Your ride today....

[wafter]

Nice bar tape!

Thanks - as it happens it's original fitment (Oval brand), a bit tatty and poorly-rewrapped, however is pretty decent for a relatively budget bike and probably offers a bit more padding that that on my Genesis. I was in half a mind to replace it at one point, however think I'll keep it going for as long as I can

Happy belated and sorry to hear about your cat

 

[gavgav]

A sunny Saturday morning ride, once I’d dragged my lazy rear end out of bed. Only short, but off to Liverpool this afternoon.

It was chilly, but the nice sun helped as I went through Sutton Farm and along the old railway path to Reabrook, then up the cycle paths to Heathgates, negotiating people walking in the wrong lane!

I dropped down through Castlefields and then weaved my way along the busy towpath by the River Severn, into the Quarry. It was heaving there, with people out walking, running, cycling and just generally enjoying the sunshine, so it was a slow run to Porthill Bridge, which closes on Monday for the refurbishment.

I climbed up through Porthill and then followed cycle paths to Shelton, before going through the new housing estate, to Radbrook and along Mousecroft Lane.

I encountered the obligatory pillock (Audiot) on the narrow lane to Nobold, who came barrelling towards me doing what must have been 50mph. He had no intention of slowing down….It’s ok I’ll just dive into the verge then shall I 😤

Final section was through Meole village and back up the cycle paths home.

12.73 miles at 12.0mph, but the main stat today was the one taking me past 15,000 miles on Strava.

 

[Dave 123]

Today’s ride started in bright warm sunshine and indeed in cloudy cold!

It was a hilly ride too. I’ve put my road bike in my new man cave on my wahoo kickr, I did an hour on that last night after work. So I felt it today on my mountain bike!

https://www.strava.com/activities/8139344637

The gates at Lyneham, house to the right.

Yealm Bridge toll house

 

[bluenotebob]

I was itching to make an early start this morning but it was really too cold to cycle before 12. I intended to go up and down the V3 Voie Verte between Mauron and Malestroit (the old railway station at the top of the town). When I finally left Mauron there was no trace of frost but it was still only around 4 degrees under the trees. It did get a bit warmer – perhaps 10 degrees when I dropped into the Oust valley. It was the quietest I’ve ever seen the V3 … two cyclists south of Ploërmel and I spotted the third at Malestroit (after 36.5km of cycling). It was a different story on the return leg though – lots of walkers (some with dogs), plenty of cyclists and even one e-scooter. The weather started to change when I passed through Ploërmel on the return leg – dark clouds coming in from the west – and I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough daylight left to get wood in from my woodshed for a fire this evening. 73km on the clock when I got back to the van – I did a loop around the Plan d’Eau to add two more but I was really concerned about the impending darkness. Settled for 75.89 km and got home in time to fill the wheelbarrow with logs and got a roaring fire going just as night fell.

On the V3 near la Roche heading south

The Oust at the Pont de Bagotais looking towards le Roc St André

 

[wafter]

Today was earmarked for work, but the work had other ideas. After a reluctant stab I found myself hamstrung and unable to proceed on the job in hand, while I'd noted how consistently sunny and nice it'd been outside all day...

There was still enough light for a quick squirt and after yesterday's utility toil on the Fuji I elected to give the Genesis a run, having been dormant for seemingly ages.

More committed clothing donned and I was out in the fading sun. First impressions were that my right foot was too far inboard / forward (I suspect thanks to the Fuji's wider, MTB-based "Q factor" across the pedals as well as it's longish toe cages). Oddly the left foot felt fine. I also noticed that the saddle seemed a bit further forward; fine once I'd got used to it again but initially it felt a bit odd and I'll maybe have a poke round both bikes with a tape as they now have the same saddle fitted so comparison should be easy.

After mistakenly reaching for the bar end shifters once or twice the STIs felt crisp and slick, the brakes excellent, but not conspicuously so for some reason. I appreciated the lovely King stainless cages' willingness to relinquish the water bottle when required, unlike the faithful-but-fighty cheap-and-a-bit-placcy Tacx Item on the Fuji. That should all be solved next week when my Blackburn cages arrive

After the first few miles I'd already got a little sick of shimmying back and fourth across the chainrings; having been spoilt by the Fuji's 1x-plus-overdrive-and-underdrive setup..


Out west with not a lot to report.. wind wasn't as bad as yesterday and the bike felt pretty sprightly on the gentle climb out of the village.

