Your ride today....

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Another day, another ride and the same route.

What can have changed? Well I finally have a solution for my crutches to come with me - useful given I can't walk without them and can only walk a limited distance with them! I needed to keep the solution cheap and I have managed that, but I also needed to make sure it was something I could do and not have to rely on my OH fixing or cutting or generally having to make for me, so with a little creative thinking and a combination of pipe clamps, pipe insulation, cable ties, trekking pole holders, some old buckles and a little tiny bit of sewing, I have a solution and it has lasted off-road so it is looking good!

As can be seen from the top photo, the crutches don't stick down too far and they can't fall out either! Bonus.

So for today's ride, well it was cold all the way. My OH tells me it was 2C on the car dash when he left this morning, and given it is a new sensor and I left for my ride not long afterwards. (He has to get me dressed in the morning before he leaves for work, so I have to get up with him - 5:45am start and I don't even work ) Not much happened, it was cold, it was muddy, I met my landlady running and she insisted on taking a photo of me on the trike. Dusty said hello, so Irish Wolf Hound and a human head below his height.... he's as soft as a brush, dafter than one and has a huge tongue and very bad breathe!

From there it was the usual hellos to the usual crowd and then a surprise. A male Peewit (lapwing) could be heard doing its courtship display! So I stopped to listen to it, knowing it was too far away to spot sadly, but then I have seen plenty of them over the years. They used to nest in the field behind my old house and I could watch them as often as I wanted to. Then another surprising further on - Blackthorn flowers! Hawthorn leafs before it flowers, Blackthorn flowers before it leafs... and both are excellent at making a certain fairy visit!

Further on and somehow I missed my turning around point, so had to continue on for another few hundred metres which tipped today's ride over the 13km mark.
I also spotted some pussy willow showing silver today as well. Spring has most certainly arrived.

So that's 13.0km (8 miles) at an average of 10.1kph... it is slowly improving by 0.1kph each day!
https://www.strava.com/activities/270109975

PS - the next project is the pole flag! (reflectors are underway...)

Edit: and I passed the 100km mark today!

 

[mybike]

Last ride, Tuesday, along the canal, I ride one way, then back (downhill :-)) so sometimes pass the same person each way. On this occasion I was catching up with a dog walker on the way back & thinking how odd her dog looked from the rear. Then as I got a bit closer I could see it only had 3 legs, which was strange as it had 4 on the way out! At that point the owner turned around and rushed to her dog. Its leg was caught in its collar somehow. Amazing how dogs can cope with just three legs.

 

[Donger]

At last I've had the chance to take my fully reburbished and restored 17 year old Saracen Skyline (known as "Big Red") out for a proper proving ride. I'd got it back from the LBS at the same time as my number 1 ride, which I had to fully test before last weekend's audax, so I've been scraping at the windows wanting to get out on the road and test this baby too.

The idea is that this will be my explorer bike - for days out in the sticks with a camera and a picnic. It started out as a 24 speeder with drop bars, and is now a 27 speeder with flat bars. I recently had a Shimano Deore crankset and rear derailleur fitted. It now also has the very last finishing touches of steel toe clips with leather straps, and is now complete. Not bad for 17 years old, eh?

No proper road test would be complete without a proper hill to climb, so I headed out in the mist this morning to climb Frocester Hill. If it got up that OK, I would know it would be up to the job that I had it earmarked for. Delighted to say it was a pleasure to ride. Got up it, no problem. Smooth, reliable gear changes all the way, and did it in about my usual time. I had never got up this hill successfully on Big Red before, so all the money I have chucked at it has clearly been worth it. Stopped off at Coaley Peak to admire the "view". With all the low cloud around, the only worthwhile view on offer was of Big Red.

Dropped back down the other side via Selsley and Middleyard to Kings Stanley. The sun was only just starting to break through by midday at Selsley, and the Vale of Gloucester was just starting to come into view.

All in all a lovely ride, and I'm really chuffed with the bike. With its more upright position, it is a couple of mph slower to ride on the flat than my Ridgeback, so I probably won't be taking it on club rides. I can't wait to go wandering and take it for a few days out, though. Mrs Donger has just booked a seaside hotel near Boulogne for a couple of nights in April, so I'll be taking Big red off to France for a couple of rides. I'll definitely be getting up early in the mornings to ride it along the coast to Cap Gris Nez and back. Can't wait.
Cheers, Donger.

