Your ride today....

[gavgav]

A midweek evening ride with @Rickshaw Phil and Doug was arranged and I headed out in milder weather than I expected, with hardly any wind, which is always nice at this time of year when things can be unpleasant.

I followed the cycle paths up to meet them and we then did a loop of the village, before heading up Lyth Hill, pausing for a chat at the summit. Quite busy with traffic heading up there and then when trying to get onto the A49 for a short section, but after that it quietened down to Condover and Cantlop, just a few cars were met.

I’d tried to come up with a bit of a variation on recent evening rides, difficult when we only aim for about 15 miles, but managed to do so and we headed towards Pitchford, Cound Stanks and via a short section on the A458, Berrington.

The final section was to Betton Abbots and then parted ways with 15.75 miles on the clock.

 

[a.twiddler]

My ride on 10/11/21. Desperate to get out on a bike, though hardly an epic ride.
Set up, tested, and secured a new set of bars and refitted the fittings today. Out for a test ride/shopping combined. The Humpert Englischer bars feel really good, having an eye level mirror also makes a big difference.

Gears work fine, brakes feel good and the height of the bars is not so overpowering now. Mostly flat into town after negotiating the uphill traffic lights, then a long downhill where I easily exceed 25 mph even though I have to stop at a pedestrian crossing red light on the way. Into town at low speed, to my usual supermarket where I lock up outside. Shopping acquired, bunged in bag. Set off intending to return the same way.

Crossing a busy car park, I feel the rear wheel suddenly start dragging. Is it the rear rollerbrake? Nothing obvious. I move the activating lever with a finger and it feels free enough. It continues to drag when I pedal so I take a less busy route in low gear and stop at a quiet spot to invesigate. As I roll it gently backwards I see some rubbery dust and realise that the back wheel has pulled over causing the tyre to rub on the chain stay. Cycling 101, though I am sure that it was properly tight after my last wheel-off when I put this Big Apple on. There is not a lot of chainstay clearance so any small movement will tend to cause contact. In fact I noticed some serrated washers missing and fitted some from my bits box at the time to prevent this sort of thing happening.

Anyhow, it is not just a matter of tightening up the wheel nuts. The torque arm frame fixing for the rollerbrake must also be slackened while straightening up the wheel then tightened up when the wheel nuts are tightened. Once the job is done I cycle gingerly then with more confidence up Gladstone St and Townfields Road. The wheel stays put up the hill so I am pleased with that. I manage the hill without difficulty. I get home and unload the shopping then put the bike away. Later, I recheck the alignment of the wheel and re tighten all the fixings.

Mileage 3.88 Max 25.5 Average 6.5.

Total Ascent:​	120​	ft​
Total Descent:	119​	ft​
Start Elevation:	189​	ft​
End Elevation:	190​	ft​
Min Elevation:	127​	ft​	​
Max Elevation:	215​	ft​

According to Bikehike.

 

[Archie_tect]

Haven't been on my bike for over a month due til other things but must get out next week when things are a bit quieter!

 

[Ian H]

The usual pubrun yesterday evening. Met friend Richard in the High Street and set off to meet the others in Cranbrook. It started raining almost immediately, so on with the rain jacket. It was dry by the time we got to Cranbrook, so off with the sweaty jacket, and off with the others for a hilly ride to the pub... and as we climbed it rained again, so I took a layer off and donned the rain jacket once more, then sprinted to catch the others.

The pub was friendly, the beer and chips good. Other cyclists came in and asked where we'd come from (answer all over East Devon).

We went our separate ways home, four of us going the direct way home, peeling off at intervals. I was home by 11. Sixty km on the fixed.

Epilogue: the Garmin failed to record a lot of the route (user error, I think) so I had to plot my route shown here.

 

[Jenkins]

I suppose I could have stayed at home and caught up with a couple of podcasts and this week's Release Radar on Spotify, but that's not as much fun as getting out the 29er and going out for a ride while listening to them on a pair of Aftershokz. The route took in in a loop using as many of the bridleways around Trimley, Walton & Felixstowe as possible followed by the back road to the outskirts of Ipswich via Nacton and then home with a mix of on and off road bits via Bucklesham & Falkenham.
I'd like to have done a bit more taking in Martlesham, Waldingfield & Newbourne, but run out of time due to an evening commitment in Cambridge

 

[galaxy]

Been a week since i got out last. So home early Thursday, got out for hour before it got dark, bit mucky on the Lanes but nice to be out. Seen a few other cyclists out and about.

 

[Old jon]

Looked a bit dim and dismal outdoors this morning, and I needed to check the adjustments I had made to the gear changing. So me and the Bob Jackson went off for a short ride.

