Have you been out today?

[menthel]

90k into the Surrey hills with 1040m of climbing with the club. First outing of the year for the soot bike and my legs can feel it now!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Intended to join the CTC ride to Castle Combe for the "Cyclists Memorial Service" relict of WWI thing – never been sure why it's at Castle Combe but it is. Anyway, I overslept so went out for a useful task then a suburban potter, during which I discovered a number of suburban things I probably knew of before, viz: the Airbus Link off the Concorde Way (Concorde Way is wonderful and useful, Airbus Link not so much, unless presumably you work at Airbus), a branch of the notorious Home Bargains, and a teenager bleeding all over his mtb. The last was outside a branch of Cycle Surgery, he and his mate were fiddling with their bikes and he'd cut himself on the chain or something. I went into Cycle Surgery and got a staff member to give him a plaster – he'd been reluctant to go in himself for fear of bleeding over their floor! A remarkably conscientious teenager. I then pointed out that his mate was spraying WD40 over his brake disc...

And then I went home and on the way was shining and I even got to ride in short sleeves.

[Canardly]

Cold and somewhat misty murky 32 miles to St Ives and back. Reminded me of West Flanders in winter. Dreich.

[sg37409]

111km round Fauchledean. It got colder and wetter the further east I got.  Dismayed by the amount of litter and fly tipping between Slamaman and Glen Mavis.  So many people proud to be scottish yet not giving a fcuk about scotland. 
Enjoyed the run though, some new roads and a revisit of old lunchtime thrash roads from my old work. On my good bike too, in spite of the weather.

[Snakehips]

I felt like something a bit different today so I did a 16 mile round trip to the nearest three branches of Majestic Wine, sampling a couple of reds in each one.

You can do that?
This sounds like a great idea!

I think it would make a good challenge; how many Majestic branches can you visit on one ride? I'm lucky. I have five branches within 4 miles of my home. I vaguely intended to visit all five but by the time I left the third one, Twickenham (highly recommended), the weather was getting a bit manky and it was uphill to the fourth so I bailed out.

I have also been out today but no wine was involved.

[Paul]

I felt like something a bit different today so I did a 16 mile round trip to the nearest three branches of Majestic Wine, sampling a couple of reds in each one.

You can do that?
This sounds like a great idea!

I think it would make a good challenge; how many Majestic branches can you visit on one ride? I'm lucky. I have five branches within 4 miles of my home. I vaguely intended to visit all five but by the time I left the third one, Twickenham (highly recommended), the weather was getting a bit manky and it was uphill to the fourth so I bailed out.

I have also been out today but no wine was involved.

Hmm, the nearest one to me is 3 and a bit miles but it gets tricky after that; there are 3 more but they’re 15 and 20 miles away and in different directions. I’d probably have to do 70 miles to visit 4 different ones.

I’d end up sober!

[SoreTween]

First time around the Redbrook loop of the Wild Boar Chase route.  Only been meaning to for 6 years.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2272854644

[T42]

Yesterday: set out on yet another 100k on which I got fed up at 25. Since I stopped chasing brevets I've got no-more-worlds-to-conquer syndrome, in spades.  Legs were inexplicably sore, too, maybe from riding in summer shorts in 8°C two days before, I dunno. They're sore now, though, since on the way home I took a hill I shouldn't have faster than I should have but at least that was fun and I'm still alive & kicking, just ask the dog.

Got a creaky bottom bracket now, CBA doing anything about it. I'll pretend it's the shoes until it drives me crackers. F'ck, I need a new chain too.

[Cudzoziemiec]

First time around the Redbrook loop of the Wild Boar Chase route.  Only been meaning to for 6 years.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2272854644

I presume that's in the Forest of Dean? I don't know the exact route but my legs hurt just thinking about it. Might be a good idea to visit sometime though.

[SoreTween]

I presume that's in the Forest of Dean? I don't know the exact route but my legs hurt just thinking about it. Might be a good idea to visit sometime though.

Out from rather than in.  There were many silly slopes, downs you'd need suicidal tendencies to let rip on and climbs that would challenge Dougie Lampkin (all walked by me natch).  It was lovely, 35 kms with negligible time on road.  The restricted byway from Redbrook to Newland in particular was sublime in the afternoon sun (past Birt's Cottage and Lodges Farm).  That stretch is doable on anything with moderately robust tyres.
https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=dfa5df22-a943-4f86-92be-9d15357a69c5&cp=51.776228~-2.662107&lvl=15&style=s&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027
   

[Cudzoziemiec]

I presume that's in the Forest of Dean? I don't know the exact route but my legs hurt just thinking about it. Might be a good idea to visit sometime though.

Out from rather than in.  There were many silly slopes, downs you'd need suicidal tendencies to let rip on and climbs that would challenge Dougie Lampkin (all walked by me natch).  It was lovely, 35 kms with negligible time on road.  The restricted byway from Redbrook to Newland in particular was sublime in the afternoon sun (past Birt's Cottage and Lodges Farm).  That stretch is doable on anything with moderately robust tyres.
https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=dfa5df22-a943-4f86-92be-9d15357a69c5&cp=51.776228~-2.662107&lvl=15&style=s&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027
 

Interesting to see that Bing maps use OS: advantages obvious. 

[Kim]

Interesting to see that Bing maps use OS: advantages obvious. 

It's the only thing I've ever used Bing for.  It scrolls better than either  a) Streetmap  b) the OS mapping site itself  or c) the web version of Viewranger.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not today but I had meant to include this photo in my last but one post here.


I thought it was kind of cute, a corrugated iron shack church. It's in a tiny place not quite big enough to call a village on a loop of road that goes nowhere about a hundred metres from the Severn Estuary. Although the sign outside says St Mary the Virgin, inside it's referred to as St Arilda's. I've no idea who St Arilda was, I'm guessing a local Saxon saint. There was a newspaper clipping inside about a special bikers' service: but it was for motorbikers, who could have their helmets, gloves and motorbikes blessed by a (woman) priest who's a member of some sort of Christian bikers' gang called, IIRC, One Way.

[T42]

I managed a stellar 1.44 km today, i.e. once round the village, before I realized that something in the chain dept was not happy. It felt as if it was rubbing somewhere, but I couldn't find it. It's a somewhat old SRAM chain that's been lying in the workshop for a year, so maybe it's just stiff pivots...

Anyway, by the time I finished fiddling with it noon had struck and ICBA going out again.  Mañana.

[Wowbagger]

I bled the rear brake on the leccy tandem so it obviously needed a test ride. Jan and I planned 10 miles culminating in a trip to Waitrose. We had gone about a quarter of a mile into the teeth of an absolutely bitter NE-erly and we decided to bail and go straight to Waitrose.

April is not meant to be this bloody cold.

The brake bleeding was a success and much easier than I had expected.

[phantasmagoriana]

Did something I hardly ever do: went out without my Garmin, on a short but hilly local loop. Enjoyed that. I might free myself from the shackles of technology more often.

[Basil]

Did something I hardly ever do: went out without my Garmin, on a short but hilly local loop. Enjoyed that. I might free myself from the shackles of technology more often.

Sheldon Brown's tip was to attach your 'puter to your seat post if you really had to know how far you'd been.

[Kim]

Did something I hardly ever do: went out without my Garmin, on a short but hilly local loop. Enjoyed that. I might free myself from the shackles of technology more often.

Sheldon Brown's tip was to attach your 'puter to your seat post if you really had to know how far you'd been.

I've been known to ride with my garmin (or phone in GPS logging mode) in a bag when I don't need it for stats or navigation but would still like to collect the line on the map at the end of it.

[Wowbagger]

I'm currently using my Garmin for all kinds of trivial journeys because I'm trying to sort out which of my rechargeable batteries power it for long enough to make it worth taking them with me on a week-long tour in June.

[UshCha]

Not today. but I did the East part of the Nottingham to Grantham canal Tuesday.    From the Caffe to the inauspicious end.   The scenary in the West section is good but some of the path is HELL on a Brompton, its actually grass and even given this dry weather I hace worked less climing some pretty steep hills.

[BrianI]

Not today but on Wed 10th Thursday 11th of April I had a short bicycle tour to stay overnight in a glamping Shepherd's Hut!

 

20 mile or so each way, but a really really lovely spot at the edge of the Ochil Hills, Perth & Kinross.







Despite having my Dawes Horizon since 2008, this was actually my first overnight tour on it...      

But a really nice stay!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Glam! I bet it never looked like that when shepherds used it.... Great views too.

[Canardly]

Very nice.

[cycleman]

I have just come back from a 30 mile potter out on the a4 cycleway to near Brentford then left to Hanwell joining the grand union canal towpath as far as Hayes and Harlington joining the roads back to slough via west Drayton  . Quite a chilly day today.  Glad I went out though   

[T42]

Yesterday, sparkling (not) 37k in full winter fig with a 20-45kph wind after automatically taking my accursed metformin at breakfast. Quads hurt all the way. Bleh.