 

[andytheflyer]

Chapeau.

Thank you!

 

[totallyfixed]

Sounds like a good idea. PM me when you're down here and we can plan something.

About time you came over and did one of my forum rides in Rutland, one coming up in April, you are not that far away

 

[Dirk]

26 flat miles today. Braunton to Barnstaple and back - twice.
Got 35 hilly miles tomorrow.

 

[derrick]

58 miles out to Hatfield Heath with friends, was plenty of sunshine but still a nippy, the wind also got up towards the end of the ride.
https://www.strava.com/activities/270195168

 

[ColinJ]

Damn - I am not seeing some pictures on my laptop now! Some of the invisible ones are on Photobucket, but some have been up loaded to Cyclechat.

I am struggling to work out why photos should stop being visible in the Opera mobile browser on an Android tablet and the Opera desktop browser on a Windows laptop on the same day! Pictures are fine in the Firefox mobile ibrowser on the tablet, and the Firefox desktop browser on the laptop.

The only things the two systems have in common are the wifi connection, the router, and the broadband account. Oh, and CycleChat!

PS I did ride my bike today. I nipped out to do a hilly 50 km ride for my half-metric-a-month challenge which I am doing alongside a metric-a-month. In the end I stretched it out to 32 miles (51.2 km) with a couple of laps round the block to finish with. Route: Hebden Bridge, Pecket Well, Midgley, Jerusalem Lane, Booth, Midgley, Midgley Road, Mytholmroyd, Cragg Vale climb, Blackstone Edge, A58, Blue Ball Rd, Hubberton Green, Steep Lane, descent through Cragg Vale, 'royd, Greenway, Fairfield, laps round the block back in Hebden Bridge.

 

[mybike]

I am struggling to work out why photos should stop being visible in the Opera mobile browser on an Android tablet and the Opera desktop browser on a Windows laptop on the same day! Pictures are fine in the Firefox mobile ibrowser on the tablet, and the Firefox desktop browser on the laptop.

Opera Turbo? Doesn't it play around with pictures? http://www.opera.com/turbo

 

[PeteXXX]

About time you came over and did one of my forum rides in Rutland, one coming up in April, you are not that far away

I think you might have to drag a tyre behind you on a rope so I can keep up with you!! Let me know though and I'll see what I can do

 

[gavgav]

Yesterdays ride, posted today as usual..

All I had to do yesterday was pop over to a mate's house as he'd bulk ordered some CR2032 batteries so we could get them cheaper. I was picking up 10 for my various lights and the trip computer. Simple 15 miler there and back with only one sharpish hill out of Brackmills to get the heartbeat rising.
As I rode along the cycle path between Crow Lane and Riverside, I thought I'd seen some movement in the bushes on the embankment to the left. It was only a quick glance, but I know I saw summat! After slowing down and turning round 50 yards later and returning to the spot, I saw a chap had fallen down the slope and was stuck there. His ankle was twisted round some roots and branches and his backpack was tangled in some more foliage. I attempted to disentangle his foot and pull him back up the slope, but he was quite a hefty fella and I'm small (but perfectly formed) and stood no chance of moving him unaided. Now usually it's quite a busy path, but no one else passed by. As Riverside retail park is only half a mile away, I went there to find some assistance. Hoping to find plod there, I headed towards McDonalds. Sure enough, there in the queue was a policeman, ordering the station takeaway.
I told him what had happened and asked for some assistance. Once he'd prioritized things, he finished giving his order at the drive-through window' paid for it and grabbed the bags, he intimated that I should sort it out and maybe call an ambulance.
I apologised profusely for disturbing his breakfast and pointed out that he was actually a policeman and should maybe help? I again apologized that his Maccy D's might get cold....
He drove to where I said the problem was I told him I'd flag him down by the side of the dual carriageway. I got there and the chap had almost disentangled himself but was still well stuck. Plod parked 200 yards up the road, and despite me waving to him, he stayed there. I rode back towards him on the bike path but he was on the bridge over an underpass so I couldn't get near him.
I rode back yet again to the trapped chap and once again waved at Plod. Obviously he didn't see me in my bright yellow riding jacket!
Eventually, it was possible to aid the chap out of his predicament as he'd managed to crawl a bit nearer the top of the embankment. He wandered on his way, and I, once again, went to the side of the dual carriageway to attract the attention of the parked police car to let him know he didn't have to get off his arse and help.
He was nowhere to be seen. Obviously his McDonalds was getting cold and was more important. Jeez!!
Sorry, is this a 'My ride today' post, or a rant...