Leaving the next conurbation I passed a guy having a rest and acknowledged the Genesis-of-some-description he had with him, as I slowly churned past him up the hill on mine


Typically, once in the saddle I decided to push the ride out further and ended up on a single-track rural road heading into a nearby village.. traffic was fairly significant and the road was just wide enough for the oncoming cars and I to pass each other; fine until some boomer muppet behind me decided to overtake me in his muppet-carrier... only to end up static a few yards down the road; creeping up onto the verge to make it past the oncoming vehicles and gettingincreasingly aggressive until his poor mediocrity-motor was bouncing violently in and out of the large drainage channels on the side of the road

I ended up overtaking him once he'd become static again, then him again me until we'd both reached the queue of traffic at the end of the road that was waiting for the lights to change and I filtered to the front. While there were passing places and the guy did a sterling job of making himself look like a bellend, although the more pragmatic choices were perhaps less obvious and who's to say what his motives were for driving as he did.. not particularly dangerous, just a bit reactionary, short-sighted and embarrassing..

Anyway, the traffic lights are temporary four-way jobs thanks to perpetual work in the area. Left onto the prevailing through-road was evidently off the menu on account of the freshly-arrived coppers laying out road-closed signs, but I wanted to go straight across anyway; down a track / bridleway that runs past my old comprehensive. This was much more pleasant and filled with like-minded folk.

After reaching the nearest town I turned back on myself to follow the closed road. In an effort to make myself look less like a troublesome rubber-necker I subserviently took the cycle path (it's only the road that's closed, right? ); a predictably crap off-road affair that places both directions of cycle traffic on a raised section along one side of the road; with the usual need to give way to (sometimes blind) junctions.

Well-past the "road closed" sign I encountered a copper sat in his car at the bottom of the S-bendy hill that leads up into the village I'd just been through; which had evidently played host to whatever had closed the road. I shouted "can I get past?" - his response being "you can give it a go" or similar, so that was fine and I cracked on. When I got to the scene of the accident the emergency services were just mopping up; no sign of any ambulances so hopefully nobody was seriously injured.

The evidence that remained consisted of a van (face caved in) and a supermini (double-ended) - my guess being that the van had overtaken with no visibility and had a head-on with the car, which had subsequently been stuffed up the arse by whatever was following. Diagnosis: Dickhead, case closed.


Anyway, back home in the fading light, still feeling fairly sprightly if not especially quick.; with lots of zone-4-out-of-the-saddle-action on the hills. The ride felt more frenetic than yesterday; although with the exception of the mean speed most of the stats are nearly identical (mean HR, elevation when scaled for distance). I think this time cadence was higher and the bike felt more responsive as I wasn't battling a brutal headwind.


All in all a little over 19.5 miles and 850ft at 136bpm and 13.0mph for 970kcal burned. Now back home I feel pretty good (if a bit achey) and once again it seems that the post-ride endorphine rush might have been used as a springboard for more dopamine-chasing; looks like a trip to the shop's on the cards as I've just run out of Vodka.

Have a great evening folks

 

[cyberknight]

just 40 miles today , shoulder still a bit sore so after the cafe stop at 32 miles i headed for home as i didnt want to get to a point where it really hurt

 

[Mike_P]

Sunday and the rain stopped, so before it started again the ebike had an outing to the new Lidl. It was partly aquatic in places,

but not in others

Surprised to find everything I wanted including eggs and, to the ebikes delight, cornflour was in stock. That had been absent on previous visits indicating yet more thrashing of the ebike up one of Knaresboroughs ultra steep hills to visit the older, larger, Lidl there would still be a possibility.

Consequently with no need to go elsewhere it was a rare out and back along ostensibly the same route with the normal variants due to one ways and going down a steep hill that can be avoided in the other direction. That did however lead me to an accidental second word ABC of Coppice Valley primary school complete with shadow.

6.74 miles with 423ft of elevation.

 

[Elybazza61]

Little spin in to work from Waterbeach station mainly to test out the Jack the bike rack I ordered last year on Kickstarter

Works nicely and is easy to swap on to other bikes but will have to sort out the front dynamo light mounting on the Stayer.

 

[Dave 123]

After a walk on Mothecombe beach this morning

As I was about to go out it piddled down, so I went in me shed and started a new program on Zwift.

Of course, the rain stopped and the sun came out!

A static ride is better than no ride!

 

[Spiderweb]

Yesterday I prepped and winterised my recently acquired Dolan Preffisio for todays ride.
Out at 9.15am with David from my village, we picked up another three riders on the way, Simon and Liz had ridden from York & Andrea from Tockwith.
A nice steady ride up to Harrogate for coffee at Prologue Cycles and a ride back via Knaresborough.
56 miles with an average of 14.8 mph.

 

[Jameshow]

Thanks mainly to the cold and dark I've not been out on a bicycle for nearly a week..

Was at the farm shop by 09:30 today courtesy of the Fuji, however the cupboard was once again bare and the ride wasn't enough.

Once back home I smashed the remaining two eggs, got my stuff together and set out for sausagetown (). The forecast said around 10 degrees and a 10-12mph Westerly; so the order of the day was a light beanie, merino base layer, cheapo fleece and thin walking trousers (complete with inconvenient crotch-split that winks at onlookers with every pedal stroke).


