Author Topic: Lost my cycling mojo  (Read 22022 times)

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #75 on: 16 October, 2017, 09:04:15 am »
The autumn leaves are beautiful right now, a little pootle to splosh through them is enjoyable.

They're also really slippy and mushy. :-\

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #76 on: 16 October, 2017, 02:12:55 pm »
The autumn leaves are beautiful right now, a little pootle to splosh through them is enjoyable.

They're also really slippy and mushy. :-\

They haven't quite reached that stage here yet (otherwise yesterday's NCN mystery tour on inappropriate tyres would have been much more fraught), but it can't be long...

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #77 on: 16 October, 2017, 05:33:41 pm »
There was something weirdly exciting about surfing the gales home today :)
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #78 on: 30 October, 2017, 07:28:21 pm »
Went out today for a couple of hours in the sunshine. Not easy to get out of the door, but I managed. After the initial shock of the cold (where did that come from all of a sudden), I realised that I was actually enjoying the ride. No pressure, Garmin wasn't even recording. A couple of hours of fresh, clean, crisp air that felt really good.

I entered an audax a month or so back, Mr Pickwick's Crych Cymraeg. At the time I wasn't sure if I would bother to ride but I do enjoy Mr Black Sheep's rides so I entered. After the ride today, I find I have some of my old enthusiasm for it and I have to say that I am looking forward to the day out. The weather looks like it will be ok so we will see.

Please don't turn the light off before I get to the end of the tunnel.

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #79 on: 15 April, 2021, 11:11:26 am »
[this post brought to you by Resurrect-o-Rama]

I realised at the weekend that I'd not been on a bike since, erm, probably late last summer. The demise of commuting and that fact my wife is always around have curtailed most opportunities to get on two wheels (my wife doesn't like cycling; she'll join me occasionally, but I know she's doing it on my behalf). Now I'm not one of you rufty-tufty proper cyclists, but I enjoy a day in the saddle, usually pottering around London or somewhere.

At the weekend, I had the opportunity to go for a ride and I couldn't be bothered. I made the excuse that I'd have to pump up the tyres and put some oil on the chain, and that it was cold, it might rain, etc. but I was aware I was making excuses and in the end I went for a hike instead. The issue is really that low-level stress of cycling on roads. When I'm doing it most days, tolerance becomes habitual but after a long break, it's just off-putting. The obligatory close-passes and that faint background whiff of aggression, and to get anywhere sensible involves a ride along roads clogged with potentially belligerent drivers (those roads start at the bottom of the street with a narrow rat-run). Even out in the country, enjoying a lane, you know at some point that car will come speeding behind you, demanding to get by. I can't shake that feeling that any placidity is temporary. Maybe things will look up once the weather turns, but really at the moment, it's just not enticing. This is a shame because I'd really have liked to go for a big ride and I hope I cycle again one day.

No point to this, really, but I may have to hand in my YACF pass and shamefully exit via the back door.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #80 on: 15 April, 2021, 11:25:10 am »
You know what you need? A unicycle.

Seriously. Just try something different. It's been the cure for my previous down times. Fixed gear, cyclocross, MTB - all have been sources of cycling inspiration at times when I've most needed it. I do have a unicycle as well, but I've never mastered it. Veloviewer tile-bagging has also been a great motivator in the last couple of years, but that may not be everyone's cup of tea.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #81 on: 15 April, 2021, 11:35:48 am »
What I need is some nice April weather. Just now the thermometer gets up to 11 or 12°C every afternoon but the wind-chill brings it down to ~5° and cycling into it feels like a 5% hill.

This year I've only just done ~30 km more than during the first day of PBP 2015.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #82 on: 15 April, 2021, 11:56:17 am »
I'm hoping warmer weather and my wife starting to disappear again (sounds harsh, but she was a habitual traveller so I often got weekends to myself) will free up some weekend opportunities, but I'm conscious really that it's the roads and that traffic-related anxiety. There's no hassle if I'm hiking, everyone says hello, and other than the occasional unleashed Cujo, it's all pretty chill. Roads are teeth-gnashy tales of what's-gonna-happen? I'm a bit familiar with this, it was always there when I got back from travels and got on the bike for the first time, but after several months, it's a bit of a mountain and I'm not entirely sure I want to climb it.

Maybe I could unicycle around the garden; that said, I have a pogo stick and the garden fence fears me.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #83 on: 15 April, 2021, 11:58:49 am »
Take your bike on a train (I've heard tales of such contraptions) or in the car to somewhere more peaceful?

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #84 on: 15 April, 2021, 12:20:50 pm »
...Veloviewer tile-bagging has also been a great motivator in the last couple of years, but that may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Second this.  Get free Strava, pay the £10 pa for veloviewer, away you go on a mission to explore (while bagging OSM tiles).  I've lost count of the number of times I've been somewhere new, that I'd previously 'disregarded', and had a great ride.  Does require logging rides & navigation, but this is not hard, and planning new routes - which is part of the interest.  Starting with city riding most probably comes with a different 'vibe' - remembering my London cycling days, but I've 'done' Reading & nearly Swindon.    Worth a go.   :)   I wasn't able to do much any in lockdown, so it will be good to restart soon.
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #85 on: 15 April, 2021, 12:30:54 pm »
I can't see ian being a tile-bagging kind of person, to be honest. But the most important thing about Veloviewer tiles is that it gives you somewhere to go - so you're not just riding round in an aimless loop on roads you've ridden a million times before.

You can apply the same principle in different ways - so for example, yesterday evening my motivation for getting the bike out of the garage was to ride through the woods to the pub. Really, you just need to have a purpose for your outing.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #86 on: 15 April, 2021, 12:35:18 pm »
[this post brought to you by Resurrect-o-Rama]

I realised at the weekend that I'd not been on a bike since, erm, probably late last summer. The demise of commuting and that fact my wife is always around have curtailed most opportunities to get on two wheels (my wife doesn't like cycling; she'll join me occasionally, but I know she's doing it on my behalf). Now I'm not one of you rufty-tufty proper cyclists, but I enjoy a day in the saddle, usually pottering around London or somewhere.

At the weekend, I had the opportunity to go for a ride and I couldn't be bothered. I made the excuse that I'd have to pump up the tyres and put some oil on the chain, and that it was cold, it might rain, etc. but I was aware I was making excuses and in the end I went for a hike instead. The issue is really that low-level stress of cycling on roads. When I'm doing it most days, tolerance becomes habitual but after a long break, it's just off-putting. The obligatory close-passes and that faint background whiff of aggression, and to get anywhere sensible involves a ride along roads clogged with potentially belligerent drivers (those roads start at the bottom of the street with a narrow rat-run). Even out in the country, enjoying a lane, you know at some point that car will come speeding behind you, demanding to get by. I can't shake that feeling that any placidity is temporary. Maybe things will look up once the weather turns, but really at the moment, it's just not enticing. This is a shame because I'd really have liked to go for a big ride and I hope I cycle again one day.

No point to this, really, but I may have to hand in my YACF pass and shamefully exit via the back door.

Exactly this. This is why I was whingeing on the other thread about just missing the cut off for a vaccine. What I really, really want is to be able to comfortably get on a train and go for a walk somewhere because it's pretty much guaranteed that no one will try to kill me.

I didn't cycle for years after changing from a job that demanded it for site visits; I felt utterly burned out by the behaviour you describe. I started again last year due to Covid. In many ways it's been great, and we were lucky we already had everything we needed to start again, but enough crap has happened that I started getting pretty unpleasant anxiety before a ride, which starts earlier and earlier. Hence my yearning to just go for a walk somewhere that isn't Croydon, and hanging around vaccine clinics looking for spares.

On Sunday I've got a foraging course near Caterham to cycle to and I know I will just get on with it as it's not a long cycle there, but not without a feeling of dread beforehand and charging up the bloody handlebar cams. They've got somewhere secure to leave the bike though so I will be able to have a nice walk in the woods without worrying about it.

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #87 on: 15 April, 2021, 01:50:07 pm »
I can't see ian being a tile-bagging kind of person, to be honest. But the most important thing about Veloviewer tiles is that it gives you somewhere to go - so you're not just riding round in an aimless loop on roads you've ridden a million times before.

You can apply the same principle in different ways - so for example, yesterday evening my motivation for getting the bike out of the garage was to ride through the woods to the pub. Really, you just need to have a purpose for your outing.

In the absence of veloviewer excursions end of last year, and needing to keep to very familiar roads, I started trying some riding every day -  in the end, from late Dec to early April.  So I've recently stopped, and I didn't really do the intensity/distance for it to get me very fit, but it got me out everyday if even if just a short ride.  Also did quite a few utility rides to pick up food.  What was interesting was having built up quite a 'max streak' was the desire/compulsion to keep it up, and not to stop.   There was a kind of 'normalising' of cycling effect too, I think, as part of the daily activities...
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #88 on: 15 April, 2021, 02:00:20 pm »
I don't think I'd ride much if I live in Surrey. Or Croydon. I suppose you(one/I) don't hear about the millions of uneventful journeys, nor do you remember them, but you remember the close passes, the aggression, the sheer volume of impatient people in weapons while you're trying to go about your business.
Drive somewhere else and go offroad/ traffic free, would be my recommendation, and then when you've re-remembered the enjoyment, you can start getting out from your front door.

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #89 on: 15 April, 2021, 04:05:45 pm »
Yeah, you need to move out of Surrey.  Everything between Morden and Dorking is rat run gnarl.

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #90 on: 15 April, 2021, 04:30:08 pm »
From my time in SW london (no car), I remember some good rides, with bike on train to places like Petersfield, then east and back up to e.g. Haslemere stn for rtn to big smoke.
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #91 on: 15 April, 2021, 04:37:30 pm »
Nah, I'm not a tile bagger (sounds a bit like an obscure sexual practice), I practice an art known as randomeering, which I basically have no plan or destination, I just go. I'm fine with that. In pre-COVID times I was used to avoiding local roads by taking the train somewhere sensible, but there's still that baseline anxiety at the end. The south-east is a bit crowded so finding a lane that's guaranteed not to have a local hammering down like a bullet in their Corsa is never guaranteed and at some point you'll find yourself laid out like a sacrifice on the tarmac altar of some dreadful A road.

It's not like I'm terrified of traffic, I used to often commute home via the A23, but inner London traffic isn't quite as bad as local traffic, it's predictably unpredictable. But still not really a measure of fun. And it gets more Mad Max the further you head out towards the Croydon traffic dystopia.

There is a recent incident that sticks in mind, finishing my ride home, I had the usual van revving behind me on the narrow road, some shouted abuse, that kind of thing (and the worst thing is that it's not atypical, this is something that as a cyclist, you're habituated to entertain), and it was somehow worse because it was around the corner from where I lived. Then, as I turned into my street, a beer bottle sailed by my head. Terrible aim, so it more symbolic than an actual threat, but I'm conscious that really there is no other activity I undertake which comes with the regular threat of an actual physical assault. And the knowledge that if something does happen, then I'm powerless, I don't even have much expectation the police will do anything.

Even then though, it's the minor stuff, the litany of close passes and minor aggression and ignorance, coupled with the knowledge that a lot of people in those cars hates me for no reason than I'm a 'cyclist.' It annoys me that I have to rationalise this as something that happens and should be expected to happen and I just have to deal with it just to undertake an activity that I enjoy. Actually, that's a lot more than an annoyance.

Oh, I'm just musing on a feeling that's been growing for a while and I guess a lack of cycling during the last year has brought it to the fore, maybe I'll get a sunny weekend free and think fuck it, let's go.

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #92 on: 15 April, 2021, 04:50:30 pm »
[this post brought to you by Resurrect-o-Rama]

I realised at the weekend that I'd not been on a bike since, erm, probably late last summer. The demise of commuting and that fact my wife is always around have curtailed most opportunities to get on two wheels (my wife doesn't like cycling; she'll join me occasionally, but I know she's doing it on my behalf). Now I'm not one of you rufty-tufty proper cyclists, but I enjoy a day in the saddle, usually pottering around London or somewhere.

At the weekend, I had the opportunity to go for a ride and I couldn't be bothered. I made the excuse that I'd have to pump up the tyres and put some oil on the chain, and that it was cold, it might rain, etc. but I was aware I was making excuses and in the end I went for a hike instead. The issue is really that low-level stress of cycling on roads. When I'm doing it most days, tolerance becomes habitual but after a long break, it's just off-putting. The obligatory close-passes and that faint background whiff of aggression, and to get anywhere sensible involves a ride along roads clogged with potentially belligerent drivers (those roads start at the bottom of the street with a narrow rat-run). Even out in the country, enjoying a lane, you know at some point that car will come speeding behind you, demanding to get by. I can't shake that feeling that any placidity is temporary. Maybe things will look up once the weather turns, but really at the moment, it's just not enticing. This is a shame because I'd really have liked to go for a big ride and I hope I cycle again one day.

No point to this, really, but I may have to hand in my YACF pass and shamefully exit via the back door.

I find London suburbs are the worst places of all to ride - and the commuter towns around worse.

If you want interesting, stress free cycling - head into the centre of London at the weekend. It is empty, peaceful, and full of surprises. And when I mean empty, I mean some streets have NO cars at the weekend - it is uncanny.

I've swapped my regular long rides into the Chilterns for shorter rides around different parts of London: It is so relaxing.

I only discovered this by bagging velo-viewer tiles when we went into Tier4.

I'll still do a long monthly ride out to the chilterns - but that's for the challenge rather than the joy of cycling: Which surprisingly is easier to find in the centre of one of the worlds busiest cities, at the weekend.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #93 on: 15 April, 2021, 06:56:12 pm »
My mojo evaporated with the onset of winter.  I've been forcing myself out every other day or so to maintain some fitness, but it's a slog when it's miserably cold and the roads are full of the sort of drivers that make you miss London.

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #94 on: 16 April, 2021, 10:25:51 am »
...
I find London suburbs are the worst places of all to ride - and the commuter towns around worse.

If you want interesting, stress free cycling - head into the centre of London at the weekend. It is empty, peaceful, and full of surprises. And when I mean empty, I mean some streets have NO cars at the weekend - it is uncanny.

I've swapped my regular long rides into the Chilterns for shorter rides around different parts of London: It is so relaxing.

I only discovered this by bagging velo-viewer tiles when we went into Tier4.

I'll still do a long monthly ride out to the chilterns - but that's for the challenge rather than the joy of cycling: Which surprisingly is easier to find in the centre of one of the worlds busiest cities, at the weekend.

It's a truism the outer boroughs and the areas just beyond the London pale are the worst. Crossing over the border into the London Borough of Croydon always comes with a sinking feeling. Surrey should append its sign with 'abandon all hope, ye cyclists.'

I generally do like cycling around London at the weekend, it's my usual haunt when I get some free time. There's beer (oh, The Experiment, how I miss you) and street food and I can wobble around and see interesting things. It's prime randomeering, even after years, I still stumble across new things. I might get back to that when the trains become more amenable and less plaguey, I suppose. I mostly don't mind the inner boroughs, most of whom – with the notable two exceptions – have made some efforts to promote and encourage cycling. There are other cyclists, you feel less like a stranger in a strange land, and it's not pavement-to-pavement 100% hate.

I remember several years back, we were cycling around bits of Vancouver Island near Victoria and at a junction, a car pulled up next to us, down came the window, and we both just bristled for what would surely be the usual vitriol.

"Lovely day, eh? Going somewhere nice?"

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #95 on: 16 April, 2021, 10:39:34 am »
...
On Sunday I've got a foraging course near Caterham to cycle to and I know I will just get on with it as it's not a long cycle there, but not without a feeling of dread beforehand and charging up the bloody handlebar cams. They've got somewhere secure to leave the bike though so I will be able to have a nice walk in the woods without worrying about it.

I've not finished the Surrey Bear Census, but be warned, the woods between Woldingham and Caterham are the epicentre of bear activity.

(If you're not in a hurry and don't mind hills, the back route along Old Lodge Lane, across Kenley airfield, and the edge of Caterham-on-the-Hill and down into the valley via Waller Lane is probably the most pleasant way to avoid the A22. Or grind up to Warlingham via the 'official cycle route' and down Bug Lane. Or mountain bike, you'll need it, along Sustrans route 21. You probably know all this. But not the bears).

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #96 on: 16 April, 2021, 02:30:37 pm »
...
On Sunday I've got a foraging course near Caterham to cycle to and I know I will just get on with it as it's not a long cycle there, but not without a feeling of dread beforehand and charging up the bloody handlebar cams. They've got somewhere secure to leave the bike though so I will be able to have a nice walk in the woods without worrying about it.

I've not finished the Surrey Bear Census, but be warned, the woods between Woldingham and Caterham are the epicentre of bear activity.

(If you're not in a hurry and don't mind hills, the back route along Old Lodge Lane, across Kenley airfield, and the edge of Caterham-on-the-Hill and down into the valley via Waller Lane is probably the most pleasant way to avoid the A22. Or grind up to Warlingham via the 'official cycle route' and down Bug Lane. Or mountain bike, you'll need it, along Sustrans route 21. You probably know all this. But not the bears).

Thanks ian. The organisers have now sent me full details and they're actually near the church at Chaldon, so going through Purley and Coulsdon to go over Farthing Downs makes most sense. At least the Downs are nice. Of course I am aware of the Surrey Bears (though recently I read that there are or were bears in Hackney upon stumbling across a very strange 'Cryptid creatures' website while looking for something else).

At some point we'll leave Croydon, certainly after it's become clearer whether the WFH thing is going to stick, or whether employers will revert to lots of in person meetings for meetings' sake. Can't do it just yet though.

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #97 on: 16 April, 2021, 09:01:59 pm »
Ah, enjoy the church, they painted it in the thirteenth century and have yet to get it redone (some mishap with the contractors). The wall paintings are quite impressive, but I secretly think it would look even better accessorized with glitter (it should be open, it was last weekend, but the vicar watches me like a hawk).

Also, try saying Chaldon with a faux French accent. O Chaldon, Chaldon... it makes me happy. I do it in the car every time we drive through. My wife loves me doing this so much that she's making a special note of the fact on the divorce papers.

Croydon's not so bad, it got better after I left. It even has places where you can drink now. Crazy times.

ian

Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #98 on: 08 May, 2021, 10:02:48 pm »
I mojo'ed myself into an actual ride today. Ninety kilometres on the Brompton. I think someone resurfaced the seat with sandpaper while I was away. It's a good job I don't want children because it doesn't feel like that will be an option from now on. The powers that be organized a special headwind to celebrate my tour of south London's favourite flytipping spots. For bonus points, I was in the wrong gear for the big hill I live on, but because I am a man, and thus mostly idiot with a bit of stupid, I didn't give up. Now I have jello legs.

The nurse is administering beer.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Lost my cycling mojo
« Reply #99 on: 08 May, 2021, 10:11:58 pm »
 :thumbsup: