Did a ride with the small club today, 59 miles on the commute bike. I left he road bike at home as it was pouring down when I left and I preferred tyres with some grip. The commute bike is a commutecross (Giant TCX). The group decided on a 5 miles fast and flat bit (avg 23mph) which was fun, but then followed a 3 mile uphill (avg 12mph) which killed my legs. After that things got flat and steady for the last 8 miles.
Your ride today.... (part 1)
- Thread starter gbb
- Start date
- Status
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
- Location
- Glasgow
Ouch, gws!
- Location
- Glasgow
Fell into a ditch today, while not looking where I was riding as I was chatting 
About 42 miles of beautiful country side with the "A better way to work" folks, killer hill offset by a free lunch
Very slow Strava here it was a social beginners ride ... that's my excuse, I'm sticking to it
My partners in crime (I'm not in this picture 'cause I'm taking it
)
Sign on the cyclepath: note distances/times: it refers to walking ... what do they mean by that??
About 42 miles of beautiful country side with the "A better way to work" folks, killer hill offset by a free lunch
Very slow Strava here it was a social beginners ride ... that's my excuse, I'm sticking to it
My partners in crime (I'm not in this picture 'cause I'm taking it
)
Sign on the cyclepath: note distances/times: it refers to walking ... what do they mean by that??
my riding partners are both back from holiday, so just after 7am we hit the trails, raining and lovely and muddy lots of trails lots of singletrack, had to remove glasses as I could barely see anything but that meant riding blind through anything low hanging
Route: MTB Trails Loop
Activity: Mountain Bike
Started: 25 Aug 2013 07:10:56
Ride Time: 1:46:28
Distance: 13.01 miles
Average Speed: 7.33 mph
Fastest Speed: 22.45 mph
Ascent: 1526 feet
Descent: 1523 feet
Average Heart Rate: 140 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate: 168 bpm
Bike: Scott Scale 970
Shoes: Teva Links
best part is having switched my stem for a shorter one, the bike is now riding how i wanted it, i can finally control the front much better and it's a joy to ride.
Route: MTB Trails Loop
Activity: Mountain Bike
Started: 25 Aug 2013 07:10:56
Ride Time: 1:46:28
Distance: 13.01 miles
Average Speed: 7.33 mph
Fastest Speed: 22.45 mph
Ascent: 1526 feet
Descent: 1523 feet
Average Heart Rate: 140 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate: 168 bpm
Bike: Scott Scale 970
Shoes: Teva Links
best part is having switched my stem for a shorter one, the bike is now riding how i wanted it, i can finally control the front much better and it's a joy to ride.
numbnuts
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gone over the hill and far away
Rain stopped play 
I had planned to take eldest son to ride to Wigton this morning, he's moving soon and needs to know the way by bike , but he didn't get up!
Instead I set off by myself, got as far as Dalston and decided I didn't fancy the distance on my own so turned round and found the nearest downhill. Shortcutted (sort of) down a lane aiming for the riverside path back home, and remembered a woodland path Mr6 and I discovered last year, so went for a jolly over two fences and a stile, for what turned out to be a much shorter stretch of woodland than I remembered.
Still, it was a nice ride of 15 miles and now I know just how high I can lift the 29er.
Instead I set off by myself, got as far as Dalston and decided I didn't fancy the distance on my own so turned round and found the nearest downhill. Shortcutted (sort of) down a lane aiming for the riverside path back home, and remembered a woodland path Mr6 and I discovered last year, so went for a jolly over two fences and a stile, for what turned out to be a much shorter stretch of woodland than I remembered.
Still, it was a nice ride of 15 miles and now I know just how high I can lift the 29er.
D
Deleted member 23692
Guest
Finally got round to doing a ride I'd been aiming to do for a while - Home to Hartside (add back )...riding out from Carlisle to pick up the fellside road, and then back via the Eden and Pettrill valleys. Hartside was in cloud, so I didn't hang around too long: just long enough for a cuppa and a chunk of Mars Bar Cake 
A tad over 52miles and 4200ft ascent. Average speed of 14mph which isn't the best, but I don't think my legs like me today
Time for beer now
)...riding out from Carlisle to pick up the fellside road, and then back via the Eden and Pettrill valleys. Hartside was in cloud, so I didn't hang around too long: just long enough for a cuppa and a chunk of Mars Bar Cake A tad over 52miles and 4200ft ascent. Average speed of 14mph which isn't the best, but I don't think my legs like me today
Time for beer now
SatNavSaysStraightOn
Changed hemispheres!
