2014 - worst rides

[Kim]

Companion to the best rides of 2014 thread: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=86765.0

Only one really stands out - the August FNRttC from Manchester - for fairly obvious reasons, and it should be noted that from a cycling point of view it wasn't actually a bad one.  We all knew there was going to be Weather in that part of the world.

As a runner-up I'll nominate the unofficial night ride to Brighton in September, which was an excellent ride marred by lots of excruciating knee pain in the second half (mainly due to too many Welsh mountains earlier in the week).  I applied a combination of Rule 5 and prescription painkillers, and ended up pedalling up Ditchling Beacon on one leg, which is a lot easier than it sounds.

[Clare]

January 2nd, commuting home from work, scared the hell out of me and I haven't done a decent ride since.

[Wowbagger]

Tearing my calf muscle ranks pretty high on the list. I'll never look upon Framlingham in the same way again.

[Kim]

Ah yes, this is going to be the lower limb injuries thread, isn't it...

[mcshroom]

Not just lower

[essexian]

Not really had any terrible rides....perhaps as I haven't done as much riding as I should have, but I do seem to have lost the ability to cycle around town... which makes going for a ride most difficult!

I really don't know why but I seem to have a block on riding north out of town: nothing bad has happened this year and the roads are as busy/crap as always but if I want to ride towards Stone or Gnosall/Newport, then I need to take whatever bike I am using in the back of the car to somewhere "safe."

I find this strange as to go south means heading out over the railway bridge on the A449 which is a terrible road and best avoided if you can.

[CAMRAMan]

Mine was a Suffolk ride. I was with an old uni mate. Both on roadish bikes. The ride itself was familiar and it had been enjoyable up to the moment I spotted a bridleway sign and checked the map. It hadn't rained for ages, so why not?

The first few hundred yards were fine, but it then turned into a densely wooded stretch, where the sun never shone.  The mud was both copious and very, very sticky. We carried on, thinking we had passed the point of no return. Stupid! The next half mile took 30 minutes. By the time we escaped, both riders and bikes were caked in half of Suffolk. Even a blast of a hose once we got back home was insufficient to shift a lot of the mud.

[cycleman]

For me the ride up to long itchinton in September was the worsed as I had bad knee pain and was grateful to moultonougñt for a lift most of the way home .it was still a enjoyable yacf weekend though 

[Andrew]

A short ride, no more than 25km. Notable for a sequence of woes...

I punctured. Both spares were likewise punctured. How??? My (Zefal) quick patches just split after tyre inflation - result?: a routine of wheel off, tube out, patch, inflate, ride 500m, repeat.  A group of 3 cyclists rode merrily past me as I walked. My wife was in the garden and couldn't hear the phone ringing.

On the plus side, it was a nice day for a walk. And, I suppose, a lesson to learn.

[interzen]

September 9th, the ride home from work - it ended with around £500 of damage to my bike and a fractured scaphoid.

(and I'll buck the lower limb injuries trend)

[Jayjay]

27 Jan 4 miles home SMIDSY'd not just a pull-out but full-on ramming manoeuvre.

~ 5 May 59 miles to York inna rain, some hail to break the monotony, and a headwind. Oddly enough I felt I had enjoyed this one. Sense of achievement?

[mcshroom]

2nd July, pedal strike on a bridge less than 2km into a commute threw me over the bars leaving a broken humerus and sitting out the whole of that fabulous weather over summer. The October storms started 3 days after I was passed fit to ride again

Other than that, the Northern Dales Summer Outing 100 in May, or rather the second half of it from Keld onwards. First the rain started, then fog settled over the road that was so thick that I couldn't actually see the Tan Hill Inn from the T-junction almost opposite it. Then on the way down from the Inn my wallet fell out of my pocket during a spell of rain hard enough to sting my face as the drops hit, so I ended up riding back up the hill to the Pub (and after taking half the pub apart and resigning myself to having lost the wallet, it was found on the road further down), then on the second attempt into the rain water was flowing down the Strang like a river as I was plodding up it. Definitely not the most fun I've had on a bike.

[Fab Foodie]

Nope .... can't think of one ....

[zigzag]

a short ride to a parkrun when i was knocked off the bike by a careless driver. it took couple of months to recover and by that time i lost the momentum and motivation to carry on running.

[lisat]

A British heart foundation ride in Dorset. The heavens opened and it poured down most of the day. I got three punctures. But I finished it.
It was my first longish ride and it hasn't stopped me doing more.

[Wowbagger]

With respect, Lisat, that was a good ride. You may not have thought so at the time but looking back on it, I'd wager, gives you satisfaction.

You triumphed over adversity. I think the common factor of rides that belong in this thread is when adversity triumphs over the rider, very often for a great deal longer than the day in question.

[lisat]

With respect, Lisat, that was a good ride. You may not have thought so at the time but looking back on it, I'd wager, gives you satisfaction.

I have to agree with you I felt a sense of accomplishment having finished and it did put my inner tube changing skills to the test.

[Torslanda]

#889 of this thread says it all, really

Onwards and upwards, here's to next year.