Your ride today....

[Dave 123]

Reacquainted with my mountain bike tonight for a ride on and around the Wimpole ridge. Not many birds at all, only a few sheep and a miserable bloke walking 3 Doberman dogs.
The ground was as hard as iron, in the rutted bits my bingo wings wrapped fully round my weedy biceps. I could have let some pressure out of the tyres but where's the fun in that?

I wasn't intending to go down the fast track into Eversden but at the last minute I couldn't resist. I never give it full beans from top to bottom, and tonight I couldn't have as my legs were cooked from my first spin session in 5 weeks last night, but I still got 5th over all on the strava segment...... there's a challenge.

Not much sunshine about but the cloudy sky was nice and interesting

Almost 18 miles, my calves are so sore!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1709181372

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

A short 8.5 miles this morning to meet the wife as she came out of work. Took what I affectionately call the worst road bike in the world, and got there in 34 and a half minutes. 15 minutes quicker than the last time when I took the MTB.

Despite my lack of experience on the bike due to my reluctance to ride it, I did enjoy the ride and arrived right on time.

My wife has said that I may get a new, decent road bike for Christmas. In the meantime, I’ll get more experience in the road bike I have.

Why don’t I like the bike? A number of reasons. I could buy the upgrades I’d like to make it better, but the frame is not worth more than a couple of quid.

Today’s was a great ride though. I did notice the vibration from the dubious road surfaces. I could have traveled at a faster speed but the twitchy handling of the bike, the difficulty changing gear (thumb shifters near the stem) and the jolt I felt hitting a tiny pothole on 23mm tyres made me feel a little lack of confidence traveling at speed.

 

[Dark46]

Finally got to go out with @Donger , first time in absolutely ages.

I met him at his local bridge and we set off through Stonebridge and out on the Elmore loop. We turn right to towards the River Severn and just took it easy ad @Donger legs were still aching from the KCC ride last Sunday and my lack on time on the bike.

Going around we came up across a couple of horses and riders, both polite and happy we spoke. I was amazed how little traffic there was about considering we left at 09:00, I know it's not a traffic hotspot but still surprised.

It's always a pleasure to ride with @Donger as the chat is always good and the views around here are great.

Half way around the loop we turned off towards Epney and the river wall which you always see something different . Once we passed Saul we turned right towards Arlingham and Fetherene.

This is where we met the most traffic, but 5 vehicles hardly counts as traffic lol. Once we got to the end I took the opportunity for a few pics and a quick sip from the water bottle.

I wasn't looking forward to the trip back as it's mostly up hill, but @Donger suggested we went back another way which was good. So we headed off to Framilode and again lovely clear lanes .
Getting to Saul we headed back towards Elmore. It was at Epney we had to stop as thete seemed to be a slight problem with a tempary set of traffic lights. First time we had to stop for anything.

We got back to the Elmore loop where we turn right to complete the loop before heading back.

The ride in total for me was 26.8 miles and great to be back out and I'm already of thinking of doing it again later this week.

Thanks again to @Donger for making it such an enjoyable ride.

 

[welsh dragon]

A 17 mile bimble for me today. It rained slightly but after about 5 minutes or stopped and was completely dry for the rest of the way.

My usual loop today. The river Dovey Is getting lower and lower and the fields are turning Brown. At least the farmers have harvested all the grass.

Quite warm in the sun. There were some very dark clouds but thankfully the rain held off.

 

[13 rider]

Yesterday ride . I am on holiday in Cornwall and had a mad idea to do an imperial ton while I'm here . The high temperatures had so far out me off. But yesterday the weather cooled so it was on. I had found a route of the coast and clays Sportive which past within 4 miles of my accommodation. Out the door at 0530 . Straight up the 250ft climb out if Holywell Bay ( I bored with it now )it's the only way out . Out to Newlyn east to pick up the route . Newquay and up the coast road to Padstow then went northly just to catch a edge of Bodmin moor . Then across the county to the manmade landscape of the clay working which had a strange beauty . Finally heading homeward pulled into a post office which also served good and coffee . Sat at the picnic table feeling smug with 85 miles on the clock when a touring cyclist rolled in got chatting and he'd come from southern Portugal ( not in 1 day ) . He's on a 2 year tour and was heading to Wales then Ireland and Scotland considering hed cycle over the Pyrenees He said it was hilly here I had to agree . A few more hilly miles home ,1 hiccup as the gps powered down at 95 mile I had forgot to charge it . In total 103 miles with 8500ft of upness so only 85 feet per mile which just about counts asflat down here . A tough ride but happy to have got round still at 14.2 mph . Weather was beginning to warm up as I got back wouldnt have fancied it last week in the searing heat

https://www.strava.com/activities/1711141773
Strava link if you want to see where I went because most of the time I didn't really now where I was