Some thought before pedalling away made me decide on an odd route, maybe just in need of a change or something. So I set off for Leeds’ town centre, a large change already. And of course, it was busy. But there are bike tracks, and after City Square most of the traffic was inbound and I was heading for Kirkstall, leaving the city behind me. Once at Kirkstall, cross the river on one bridge, I think the original Kirkstall Bridge, and then turn right and cross the canal on another bridge.

This is Leeds and Bradford Road and it climbs. Not steep but for quite a distance, and by the time the road levelled there is a right turn leading down into Rodley. Then of course the road rises again. Just about all the way to Calverley. Ah well, keep pedalling, Greengates next and straight on until the right turn, downhill again, to Apperley Bridge. And I decided I wanted quiet riding so after crossing the swing bridge I turned right and rode away along the towpath.

And quiet it was. A few pedestrians, some with a dog or two. Maybe three cyclists riding in the other direction. And nothing moving on the canal. So a peaceful ride along to Rodley, roughly parallel to the road I had used earlier. Leave Rodley, still on the towpath, and find a very short stretch of totally deserted path to point the camera at.



The marina at Newlay is reached shortly after that, then Bramley Fall Lock. A short distance more and Forge Lock is there, and a convenient place to lean a bike for a photograph. So I did.

Kirkstall again, but on the canalside this time. And stay on there all the way to Office Lock. Back to the road for the final lap to home. Small numbers today, but a big grin. Just one thousand feet of climbing and twenty three miles ridden, still a good pedal around.

Looks like a long ride . . .

 

[Spiderweb]

Out on the Tricross at 9.40am with David from our village. A quick ride to Wighill where we met Simon from York and then headed off to The Watermill cafe near Knaresborough for early lunch. We returned via Copmanthorpe where Simon left us. Due to weather and a bad cold this is my first ride for 3 weeks! Good to get back on the bike.
49 miles with an average of 15.4 mph.

 

[gavgav]

A cloudy but mild Saturday morning and a chance to get my November 50k bagged. I’d been suffering from a painful wrist, since Wednesday’s ride, not a clue why, but thankfully it had eased a bit today.

There was a keen North Westerly wind, as I set out into it to begin with, up to Sundorne, with a short detour to see where I used to live with my Brother, nothing much has changed, except the door has been painted Black.

I then headed onto the old canal path, care needed with a carpet of damp and slippy leaf mulch, before joining roads to Uffington, Upton Magna, Withington and Isombridge, wind behind me for some of this section, which was nice. At Longdon on Tern I turned into it again and then followed the lanes to Rodington, Roden, Poynton and Bings Heath. Traffic a bit busier than I’d have liked, along the last couple of lanes.

I had the wind behind me as I climbed up Ebury Hill and East Haughmond, which helped and then the nice fast descent back to Upton Magna. I followed the Pelham road and encountered todays complete and utter moron. After the narrow section, there are a couple of bends, before the road opens out. A car followed me patiently and then just as she was about to safely overtake me on the straighter section, idiot behind her decided to overtake both her and me, blasting on the horn as he did so, Bullying his way through to match the reputation of the car he was driving. Just an astounding piece of idiotic moronic driving.

The rat run to Atcham was quite busy, as was the road to Cross Houses, but it quietened down again to Berrington, where I found a complete toilet seat in the middle of the road, as you do! and King St, where I paused for my 1 picture of the day, to show the autumnal view

The final section was through Betton Abbots and home with 33.76 miles on the clock, at 12.1mph avg

 

[Donger]

Only 21.3 miles today, but at a time when family commitments have made it difficult to get out at all, I'll take that. My mate Simon came round for a gentle pootle around the Severnside lanes. Plenty of other cyclists out ..... most of them overtaking us. I'm not saying Simon is slow, but while we were out my wife baked a cake for us, and it even had time to cool. She wasn't to know we had stopped off at the Stables Cafe at Saul Marina for coffee and, ahem, cakes. I reckon I probably put weight on on this ride.

 

[Mike_P]

The bike shed opened for the first time this month this afternoon and the Defy extracted. A late even for me start due to a 1140 covid booster and with the light fading quickly these days only around a couple of hours were available in good light. To give the ride some purpose I made a start on a ABC of street names, slightly complicated by only counting those with something notable located along them.

Back street route paralleling sort of the up and down of Ripon Road and up Cold Bath Road passing the Prologue cycle shop with its £12,600 Pinnerellos. Across Otley Road at TLs brought me to Arthurs Avenue along which Harrogate Grammar School is located.

South west through the highest point of the ride and down Whinney Lane; complete now with a roundabout and a field of house. Then curved round to head NNE along Beckwith Head Road, the very off centre newish home of Harrogate Police Station.

What should have been a simple crossing of Otley Road due to a set of TLs turned out to be a lengthy affair as the TLs are sensor operated and despite waving at it the TL sequence resolutely failed to activate the desired green light. Eventually a police car pulled up behind me and a green light. There had been a road accident here a few weeks back that was reported as demolishing a wall. It had also wiped out the road nameboard so a RHS Garden Harlow Carr notice regarding a permissive footpath parallel to Crag Lane sufficed and achieved both targets in one.

Headed east along Otley Road and completely forgot to turn towards the next sequential road so a loop back needed with the ascent of Valley Drive and through the Pine Woods as a reverse of part of the UCI circuit. At the turning into Duchy Road is Brackenfield School.

East pass the Convention Centre, busy with people attending a “Comic Convention”

and Asda to reach East Parade, at the south end of which is the Odeon cinema, a Grade II Listed Building.

Across the Stray and onto a very tree leafed bridleway to the showground, pass Sainsbury’s and worked my way to the front inside of the queue of car waiting to turn right onto the A661. The lead car was a learner driver; the TL went green, I turned right – it was sometime before a car passed me. Left into Forest Lane with its entrance to the Commonwealth War Graves

The nameboard next to the planter was further on facing the junction with Forest Moor Road and wanting to head east on that road it suddenly became very busy so I decided on a loop to come back to the junction which was now pretty quiet. Onto Calcutt and Knaresborough, over the River Nidd on Low Bridge to join Abbey Road along the gorge; then back across the river and turned into Grimbald Crag Close, the location of the Driving Test Centre as signposted but disguised on the occupiers sign.

Another loop pass various car dealers and across the river and then the A59 and pass Lidl to reach Halfpenny Lane; along which is Meadowside Academy.

Turned south west along Blind Lane, slightly confusingly it changed name halfway then back, now as a single track road joining onto the Boroughbridge Road and the well pedalled route over High Bridge, the A59 cyclepath and Bilton Lane. 24.79 miles 1644ft climbed.

 

[cyberknight]

solo metric century
39 miles to the cake stop at curborough hall farm thyme kitchen £6.20 for coffee and cake ! i think i was the 1st one one there then rode home to make the mileage .

 

[Old jon]

It was going to be a fixed wheel ride today. Bike out of shed, tyre pressures checked. What’s that rattle? A loose spoke, oh, another one, cannot even see the nipple. Expletives aplenty, Spa out, fixed back in, will sort the wheel tomorrow. I hope.

Different bike, still the same intended route, so chug around Holbeck, then across the river on Crown Point Bridge. Up to the clock at Oakwood and turn left to ride past the posh gates of Roundhay Park on the way to Moortown Corner. A couple of right turns later and the bike is pointing to Slaid Hill and that gorgeous swoopy road all the way to East Keswick. Another Potts clock there, in a house wall where you would expect to see a bedroom window . . .

Up out of there and turn right on the A659. Ride to the edge of Collingham, turn left to cross the Wharfe at Linton and a pleasant surprise, the climb away from the bridge has been resurfaced, and it looks like the rest of the road will be as well. Wetherby next, and stop by the town hall for a munch. I was asked if I was there for the ceremony, guessed that she meant the Remembrance one and pointed to the litter bin and the banana I had just eaten. Point taken.

There is that rather large roundabout on the way out of Wetherby, the original intention had been to go straight on there, up to Wattle Syke. Some form of autopilot took over the navigation here, and I turned right to go to Collingham and the climb up Jewitt Lane. One day I will try this on the fixed, maybe next summer. Today I turned right just below the crest, onto Compton Lane, travelling away from Compton towards East Rigton. On the way there I remembered to turn on the camera.



More quiet roads on the way to Thorner, a fair number of bike riders about, which reminded me it was Sunday. And there was this gate that I just had to lean the bike against.

Down the hill into Thorner, a piper was marching his way to the church there. Looked impressive but I did not wait around for the performance. Sandhills was the chosen exit route, in the uphill direction with tired legs that were more tired after the climbing. They do not look that much but always take some effort. And then there is only downhill left. Back past the Oakwood Clock and almost into town before recrossing the Aire and the return to the street where I live. A smile for that, and the 1700 feet going up in thirty three miles of pedalling. Sorted!

No escape from the garthing ever!

 

[geocycle]

Lovely sunny morning so went exploring the single track roads above Kirby Lonsdale. The out route braided the Lancaster Canal. The Black and white canal as it was known exchanged coal and lime with Kendal. It is now cut through by the M6 which has isolated a northern stretch. Up Tinklers Bank and great views to the Howgills before dropping into Kirby for lunch. Several cafes shut so went al fresco with a pasty from the bakery. Nice 45 miles with 750 m of climbing.

Pictures below of Lancaster Canal looking north. The second is Ruskin’s View in Kirby Lonsdale as painted by Joseph Mallord, William Turner.

 

[Dave 123]

Just a little ride this afternoon. My Garmin refused to start, I only noticed after 2 miles.
My knee pain was quite painful up the steep hill of Yealmbury Hill.
I stopped on the bridge over the river Yealm in New England.

Then around through Battisborough and along the coast road. Nice clouds!