Have you been out today?

[Tim Hall]

Blustery 70km out with the Tandem Club, on the Viking Trail in E. Kent. 5 tandems in all.

My Sinister Agents report you were spotted by a Fridays rider. On her clown bike.

[Blodwyn Pig]

Blustery 70km out with the Tandem Club, on the Viking Trail in E. Kent. 5 tandems in all.

My Sinister Agents report you were spotted by a Fridays rider. On her clown bike.

Haha! Indeed, Came across Jenny ‘and the gang’ at North Foreland, and again near Preston, they were riding the Viking Trail in reverse. There was quite a few of them, I must say. Wonders what the ‘club’ was?

On a separate note Tim, what size Fridays top do you wear, you’re similar size to me, and it can be a bit of a lottery?

[perpetual dan]

(Yesterday) a really easy potter around Loch Ossian. Lots of taking photos, much more of a time in the place ride, than further or faster.

Sent from my SM-S911B using Tapatalk

[Tim Hall]

Saturday. On The Tweed Run, as a marshall. Or marshal, depending on how you like your spelling.

What a hoot.

Pics here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cRAy3Ce5kdaFGT3MA

[Wowbagger]

Thanks, Tim. Utterly splendid!

[Jurek]

Some great lensmanship there, Tim.
And a few familiar faces/bikes.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Great pictures!


My ride today was into York to collect Mrs A's prescription and look at the demolition of the famous Queen Street bridge.

I used the temporary road and realised I am going to miss the experience of climbing the bridge against a fierce headwind, but not much.

[T42]

Saturday. On The Tweed Run, as a marshall. Or marshal, depending on how you like your spelling.

What a hoot.

Pics here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cRAy3Ce5kdaFGT3MA

Grand! Maybe the extra L means Large.

[perpetual dan]

More a hike than a ride. In the end, I turned back.

Sent from my SM-S911B using Tapatalk

[TimC]

Saturday. On The Tweed Run, as a marshall. Or marshal, depending on how you like your spelling.

What a hoot.

Pics here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cRAy3Ce5kdaFGT3MA

What a fabulous set of photos. I'd love to do this event - I don't think I've ever heard of it!

[Tim Hall]

Blustery 70km out with the Tandem Club, on the Viking Trail in E. Kent. 5 tandems in all.

My Sinister Agents report you were spotted by a Fridays rider. On her clown bike.

Haha! Indeed, Came across Jenny ‘and the gang’ at North Foreland, and again near Preston, they were riding the Viking Trail in reverse. There was quite a few of them, I must say. Wonders what the ‘club’ was?

On a separate note Tim, what size Fridays top do you wear, you’re similar size to me, and it can be a bit of a lottery?

I had a look at my Fridays top last night. It's so old the size marking has vanished.  I have an idea it's an XL, but it's from the first tranche of of clothing, made by Gear Club. The current lot is made by Shutt and I don't know if the sizing is the same.  My Young Lady has a current one, but she's a different shape to you (and me).

[T42]

Yesterday, 120 km on the electrified Trek, my usual canal/coffee/cake tootle.  Not as great as I'd hoped: not as comfortable as the eBrute, saddle creaky, gears maladjusted (poor things) and worst of all, knocking out the 13T cog to reduce the 11spd cassette to 10 so that it would fit the motor hub was rubbish - one of the larger cogs would have been better.  And of course the ramps no longer dovetailed so changing wasn't too smooth at times.  All fixable save the ramps.

Lovely weather, 25° in the pm. Had an incendiary lunch in Saverne: tarte flambée followed by crème brûlée.  Good coffee, too(!)

Saw what I think was a partridge in a field.  Viewed from behind I thought at first it was a buzzard, but it was on the ground, the tail was wrong and when it looked round I could see a red wattle.  Not a pheasant, also 'cos tail.

Utterly buggrit today since hadn't done any outings longer than 50k since mid-March.

[Canardly]

First time out on bike in months due to some health issues. Went out with a U3A group. What a nice bunch of people. Only 30k or so but really enjoyed it. Back side has definitely lost its saddle fitness, ouch.

[nancyclist]

It was great to hear you got back in the saddle after some health issues. I can definitely relate to the soreness - my rear wasn't too happy after our ride either!

I'm actually in South Korea at the moment on a trip. A few days ago, my guide Paul, took me on a bike ride to the famous Nami Island. It was beautiful cycling around the leaf-filled pathways and taking in the scenery. Paul was a great guide - he introduced me to this activity and also showed me some other top tourist spots around Korea https://gowithguide.com/korea We got to see palace districts like Gyeongbokgung and traditional villages like Bukchon. We also tried some local cuisine here.

[T42]

45k to get legs moving - they were fuxxored after Tuesday's ride. TBH they weren't much better for 3 days off.  Bike sort-of OK, was able to better employ the gears.  Need to do a few long ones now and decide whether to stick with the Trek or move the motor back onto the Ti Warhorse. 3x10 seems to work better that 2x11-1 - and the high BB on the Ti means that I don't have to worry about pedal strikes in 90° corners, which means I can keep power on all the way round.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Went square bagging in the Newbury and Hungerford areas, where there were some big gaps.  I am not sure why.  I used to come around this way for hill training all the time; I guess I've been doing that by riding down to the caravan in Selsey and playing around with the hills around Haselmere.  Was all very beautiful, especially on those lanes that go nowhere except tick off a particular square.  Saw hares on three separate occasions and a large buck roe deer who bounced off through a field of oil-seed rape which would've been very photogenic if i had a proper camera.  One visitation - a flint that looked sharp enough to be use to set in a stone age knife blade, but otherwise a very satisfying day.  Even if I did find out that I missed a couple of squares (the road didn't quite bend enough).  I will come back again, but more because of the scenery than the missing squares.

