Have you been out today?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Went out yesterday (Sunday) on a just because ride, an all too rare event this year. Rode out to Malmesbury, had some lunch and a big chunk of coffee and walnut cake, then headed on east. Having got up Hinton Hill earlier without resorting to my lowest gear (gasp!), I decided to go up Pavenhill. Then turned round and went home.

Some early COR (a badly chosen bridleway) had resulted in a soggy sock – I think it was mainly from wet grass rather than the puddles of cow piss, tractor oil and whatever agrichemical it is that leaves dark green pools at the bottom of the puddles, but I've washed my woolly socks anyway(!) – and although people say wool keeps you warm even when it's wet, that's only in comparison to cotton, not an absolute. So on the way home, as dusk fell, I stopped on some handy grass, took off my shoe and sock and gave my toes a circulation restoring rub. Perhaps it's time for winter boots already. Legs felt fine in three-quarters though and didn't need long gloves. Mileage reached triple figures, measured in km obviously, which I think makes it the second longest day ride this year for me. Ah well there's always next year. Or so they say.

[giropaul]

First ride in 9 weeks or more with my broken clavicle.  We are probably moving house for my wife's work so this was a chance to test a commuter route to the new house and back.
basically raining for the whole time.  Found the good bike rear tyre would not pump up so out came the fixed. Most of the route is on NCN 54 and 549 which is disused railway.  A lot of standing water and 3 sets of gates but reasonable surface.  I may have to invest in some slightly bigger tyres as the winter progresses.

I stopped for breakfast on the way back at "The Shed" in Hilton, Slowish service and the sausages were stodgy and tepid.  Latte was good though.

43.5km in 2hour 7 mins  not bad after the layoff.  Great to be back out again and the clavicle does not hurt at all

Due to closures elsewhere some of use have been using the cafe in Don Amott’s emporium in Hilton occasionally.  Very welcoming, decent food and excellent service.

That was where I was planning a stop having been there with cycle Mickleover. However I passed the Shed and it had an award for best out of town cafe or something. Don Amott next time!

Slightly off topic - but Cycle Mickleover! I’ve spotted a few about. When I was a lad I was the only cyclist in the village ( and Mickleover was a village separated by fields from Derby. There was an independent who lived down Havenbaulk Lane, but he was one house into Littleover. How things have changed!

[Feanor]

Today was the local Falling Leaves Reliability Ride.
Choice of 100 miles, or 100k.
I set off in the 100 mile group of 6 at 0900, the 100k group set of at 1000.

We set off West into a fearsome block headwind, but we worked well in a rotating paceline into the wind. Short turns on the front, no heroics.

But the rain started the moment we left and it got heavier and heavier, turning to hail as we gained height.
We were all ill-equipped for such a torrential downpour, and got thoroughly soaked.
After the long fast descent from the Queen's View into Tarland, we were all frozen.

One of our number bailed at Tarland, and I realised that I was becoming border-line hypothermic, and unable to operate the brakes or gears. There was no way I was going to go up onto the proper high ground over the Lecht in this condition. So I turned South at the next junction, and made for safe refuge in a cafe in the sanctuary of Aboyne.

30 mins later the remaining 4 bedraggled and frozen riders appeared too, having bailed at the next junction.

Still, I live to ride another day!
https://www.strava.com/activities/2821281145/overview

Turns out the 100k riders got a slightly easier time of it, since they missed the torrential downpour, and only had the wind to deal with!

[sg37409]

There was snow on a lot of the peaks this morning.  First I've seen this winter.  I got much kinder weather for a diy 200 , with only a tough headwind at times to deal with. 

[Kim]

Just a short ride, but the first outing of the winter longs.  They appear to have expanded.

[bludger]

100 km cafe ride. Nothing lumpy. Audaxing next week so cleaned the bike up after.