- Location
- ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ 'ɐɹɹǝquɐƆ
Today's ride didn't go to plan, though it was 'distance completed' just not in the manner expected.
We set out through Delamere Forest via the road route (on our road bikes)... OK so far. Off through various villages and not long after leaving Ashton, less than 20% of the way into our route, I started having gear change problems. Only the lower 3 gears on each of the chain rings was available. Somewhat annoying, but I was able to resolve it and had myself convinced that the problem lay with the gear cable, but I had all my gears back so ignored the problem and continued with the ride. Part way down a hill I managed to confuse another solo rider who was almost on the point of asking me if I was OK as I coasted along at the stunning speed of 5.6kph with a cadence of 17rpm trying my hardest to see how slowly I could go in the gear I was in until my OH caught me up. He had stopped for a call of nature... The conversation with my OH started off "I take it all was revealed to the oncoming cyclist in a literal not physical sense?" "yep.", nuff said. Then off into Chester along the A56 until We picked up the "green way" following it until it met the Shropshire Union Canal. This was a little on the busy side with walkers & dogs and shoppers and just generally more interesting when I wasn't having to avoid people/dogs or bridges. All of the bridges are cobbled underneath them and it makes for an interesting ride when the cyclepath narrows and picks up cobble stones... Along the way we did cycle through an interesting gorge through Chester, but I failed to take any photos. We continued to follow it until we got to the bike shop we were after... The entire purpose of the ride was to pick up some new bar tape for my Triban 3 to try to help with some ongoing nerve issues in my left hand (nothing to do with position, but an old injury that required 11 operations over 15 years to resolve).
After that it was back to the Shropshire Union Canal - not something we will repeat on a road bike... We saw our average speed plumpet, and it was rather bumpy, but did provide us with a nice lunch stop at a bench.
From there life deteriorated as far as gears were concerned and before long I only had 2 gears available to me. 42/13 & 52/13 and there was the hill up & over Kelsall still to negiotate, plus all the up & downs of the backlanes of Cheshire country roads around Delamere. I did make it (just...) there was a lot of standing on the pedals, a lot of cursing and a lot of what is going on with my bike. We stopped to check what was going on and to be honest, I wished I hadn't. The bike was in a LBS less than 2 weeks ago for rear indexing issues and he missed this problem completely: a quick examination of the entire length of the gear cable revealed that the gear cable was very badly frayed at the gear lever. In fact it was that badly frayed that it was down to 2 strands of wire holding it together. The rest were bunched up stopping the cable sliding through the sheath.
For the remainder of the route, I was stuck with 52/13 or 42/13 as my only gear options and to make matters worse - THE SUN CAME OUT! like I needed that when I was having to stand on the pedals to go uphill (and had forgotten to put suncream on this morning, or bring it - I got burnt on Wednesday (fair skin, red hair and long term steriod use have left me really sensitive to sunlight at the moment).
I made it home in a respectable time - didn't walk any of the uphills, average is slightly lower than usual and I now know what this afternoons tasks are! gear cable replacement - luckily I have some spare in a drawer... http://www.strava.com/activities/77384796
EDIT: cause found inside the (rear derailuer) gear shifter and the cables I have are brake cables not gear cables, so off to a bike shop tomorrow. and not the same one that missed this less than 2 weeks ago when I took the bike in because I could not get the rear indexing sorted. - he probably won't be open on a bank holiday anyway.
