Your ride today....

[theloafer]

was to be a short trip to collect 2 locks i had ordered for my and karons e-bikes (needed them keyed the same as the other locks).decided to go via the ncn 715 picking it up at Bishop Aucland just over the Newton gap viaduct ,which now is also the entrance for Kynren .
not used this route in years but it leaves all the traffic and was excellent. after crossing over rough lea lane it turns into the ncn70 getting through sunnybrow- Willington- Brandon- ,on reaching broom lane headed for Neville's cross and the A167 (cyclepath) runs along side all the way to Framwellgate Moor and the e-bike shop.
on the return leg when i got to Broompark picnic area i appeared to get a little muddled, and ended up going towards Crook. but on the good side i found aa great place for a coffee stop , a young lad with a converted horse box into a mobile cafe ( ON THE HOOF ) its called so i just had to stop.
coffee and a toasted teacake filled a hole, after going a few more mile and not recognised anything i had passed i asked a local who told me i was not were i wanted to be lol .turned round and made my way back to picnic area, and noticed were i went wrong
once back on track i made good time as i could see rain clouds building. but as i got back to the viaduct the heavens opened thunder and lighting (pleased i had my jacket ).a very very wet ride to tindale- through shildon to pick up the cycle path back to Aycliffe. ended up doing 49 miles almost 40 of them traffic free.

 

[Jenkins]

The decision to go out on today's ride was only made about an hour before I set off. This morning brought grey clouds and a bit of a breeze from the sort of direction that meant a headwind on the return leg of any loop, so it looked like a day at home with a bit of grass cutting thrown in. However, over a second coffee of the morning and looking at Wundermap, I realised that the conditions were perfect for a one way trip up to Lowestoft from where I could get the train home. I've got various routes there planned, so shoved down a couple of slices of toast as ride fuel, picked a route I couldn't remember using before and set off.

The early part of the ride turned out to be effectively a reverse of the latter part of last Friday's ride - out through Kirton and Woodbridge up to Wickham Market, taking the road towards Framlingham, but turning off at Parham. At the junction with the 'B' road at the top of the road out of Parham, I finally diverted on to new roads through Cransford and Bruisyard Street to Peasenhall where I thought I recognised the road and realised I was back on to Friday's route reversed. This was to continue for the remainder of the ride - riding along lanes I thought I'd not used before, but then a landmark such as a church or a distinctive feature made me realise that I had been there before, but in the reverse direction on various other rides.

From Peasenhall through Walpole and entering Halesworth from the south, not the west as I normally do, I passed a couple of youths with one of them pushing his eMTB so I slowed to see if I could offer assistance, only to spot the missing chain so wished them the best and carried on. I was now on what I tought was going to be the normal run into Lowestoft via Beccles, only for the Garmin to send me back onto various small, narrow lanes through Uggeshall, Stoven, Sotterley, Rushmere & Carlton Colville and finally a fast blast along the A12 to Lowestoft and the rail station with plenty of time to spare for the train home.

Considering the type of roads/lanes I used, the relative lack of effort thai I put in and the indirect direction, I couldn't believe the final statistics - especially the average speed. Got to love a decent tail wind. https://www.strava.com/activities/5589374992

 

[Archie_tect]

Ist solo ride for over 3 weeks due to work getting g in the way!
23 miles in the sunshine up to Matfen [again]... lovely.

 

[Old jon]

A bright and sunshiney morning. Again. And early, too. Ah well, take the fixed out, it has had very few rides this year, nine with today’s excursion added on.

Did I tell you it was early? It takes me about ninety minutes to be ready to leave the house for a bike ride. Usual morning routine including breakfast. Charge the phone, clear up breakfastmess. Remove bike from shed, find the correct bike bag, it does go on longer. But I still reached the Armouries before eight a.m. And the Trans Pennine trail had a fair bit of traffic on it already. An astounding number of dog walkers, considering that there are few houses around here. Cyclists heading to work, joggers maybe ditto. Anyway, at Thwaites Mill cross the Aire and Calder canal again and ride down a tree lined track to the next bridge. Bridge 6, with its very own flight of steps to trudge down to return to the towpath.



Still tree lined, most of the way to Woodlesford Lock, where I leave the waterways and return to tarmac. Head for Swillington, it is about time uphill started. From the top Hook Moor wind farm looms over Garforth. Modern day triffids, if they could walk they would make a right mess of the town. And I am riding towards them, around the north side of Garforth, across the M1, that is one big roundabout. And after the wind farm, the gates of Lotherton House. I must have been missing them.

Over the small hill to Aberford, a bit of breeze has arrived so I guess I have had a tailwind till now. A right and a left in the village is Cattle Lane, which has a few ups and downs to keep me happy. Next is Barwick in Elmet after crossing Cock Beck and riding up out of that little valley. The village of Scholes has to be ridden through, if I want to cross the A64. And I do. To go north again to Thorner. One road closure locally has added an extra couple of miles to my ride home from Scholes, or a badly surfaced busy main road. No fun in that, so a bit more pedalling.