The journey was essentially all-west on the way out, with the wind predictably punishing. I took the "optimised" route arrived at post-last-ride to the porkmonger, which involved an few miles through the local estate. This was pretty sloppy in places but manageable as it was only a thinnish layer of mud over a harder substrate, and infinitely preferable to remaining on the road with its over-representation of Chelsea-tractor-knobheads.

Tbh the ride out felt like a bit of an ordeal; headwind, hills, cold, other road users and general lack of fitness consipring to make it a less-than-joyous experience. Despite the relatively modest distance of 13 miles the journey out took pushing 1.5hrs and it felt like quite the mission when I finally arrived.

On the last leg I passed some walkers on a small permissive path who'd waited for me - it was noted how well my front light identified me; which made me feel validated as a proficient consumer

Once in town I locked the bike and did a quick trawl of the local charity shops, to no avail... but at least the decisions were easy

Bike moved to remain in view and I popped into the butchers for a variation on the usual, then polished off a scotch egg before getting back on my way. I helped a little old lady across the road at her request - she ended up getting two of us roped in in the end - and neither got a thankyou

Back out and as usual the climb out of town felt especially laborious; typically the wind having dropped a fair bit and offering little assistance. I pootled home at no great pace; assisted by the wind to varying degees.

The ride was pretty good from the perspective of the usual "7/10 might have died" situations and probably averaged out at around "3/10, oh you bellend" - so not at all bad.

Pretty much everyone (on foot or horseback) I passed out in the sticks might have been described as "well-heeled" but was perfectly pleasant. Thinking about it I don't think I saw another cyclist.. I enjoyed a few decent moments of mutual respect with drivers, including the poor bloke in an HGV (a big rigid tipper) who ended up following me up the last big 10-12% hill near the end of the ride.

Not that it made a lot of difference but once I was aware he'd had to slow behind me I got out of the saddle and gave it pretty much all of what was left; to 90-95% max HR.. it seemed my effort at least was appreciated as he was cool until visibility was good and gave a flash of the hazards once past; acknowledged with a wave. Isn't the world just such a nicer place when people don't treat each other like dicks by default?


The numbers: a little under 27 miles and 1450ft at 10.5mph and 135bpm for 1600kcal burned. Twelve plain sausages, eight rashers of smoked streaky, four assorted scotch eggs and half a dozen free range.


Some pictoral evidence of the absolute debauchery:

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The numbers: a little under 27 miles and 1450ft at 10.5mph and 135bpm for 1600kcal burned. Twelve plain sausages, eight rashers of smoked streaky, four assorted scotch eggs and half a dozen free range.

That's some cooked breakfast!

 

[bluenotebob]

La chasse (hunters) were everywhere this morning so, rather than risk bumping into them, I went out on the Shaper 200 for a quick 15km spin, staying on main roads – a loop around la Plaisance, la Ville Geffray and St Brieuc-de-Mauron. Not even remotely hungry when I got home so I put the Urban Shaper in the van, drove to Mauron, did a gentle loop of the Plan d’Eau then headed south down the V3 Voie Verte from Mauron to Kermagero and back – a pleasant 23km potter. The 32mm tyres on the Urban Shaper coped much better with all the leaf slush on the Voie Verte than my road bike did yesterday.

Photos from my second ride of the day …

The Plan d’Eau just outside Mauron

The Voie Verte near La Roche, looking north

The river Yvel near També (good to finally see some running water in it – it had all but dried up in August)

 

[wafter]

The numbers: a little under 27 miles and 1450ft at 10.5mph and 135bpm for 1600kcal burned. Twelve plain sausages, eight rashers of smoked streaky, four assorted scotch eggs and half a dozen free range.

That's some cooked breakfast!

Gots to get those kcals back somehow

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

A couple to catch up on: @gavgav has already done a good report on our Friday evening jaunt, to which I'll just add that it was a pretty enjoyable trip in company. After parting from Gav, Doug was on a bit of a mission for the remaining bit of the ride and has a couple of new personal records on Strava, which he's quite pleased with. The tinkering with the set up does seem to have paid off.

14.55 miles by the time I got back at 11.6 mph average. I did take a couple of experimental snaps but they aren't great so I won't inflict those on you.

Saturday: It was a fabulous November day; cool but sunny and hardly any wind, so I jumped at the chance to get a decent ride in. The hills were calling to me so I thought I'd do a route I love and head for the Stiperstones then the Long Mynd.

Heading over Lyth Hill to start with, I could see a rider ahead of me on the climb and very slowly caught up on the way. Even though I stopped for a photo at the top I ended up following him to Exford's Green where we finally went in different directions. There was a group of young horse riders just past the Annscroft crossroads and another group that wasn't so young just before Plealey - good to see folk out enjoying the nice weather.