We set out through Delamere Forest via the road route (on our road bikes)... OK so far. Off through various villages and not long after leaving Ashton, less than 20% of the way into our route, I started having gear change problems. Only the lower 3 gears on each of the chain rings was available. Somewhat annoying, but I was able to resolve it and had myself convinced that the problem lay with the gear cable, but I had all my gears back so ignored the problem and continued with the ride. Part way down a hill I managed to confuse another solo rider who was almost on the point of asking me if I was OK as I coasted along at the stunning speed of 5.6kph with a cadence of 17rpm trying my hardest to see how slowly I could go in the gear I was in until my OH caught me up. He had stopped for a call of nature... The conversation with my OH started off "I take it all was revealed to the oncoming cyclist in a literal not physical sense?" "yep.", nuff said. Then off into Chester along the A56 until We picked up the "green way" following it until it met the Shropshire Union Canal. This was a little on the busy side with walkers & dogs and shoppers and just generally more interesting when I wasn't having to avoid people/dogs or bridges. All of the bridges are cobbled underneath them and it makes for an interesting ride when the cyclepath narrows and picks up cobble stones... Along the way we did cycle through an interesting gorge through Chester, but I failed to take any photos. We continued to follow it until we got to the bike shop we were after... The entire purpose of the ride was to pick up some new bar tape for my Triban 3 to try to help with some ongoing nerve issues in my left hand (nothing to do with position, but an old injury that required 11 operations over 15 years to resolve).
After that it was back to the Shropshire Union Canal - not something we will repeat on a road bike... We saw our average speed plumpet, and it was rather bumpy, but did provide us with a nice lunch stop at a bench.
From there life deteriorated as far as gears were concerned and before long I only had 2 gears available to me. 42/13 & 52/13 and there was the hill up & over Kelsall still to negiotate, plus all the up & downs of the backlanes of Cheshire country roads around Delamere. I did make it (just...) there was a lot of standing on the pedals, a lot of cursing and a lot of what is going on with my bike. We stopped to check what was going on and to be honest, I wished I hadn't. The bike was in a LBS less than 2 weeks ago for rear indexing issues and he missed this problem completely: a quick examination of the entire length of the gear cable revealed that the gear cable was very badly frayed at the gear lever. In fact it was that badly frayed that it was down to 2 strands of wire holding it together. The rest were bunched up stopping the cable sliding through the sheath.
For the remainder of the route, I was stuck with 52/13 or 42/13 as my only gear options and to make matters worse - THE SUN CAME OUT! like I needed that when I was having to stand on the pedals to go uphill (and had forgotten to put suncream on this morning, or bring it - I got burnt on Wednesday (fair skin, red hair and long term steriod use have left me really sensitive to sunlight at the moment).
I made it home in a respectable time - didn't walk any of the uphills, average is slightly lower than usual and I now know what this afternoons tasks are! gear cable replacement - luckily I have some spare in a drawer... http://www.strava.com/activities/77384796
EDIT: cause found inside the (rear derailuer) gear shifter and the cables I have are brake cables not gear cables, so off to a bike shop tomorrow.
and not the same one that missed this less than 2 weeks ago when I took the bike in because I could not get the rear indexing sorted. - he probably won't be open on a bank holiday anyway.
Saluki
World class procrastinator
- Location
- ...Norwich over the water.
Today I rode the Fakenham 50 (and a bit). I rode with hubby for a lap of 50km (which turned out to be 55km) and then hubby went for a burger and a sit down while I rode the additional 22km lap from Fakenham to Walsingham and back in a loop. Walsingham was a bit tricky as it was wall to wall pilgrims. We were held up for well over 10 minutes on the second loop (only 5 mins on the first loop).
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/275357471 Riding through the grounds of Holkham Hall was brilliant, no traffic what so ever, just other bikes.
My riding time was 4:01:56 for 49.12 miles. I was actually out some 50 minutes longer. We had a good 5 mins or so at each of the 3 food stops. Crossing some of the busy roads took an age too. At one of the last busy crossings we (about 6 of us) were there for nearly 10 minutes while caravan after caravan was towed past by disgruntled looking people.
At the second visit to Walsingham, I met up with 5 or 6 other riders (from a club in Gt Yarmouth) and asked what sort of pace they were riding at, they said averaging 18kph and I asked if I could ride with them. I rode along with a lovely lady, only been riding since May last year but had a rough beginning to this year with ops and stuff. I was feeling pretty knackered by the time I met up with them but the last 7 or so miles back with them was lovely. We had a long stop at the top of a hill as one of the chaps had chronic cramp, poor guy. It was really nice to ride with others. I would have probably ridden faster by myself and made myself even more knackered.
