Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Marshmallow_Fluff]

Oh dear! The coldest ride of the year by far yesterday!
Club ride with the boys (@Rapples included) looping from Bedford to Salcley Forest. The forecast was giving dry-ish with short intervals of light rain, cloudy weather with ave of 6C.. Not bad! 3/4 tights, ditched one baselayer, no waterproof jacket (just gillet), off we go! Nah!
Started with rain, followed by slate, followed by snowfall. Half way point, all of us literally frozen, wet and cold. We tried to bake-dry our gloves in the cafe stove (unsuccessfully) and warm up squeezing the hot mugs. I was so cold I could only eat half of my warm chocolate fudge cake and nearly broke my teeth with the spoon from the uncotrollable shakin'. One decided to call a taxi to his rescue the rest of us decided to obey #5 and ride back (adding some serious bad*ss points as well). At some point completely lost my back brakes and more than half of my front. I could only brake from the lowest end of the shifter from the drops. As a consequence and for safety reasons, I had to keep my distance from the rest leaving me unprotected and after a long descent a few miles before the end of the ride we were completely dropped. I thought my face would fall off!
All in all, 51.2 miles for me, 60+ (incl riding from home and back) for @Rapples I suspect.
Back to the van, my mate and myself were undressing on the street dropping gloves, helmets, buffs, jerseys on the tarmac in order to get rid of the soaking, frozen kit off of us asap. It took him nearly a minute in order to be able to unlock it and nearly 15 minutes in the car looking at each other, laughing our heads off and shivering!
What a fantastic day!! Thanks boys!

 

[thegravestoneman]

No work on again so quick ride out, two pairs of socks, longs on and my ski gloves in my back pocket I put a bottle cage on to carry pump and my cheapy bottle of pop and free up pocket space. Nice ride through previously unseen bits of Yorkshires back roads and more familiar bits. After I stopped for my cereal bar at Cawood (I can't eat,breathe and ride at the same time) I noticed my hands were a tad cold, string back track mitts are not the warmest! Put my ski gloves on and headed to Ulleskelf, Chuch Fenton then home via Sherburn. A passing car went straight through the slush and left me looking like a very grey snowman 'cheers buddy' new 'clipless' shoes and pedals are o.k, still prefer toeclips and cleats I think? Not another cyclist out but a good ride and 36 miles under 2 hours will do for me. Now to see if I can find any dry spots on my gear and throw some fresh from the radiator warm clothes on.

 

[Rapples]

Oh dear! The coldest ride of the year by far yesterday!
Club ride with the boys (@Rapples included) looping from Bedford to Salcley Forest.

Chapeau Marshmallow Fluff

Yes that was a cold one, I don't think the ends of my fingers have ever been that cold, and the snow was sticking to the bike!! 67 miles for me and as I neared home I was having trouble changing gears as hands had gone numb again.

You forgot to mention that the guy who got the taxi home was in shorts I don't blame him for not wanting to ride back!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/285987545

 

[coffeejo]

Cold? Where? Not here! Had to take off my jacket and would have got rid of the overshoes and tracksters if I'd had any room in my saddlebag.

Saw these fellow Capricorns when I stopped to take off my jacket. They looked a bit hot as well.

I love this view on the edge of Exmoor - can't wait for summer when the trees are green.

A mile or so north of Wiveliscombe at the foot of the Brendon Hills.

Looking in the opposite direction to the above photo - I wasn't the only one enjoying the sun!

I would get my coat but it's too warm...

 

[Saluki]

Quick ride after work today, which was nice. I was home for 4pm and only had 1 dog to walk today, 2 walks but short ish half an hour ones instead of the usual 3 hours of walking that we generally do. I got a short jog in too as I was calibrating my pedometer, 5 minutes jogging but that's 5 minutes more than I had planned. What with the sunshine and all, I was very keen to get out on my bike.

I took a nice steady ride for half an hour, averaging 11mph which is seriously slow but such is life. I am not cycle fit at all at the moment. Only 5 3/4 miles but very nice and I shall try and do the same thing again tomorrow - but after walking for 3 + hours!
Barnham Broom is rather nice when I am cycling at a pace that I can look about at. I shall have to do this more often

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We weren't able to get out this morning, snow, ice & some shopping got in the way. My OH has managed to come on holiday without his winter/waterproof cycling gloves (but did bring 4 pairs of fingerless gloves on a cycling holiday to Scotland in March....) so we had to raid the local bike shop some 40 mins drives away.

So this afternoon was the 'round the loch' option again, something we rarely tire of. Today was slightly colder, with just as much snow thrown in for good measure, but patches of sunshine as well (and no rain!). OH is now a happy cyclist again with warm hands and a walker summed up the ride, after 12 miles of nasty headwinds cycling the south shore of the loch, we met him when we had the tailwind "Happiness is cycling that way" pointing the direction we were going in. I think we must have been smiling from head to toe at that point!

The view of Loch Rannoch from Kinloch Rannoch and a patch of light.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

ten minutes on the hack to the beach café ....coffee, bacon sarney, chat with the lady owner, kip on beach in wind shadow, ten minutes back....exhausted

 

[Glow worm]

Day off today so went for a nice slow 18 mile circular ride around familiar haunts on the Fens along the Lodes Way. I do this route, or variations of it frequently - mainly because it is pretty quiet and largely traffic free. There's also normally lots of wildlife and birds about too.

My first stop was Wicken Fen. It was beautifully sunny for most of the ride and my jersey came off for a while though I wasn't quite brave enough for shorts. This is Baker's Fen at Wicken and was teeming with wading birds such as teal and wigeon.