[cycleman]

I pottered out to Uxbridge and back getting home in the dark. I had to force myself to go out but really enjoyed it once I got going   

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Pottered about in the vicinity of Loughborough with Mr Hopper, both of us with an elegant sufficiency of wheels.

[Socks]

A short pootle along the Derwent walk - a multi use former railway path - to Consett, then largely downhill on minor roads back to the start at Swalwell.  We set off early so avoided the usual hazard of loose dogs and looser owners, with just one exception requiring an emergency stop.

It was quite spectacular with the trees changing to their autumn colurs and lovely views across the Derwent valley.  Only 28 miles but a very enjoyable bike ride.

[Tim Hall]

Out on Tim Decker's Sherlock Holmes themed Sunday London Ride.  I rode to the start from  the Isle of Dogs on my Bendy Bike,  a Trek something or other that's a rebadged Dahon*. A lovely ride round bits of London in the autumn sun, finishing at the splendid cafe in  Russell Square. Back to the Isle of Dogs, making something approaching 40 miles for the day. Just need to sort out the annoying creak and alarming wobble coming from the handlebars.


*bought from the sadly missed jogler.

[T42]

Yesterday: set out early for favourite coffee retreat, planning to take quite a hilly route, but found I was labouring on even the mildest climbs. Knocked it off and went home in a huff for just 55 km and no coffee. Sore legs today.

[ElyDave]

last two Sundays both of 45-50km, by different routes.

Last weeks full of skog and harvesting debris - beet season in the Fens is not for "good" bikes, mudguard clogging at one point. Plus a bit of COR on the NCN by the river to avoid a fast A-road left the bike ultra manky, but cleaned for the next day's turbo session. It was not a recumbent day.

This week different route, but expecting equal nastiness after last week's storms, but pleasantly surprised at dry roads and only a bit of mud.  Wind strengthening as I went, with the return into the wind I just failed to make 28km/h average.  This would have been a decent recumbent day.

Only one DOTD out yesterday, decided to try and overtake me on a blind RH bend on a narrow road, not two cars wide round the bend, only to find another car coming the other way on the exit. I was glad I'd defensively drfited right or I'd have ended up with him reactively chopping across my front. By my reckoning I impeded him for up to 15 seconds. There's nothing that urgent in the Fens, ever.

[Blodwyn Pig]

yes,  last ride of the month, and I seem to have cycled more this month than any other month for a very long time. I know some folks rack up stellar mileages,  so its all a bit subjective,  but for me 1127km is a fair bit in a month.

[rogerzilla]

Pub ride.  Last after-work ride of the year.  Was cold but quite peaceful.

[T42]

48 k in the wet. 6°C, cloud squatting on the hills; entertaining.  First ride in full winter kit, took half an hour to find the bits.

Roll on spring.

[mzjo]

94kms in a lot of rain. "Pluie faible et averses faibles, fiabilité de prognostic bon." Balls! This was not "driving" rain so much as "curling up in bed with a good book and a hot water bottle" rain.
The objective was to ride the 100km route for the club for next year. Sign off on it as it were. Except that riding the route always shows up the faults, which is why we do it! Today was no exception. A 3km stretch of country lane turned out to have a lot of COR, a ford, no way of accessing the section without doing a left turn off a busy main road (that's a right turn for the lefties) which wouldn't be too good with groups and the only way through seemed to add about 3kms to the total which wasn't the object of the exercice (our lot moan if it's 2kms overdistance). So today I spent a lot of time and quite a few kms going round in circles to test all the options. Result the lunch spot was reached at 52kms instead of 34 and I abandonned the plan of doing the full circuit (which I will have to modify and remeasure - hello Openrunner). But we still had to ride back to the car and the rain only got heavier. I finished with all the "invariable" bits tested on the return loop.
Final bit of the story - at about 500m from the finish I felt my back wheel was thumping and bumping a bit nastily. Back at the car I looked and there was a 1/2inch circle where the tread wasn't, the threads were visible and the tube was starting to push through. Good job I hadn't gone for the extra 6kms to make the ton. I wasn't carrying a boot either (never needed one before, there's always the first time )

[T42]

94kms in a lot of rain. "Pluie faible et averses faibles, fiabilité de prognostic bon." Balls! This was not "driving" rain so much as "curling up in bed with a good book and a hot water bottle" rain.

We always seem to get what Météo France promises with a 2-hour shift.  Right now we're supposed to have heavy rain and 30 kph winds gusting 50, and it's dead calm with drizzle.

[MikeFromLFE]

After three weeks of feeling seriously unwell following a tussle with the dentist (surgical extraction > Amoxicillin > Metronidazole) I decided to do the short route to drive Mrs M back from her gym session.
After 40 minutes I wasn't feeling anywhere near as bad as I expected - and looking at the stats I did the ride in slightly better time than usual.
Bloody sleepy now though!

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk

[T42]

95k over a lot of lumps.

[Jakob W]

First pure leisure ride in months. I was going to try and join the North Brum CTC's Tuesday slow ride, but I was a couple of minutes late to the meeting point, and the rain meant that either the group set off sharpish, or alternately that nobody else fancied heading out today. I decided to head for the Warwickshire lanes, and ended up riding a loop I'd not done before, linking up various bits I knew from other rides; at one point, as the road went down and down, I was getting a bit worried that my dead reckoning was going to get me very lost and that I'd have to grovel all the way back up again, but it all worked out, and after an hour the rain turned to drizzle and then lifted totally. I stopped for a coffee and a bun at Under Pressure (an excellent hipster coffee place in Sutton Coldfield), before heading home with 30 miles under my belt.

[T42]

Yesterday, a very windy 83 km, the kind of ride where you struggle against the wind looking forward to a lovely fast ride home with it pushing you along, but by the time you reach your turning-point you're too knackered to enjoy it.  Legs still stiff this morning. Gee, I'd better just sit here and wait for a cup of tea to appear.

[Canardly]

Yesterday 60k group ride including lunch (mediocre) at ye pubbe. Cold but sunny and wonderful with only a slight breeze. I kept cramping in legs however and struggled a bit with lumpy bits due to cold,  despite winter leggings and plenty of layers. Not sure what I can do about this. Usual liquids, no alcohol at pubbe, but I did  consume a bottle of wine night before. 

[Wowbagger]

Just a short potter (7 miles in total) to meet Penny for a dog walk at Belfairs Woods. Only a short walk but her back was giving her lots of jip. We had coffee at the EWT visitors' centre and, being dogged, sat outside. But then rain stoped play and I rode home again.

Point of information for T42: it was 1001 that cleaned a big, big carpet for less than 2/6. (ref his post of October 20th). That shows how often I visit this thread these days.

[T42]

90k, bluish sky at times, what they call 'crisp'.  Sweaty up the hills with Soft Shell open, freezing down them with it zipped, can't win. Pleasant lunch in the usual joint.  Wildlife: not much -the usual buzzards, families of ravens strutting, something green that was probably a woodpecker.  Riding past one hedge I thought there were chickens squabbling on the far side: turned out to be a football match in progress.  Hardly saw any other cyclists in the morning but quite a few coming t'other way in the gloaming.

BTW, in France we have an idiotic law which ordains that cyclists may not use cycle tracks between sunset and sunrise. Earlier this year our beloved, intelligent and benevolent* Préfet added his own special sauce and set the limits at one hour before sunset and an hour after sunrise.  Coming home on our local cycle track ten minutes before sunset I rode past the gendarmes at spitting distance and they batted not an eyelid. They probably think the Préfet is a cunt as well.

* sarcasm

Oh aye, picture:



Theoretically there are mountains in the distance, behind the November fug.

[cycleman]

A very slow Potter of about 10 miles around Windsor great park stopping for lunch at the fox pub. Jhonathan notp struggling to peddle at walking pace a lot of the time now. 🙂