It was pretty uneventful through Pontesbury and Minsterley, even though the traffic was a bit busy, then I headed for Plox Green and the start of the proper hills. Not having ridden this way for a while I took it easy on the climb to Snailbeach and felt good enough by the time I reached the village to carry on climbing to the old lead mine for a look. A couple of mountain bikers approached me when I stopped there and wanted to know if I had a pump to top up one of their tyres (but not before I'd completey misheard and thought they wanted to know where there was a pub. Really embarrassed about that.). No good deed goes unpunished, so the saying goes, and when I went to put the pump away I noticed I'd managed to slice my finger and had got blood all over the place.

Moving on again I headed up the valley to Stiperstones Village then dropped down the gears for the next steep bit of climbing, which didn't seem as bad as I'd expected. I think that the recent saddle adjustments are paying off on this bike too. It was slow but steady progress to Tankerville then the gradient levels out at Pennerley and I can take it a bit easier on the way to The Bog. The visitor centre there didn't appear to be open this time. The gradient ramps up again here heading for the summit of this bit of road and the car park for the Stiperstones, where I paused to eat my lunch and take in the view - it was still nice where I was but cloud was drifting in from the west making the sunshine hazy. The place was quite popular and this car park was almost full.

When I moved on I ought to have put on an extra layer for the descent. It wasn't too bad to start with but I did feel a bit chilled by the time I reached Bridges. The Horseshoe looked to be doing a roaring trade but I wasn't planning to stop as the next climb starts shortly afterwards. I paused for a couple of photos along the road to Ratlinghope and got caught up by a couple of riders. At the next junction they went straight on towards High Park while I turned right heading for Shooting Box. With a good bit of climbing already under my belt I wondered whether I'd manage this climb alright but the legs felt good and I wound my way up without even needing my lowest gear. On this climb the steepest sections are all quite early on so once past the cattle grid I knew I'd be fine to just plod gently the rest of the way.

Reaching Shooting Box I turned onto the gravel track to the top. There were a few people out walking but I didn't see any other cyclists, which surprised me a bit. I headed for Pole Bank (the summit) to admire the view and this time did put on another fleece before starting the descent, initially towards the gliding club before doubling back onto tarmac in the direction of Boiling Well then The Burway.

With plenty of people enjoying the hills my progress was a bit stop-start as I pulled in to allow cars by. I could see that Carding Mill Valley was as popular as it ever is as I dropped into Church Stretton. At the bottom of the hill I headed north towards home, crossing the A49 after All Stretton then using the old Roman road through Hollyhurst to Longnor. The legs were feeling tired now so I didn't get along as quick as I'm used to (it was too calm to get a helping tailwind as well). At Ryton I joined the road to Condover just behind another cyclist. Although he did stay in sight almost all the way to the A49 junction, he was pulling away from me the whole time.

36.3 miles at 10.7 mph average. That was a great ride. I mustn't leave it so long before getting out that way again.

Up at the lead mine at Snailbeach. In the background is the former engine shed for the Snailbeach & District Light Railway.

At Crowsnest.

The Stiperstones Inn.

The view to Corndon Hill and The Bog visitor centre.

Heading down to Bridges and looking back towards the Stiperstones.

Heading for Ratlinghope.

The path across the top of the Long Mynd with the summit in sight.

About to start my descent along the Burway.

The view along the Burway and into Carding Mill Valley. Looks popular down there today.

Some good autumn colour down in the Stretton Valley as I make my way home.

 

[gavgav]

My ride yesterday evening, was a short trip with @Rickshaw Phil . Unfortunately Doug wasn’t well enough to join us.

The temperature had dipped after sunset and so layers were required, as we headed around my regular Upton Magna route.

We began by heading to Reabrook and then up the cycle paths to Heathgates, crossing the roundabout junction fairly easily to Sundorne. We’d passed loads of rush hour traffic queues and that always feels nice!

We then joined the old canal path to Uffington and the unusually busy lane to Upton Magna, pausing for a drink (water bottle not beer!) at the pub car park.

Next was Pelham Road and the rat run to Atcham, where the smell of weed hung in the air from the car that pulled up behind us at the junction….

We crossed the old bridge and then took the hillier lane through Chilton, car came past us with a thank you but on their phone texting at the same time 🙄. We crossed the A458 with ease and then climbed up towards King Street, noticing a cyclist behind us who never quite reeled us in on the climb.

The final section was to Betton Abbots, where a car came up behind us and whilst it was nice they clearly wanted to give us room, they missed about 3 good opportunities to overtake. They eventually did, followed by 3 others, 1 of whom was a van who veered back in front of me a little too quickly for my liking.

Enjoyable 15.48 miles for me, at a leisurely 11.2mph chatting pace.