sunny.........wet.......cold........very wet.........sunny........

That about sums today up but perhaps you should add the one constant, wind
I managed to get a slow 16.5miles in without getting wet after the giro.

 

[gbspark]

epping forest,
single tracks, only 15 miles, but what fun, on mtb, nearly took mt head off on a low branch tho, missed it by mm, stacked it but missed branch phew.....

 

[Auntie Helen]

So... today I did a group ride with the Other Tribe (YACF) in my part of the world.

We met at Marks Tey (west of Colchester) at 9:30am and I cycled there (17 miles) from home. I left at 7:30am to give myself time for a cuppa and met lots of bugs on the way (ate some!) and also startled a deer which ran down the road before me. Rather lovely.

My husband was also coming on this ride but didn't want to cycle to and from Marks Tey so he drove, reassembled the trike when he got there, and off we all went. There were about 16 of us including two tandems, two recumbent trikes and two chaps on fixed.

Here is the view of Uncle James and his trike during a brief catch-up stop at Bures (on the border between Essex and Suffolk):

We had a tea and cake stop at Bures which was just 10 miles into the ride but it's always a good idea to eat cake.

We stopped at St James's Chapel (an English Heritage site) for a look-see.

There was a whopping hornet in there as well, here measured beside Delthebike's hand:

Off we set again, making our way to Kersey for lunch.

We crossed a ford in Kersey (unnecessarily, as it turned out, as the pub was our side of it) and Thomas had a brief tandem-slips-over-in-ford moment.

After a decent lunch (I had a great steak pie!) we carried on through Hadleigh and then joined up with the NCN1 path southwards, which was a disused railway line.

We arrived at Stratford St Mary (next village to Dedham and only a few miles away from my home) and had another beer stop (no cake this time). Four people walked past carrying a rowing boat along the road, which doesn't happen every day!

We wended our way westwards now, crossing both the Stour and Colne (i.e. two valleys, which meant quite a few hills). Wowbagger had arranged an interesting off-road section:

This involved two bridges, one of which was slightly too narrow for my trike so I had to cant it sideways:

And the second bridge was so narrow that the entire trike had to be lifted over:

(Thanks to delthebike for those two pictures)

By this point we had lost two members of our group and we didn't manage to find them again. They ended up back at Marks Tey station an hour before us because we had a puncture moment with Thomas and Emily's tandem. Those waiting for the puncture repair to be effected ended up in a good spot as we were opposite Wormingford aerodrome and watched gliders coming and going...

Eventually the repaired (ish) puncture along with tandem and riders appeared and off we went, getting split up again but all making our way to Marks Tey. I passed this rather quaintly named house:

We waved goodbye to those who had come on the train, James returned to the car and started disassembling his trike and I headed for Colchester by bike.

As I approached home I realised I would be on 79.5 miles so did a small extra loop to make 80.5 for the day.

A good day with great company, fab weather, a very comfortable first outing for my SPD sandals and a hearty evening meal to round off the day. James did 50.00 miles exactly today which is a record for him and he also enjoyed it very much.

 

[rafiki]

28.2km on and off tarmac, birdwatching on the way. Booted eagle, collared pratincoles, hoopoe, light-phase common buzzard, azure winged magpies, short toed eagle, bee eaters, black kites, white storks, little egrets, marsh harrier. spoonbills, larks etc. Weather: warm, a bit overcast, light shower, stiff breeze.

[Now just eight days until I collect my Thorn Sterling then it'll be off tarmac all the way ]

 

[Rhythm Thief]

25 miles from Monmouth out to Skenfrith and Ross on Wye, then met up with the other half at the pub in Symonds Yat. Then home along the old railway path, so 30 miles all in.
A friend of mine is training for a 100 mile charity ride and he's never done any distance on the road before. As he seems to think I'm the man to help him train, he's been dragging me out on my bike and I have to say, I've rediscovered what I enjoyed about cycling in the first place now. I've even started logging my rides at Cyclogs.

 

[ACS]

That about sums today up but perhaps you should add the one constant, wind
I managed to get a slow 16.5miles in without getting wet after the giro.

I was taking the wind as read as its always here. Cannot recall a still day, never mind there is always tomorrows sun.....rain............sun and rain.....

Been down with man flu so today was more about emptying the stuff held back by my sinuses. I have to say that I stuck with rule that the contents of ones head can only be evacuated when a BMW is along side you.