Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Rickshaw Phil]

Trying to get in touch with the organisers.

Well, I hope you have success.

I suppose with a Triban it's not going to be a huge cost if you have to get a replacement, but still something you could do without.

 

[Wayne Tully]

Indeed, I have a new set of wheels but a spoke popped last week on my second ride with them, so once they are sorted, no problem.

 

[Cush]

Got clever yesterday. Started to bash the bottom of the garden in to shape in the morning. In the afternoon got changed in to gym kit, had intended to use the Micra, then decided to ride to the gym, when SWMBO passed a sarky remark about old Ram dressed as lamb. It is only an eight mile round trip, got to the Rosehill roundabout on the A69 and as it started to rain it occurred to me I was wearing jogging trousers and fleece and my waterproofs were in my other pannier. Got wet before I got to the gym, worked out hard for two hours while watching the bike get a real heavy wash, rode back and got in just before another drop of rain. SWMBO cheerfully swinging the Micra keys and with the washing machine going full pelt could not get under a hot shower for nearly an hour. Moral that I should have learnt 40 years ago: Do not let SWMBO work up your ego.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Got up feeling pretty low TBH, got stuff in my head to deal with…so..what to do…jump on the bike and head off into the wild blue yonder..well West Sussex anyway.



Forcast was for the rain to hold off until this afternoon so I thought I’d head out on a familier route as I didn’t fancy getting lost as the rain came in. In the event I rode up through pulborough and turned south to Duncton hill just before reaching petworth. The wind was from the NW and for the first time in weeks it had a cool chill in it, Autum is approaching fast.



I stopped for a drink at a tesco express where the guy on the till won my award of the year for the happiest soul behind a checkout till! Maybe he was a secret lottery winner just filling time before the chauffer picked him up in the limo or something!

The wind slowed my average speed down a fair bit, but I’m not out there for stats, I’m just enjoying the ride and leaving a few demons along the side of the roads.



Two close passes, both HGV’s, both rushing to get past over double white lines into oncoming traffic that had to slow down to a halt to let them cut me up..situation normal then.







I headed back through the villages of Slindon and Yapton. In Yapton I stopped and sat on the park bench just people watching, it’s amazing how many full grown men still ride those small bikes with saddles lower than the pedals with their jeans down around their backsides with baseball caps on backwards.



The bike rolled really well now I’ve figured out how to stop the rear wheel wobble of late.

I felt like riding another 50 miles, I easy have that in my legs, but the sky is getting darker and riding in the rain isn’t my fav thing…so I choose a sandwich and a cup of tea and classic rock radio!

 

[London Female]

Got up feeling pretty low TBH, got stuff in my head to deal with…so..what to do…jump on the bike and head off into the wild blue yonder..well West Sussex anyway.



Forcast was for the rain to hold off until this afternoon so I thought I’d head out on a familier route as I didn’t fancy getting lost as the rain came in. In the event I rode up through pulborough and turned south to Duncton hill just before reaching petworth. The wind was from the NW and for the first time in weeks it had a cool chill in it, Autum is approaching fast.



I stopped for a drink at a tesco express where the guy on the till won my award of the year for the happiest soul behind a checkout till! Maybe he was a secret lottery winner just filling time before the chauffer picked him up in the limo or something!

The wind slowed my average speed down a fair bit, but I’m not out there for stats, I’m just enjoying the ride and leaving a few demons along the side of the roads.



Two close passes, both HGV’s, both rushing to get past over double white lines into oncoming traffic that had to slow down to a halt to let them cut me up..situation normal then.







I headed back through the villages of Slindon and Yapton. In Yapton I stopped and sat on the park bench just people watching, it’s amazing how many full grown men still ride those small bikes with saddles lower than the pedals with their jeans down around their backsides with baseball caps on backwards.



The bike rolled really well now I’ve figured out how to stop the rear wheel wobble of late.

I felt like riding another 50 miles, I easy have that in my legs, but the sky is getting darker and riding in the rain isn’t my fav thing…so I choose a sandwich and a cup of tea and classic rock radio!

Looks like a lovely day out, beautiful photos. For the second time this week my daughter asked me to take her for a bike ride, nothing nearly as long as yours though but we have been lucky and the rain stayed away and she enjoyed it and of course so did I because we went together. Waiting for her to upload the photos.

 

[PK99]

B***er!

How did that happen!

Weather was looking good this morning, so I thought I'd go out for a 15 mile pootle round Richmond Park. Part way round I was feeling good and the sun was shining. So, out of Ham Gate it had to be, Kingston and back sounded good. At Kingston, Hampton Court sounded better.

At Hampton Court, the idea of a pootle along the river to Walton on Thames struck a chord. Well, Weybridge is not much further. At Weybridge, Chertsey and Staines beckoned.

The sign in Staines to Datchet and Eton proved irresistible, as did the sign in Windsor for the Great Park.

A slightly more direct route back via Egham, Staines, Shepperton and Bushey Park before completing the circuit of Richmond Park.

That's how a 15 mile pootle morphed into a 75 mile day ride!

Now, if I had set out on the Van Nic rather then the Tricross, it might have turned into a Century!

B***er!

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Looks like a lovely day out, beautiful photos. For the second time this week my daughter asked me to take her for a bike ride, nothing nearly as long as yours though but we have been lucky and the rain stayed away and she enjoyed it and of course so did I because we went together. Waiting for her to upload the photos.

It must be special to ride with her...I'd like to ride with my son but that won't happen.

 

[derrick]

A short 14 miles tonight, the rain stopped play so cut the ride short. came past our local LBS so popped in for a cuppa and came out with some new lights.