Carr Lane up out of Thorner as far as the A58. A left turn there takes me down that big hill and almost into the centre of Leeds after a bit of suburban riding. Back across the River Aire, I was at Woodlesford the first time I crossed it. Short distance to home now, at the end of the street I live on there was a smile on my mug again, always good to be back. Thirty two miles ridden, a bit less than 1400 feet going up the hills around here. A good one.

Some doodles done by bicycle . . .

 

[Archie_tect]

[QUOTE="Old jon, post: 6464916, member: 45367"
Still tree lined, most of the way to Woodlesford Lock, where I leave the waterways and return to tarmac. Head for Swillington, it is about time uphill started.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, the hours we spent as children playing in the fields next to the canal at Woodlesford damming the stream that went under the canal through a culvert!!- where the houses are now!

 

[carpiste]

Had a lovely 24 mile ride today after a few days of being rained off. A circuit of Manchester Airport ( no planes so nice and quiet ) through Altrincham, Sale and a couple of circuits of Sale Marina, then along the banks of the river Mersey to Chorlton Marina then back towards the Airport and home.Mrs C was waiting with the kettle on 🍵

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

Last minute decision to ride to the girlfriends ready for our works team day tomorrow 5 miles up the road which will give a decent ride home tomorrow night afterwards. Find myself leaving the car at home more nowadays.
First time I've ridden to hers, apparently bikes don't live in the kitchen, who knew??? .

 

[Glow worm]

My lovely Kalkhoff bought it last month (cracked frame) after 43k miles, so Im on the bike that normally lives at my Mums in Norfolk. It has a nasty creaking fork that I can’t fix (I am having a new bike built by Spa cycles in Harrogate, so the plan is to collect it from there and ride home in September).

So the creaking bike and I headed out for a nice 26 mile saunter across the fen earlier. The lanes near Upware were soaking, I must have just missed a downpour.

At Kingfishers Bridge nature reserve near Ely, they’ve just put in a new lookout deck on a small hill. A rare chance for us flatlanders to experience altitude - well 50 foot or so. I was surprised there was no snow at the top.

Met a few of the locals.

Water buffalo are used to manage the land. Lovely curious creatures.

My kickstand then needed adjusting, and as I reached it, I got quite a strong electric shock! At first I couldn’t figure out how it had happened but then I noticed my right brake lever was propped up against the buffalo’s electric fence! Doh!

On home through Burwell Fen after riding through Wicken fen and pausing to admire the little owl perched in the usual spot on a woodpile at Priory Farm.

Although I’ve been riding for 30 years or so, I increasingly find the stress and hassle of riding on busy roads with so many incompetent and dangerous drivers just so draining. I often get home stressed and angry, so for liesire rides, for my peace of mind, I’ll always find off road routes of which I’m lucky to have many to choose from here.

 

[gavgav]

Only my second ride in 3 weeks, due to other plans, a cricket ball on the kneecap and then the joy of being pinged by the Covid App and going into isolation. Thankfully didn’t come down with the ruddy thing and so after being released back into civilisation again on Tuesday, got out for a ride with @Rickshaw Phil and Doug, this evening.

After a couple of weeks of incessant rain in Shropshire, it was nice to have a warm and Sunny evening to ride in. I headed up to meet them and then we did a loop of the village, before going over Lyth Hill and then descending to the A49. We had a bit of a wait to cross, but the short section was incident free and we then had a wind assisted run into Condover.

From there we headed towards Ryton, but turned off and looped round to Berriewood, being very surprised that they’ve finally patched the huge crater in the road, rather badly it must be said, but better than before.

We seemed to find a headwind on the nice descent back to Condover, where the one idiot of the ride was encountered, white van man overtaking around a blind bend, into the path of an oncoming car and veering sharply back across my path, almost forcing me to swerve into the kerb. Prat.

We then followed Lyons Lane, which was quiet other than the usual car passing us just on the steep narrow bit that you don’t want to encounter a car. Crazy how many times it happens on that section.

Final section was through Betton Abbots, out onto the A458 and back to my estate, where we parted ways.

A short but most enjoyable 14.43 miles at 11.6mph avg. Phil also tweaked the gears, following the service on the Genesis and it seems to have made all the difference, with things shifting nicely 👍🏻

 

[pjd57]

Hello all!
I have not been posting on this thread for ages, because I've been off the bike due to a bad knee injury.
Yesterday, here in Glasgow, 40 of us rode to say our last goodbyes to Mags, a lovely woman from our cycling group.
She passed away after a short illness.
We will miss her lots, she was fun, a warm personality, always ready to help out on rides, always willing to cycle further. She was only 60 years old.
We cycled from Freewheel North at Glasgow Green to Maryhill, where we met the group from Freewheel North at the Whitehouse.
Mags used to attend rides from both cycling hubs.
On our bikes, we followed the funeral cortege from her home to the church, then to the cemetery.
Many of us hadn't met for a long time due to the various lockdowns: it was good to see @pjd57 again.
R.i.p Mags, I'm sure you are riding with us from the sky above xxx

It was a sad day but a fitting tribute to a lovely person.