At Burwell Lode, I noticed work has begun on the ramp that will eventually take peds and cyclists onto a new bridge over the lode (a Fenland waterway). Sadly, no funding is yet in place for the bridge so it will be a ramp to nowhere for the forseeable future. In the background is the existing (crap) bridge with steps- always a nightmare to carry a fully loaded bike over it.

Some of the konik ponies the National Trust are using to graze the meadows. These are hardy beasts and need minimal care. The guys were just finishing pollarding these willows too as I passsed by..

By now some clouds had popped up and it was getting chilly so I headed for home back on the Lodes Way. This elm tree caught my eye in the sunshine. Close by was a large fock of fieldfares no doubt preparing to head back across the North Sea any time now.

It's the only mature elm that I know of for miles around. It's a beautiful tree and my crappy pic does it no justice. It's a reminder of how tragic Dutch Elm disease was. The thought that our ash trees may go the same way is something I can't bare to contemplate.

I have begun logging my miles on my own system- Slotha. It's the antedote to Strava (shudder) and is designed for idle bar$tards like me who feel that the world is a pacey enough place as it is, without the need to race around as if our behinds were on fire. So 18 miles in three hours today - I'm hoping to do it in three and a half hours next time

 

[compo]

Out again this morning but only 20 miles after the 40 miles of yesterday. The weather was just too good to miss a day, warm and sunny. I got to Roydon railway crossing just as the gates came down so I headed off along the canal and river banks and got hopelessly lost. It didn't matter though. Let's face it, you are never lost for long before you pop out somewhere you recognise. For those who know the area I popped out at Dobbs Weir. My wife wanted a couple of bits from Aldi so I called into the Hoddesdon store and earned my brownie points, then came home via Hoe Lane to give my legs and lungs a workout.

 

[outlash]

Oh dear! The coldest ride of the year by far yesterday!
Club ride with the boys (@Rapples included) looping from Bedford to Salcley Forest. The forecast was giving dry-ish with short intervals of light rain, cloudy weather with ave of 6C.. Not bad! 3/4 tights, ditched one baselayer, no waterproof jacket (just gillet), off we go! Nah!
Started with rain, followed by slate, followed by snowfall. Half way point, all of us literally frozen, wet and cold. We tried to bake-dry our gloves in the cafe stove (unsuccessfully) and warm up squeezing the hot mugs. I was so cold I could only eat half of my warm chocolate fudge cake and nearly broke my teeth with the spoon from the uncotrollable shakin'. One decided to call a taxi to his rescue the rest of us decided to obey #5 and ride back (adding some serious bad*ss points as well). At some point completely lost my back brakes and more than half of my front. I could only brake from the lowest end of the shifter from the drops. As a consequence and for safety reasons, I had to keep my distance from the rest leaving me unprotected and after a long descent a few miles before the end of the ride we were completely dropped. I thought my face would fall off!
All in all, 51.2 miles for me, 60+ (incl riding from home and back) for @Rapples I suspect.
Back to the van, my mate and myself were undressing on the street dropping gloves, helmets, buffs, jerseys on the tarmac in order to get rid of the soaking, frozen kit off of us asap. It took him nearly a minute in order to be able to unlock it and nearly 15 minutes in the car looking at each other, laughing our heads off and shivering!
What a fantastic day!! Thanks boys!

Should have stayed local Eva, we was down your neck of the woods and it was largely fine . It only rained when we got back after midday.


Tony.

 

[Rapples]

Should have stayed local Eva, we was down your neck of the woods and it was largely fine . It only rained when we got back after midday.


Tony.

Yebbut, we've experienced The Hell of the North

 

[outlash]

Lol, you should have been out with us last Sunday. That was properly cold.


Tony.

 

[Venod]

BBC breakfast weather said its an Easterly, so I planned a route, the cooling towers were telling me it was a Westerly so altered my plans, got ready to go out and the wind had changed to a Southerly !
so did this route.

http://www.bikemap.net/route/201957...9037&lng=-1.149865&zoom=12&maptype=ts_terrain

While I was having my Hobnob flap jack a bloke with the same frame as me (Planet X carbon) stopped for a chat, he got it for £700 from someone on the net looked immaculate to me, straight bars and the only thing that matched mine was the frame nice bike though.

Observations from the ride, a new wind turbine being erected east of Byram, not as cold as I thought it would be, overshoes on the wrong feet (noticed when taking them off) enjoyable ride on the road bike after a winter on the MTB.

 

[Rezillo]

To follow up on this, not only did I see him/her again today at the same spot but five miles away, another barn owl flew right across in front of me, so close I had to brake to avoid hitting it. I watched it fly round for a while but it didn't come back near me.

The other one at Worlingworth (now known as Barney) was hunting across a meadow and I watched it sweep and occasionally tumble down for about ten minutes. It then sat photogenically on a fence post 200m away

I only had a rubbish phone camera but here are a couple of distant shots of Barney:

Final follow-up on this and it is off-topic as I didn't ride past Barney today but drove to the spot with my camera. When I arrived, he was dismembering a small rodent by the roadside. Every now and then he looked up. I was less than 10m away - he was just off the verge, I was in my car.

He then flew off and obliging posed on various fence posts close by. I soon found out he was ok with me driving up to him but not me walking anywhere near him.

 

[Get In The Van]

snow snow snow and some more snow chucked in for good measure, not been out since last Sunday when my ride was again stopped by snow, although i did get 6 miles in before abandoning, forecast is grim in West Lothian for the next week with more snow on the way to add to the 6 inches i currently have in my garden.
boooooooo!