Author Topic: Have you been out today? (Read 3889096 times)

ElyDave · « **Reply #21975 on:** 21 July, 2018, 12:07:32 pm »

2 hours nice adn early yeterday, with most of my planned touring load for the week after next. Essentiallyy to check out handling under load and my ability to move it, deliberately picked one of the nastier hills aroudn here - short and sharp frm one side, then down the other side, turn 180 and back up the long drag.

Bike felt nicely planted underneath me and I'm confident I'll run out the ability to balance at low speed before I run out of gears. Slower than usual, but I middle ringed it moslty rather than my more usual big ring of late. 50km in total at about 26.5 km/h average.

Out on the utility bike today into town and back with the big panniers.

cycleman · « **Reply #21976 on:** 21 July, 2018, 07:08:45 pm »

15 miles around my Beaconsfield. , Burnham beeches circuit

Canardly · « **Reply #21977 on:** 22 July, 2018, 07:29:25 pm »

30 miler with Sustrans. Decent turn out, pleasant weather, lots of bikes about. Took the little used road bike and was surprised how much more easily hills were tackled. Its been a while.

rogerdodge · « **Reply #21978 on:** 23 July, 2018, 12:03:28 pm »

A nice 90 mile ride from home into the cotswolds, starting later than I had planned and so getting the full effect of the heat. Going through Ebrington (I recommend the horse trough, for a cool wash by the way) the road was blocked by a chicken playing some sort of game that it had invented.
Didn't take enough to drink but I am so grateful for village shops that are open on sundays.

T42 · « **Reply #21979 on:** 23 July, 2018, 02:36:53 pm »

Second ride since injury, 70-odd km with a bit of climbing. Legs fine but condition still lacking. Warm - drank about a litre an hour but still got home dehydrated.

tiermat · « **Reply #21980 on:** 24 July, 2018, 07:21:55 am »

I seem to have developed a (not bad) habit of getting out on the bike pre-work.

Started last week, alternate days, went on through the weekend (actually managing to fit 2 rides in yesterday alone!) and carried on today. 12.6 miles @ 14.8mph.

I could get used to this!

T42 · « **Reply #21981 on:** 27 July, 2018, 03:33:40 pm »

Out at 6 this morning to meet El Prez, he on his new electrick flivver and me with my almost-healed right leg. First time I've ridden alongside an eBike, and I was expecting to be left in the dust, but it turns out that cruising at 22.5 kph is optimal for battery life, so on the flat he stuck at that speed while I went at my usual 24-26 kph with halts for him to catch up. Then we hit a hill and the bugger went up it at 25 kph. Hmmm...

Anyway, the romp came to a sudden end at an intersection in a town with the outlandish name of Pfaffenhoffen*, when a dozy woman in a Seat rear-ended him at the halt line. She didn't so much hit him as come into gentle contact and just keep pushing, as he went over sideways with the bike on top. Fortunately she stopped before he had the car on top too, but not before she had destroyed his back wheel. I took pics while driver & El P filled in insurance forms, then called Mrs T who came to pick him up, Mrs. El Prez being a loppy stocking who wouldn't dare drive that far but takes her duty of wifely panic very seriously.

So El Prez is yet again limited by his arrhythmic heart and doomed to waiting for the insurance folk to come back from holiday in September, his hols in the Alps kiboshed.

Apart from that I had quite a good ride - 70 km @ 23 kph ave and an excellent croissant in a nice air-conditioned patisserie. Leg behaved itself, too.

* twinned with Gilligilliausenpfeffercatsanella-Bogen-by-the-Sea. Not.

Kim · « **Reply #21982 on:** 27 July, 2018, 03:51:50 pm »

Quote from: T42 on 27 July, 2018, 03:33:40 pm

Out at 6 this morning to meet El Prez, he on his new electrick flivver and me with my almost-healed right leg. First time I've ridden alongside an eBike, and I was expecting to be left in the dust, but it turns out that cruising at 22.5 kph is optimal for battery life, so on the flat he stuck at that speed while I went at my usual 24-26 kph with halts for him to catch up. Then we hit a hill and the bugger went up it at 25 kph. Hmmm...

Going up hills at full pelt can also be optimal for battery life, particularly with gearless hub motors which tend to lack torque at low speed.

Depending on how the speed limiting is implemented, it can make for a smoother ride if you stay a little below the limit, so it doesn't keep cutting out.

T42 · « **Reply #21983 on:** 27 July, 2018, 04:57:21 pm »

Dunno what his is, other than that it's Bosch. This is the bike:

https://www.bergamont.com/global_it/products/265716052/Bergamont-E-Horizon-Elite-Gent

CrazyEnglishTriathlete · « **Reply #21984 on:** 28 July, 2018, 07:23:09 pm »

Did my Carlsberg ride today...

If Carlsberg did bike rides... they'd turn out like this.

Only had three hours, so I headed for the hills between Farnham and Alton, pointing the bike at every hill possible. In the winter, with the cold and bad legs these are hard work, but in the summer, with a 1000km Audax in the legs, they are just the right length to power up like a Belgian ruler. Even better, the brisk SW wind blew me up most of the ascents so made me feel like a king. I got blown up the road through the Candovers on the way back and could then put the hammer down on the last few rises on the way home as if I were finishing the TdF time trial.

Got home to find out G had kept his head and won the TdF.

As I said. If Carlsberg did bike rides....

Andrij · « **Reply #21985 on:** 28 July, 2018, 07:39:37 pm »

After heading up to Leyton for a haircut, dropped down to Stratford to pick up CS2 all the way into the City. From there I took CS1* to its conclusion in the shadow of White Hart Lane. Then I reversed the process back to Stratford, then home. 37km of 'Cycle Superhighways' (plus connecting them), 50km total for the day.

* First time on CS1. Conclusion: it is shit. May rant about it later.

De Sisti · « **Reply #21986 on:** 28 July, 2018, 07:55:41 pm »

No. Too much wind and rain.

phantasmagoriana · « **Reply #21987 on:** 28 July, 2018, 09:27:43 pm »

Yes. Too much wind and rain. $:-\$

phantasmagoriana · « **Reply #21988 on:** 29 July, 2018, 12:21:41 pm »

Quote from: phantasmagoriana on 28 July, 2018, 09:27:43 pm

Yes. Too much wind and rain. $:-\$

...and again (shorter ride today, but more consistently wet rather than a mix of dry spells and torrential showers). Can we have summer back now?

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #21989 on:** 29 July, 2018, 12:52:59 pm »

Didn't do the ride I should have done, did something similar. Including the climb of Wentwood, which actually went quite easily thanks to super low gears. Enjoyed the weather, mostly, and had an interesting chat with a group of four women from various parts of the country on some sort of walking holiday while sheltering in a bus shelter in Usk, noted for its lack of nightlife.

Andrij · « **Reply #21990 on:** 29 July, 2018, 12:53:42 pm »

Quote from: Andrij on 28 July, 2018, 07:39:37 pm

...
* First time on CS1. Conclusion: it is shit. May rant about it later.

Others have written better (see below) than what I had in mind for a rant. My view, in summary: not direct and segregated enough for a 'Superhighway'; too busy for a Quietway.

Hackney Cyclist: A look at the "completed" Cycle Superhighway 1

T42 · « **Reply #21991 on:** 29 July, 2018, 01:48:31 pm »

84 km. Pleasantly cool 24°C. Varmers had sprayed summat on newly-mown fields - Eau de Dungheap with a little added je-ne-sais-quoi from I.G. Farben's back bunker - that had my nose running before I could put my foot on it. Saw a poor bewildered deer tripping doubtfully across the muck, probably on the point of croaking. Ah, the country life! We plough the fields and scatter/The pigshit on the land but we've done that one already.

In a pleasant townlet hight Ingwiller I quaffed a croissant and nibbled an espresso or two before setting off for home. Having gone there by the flat I went home via the lumps. Nothing special to report save that the 60 50 kph drivers were out in force, which made the downhills distinctly frustrating: why climb a hill if you can't belt down it? They and the Sundayfied chuchgoers boiling out of church, piling into their flivvers and heading lickety-spit* for the lunchtime trough with a game of graze-the-cyclist's-elbow on the way. But in between, the unsprayed fields and the tracts of forest were a delight to ride through, and there were more of them than of the annoyances.

Oh: maybe it was the combo of coffee & cobbles, but an attack of the screaming stiffords made the last 15k somewhat agonizing, there being no handy undergrowth to take to. The Inlaw Paw used to call it Nipitin Syndrome.

Totally knackered now but really quite pleased. Think I'll have a snooze now before the stage gets under way.

* it's a French cultural thing, they tell me.

De Sisti · « **Reply #21992 on:** 29 July, 2018, 04:30:07 pm »

No, as it was very windy and rainy today.

Canardly · « **Reply #21993 on:** 01 August, 2018, 09:37:49 pm »

Glorius day and a visit to Odell park and a very nice old local pub attached thereto in the company of some retired colleagues. Really odd experience, no breakfast, ordered steak sandwich in pub which I could not face eating when it arrived as I had no appetite at all. Temps in the 29 deg region so lots of using on board bottles but lost all energy on the way back in rolling countryside. Stopped and went for gells in the saddlebag and they were not there!

I managed to cadge one together with a chunk of chewy energy block thing and started to feel much better. Cramping a bit along the way.

I think I was bonking despite the low mileage of approx 42 miles which has not happened in some time. Lack of sleep in recent hot temps also may have played a part. Feeling old. Having said all that enjoyed it tremendously.

cycleman · « **Reply #21994 on:** 02 August, 2018, 09:25:32 pm »

I have pottered down to the chertsey camping and caravaning club site on the ez3 trike towing the single wheel trailer. I have pitched the vango spirit 200 tent and rode into Chertsey for a pizza express meal. Now back at the campsite digesting

Ashaman42 · « **Reply #21995 on:** 02 August, 2018, 09:49:58 pm »

I did. Both today and Tuesday I got out for a pootle after work over to The Yew Tree at Arlington. Very jolly and a nice pint in the sun each time.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

T42 · « **Reply #21996 on:** 04 August, 2018, 01:31:26 pm »

Up before the sun and off to my usual pâtisserie for coffee & croissants. Pleasant outleg with 19°C - 23°C, homeward over the lumps with the temperature climbing steadily to 31°C. Met several friends on the way, had a good natter. A satisfying 80k

Pic, looking back on first climb:

If the weather goes on like this I'm going to become nocturnal.

CrazyEnglishTriathlete · « **Reply #21997 on:** 04 August, 2018, 05:01:46 pm »

Went out in the heat of the midday sun, but although admitting to being English was not a mad dog. Have taken delivery of my replacement Airnimal and wanted to check it out and memorise seatpost height and handlebar angles ready for those late night hotel room assemblies when I resume my travels. Basel at the end of the month is the most likely candidate - put it to test up the Hochwald

ElyDave · « **Reply #21998 on:** 05 August, 2018, 05:21:56 pm »

Friday, 50km split over three sessions, two of which very lumpy I've Arran and the Mull of Kintyre, and the last starting with about 750m of 9-14% out of the Port Askaig ferry port. That was brutal with 15kg of luggage on board.

Saturday, 65 km bumbling around Islay including about 6km eah way of a single track road to the Bunnahabhain distillery the ride back after a tasting session of five single malts w far more interesting

Today about 70km in total of a nice group ride around the island starting in Bruichlaiddich, and lunching in Ardbeg, with a stop at Laphroaig on the way back.

Looking at a brutal day tomorrow of about 165km starting with a 7am ferry, and arriving at the hotel in all likelihood around 8pm

orienteer · « **Reply #21999 on:** 05 August, 2018, 05:45:35 pm »

My turn to lead a ride of CTC Uxbridge Loiterers, in this case car-assisted starting from Princes Risborough. Planned ride was Waterperry Gardens for coffee, Green Dragon Eco Farm near Quainton for lunch, then back to PR.

I couldn't face this 47 mile ride in the current heat, but my suggestion that we ride straight back from Waterperry via a pub at Towersey for lunch was warmly accepted, especially as two of the five riders had already cycled 30 miles from Uxbridge, and faced the same ride back aftwerwards. Local ride was 29 miles.

Also a first for me, in that I re-solo-ed the Moulton tandem and used the e-assist solo for the first time, which helped me! Is this the beginning of the end?