 

[London Female]

It must be special to ride with her...I'd like to ride with my son but that won't happen.

Sorry to hear that. To be honest, I had given up hope of either of my children coming out with me and it was a complete surprise that she asked me to take her out.

 

[HLaB]

Lazily copied and pasted from the My Commute Thread:

Made up for my lack of training ride last night with a quick session on the rollers after the football, but still felt I needed some road miles and extended my AM Commute to something like this. A really enjoyable commute, quite a fast start (well as fast as the ageing 13.5kg fixie with D'Lock allows), took the wrong cross roads and went by Stilton (I had originally thought to go by the B660 and Glatton to Holme), I had the time though so I took the diversion to Holme (which meant a little bit of backing up on yourself because somebody decided to put the A1(M) in the way. After Holme straight into the wind in the wind the ave came down a bit but thats an almost traffic free route into town and thus enjoyable

 

[ska1903]

Wife and daughter away for a couple of days so went on a wee jolly straight from work. Only did 17 miles so nothing compared to most of you but longest i have done in a looong time! Was knackered afterwards and still feeling it today.

http://www.strava.com/activities/81508405

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Once again the weather forcast was showing a dry morning and a wetish afternoon, which is fine until the dreaded WIND word is mentioned. It was supposed to come from the North west but it was from the north east all morning, and pretty strong as well. The choice was to ride into oblivion or wimp out and regret the decision to ride into oblivion, so there was no choice really.

I decided to ride a very similar route to yesterday because of the wind direction. Only this time I headed into Petworth and then down to Fontwell.


Worthing>Shoreham>Steyning>storrington>Pulborough>Petworth>Duncton>Fontwell>Littlehampton>Bognor regis>Worthing



Near Steyning the same lorry (Robyns of Herstmoneaux) passed even closer than he had done yesterday, and In Storrington some dippy blonde 20 something girl yelled abuse at me from her passenger window as she passed to close. She made it all of 20 m before she had to stop at the lights where I knocked on her window and invited her to wind it down and talk to me about her problem. Like most cowardly drivers she opten to leave the window up but continue yelling abuse at me then sped off in a screech of rubber and almost wiped out an elderly lady crossing the road. She was probably pissed because my hair looked better than hers.

The wind was getting cooler and stronger and I was riding right into it, 20 odd miles to pulborough. I was tempted to turn back but being a stubborn bugger than was not an option. I made it to the hill leading up into Petworth when…zap..clunk wtf….front mech decided to go on strike. The dam thing suddenly decided it wasn’t going to shift onto the small front cog. Great. So I pulled up and set to it with a multi tool and the firm conviction that I had no clue what I was doing, but I was going to do it anyway! Tightening the cable didn’t work, messing with limit screws just made it worse. I managed to get it back to where I started and rode onwards on just the big front cog. Which was fine until I reached the minor problem of the BLOODY WHACKING GREAT PIG OF A HILL at Duncton! So It was jump off and set the chain on the small cog manually time. And so it went on, fine on the flats and downhills, but to get up a hill I had to stop and re set the chain each time.



This went on and on until the Gods of cycling provided a bike shop where I had never seen a bike shop before. D&D cycles, take a bow. The guy dropped the job he was on and sorted out my mech a nd re indexed the rear mech as well, all for a £5’r which I had to insist he take.

So it was onwards through Yapton and back to Boab mansions just in time to I reckon looking at the sky!

I didn’t take many pictures as I was to busy riding on one cog trying to get back before the promised rain.

So a slow ride with a few ‘challenges’, but fun nevertheless.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

...actually I ve just been looking at my gps screenshots for today vs yesterday...almost bang on the same ave speed time etc even with a buggered front mech....hmmm...why was i so slow yesterday then

 

[nickyboy]

A bit wet and miserable up here in the Peak District but there was a little window so just did a little training ride from home, up to the top of the Snake Pass and back home. Only 19km
Wouldn't normally mention it but rather an odd experience on top of the Snake. I had stopped for a rest and a drink before heading back down. There was already a Porsche Cayenne parked nearby with an Asian couple in it. The Cayenne drove over to me, passenger window came down, woman said "would you mind if I had a ride on your bike? I have always wanted to ride a bike somewhere like this". Now, I was knocked back a bit by this, nobody has ever asked me before. Mind started racing....would she ride off, husband drive off, leaving me with a long walk home? Was this some elaborate bike thief scam??
I bottled it, told her the bike was probably a bit big for her. Of course she was almost certainly genuine and I denied her a nice but rather bizarre experience but I didn't fancy the 0.1% chance of a walk all the way back to Glossop and have to explain to the police that I was scammed on the Snake

 

[BigonaBianchi]

A bit wet and miserable up here in the Peak District but there was a little window so just did a little training ride from home, up to the top of the Snake Pass and back home. Only 19km
Wouldn't normally mention it but rather an odd experience on top of the Snake. I had stopped for a rest and a drink before heading back down. There was already a Porsche Cayenne parked nearby with an Asian couple in it. The Cayenne drove over to me, passenger window came down, woman said "would you mind if I had a ride on your bike? I have always wanted to ride a bike somewhere like this". Now, I was knocked back a bit by this, nobody has ever asked me before. Mind started racing....would she ride off, husband drive off, leaving me with a long walk home? Was this some elaborate bike thief scam??
I bottled it, told her the bike was probably a bit big for her. Of course she was almost certainly genuine and I denied her a nice but rather bizarre experience but I didn't fancy the 0.1% chance of a walk all the way back to Glossop and have to explain to the police that I was scammed on the Snake

...hmm..well i would have said yes...while i waited in the porsche