My first longer ride for a few weeks and I loved it.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/275357471 Riding through the grounds of Holkham Hall was brilliant, no traffic what so ever, just other bikes.
My riding time was 4:01:56 for 49.12 miles. I was actually out some 50 minutes longer. We had a good 5 mins or so at each of the 3 food stops. Crossing some of the busy roads took an age too. At one of the last busy crossings we (about 6 of us) were there for nearly 10 minutes while caravan after caravan was towed past by disgruntled looking people.
At the second visit to Walsingham, I met up with 5 or 6 other riders (from a club in Gt Yarmouth) and asked what sort of pace they were riding at, they said averaging 18kph and I asked if I could ride with them. I rode along with a lovely lady, only been riding since May last year but had a rough beginning to this year with ops and stuff. I was feeling pretty knackered by the time I met up with them but the last 7 or so miles back with them was lovely. We had a long stop at the top of a hill as one of the chaps had chronic cramp, poor guy. It was really nice to ride with others. I would have probably ridden faster by myself and made myself even more knackered.
My first longer ride for a few weeks and I loved it.
Martyn H
Senior Member
32.5 miles via a BBQ
It was our village BBQ after all, so, one not to miss. Got talking, and may have talked someone into joining me for a cycle ride in the future. After much munching of burgers etc. I set off along the back roads through Hawick and Denholm before turning for home. Plenty of 
and only a light breeze. I'm now home and showered and sitting with some homemade coffee and walnut cake. All in all, not a bad Sunday.
It was our village BBQ after all, so, one not to miss. Got talking, and may have talked someone into joining me for a cycle ride in the future. After much munching of burgers etc. I set off along the back roads through Hawick and Denholm before turning for home. Plenty of and only a light breeze. I'm now home and showered and sitting with some homemade coffee and walnut cake. All in all, not a bad Sunday.Saddle adjusted....check
New cycle computer fitted....check
New cycle computer adjusted so it works....check
Tell self not going for a ride today....check
Change mind and go for a quick 5 miles again....check
Strava working on my phone today....check
Fastest time to 1/2 way point....check
Realise wind was behind me on the way out and now it's against me....check
Legs burning and butt hurting....check
Remember to fit gel seat cover when I get back....check
...and relax
New cycle computer fitted....check
New cycle computer adjusted so it works....check
Tell self not going for a ride today....check
Change mind and go for a quick 5 miles again....check
Strava working on my phone today....check
Fastest time to 1/2 way point....check
Realise wind was behind me on the way out and now it's against me....check
Legs burning and butt hurting....check
Remember to fit gel seat cover when I get back....check
...and relax
G3CWI
Veteran
- Location
- Macclesfield
Nipped across to Bakewell to try out TripAdvisor's top rated cafe. Nice fry up. Then across to Blaze Farm for afternoon tea and home again. Deliberate choice of route to maximise ascent: 4,900ft (57 miles). Day of rest tomorrow.
One cyclist overtook me. Grrrr.
One cyclist overtook me. Grrrr.
G3CWI
Veteran
- Location
- Macclesfield
Saddle adjusted....check
...and relax
Red Twotter: BAS?
Puddles
Do I need to get the spray plaster out?
- Location
- Hamble, Southampton
I did a whole 0.28 of a mile from home to parents house, to home, back to parents house, to home today.
Smallest person has become a cling on since holiday so it is easier to shove her in the bike trailer to go any where outside the house as she attempts to climb up my leg. Then decided that she could live without me so I came home alone for a couple of hours to get their post-holiday ironing done then it was back to collect her.
But I did peer at sleeper trains to scotland and stuff around inverness as a possibility
Smallest person has become a cling on since holiday so it is easier to shove her in the bike trailer to go any where outside the house as she attempts to climb up my leg. Then decided that she could live without me so I came home alone for a couple of hours to get their post-holiday ironing done then it was back to collect her.
But I did peer at sleeper trains to scotland and stuff around inverness as a possibility
- Status
