Your ride today.... (part 1)

[Saluki]

I got a quick ride out last night. I went off to meet Hubster from dialysis again. Its a nice ride but took me a minute or so longer than usual as the cyclepath was a bit frosty in the shaded area. Along the bit parallel to the A11 I snuck along at walking pace as I could feel the back tyre slipping and didn't fancy the short trip to A&E for the sake of a couple of mins. It was a well timed trip as I came around the roundabout at the hospital just as hubster was pulling into the layby to wait for me.
My feet were frozen solid. As it was only a 37 min ride I didn't bother with overshoes and had to check that I actually had feet when I got of the bike. It felt very strange to stand on frozen stiff feet as I couldn't feel them very well until I stamped about a bit.
I would have posted this last night but tinterweb was down (again)

 

[alans]

My ride was one of two halves - I spent the night outdoors under canvas.





Night riding - more folk should sample it. One's senses are heightened. There's less traffic. There's time to reflect and savour solitude.

My soul is suitable refreshed.

Absolutely cracking stuff Vernon
A ride that includes my 3 out of 4 of my favourite pastimes:cycling,night riding & camping.
I enjoyed reading that & it is a wee bit inspiring.In fact I'd admit to being a wee bit jealous.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Nigh on 50km. Into a headwind. On fixed. And I got a rear snakebite from the fairy.

 

[Dangermouse]

Great ride there Vernon, don't think I would have been able to move after that frost

 

[Dangermouse]

Nigh on 50km. Into a headwind. On fixed. And I got a rear snakebite from the fairy.

Don't you just love the fairy..............touch wood, I have been fine so far this year, the fairy has visited Eileen though.

 

[mooseracer]

After yesterday's welcome sunshine it was back to wind and rain this morning Still, got out for a 33 mile ride - ran out of energy at the end, i obviously didn't eat enough homemade Thai curry last night! (and to add insult to injury, I got back to find Mrs Moose tucking into the leftovers)

 

[potsy]

2nd longest ride of the year at 33 miles, started in light drizzle but it soon dried up, think it might have been a mistake to take the scenic route through the park today though

Back to ride leaders for coffee and a funny biscuit, enjoyed that.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Don't you just love the fairy..............touch wood, I have been fine so far this year, the fairy has visited Eileen though.

more visits so far in 2014 than in the previous three years combined. You gotta love that fairy.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Snuck out for a quick ride this morning with my OH. Went out to find some hills (again) and extended the route slightly to include some more.

Setting out was harder than expected but I had had a bad night with my asthma so it was no surprise that at the top of the first hill I needed to stop and take my inhalers! Living where we do, I don't get the easy warm up my lungs sometimes need... Whilst stationary 2 other cyclists asked us for directions - I still have no idea where the road is that they were after, but they said they wanted Delamere Forest, so that was easy enough to direct them and once we had them down the correct side road, we left them and headed onwards to more climbing... The first 40 mins of the route straight out of home are climbing, so this is an interesting 'warm up', after that there are simply no more hills until you have descended some first, so we headed off down hill and over the Cheshire flats over towards Chester where the headwind and light drizzle made for some interestingly hard work and slower times. From there it was to the next set of hills, up & over the hills around Kelsall and before long a cry of help from my OH... or more "STTOOOOOOPPPPP" as I shot off into the distance. Mechanical problems were a foot... now some of you know my OH's maintenance of his bikes from tales in the what have you fettled thread... and this was a case of exactly that... he has been ignoring a metal on metal knocking sound for several days of commuting (not even cleaning his bike let alone looking for the cause), blaming it on everything including my bike when I rode with him on Friday... now he was left without his middle chainring - it was hanging loose! It was only held on by 1 of the 5 locknuts (the other 4 will be somewhere on the Cheshire roads...) and needless to say it's all my fault ... Now strangely, locknut rings (at least that's what I think they are called) are not on my list of spares to carry on a short ride, in fact they don't even feature on the list for a long ride... so the only option was to put his chain onto the larger chain ring <cringe> and allow his to cross chain through all the remaining 8 gears </cringe> given some of the inclines we still had left (I had suggested taking 2 out of mine and dropping us both to 3 for the remaining 11 miles home but it was veto'ed).

After that not too much else happened until we got to the Whitegate Way where the road is closed... this time you can see much more daylight through the bridge...
(last time I was here was Monday http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today.8938/post-2948814) I can confirm that the road is very definitely still closed!

Otherwise it was a nice ride and we managed to get home before the rain arrived... always a bonus.
http://www.strava.com/activities/117168812

 

[GrasB]

Having spent several hours doing bike maintenance it was time to test the gears out on one bike. Do the usual thing of going through all the gears in each direction, so there I was pooling along in 1st gear when two riders pass me. 500m latter I'm on the top chainring making sure that the top gears shift properly when I pass them... somewhere north of 35mph . There were yells but I'd probably get banned for posting them.

 

[tug benson]

Out today with @Louch a nice easy 50 mile..weather was crazy in parts, very spring classic

http://www.strava.com/activities/117209568

This is me giving the wee horses a feed

 

[Louch]

winter miles for summer smiles! weekend ton done, this time last year I hadn't done 100 miles in the year yet

 

[G3CWI]

No ride for me but I did spend a productive afternoon rebuilding the rear wheel of the road bike. It's good to go so I'm looking forward to a nice day to test it.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

The forestry centre at Rosliston the destination, 61 miles the journey, on the geared bike and clipless for the first time since last October, I've been on fixed with clips and straps all winter, lovely ride out, dry with a tail wind, bombing along riding easy most of the way, just having to remember I've got gears to use and I have to twist out at junctions, riding into Rosliston i came across a horse and cart, it was a tubular steel construction pulled by two horses with a person seated controlling the team and someone stood on the back. The return leg wasn't so nice, grovelling into a head wind with intermittent showers, as I rode past the Beehive Farm I saw a recumbent Trike coming towards me, fully enclosed bodywork with just the riders head showing, I'm not sure I would want to be that low on a public road, just outside Polesworth I was caught by one of the club groups, on their way back from Newton Regis, sat in for a few miles before we went our separate ways, riding up Purley Chase I came across a rider who looked like he was doing Hill Reps,came flying past me as I rode up then when I was almost up he came back down again, though the ride out was nice it wasn't the nicest Sunday morning out on the bike, but I enjoyed it.

 

[gavgav]

1st ride of the Lake District holiday with @Rickshaw Phil . A 15 mile ride in what started out as drizzle but ended up as pouring rain! Got to get out and make the most of it up here though!

We did a circular route around coniston lake, starting out at bowmanstead and down the cycle path to torver. It was then up and down to high nibthwaite and back along the eastern shore, past brantwood (former home of John Ruskin). We then dropped down into coniston and back along the fields to our cottage for the week.

Great fun and more to follow as the week goes on

15 miles with avg speed 9.8mph (there was 1030 ft of climbing which slows you down up here!)