 

[Donger]

A Tale of Two Rides:

(1)Towards the end of last Sunday's club ride we had a little bit of an incident at some temporary traffic lights in the village of Longney. We were really strung out (by at least half a mile, maybe a mile) at the time the guys at the front hit a red light just before our re-grouping point. All of them stopped to wait for the lights to change. By the time I turned up, they were wondering whether the lights were actually working, and a minute or so later the consensus was that they weren't. Slightly against our better judgment, we all decided to carefully filter past the traffic light and go on our way. At that exact moment, angry driver man turns up behind us and sounds his horn. It probably didn't look good, and it felt like we might have been in the wrong, so you could understand a little frustration from someone who had just turned up. A few seconds later he screeches up and stops in front of us with his door wide open across the road and proceeds to lecture us all about the Highway Code. "What makes you lot think traffic lights don't apply to you?" he shouts, adding that ""I've got it all on camera" before manhandling a couple of riders and trying to start something. I tried to calm him down and pointed out that my clubmates had genuinely thought the lights were stuck. Nothing made any difference to him, so we just rode off.

(2) This morning I had a very pleasant ride with @Dark46 down to Arlingham and back, and we happened to come up to the same set of traffic lights, once again on red. This time there were four cars in front of us at the lights, suggesting that they had been red for some time. A Royal Mail van came the other way and stopped to pass on a message to the leading driver and then drove off. The leading car driver then put his arm out of the window and did a "wagons roll" signal, leading the other three cars through the red light, followed by @Dark46 and me on our bikes. Mr Angry wasn't around to witness it this time, but I suspect if he lives round there he'll soon end up waiting for ten minutes in the vain hope of the lights changing for him! What was really noticeable was that, when it was car drivers deciding to ride through a red light, nobody objected, nobody got upset and nobody felt it necessary to start a diatribe against a whole class of road users based on a snap judgment as to what seemed to be going on.

I am feeling vindicated today, but this whole affair just reinforces something I've always felt ... that we cyclists need to be squeaky clean to try to make up for the indiscretions of other cyclists .... and that when you are all wearing club shirts, you can easily bring social media wrath upon your clubs for the slightest infraction (or perceived infraction) of the rules of the road. I haven't seen anything about it yet, but who knows? I now wonder exactly how long you are supposed to wait at a broken traffic light before it is appropriate to make a common sense call to move off cautiously. Darned if I know. Seems to depend on whether you are a cyclist or not.

Donger.

 

[NorthernDave]

A Tale of Two Rides:

(1)Towards the end of last Sunday's club ride we had a little bit of an incident at some temporary traffic lights in the village of Longney. We were really strung out (by at least half a mile, maybe a mile) at the time the guys at the front hit a red light just before our re-grouping point. All of them stopped to wait for the lights to change. By the time I turned up, they were wondering whether the lights were actually working, and a minute or so later the consensus was that they weren't. Slightly against our better judgment, we all decided to carefully filter past the traffic light and go on our way. At that exact moment, angry driver man turns up behind us and sounds his horn. It probably didn't look good, and it felt like we might have been in the wrong, so you could understand a little frustration from someone who had just turned up. A few seconds later he screeches up and stops in front of us with his door wide open across the road and proceeds to lecture us all about the Highway Code. "What makes you lot think traffic lights don't apply to you?" he shouts, adding that ""I've got it all on camera" before manhandling a couple of riders and trying to start something. I tried to calm him down and pointed out that my clubmates had genuinely thought the lights were stuck. Nothing made any difference to him, so we just rode off.

(2) This morning I had a very pleasant ride with @Dark46 down to Arlingham and back, and we happened to come up to the same set of traffic lights, once again on red. This time there were four cars in front of us at the lights, suggesting that they had been red for some time. A Royal Mail van came the other way and stopped to pass on a message to the leading driver and then drove off. The leading car driver then put his arm out of the window and did a "wagons roll" signal, leading the other three cars through the red light, followed by @Dark46 and me on our bikes. Mr Angry wasn't around to witness it this time, but I suspect if he lives round there he'll soon end up waiting for ten minutes in the vain hope of the lights changing for him! What was really noticeable was that, when it was car drivers deciding to ride through a red light, nobody objected, nobody got upset and nobody felt it necessary to start a diatribe against a whole class of road users based on a snap judgment as to what seemed to be going on.

I am feeling vindicated today, but this whole affair just reinforces something I've always felt ... that we cyclists need to be squeaky clean to try to make up for the indiscretions of other cyclists .... and that when you are all wearing club shirts, you can easily bring social media wrath upon your clubs for the slightest infraction (or perceived infraction) of the rules of the road. I haven't seen anything about it yet, but who knows? I now wonder exactly how long you are supposed to wait at a broken traffic light before it is appropriate to make a common sense call to move off cautiously. Darned if I know. Seems to depend on whether you are a cyclist or not.

Donger.

I've been in the same position - there are two sets of traffic lights near here that are "on demand" - effectively they operate as traffic calming, sitting on red until tripped, then changing to green having brought traffic to an almost stop - unfortunately they are very poor at detecting a bike rider. Not a problem if I'm out during the day when it's busier, but early on a Sunday morning you could sit there for 10 minutes waiting for a nice metal box driver to turn up and activate them.
Both sets have been reported, one was sorted within a week or two* and the other appears to have been left untouched despite several requests.

Temporary traffic lights are also a PITA as it seems that if anything goes wrong they now failsafe to all red and you're expected to sort yourself out, leading to events as described above.

* - however the road has since been resurfaced and they are back to their old tricks again

 

[Dave 123]

A tandem ride to the Red Lion in Histon to meet our friends. We were sat on a table near the pétanque court, then lots of middle aged blokes turned up and gave us very dirty looks..... I got the feeling we were on THEIR table. No sign to tell us, but we should know...... the ladies said 'we should move' but I was quite happy to stay. Eventually we did move though I would have just sat there.
Here they are

The bloke in green is a Frenchman, he was said ultra serious about his ball chucking!

We'd forgotten to take lights, and we were borderline on the way home, naughty!

The people on the A14 were all lit up.
14 warm miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1711713059

 

[Stonechat]

A Tale of Two Rides:

(1)Towards the end of last Sunday's club ride we had a little bit of an incident at some temporary traffic lights in the village of Longney. We were really strung out (by at least half a mile, maybe a mile) at the time the guys at the front hit a red light just before our re-grouping point. All of them stopped to wait for the lights to change. By the time I turned up, they were wondering whether the lights were actually working, and a minute or so later the consensus was that they weren't. Slightly against our better judgment, we all decided to carefully filter past the traffic light and go on our way. At that exact moment, angry driver man turns up behind us and sounds his horn. It probably didn't look good, and it felt like we might have been in the wrong, so you could understand a little frustration from someone who had just turned up. A few seconds later he screeches up and stops in front of us with his door wide open across the road and proceeds to lecture us all about the Highway Code. "What makes you lot think traffic lights don't apply to you?" he shouts, adding that ""I've got it all on camera" before manhandling a couple of riders and trying to start something. I tried to calm him down and pointed out that my clubmates had genuinely thought the lights were stuck. Nothing made any difference to him, so we just rode off.

(2) This morning I had a very pleasant ride with @Dark46 down to Arlingham and back, and we happened to come up to the same set of traffic lights, once again on red. This time there were four cars in front of us at the lights, suggesting that they had been red for some time. A Royal Mail van came the other way and stopped to pass on a message to the leading driver and then drove off. The leading car driver then put his arm out of the window and did a "wagons roll" signal, leading the other three cars through the red light, followed by @Dark46 and me on our bikes. Mr Angry wasn't around to witness it this time, but I suspect if he lives round there he'll soon end up waiting for ten minutes in the vain hope of the lights changing for him! What was really noticeable was that, when it was car drivers deciding to ride through a red light, nobody objected, nobody got upset and nobody felt it necessary to start a diatribe against a whole class of road users based on a snap judgment as to what seemed to be going on.

I am feeling vindicated today, but this whole affair just reinforces something I've always felt ... that we cyclists need to be squeaky clean to try to make up for the indiscretions of other cyclists .... and that when you are all wearing club shirts, you can easily bring social media wrath upon your clubs for the slightest infraction (or perceived infraction) of the rules of the road. I haven't seen anything about it yet, but who knows? I now wonder exactly how long you are supposed to wait at a broken traffic light before it is appropriate to make a common sense call to move off cautiously. Darned if I know. Seems to depend on whether you are a cyclist or not.

Donger.