 

[lazybloke]

Approx 25 million were glued to the box last night, but the majority of us had better things to do!

My option was a ride in gorgeous evening sunshine. Only a short loop in the Surrey hills, sharing the roads with more bikes than cars. Stopped here and there to commune with bovines, chat with other cyclists, or just to enjoy views. Also popped into a church yard to see a family grave; whilst the campanologists were letting loose in the spire.

v

 

[cwskas]

Yesterday I set out to try and get in 100 miles. I ended up with a nice ride of just over 90 and tested some new routes. I was surprised to see some buffalo on one ranch and pleased to see a very long snake that hurried across just in front of me. Here are a few photos.



Buffalo on the largest ranch I have seen in this area.



I passed this and had to turn back for a picture. The gate had a sign reading "Caution: Deaf Dog!".



Took a break in the shade on this old, unused bridge and couldn't resist a few photos.



Taking a break before the return trip.



Bosque County Courthouse



My last rest stop of the day.

Willie

 

[Fnaar]

Yesterday, solo 102.2 miles. 6,854 ft climbing. 8 PBs.
Photo is near Wooler

 

[C R]

Yesterday I set out to try and get in 100 miles. I ended up with a nice ride of just over 90 and tested some new routes. I was surprised to see some buffalo on one ranch and pleased to see a very long snake that hurried across just in front of me. Here are a few photos.

View attachment 598043

Buffalo on the largest ranch I have seen in this area.

View attachment 598044

I passed this and had to turn back for a picture. The gate had a sign reading "Caution: Deaf Dog!".

View attachment 598045 View attachment 598046 View attachment 598047

Took a break in the shade on this old, unused bridge and couldn't resist a few photos.

View attachment 598048

Taking a break before the return trip.

View attachment 598049

Bosque County Courthouse

View attachment 598050 View attachment 598052 View attachment 598051

My last rest stop of the day.

Willie

Texas looks greener than I expected. Great photos.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Wednesday: The forecast looked better for the morning so I took the chance to get out, however sunshine while I was getting up was soon replaced by showery looking cloud so I chose the knockabout bike and put waterproofs in my bag.

I opted for the hilly route round the Oaks and Pulverbatch area this time, partly because it has lots of options to cut it short if the weather deteriorated. The climb up to Lyth Hill was first and gave a good view of the various showers marching across the landscape. There weren't too many of them so I carried on over the other side and round to climb up to Oaks from Plealey. This climb went well apart from having to stop for a few vehicles to pass. Fortunately I seemed to meet all of them at places where it was easy to pass.

Between Oaks and Wrentnall I came round a corner to find a commotion ahead of me. A rider with two horses was just coming out of a gateway and the one had spooked as I came into view. Thankfully the rider was able to calm it quickly and seemed more worried about me making a fuss (which I wasn't going to). We parted amicably.

There seemed to be more showers about as I rode through Pulverbatch and on towards Wilderley but so far I'd only felt a few spots of drizzle. That changed on the way to Smethcott where a heavy shower rolled through and I needed to take shelter under some trees to put the waterproofs on.

By Leebotwood the shower had passed through. I decided not to extend the ride to Dudgeley this time and headed back along the lanes to Longnor, Ryton, Condover and back home, making good progress on the way due to the trend being mostly slightly downhill. A final shower less than a mile from home was a little annoying as it came out of an apparently clear sky.

23.9 miles at 11.8 mph average. Despite getting a bit wet I enjoyed that one and was back in time to watch the live coverage of the Tour de France.

Quite a moody sky as seen from the top of Lyth Hill.

The view from the top of the Broom Hill climb.

From a gateway en route to Pulverbatch.

The lane to Wilderley.

Time to take shelter from the weather.

It's brightening up at Leebotwood.

Looks much nicer now that I'm headed for home.

Thursday: I used the knockabout bike to ride down to town a couple of times during the day which racked up about 10 miles, then later in the afternoon swapped to the Raleigh before @gavgav came over to meet Doug and I for our first group ride in a few weeks.

As he's already reported we headed over Lyth Hill again where the views were mostly much sunnier than last time I was up here, except over the Wrekin which seemed to have its own rain cloud. Crossing the A49 took a bit of time as there was plenty of traffic and the crops have grown up to make visibility tricky. I did pause to try and take a photo but found the gateway I'd chosen didn't give the view I'd expected. Never mind.

It was a pleasant trip towards Ryton then Berriewood. The van driver Gav mentions couldn't have picked a much dafter place to overtake since the corner is blind. We found the headwind along Lyons Lane and although it wasn't strong it was persistant as we carried on to Weeping Cross.

After Doug and I parted from Gav we carried on, finding a headwind even though it ought really to be behind us now.

14.1 miles by the time I got back at 12 mph average.

Just the one snapshot from this one showing the threatening sky we were riding towards on the way to Wheathall. Thankfully it was going away from us and where we were it stayed warm and sunny.