And breathe.....
I carried on to t'other side of town, picked up my batteries and headed back home. End of ride.

View attachment 82865

A calming picture of Spring happening.....

With the back and forth rides between Crow Lane and Riverside, I ended up on just over 20 miles and nearly late for w*rk.

So it goes..

https://www.strava.com/activities/269564008

He deserves reporting for that attitude!

 

[totallyfixed]

I think you might have to drag a tyre behind you on a rope so I can keep up with you!! Let me know though and I'll see what I can do

Not at all! We enjoy the laid-back type of ride that forum rides present, it makes a very welcome change from training with the little exocet.

 

[ColinJ]

Opera Turbo? Doesn't it play around with pictures? http://www.opera.com/turbo

Nice try, but I have never enabled it. (I did double-check to make sure though!)

I have started noticing the same problem in other threads now and it is annoying me. Since I have it on two different types of system and do not see the problem on other sites, I suspect that something might have changed on CycleChat in the past couple of days. I'll ask Shaun in Site Support!

 

[Glow worm]

Yesterdays ride, posted today as usual..

All I had to do yesterday was pop over to a mate's house as he'd bulk ordered some CR2032 batteries so we could get them cheaper. I was picking up 10 for my various lights and the trip computer. Simple 15 miler there and back with only one sharpish hill out of Brackmills to get the heartbeat rising.
As I rode along the cycle path between Crow Lane and Riverside, I thought I'd seen some movement in the bushes on the embankment to the left. It was only a quick glance, but I know I saw summat! After slowing down and turning round 50 yards later and returning to the spot, I saw a chap had fallen down the slope and was stuck there. His ankle was twisted round some roots and branches and his backpack was tangled in some more foliage. I attempted to disentangle his foot and pull him back up the slope, but he was quite a hefty fella and I'm small (but perfectly formed) and stood no chance of moving him unaided. Now usually it's quite a busy path, but no one else passed by. As Riverside retail park is only half a mile away, I went there to find some assistance. Hoping to find plod there, I headed towards McDonalds. Sure enough, there in the queue was a policeman, ordering the station takeaway.
I told him what had happened and asked for some assistance. Once he'd prioritized things, he finished giving his order at the drive-through window' paid for it and grabbed the bags, he intimated that I should sort it out and maybe call an ambulance.
I apologised profusely for disturbing his breakfast and pointed out that he was actually a policeman and should maybe help? I again apologized that his Maccy D's might get cold....
He drove to where I said the problem was I told him I'd flag him down by the side of the dual carriageway. I got there and the chap had almost disentangled himself but was still well stuck. Plod parked 200 yards up the road, and despite me waving to him, he stayed there. I rode back towards him on the bike path but he was on the bridge over an underpass so I couldn't get near him.
I rode back yet again to the trapped chap and once again waved at Plod. Obviously he didn't see me in my bright yellow riding jacket!
Eventually, it was possible to aid the chap out of his predicament as he'd managed to crawl a bit nearer the top of the embankment. He wandered on his way, and I, once again, went to the side of the dual carriageway to attract the attention of the parked police car to let him know he didn't have to get off his arse and help.
He was nowhere to be seen. Obviously his McDonalds was getting cold and was more important. Jeez!!
Sorry, is this a 'My ride today' post, or a rant...

And breathe.....
I carried on to t'other side of town, picked up my batteries and headed back home. End of ride.

View attachment 82865

A calming picture of Spring happening.....

With the back and forth rides between Crow Lane and Riverside, I ended up on just over 20 miles and nearly late for w*rk.

So it goes..

https://www.strava.com/activities/269564008

And the Plod wonder why no one likes them- honestly!

 

[thetribe]

11 miles today to take me over 100 for March, keeps me up to date on my friendly #12x100 rides. Still not had a chance to get my 50 in for this month yet, working 6 days a week not leaving me much time (as Sundays are not my alone time days)

Nothing really eventful about today's ride but it was an extended pickup ride as my wife resumed her cycle commuting today, so another 6.7miles to add to her total, slowly but surely she's getting there. Created her a couple of private segments on Strava, one for the journey to work and one for the journey home, so she can keep an eye on her progress. She's at a different workplace on Friday, which is closer to home, so she's already working out an extended journey

https://www.strava.com/activities/270237014