[CrinklyLion]

A very teeny tiny bimble round to a friend/colleague's, then out with said friend. I recently helped her to find a new bike for her kid, and then one for herself and lent her the brommie (to potentially be able to keep up with the kid practising round their local park) while she was waiting for hers to get built up and collected from the shop. We'd decided I'd collect her (since the kid is away on a trip of some sort this weekend) and she could maybe have a go at riding on a road, and perhaps explore a possible route to cycle to school.

Since they now have her bike and currently also have a very lovely loan brompton in the house, her husband came along too. Not only did we ride to school, we also carried on afterwards to the bike shop to look at Bikes and Nice Things and to have coffee and cake, before riding back. About 6annahalf miles with some cycle path and some on-road, including being overtaken by a fire engine! Also featured some traffic lights, lots of passing parked cars, a roundabout (twice) and a some right turns - not bad given she hasn't ridden in decades and I think has never really ridden on roads before. Talked about door zones, not gutter-hugging, and that there is *absolutely* nothing wrong with deciding to hop off and use pedestrian tactics on junctions that are too scary or overwhelming and yes, of course you can just pull over and get off and take a moment to think if you *are* feeling overwhelmed.

The longest non-commute bike ride *I've* done in bloody ages!!!

[ElyDave]

50k on the Faran yesterday

Finally got the S40 in order and did a 50k on that this morning. Thought I'd limit it to 50k whilst my bent legs were retraining. Got off the bike and realised I should have limited it to 30-35, oh my glutes!

Still, great fun zipping along at 34kmh with a heart rate of about 135. I'm not necessarily faster on it,  just have heart rate 10-15 bpm lower for a given speed

[chrisbainbridge]

80k yesterday. Saw the LWL lot off, had a coffee the followed them out last Islip to Woodstock. Coffee and sausage roll in a sunny spot on the street. Then a bumble down to Oxford parkway and train back to Chalfont St Peter’s. Beautiful weather for a ride and lovely to ride in a part of the country completely new to me.
I never knew that was where Blenheim was!

[Feanor]

100k club ride, a bit spicy.

One p*ncture, on a tubeless which had not been topped up with sealant in years. Not even sealant dust. Tube installed, to much ribbing.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11337606790

[Tim Hall]

After a day of sitting around indoors, due to the pissing rain, cooking and eating, I took advantage of a gap in the rain to nip out this evening.

Roads very wet, my ditches runneth over.  Got wet feet pedalling through a small flood near Southwater.  Some time later, I'm whizzing down a lane and get overtaken by one of those trucks with a cage on the back, the sort that tree surgeons use. I pay it no heed. A few hundred metres on, he's stopped in the middle of the road, hazards on. In front of him is a swath of the River Arun, which normally crosses the road by going under a bridge but today was going over the road, covering quite a lot and quite deep.

I thought the driver was just weighing up his options, as was I (There's a bridleway a short way back, but I didn't fancy it much) . No, he'd seen me and was waiting. We put the bike in the cage and proceeded gingerly to the other side. What a Top Bloke.

[T42]

A bit short of 60k on the eTrek. Nasty cold west wind veering NW as soon as I turned north, but by then I was into the hills so it didn't much matter.  First ride I've really enjoyed on the electrified Domane, I think I might keep it that way - very nice when I'm down on the bends.  Only fly in the ointment: left shoe kept eating my sock.  When I got home the heel was under my instep.

[cycleman]

Just over to Windsor to get new tyres fitted. Very pleasant in the warm sunshine 🌞

[GdS]

After a day of sitting around indoors, due to the pissing rain, cooking and eating, I took advantage of a gap in the rain to nip out this evening.

Roads very wet, my ditches runneth over.  Got wet feet pedalling through a small flood near Southwater.  Some time later, I'm whizzing down a lane and get overtaken by one of those trucks with a cage on the back, the sort that tree surgeons use. I pay it no heed. A few hundred metres on, he's stopped in the middle of the road, hazards on. In front of him is a swath of the River Arun, which normally crosses the road by going under a bridge but today was going over the road, covering quite a lot and quite deep.

I thought the driver was just weighing up his options, as was I (There's a bridleway a short way back, but I didn't fancy it much) . No, he'd seen me and was waiting. We put the bike in the cage and proceeded gingerly to the other side. What a Top Bloke.

That warmed my heart  did you mean the Adur or was it another lane?

[Tim Hall]

After a day of sitting around indoors, due to the pissing rain, cooking and eating, I took advantage of a gap in the rain to nip out this evening.

Roads very wet, my ditches runneth over.  Got wet feet pedalling through a small flood near Southwater.  Some time later, I'm whizzing down a lane and get overtaken by one of those trucks with a cage on the back, the sort that tree surgeons use. I pay it no heed. A few hundred metres on, he's stopped in the middle of the road, hazards on. In front of him is a swath of the River Arun, which normally crosses the road by going under a bridge but today was going over the road, covering quite a lot and quite deep.

I thought the driver was just weighing up his options, as was I (There's a bridleway a short way back, but I didn't fancy it much) . No, he'd seen me and was waiting. We put the bike in the cage and proceeded gingerly to the other side. What a Top Bloke.

That warmed my heart  did you mean the Adur or was it another lane?

Warmed my feet too! Definitely the Arun, as I was going down Kerves Lane.