I have a light I sometimes use at a crossroads
Despite my bikes being metal, (I have a titanium and a steel, and I used to use aluminium - no carbon)
I find that the lights often do not change if I am the only one there

 

[welsh dragon]

Scores on the door today another 17 mile bimble..beautiful weather. Blue skies and sunshine.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Sticky-drippy-sweaty-fly-buzzing 18 miles today.

One of my favourite mid-week 'shorties' over to Black Moss (lumpy bit just betwixt Windermere & Ings) - smashing views across to the mountains . I did take a pic' on the phone but I must have wobbled whilst also trying to hold my bike upright whilst taking the pic'. It came out fuzzier than an old woolen pullover.

Things of possible note and interest:

Lot's of pancaked fauna on the lanes today.

The pot-holes on one of the lanes I reported yonks back are still there and are over 4" deep now.

Got hopelessly blitzed by an obviously very fit and fast lady on the long-ish flog up to Black Moss from Crook. I thought I was plodding up quite nicely but I ended up feeling like I was standing still. She did give me a cheery wave and told me to "keep at it" as she hurtled by. I met her at the top about 6 or 7 minutes later. She was having a breather. Apparently she'd already done 70 miles or so and still had a long way to go (back to Preston via Bowness ) and was in training for an Ironwoman event. I don't think I've ever been that fit in my whole life.

Armed with paint and brush I'm now off to paint some railings up on the balcony hopefully finishing in time to watch the TdF highlights - which have now gotten interesting since the mountains made an appearance.

 

[Andy in Germany]

On the way to work I was passed by a very happy looking small labrador with a tail going like a windscreen wiper in a rainstorm and a mahoosive blue stuffed elephant in its mouth: the dog could hardly see where it was going...

Unfortunately I was late for the tram so the obvious question will remain forever unanswered.

 

[cosmicbike]

Still working all night shifts, so getting out in the day takes some motivation. For a change today I got the ICE trike out the garage and went for a recumbent spin. Nowhere fancy, a loop out to Walton and back, but 25 miles in the bag. Really must use this wonderful machine more often.

 

[LeetleGreyCells]

Another short 9 miles to meet my wife as she came out of work. Thought I was faster today but wasn’t!

 

[NorthernDave]

A rare opportunity for a mid-week ride out for me today.

Away just after 8am in a bid to beat the heat and on the Giant for a change.
I'd had an idea to head for Otley and beyond today, but decided against 'enjoying' Otley Road in the rush hour, so decided to head east as this meant I'd be heading in the opposite direction to most of the traffic.
Despite that I had a few interesting moments in the first couple of miles - chapeau indeed if you tackle that level of idiots on a daily basis....

Anyhow, up the hill to Scholes, then up a bit more and the descent through Barwick and beyond, before the climb up cattle Lane and general lumpiness to Aberford. More up from there to Lotherton Gates and then past the farm and a long descent down to the Crooked Billet, behind a van towing another van which was bunching traffic up quite a bit - everyone was being sensible though and once the vans pulled in the queue all passed me nice and wide.
Up the hill into Saxton and on to Barkston Ash, then the long flat straight to Church Fenton, over the railway line and through the village and the lap of the airfield without seeing another soul until I was at the bridge over the East Coast Main Line.
Into Ryther and left, back through Ozendyke and into Ulleskelf, where the bus stop made as good a place as any to stop for a break and a photo:

The adjacent fields have all been harvested since I was out this way on Sunday - according to the local news the farmers are having to bring the harvest forward due to the hot, dry weather.
Back on the bike and down Busk Lane to complete the airfield loop, then through Church Fenton and Barkston Ash, the long way round to Saxton, and back out climbing via Cold Hill Lane past Linda's Bench and the drop onto Copley Lane for the run back to Lotherton Gates.
The long way round to Aberford past Hook Moor Wind farm, up the former Great North Road and past the "Your Speed Is..." sign
Left onto Cattle Lane and then retraced my earlier outbound route back through Barwick and Scholes and down the hill, then local roads up to home.

33.04 miles (53.17km) in 2h 21m at an average of 14.1 mph with 1,364ft climbed and an average temperature of 20.1°C

More than happy with that, especially on the 'winter' bike. It felt a lot warmer in the sun than the average temperature suggests though.
A decent number of cyclists out and about too, especially once clear of the city.
Not too keen on the rush hour traffic but managed to avoid most of it, even the ones who were being deliberate teapots.
Good to get another ride in for the Half Century challenge too.

And to end, the map: