Utilitarian Adventures

[Ruthie]

My usual mile and a half to Fellowship and back.  We had some new members who admired my beautiful Josette    and quite right too.  It was the first time I've needed lights on the way home this year    and actually the Hope Vision 1 on the front got a comment from a pedestrian on the brightness/battery use.  So if I'd wanted attention I'd have been satisfied tonight.

A really strange feel on the streets of Darlo tonight, I was pleased to get home.

[Phil W]

Shouldn't knock utility trips. I pretty much use the bike for all utility trips within about a 10 mile radius. Either my road bike or the Brompton.  When I get a recumbent I'll almost certainly use that for heavier loads I wouldn't carry on the upright.

[Kim]

I think I can count the number of recumbent utility trips I've done on one hand (not counting those done away from home, where it's been the only bike I've had with me).  I think it amounts to one case of the hybrid being unexpectedly out of commission, and maybe three heavy trailer loads where the trike made sense for hauling the extra weight.

But that's because I've got an upwrong that's good at hauling weight.

[Ruthie]

A trip round the corner for some blood tests, and another trip this morning to order a birthday cake for a colleague who's retiring.  About two miles in total but enough to get dripping wet in the rain!

[cycleman]

Over to Windsor to fit a bar bag and it's mounting to Jonathan notp trice then back to Slough to sort money out at the bank. Then round to tesco for kitten food and then home 

[The Family Cyclist]

Yay a good day when both commutes and utilitarianed. Remembered had ordered pictures and meant to collect them Monday so added about 500 metres to commute and popped by to get them

[Pancho]

Yesterday should have been a Utility trip - my 20 mile outing was intended to include a call in at Halfords. Unfortunately, the heat boiled my brain and I forgot to stop. So the ride became a mere recreational jaunt.

Did get out today though. 1 mile. Usual saga!

[Pancho]

At last - an 18 mile Utility Outing. Lidl and back via the sea.

I'm getting better at judging volumes and pretty much filled the panniers without wasteful empty space or, worse, buying too much and resorting to carrier bags on handlebars.

Weather: Gorgeous.

Other cyclists: Loads. Lost count. OK, mainly lycra types (do they not have jobs?) but also many utilitarians. Six utility bikes chained up at Lidl. About 20 outside a coffee shop.

Events of note: Thought I was going to be crushed by some noisy engined behemoth - I could hear it behind me getting louder and louder but, however much I twisted and turned and examined mirrors, I could not see the bugger. It was getting louder and louder, closer and closer. Finally realised it was a combine in adjacent field!

Small panniers, fully loaded:

[Ruthie]

Those panniers are very pretty.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

A short, slow trundle near the university in Ratchaburi to check out the start of tomorrow's 300 brevet, to see the monkeys in the local park, check out the local market and to get a roadside dinner.

[Pancho]

A short, slow trundle near the university in Ratchaburi to check out the start of tomorrow's 300 brevet, to see the monkeys in the local park, check out the local market and to get a roadside dinner.

I guess you're on overseas deployment then! At the park here yesterday, we only had women sunbathing, tramps drinking, and magpies.

Do the monkeys keep themselves to themselves? Last time I was in monkey territory, they were nasty thieving little buggers.

[Pancho]

Those panniers are very pretty.

Carradice Kendal.

http://www.carradice.co.uk/index.php?page_id=product&under=range&product_id=52

But I don't remember them being that expensive!

They're a bit small but are ruggedly utilitarian (a bit like me). I used to have huge, voluminous panniers that felt like they'd swallow up a VW Beetle or two. A bit too big really. I prefer my current arrangement of modest panniers for day-to-day loads coupled with a trailer I can hitch up for really big stuff.

[Pancho]

This time of year I treat every sunny day as if it were the last. I couldn't resist a 1900 dip as the sun prepared to set. Oh my, it wonderful. Windless, bright, and the water was end-of-summer warm.

And I had it all to myself.

Here's the bike:



and here's the view from the water:



That last pic is super colourful if you fill the screen with it http://i.imgur.com/Z7gLhky.jpg

It was taken from that point where the sound of breaking waves quietens and it's just you and the sea. Did 30 minutes in the water and headed back so I'd be out of the water before it got too dusky.

So, a few hundred metres swimming and 6 miles of riding (for a total of almost 25 miles for the day).

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Pancho, I'm doing the culture shock thing in Thailand till Sunday, just getting ready for the Cha-Am 300 starting in an hour. The monkeys are cute little things, smaller than cats, and happy to challenge the blokes on bikes if we rode too close to their babies. They weren't too inclined to shift off the paths for bikes or cars. The adjacent market didn't seem bothered by the monkeys at all.

[Pancho]

Six miles to the beach again (sorry).

Tide was out - so a bloody long walk to the water. Followed by a bloody long wade until it was deep enough to swim.

Shared the beach with at least half a dozen other bike-people. Some of whom had crammed the entire world of British beach paraphernalia on board - windbreak, drinks cooler, parasol, lilo, etc, etc. I was impressed - I thought I was being extravagant with the loading by taking two paperbacks.

[Pancho]

Am I the only utilitarian at the moment? Is everyone else on proper expeditions during the hols? LittleWheelsAndBig excepted - he's hors de combat.

Anyway. Today was ASDA. 16 miles total. £30 worth of groceries. Weather wonderful. Many other bikies seen. Inc, parked next to me at ASDA, a v nice Kona Dew. A bit more upmarket than the usual utilitarian rack-mates in Gosport!

The roads near the beach were "ram packed" (genuinely!) with fly parked motor vehicles. And bikes, to be fair - but at least they don't block the road when chained to a fence. I'll bet that most of those car-ists live within 5 miles of the beach as well. Anyway, their problem not mine. Jammed up cars are slow cars which is my second favourite type of car.

[Samuel D]

You live in a fairy tale, Pancho. Who can compete with that?

[Pancho]

You live in a fairy tale, Pancho. Who can compete with that?

I've merely decided to have nothing but an outrageously positive outlook on life! Of course, it's easy in high Summer to convince oneself that cycling to Aldi is, in fact, the life of kings. I can only hope I think the same when I'm hacking through winter grime and gales into darkness and a headwind.

Anyway, I hope it's not a competition for the "best" utility experience. Then again, such a thread would make a good counterbalance for the "commute" thread - which tends to be a litany of woes and dire tales of traffic, kit, work, and weather nightmares.

[Jurek]

Less than a mile, to the beach (Whitstable) at around 08:00 this morning.
Parked myself on Tankerton slopes and listened to the waves lapping for around an hour, before riding along the seafront in search of some breakfast.
Following breakfast the search was for some Allen keys. George's Mini Market delivered for £1.50 and the saddle on the Brompton was no longer loose.
I'm not sure that the 4mm key will be good for any other job. - That's £1.50 tools for you.
A bit more sea front riding, before catching the 10:20 back to The Great Wen.
Plan B - Avoiding trying to leave Whitstable by train on the evening of August Bank Holiday, was a 100% success.

[Pancho]

Jurek, where you on hol and took the Brommie with you? Nice move!

My trip for the day was just to the butcher to pick up some goat. Which I will later rustle up into a North African style pot thing.

Was v impressed to see the bike racks full and at least half a dozen other bikes leaning on walls outside shops in the village. Yes, that's bunch of fresh flowers tied to the handlebars.

You wouldn't believe the hassle I had getting those racks put in. Apparently no one cycles round here and the loss of one parking bay (of about 300) would kill local business. Our first and only bike racks!

[Jurek]

I was.
A few days off, spent in Whitstable.
Boarding the train in London (Bromley) is ok - but by the time train had gone through the Medway towns it was rammed to the gunnels / standing room only - so anyone with a full size bike, push chair, windbreak etc was persona non grata.
Also on weekends like the one just gone, the main road through Whitstable is mostly a car park - so a bike makes a lot of sense - even to Whitstable residents, like my friend Clare, who has seen the value of having a serviceable bike to get around her car encumbered small town.
I declined a lift from another friend's house to their beach hut while I was there - a distance of just over a mile. I took the keys to the hut, and was there on my own for about 45 minutes while they sat in their car - their 6yo son couldn't understand why anyone would want to cycle when they were being offered a lift in a car 

[Pancho]

I was.
A few days off, spent in Whitstable.
Boarding the train in London (Bromley) is ok - but by the time train had gone through the Medway towns it was rammed to the gunnels / standing room only - so anyone with a full size bike, push chair, windbreak etc was persona non grata.
Also on weekends like the one just gone, the main road through Whitstable is mostly a car park - so a bike makes a lot of sense - even to Whitstable residents, like my friend Clare, who has seen the value of having a serviceable bike to get around her car encumbered small town.
I declined a lift from another friend's house to their beach hut while I was there - a distance of just over a mile. I took the keys to the hut, and was there on my own for about 45 minutes while they sat in their car - their 6yo son couldn't understand why anyone would want to cycle when they were being offered a lift in a car 

Well, one would like to imagine that your demo of a superior mode of transport might have learned 'im.

[cycleman]

Out to halfords to pick up a brake cable for the parking brake on the trice. 6 miles 

[Pancho]

Village to visit doc's. 1 mile.

Q: I need to go back and have a nurse measure my BP - will gentle riding to the appt bugger up the reading (and, if so, any more so than walking)? It's not far or hilly.

About 10 bikes parked around the village. I'm beginning to think that there are more cyclists out-and-about during office hours than at either weekends or commute times.

[The Family Cyclist]

Does going to a bbq count? If so three bikes and the Burley trailer with team member number four in it did the about mile to mates bbc. Weather took a turn for worse so borrowed mates jacket and squeezed eldest into Burley bee ignored weight limit and appreciated tail wind and downhil.l