Your ride today....

[coffeejo]

Just a 17 mile mooch to town and back. Lovely weather after an unexpectedly wet start to the day.

Looking up at the Quantock Hills, Somerset

• coffeejo
• 16 Jun 2015

16 June 2015

It occurred to me as I was trying to sleep last night that I approach all hills, no matter what the gradient, with the same attitude, which is to go down to the lowest gears and plod my way up. This is fine for "proper" hills but is actually a bit daft on the gentle ones since it's slower and does nothing to help me get better at the barsteward ones. So, I decided that since most of my routes into town aren't anything more strenuous than undulating, I wasn't going to use the small ring at the front or the two biggest sprockets on the rear cassette today. My legs were initially rather surprised but soon admitted that even the worst of the worse "hills" only needed a little bit more effort to heave myself and the bike up them, and it was a lot more satisfying than simply plodding.

I'll never be fast at hill climbing but if I keep this up, it will hopefully reduce the number of times I worry that I'm about to topple over sideways. (Been there, done that .)

 

[Billy Wizz]

Finally nailed my new commute from Woolwich Arsenal to Pickets Lock up the Lea valley 32 miles round trip.
Tried to keep off the death race 2000 route of London a bit busy going up Silvertown Way and then across to the lime house cut then traffic free for about 10 miles and two nice looking riverside pubs which looked nice and bike friendly, I can see me stopping there quite a bit on the way home from work this summer for a derserved pint or two and a pie of course.
Pics will follow on the first stop.

 

[Goonerobes]

Whilst I had no real aches from Sundays ride my legs were feeling a little heavier than usual but with no work this afternoon & fairly nice weather it seemed a shame not to go out for a while rather than stay at home & cut the grass.

So I opted to take one of my flatter routes on the southern side of the New Forest, passing through Colbury & Longdown towards Beaulieu & then taking the more agricultural roads around St. Leonards & Norleywood before looping round back to the forest where a slight tail breeze meant the journey home via Lyndhurst & Ashurst was all fairly painless!

34 miles with just 968ft of going up thankfully.

https://www.strava.com/activities/326574747

 

[gavgav]

Ride 3 of my week in the Lakes.

A reduction in mileage today (23.2 miles) after yesterday's exertions, but still some steep climbing (1887 ft) and with a fair proportion of it being off road, which we aren't used to, it takes some effort to get round.

@Rickshaw Phil fetched his bike out of the shed, to find today's problem which was a dragging front brake!! He's brought the knockabout bike with him and it reminds me of an old car in winter, needing a bit of TLC to get it going

We set out with the descent into Coniston and then joined the NCN route 37 towards Ambleside. It begins with an undulating off road section, complete with fords or bridges (bridges for me!) along which we met a guided school group stood on the side with bikes, one of whom dropped their bike just missing me and right into Dougs path!! Luckily he stopped in time and we headed to the steep climb up to Tilberthwaite and then a nice off road downhill section to Little Langdale.

We continued down into Elterwater and then climbed up into Great Langdale, which has beautiful alpine esque scenery, which continues to amaze me every time I go up there

Arriving at the top of the valley we found a nice spot to have our lunch, before @Rickshaw Phil did his latest audition for Riverdance, having stood on an ants nest again!!

Me enjoying lunch with a view!

There were 2 choices of route now, back the way we came, or a climb over Blea Tarn. That's a proper mountain pass and having conquered it last year, Doug and I opted for the nice downhill run back to Elterwater, but @Rickshaw Phil fancied a crack at the pass and so we headed on our separate ways, with the rendezvous to be the Three Shires Inn at Little Langdale for a well earned pint.

Doug and I enjoyed a fast descent with the wind behind us, before beginning the steep climb back up to Little Langdale.

We arrived to find no sign of Phil, but his bike was there. He appeared a couple of minutes later with a pint of Esthwaite Ale for me and some Old Rosie cider (7.5%) for Doug .

It was lovely and warm sat on the wall in the sun enjoying our drinks.

We didn't stop for too long, as there was a steep climb to come and sure enough we struggled our way up to Hodge Close. I'd forgotten how rocky that bit is and I was in bottom gear for the majority of the climb .

@Rickshaw Phil enjoying the lunar landscape at Hodge Close

Doug was really struggling by now, a combination of the weeks efforts so far and I suspect a lot to do with the pint of Old Rosie!!

Not to be deterred though there was only a short climb before a long downhill section to the main road and then back along the undulating off road section. In Conistion we took the gravel path back to the house, instead of the road and came across the school group again!! We gave them a very wide berth this time.

Another good ride, but a day off is planned tomorrow, to let the legs recover a bit, plus it's meant to absolutely it down!

 

[Dave 123]

^^^^^^ legs like a sparrow!

 

[Saluki]

Today's route above.
We had a 30 miler planned and set off, via a client's house to walk her 2 collie dogs and then carried on with the ride. The ride to the collies house was nice, we stuck to cycle paths where we could and swore about the loose, rough road to their house a bit. We walked for an hour and then swore about the loose rough stuff as we went down hill on it before picking up the 'no through road' past the waterworks on NCN Route 1.

Once out on the road we headed left and then left again towards the Wood's End PH (Now the waterside with jolly expensive cake so we didn't buy any). On the way there we saw a ruined church. Saxon jobby.

and stopped to have a look at it.

After not getting cake at the Wood's End, as was, we then tackled the hill. 17% that went on for about a year. We did not stop and we did not walk, but will admit to having a breather at the top of the bloody thing. From there we headed off to Surlingham and stopped at the post office for a sit down, an ice cream and a couple of choc chip biscuits. We fussed the neighbour's dogs while we were there and chatted to a pair of hikers/geocachers who were also getting ice-cream and biccies.
More bloody climbing ensued - I was getting fed up as I don't like climbing much but, since losing the weight it's not such a chore really. Then the Garmin pointed us up a road and then off up what it said was a cycle path
Yeah, right. Stinging nettles and shorts do not made good riding. That blooming path was thinner than Kate Moss! We got down it, slowly and looking out for thorns.
We eventually reached Poringland, where we munched more biccies (residue of packet in saddlebag you see). Hubster said to go straight home from there. I pointed out that it would be the same distance if we headed in and back out of the city or we carried on with the route. Nope, he wanted the into the city and back out route. More chuffing climbing - which we wouldn't have done if we had gone my way and we made it home.

The route we should have taken was 30.14 miles, with Hubster's 'short cut' direct route home, it was 30.17. 2:40:20 time wise so averaging a little over 11mph which seemed about right. We had to stay at about 7mph on the riverside cyclepaths, then there was all that grovelling up the 17%er and more grovelling up hills and then a very steady hour's ride home with Hubster no longer feeling the love so that average is about right.

Now I'm blooming starving and going to make a humungous chicken chilli. So there.

 

[Donger]

Back along the bay to Porto Pollensa and I had an Osprey fly over my head! I also saw 2 Purple Herons.

A word of advice, my friend....... Seeing purple herons, in my experience, is nature's way of telling you to pull over and sink another glucose gel.

Sounds like a great ride. Jealous.

 

[Dave 123]

A word of advice, my friend....... Seeing purple herons, in my experience, is nature's way of telling you to pull over and sink another glucose gel.

Sounds like a great ride. Jealous.

They don't have them in Gloucestershire then?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_heron

It was when I saw the pink elephant......

 

[Dave the Smeghead]

Gone and done it. City Respro mask purchased today. Now look like an urban terrorist but not wheezing

 

[PeteXXX]

Get away,quick, @PeteXXX ! Have you not seen the movie Them?!

They ain't litte ants either!!

 

[theloafer]

had planned a short run out to see my mate in Darlington...them decided to take the scenic route instead out to Sedgefield along by the A689 on the NCN1 route/track to the Wynyard cycle/walk route ..coffee stop and food through Thorpe thewles ...Redmarshall.over to Sadberge ...along by the A66/ cycle path into Darlington...walter was out (found out later that he was in bloody Sadberge at the village hall supping coffee) left Darlington along patch's lanes managed 38 miles
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/806025354

wynyard

 

[Mike_P]

41.8 miles today with a trip into the Vale of York so less climbing that normal only 1500ft wereas a local 18 mile route has two thirds of that. NCN Route 67 was followed north west from Wetherby. The start of the road free route commences on Deighton Road in the town blocked by one of those annoying inverted V barriers and once negotiated a relatively stiff climb awaits

Needless to say I had stopped in completely the wrong gear and had to break a habit and stand on the pedals to get up it.
Another V barriers lurks further on and then at the northern end of the road free route this assortment of not quite scrap metal and on which I manged to break off a reflector.

Heading now along roads NCN67 follows a twisty lane and around the sharpest bend came

at least the service is less frequent that it was a few years back
Further on rather than attempting to cross the A658 NCN67 dives down a one person wide track to a bridleway subway, it was muddy at the start, muddy at the far end and then at the top of the climb a bend was full of mud and horse droppings

the bike went sidewards and shanks pony was neccessary.
NCN67 then heads through Harrogate showground with this nominally 7% climb

Part of it is however 10.5% and equipped with a cattle grid!

Further on after following a track NCN67 comes to a traffic light controlled crossroads with the push button green light request for the track being somewhat high

Another red light jumped

 

[MikeW-71]

I have been missing from the thread for a while, mostly to do with preparing for a boiler replacement and then getting the thing fitted over a week. I've had less opportunities for riding.

However, since the very stiff winds abated a bit, I took the MTB up to Dalbeattie for a run round the red route. I needed to get aquainted with it again and there's guaranteed to be some testing technical features on the ride.

And so there is! It's very rocky there, and they do love steep rock gardens and parts where it looks like they've just swung a JCB at the hill and said "that'll do" A few bits that I carried the bike over or down, but there was one feature that I was definately not going to be taking on, and that's "The Slab". It's a massive lump of granite in the middle of a forest, and when I say massive, it's about the size of my house. It's intimidating. Very intimidating. I rode the red grade route that bypasses it and takes you past the bottom of it, then climbed up it for a piccy.

From the top:


And from the bottom:



There's a few videos of people riding down it and then crashing into trees on youtube (there isn't really any straight run-out, you reach the bottom and have to turn right sharpish)

Anyway, 15 miles and 3 hours of vigorous exercise. Lovely!

 

[gavgav]

^^^^^^ legs like a sparrow!

They can't half peddle a bike well though! @Rickshaw Phil is a lot faster than me uphill!!

 

[Gravity Aided]

They ain't litte ants either!!

I know, there's some footage going around from your ride.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4URRp39XOo