Ride Reports

itboffin

iain_j

Chapeau sir, now why not set yourself another awesome target for next year whilst you bask in the glory.

iain_j

I missed this year's target by a long way and can't get any more rides in this year

Might try it again next year.

cjcp

Did all my chroes this morning, so got a pass for a couple of laps of the off road track around Richmond Park this afternoon. Was lovely. A couple of amusing moments on the slush and ice.

The steep hill looked icy, so went off road a bit more (see below). Had to walk up some of this route, but found another route to the side of it second time round, which I was able to ride up.

Nice work out. Room for more food now.

Oddjob62

Had a great ride this morning with a bunch from the "other" forum through the nice empty roads of London.

roger_merriman

Oddjob62 wrote:

Had a great ride this morning with a bunch from the "other" forum through the nice empty roads of London.

was quiet there, though on way back after work lots of folks walking turkey/etc off in the park.

itboffin

Bleeding typical no sooner hard I fitted the studded tyres and all the ice and snow melted, anyway I partially cleaned off the CX :oops: and put in a nice little 30 miler this morning, feking hard going up to Everleigh past the Pewsey white horse, still I made it just!, then spent the next 4 miles trying not to be sick, knee & back hurting for the whole ride but I guess that's to be expected after so long off the bike.

Only a couple of spots of black ice on the remote parts of Salisbury plain, other than that it was wet, which i'll take any day over ice or the turbo trainer...... see if I still feel the same in a couple of weeks time. Perhaps I should have fitted those new crud racers

Best of all Its just 77 miles until I break 7000 miles for the year, Mrs itboffin informed me on the way home that we're "busy" tomorrow (dinner party) so it will have to be a quick 30-40 miles on Sunday and Monday's a bank holiday, I think!?

cjcp

cjcp wrote:

Did all my chroes this morning, so got a pass for a couple of laps of the off road track around Richmond Park this afternoon. Was lovely. A couple of amusing moments on the slush and ice.

The steep hill looked icy, so went off road a bit more (see below). Had to walk up some of this route, but found another route to the side of it second time round, which I was able to ride up.

Nice work out. Room for more food now.

Another one of these today.

roger_merriman

Got a fenix torch for christmas so after making a dent in the food etc, I though i'd take the bike for a short trip to test the light out, in the end I went though Bushy park teddington ham into Richmound Park, where i took the off road route which was a blast.

the bike did dig in on some of the softer parts but nothing too bad, was fun taking the muddy track down to kingston gate.

and then back home via Bushy.

should be room for more food now...

itboffin

Bloody hell that was cold :?

People of Hampshire it's very very uncool for your country lanes to still be covered by 2inches of ice & snow :shock: imagine my surprise as I attack a nice downhill to find the Test Valley still sporting last weeks weather, scary stuff, I managed to carefully navigate 20 miles over the ice before jacking it in and heading home, its so damn cold today another half hour or so and i'd be like Ranulph Fiennes, fingerless!!!

More clothes and the right sort of bike needed tomorrow me thinks

benno68

Went out on Saturday and Sunday evening for an just over an hour - around 20 miles. My computer isn't working with my P7 bike light - bummer!

Hit 3000 miles for the year - I'm happy enough with that but must do better in 2010.

cjcp

Benno - might be in Cardiff the w/e of the 9/10 Jan. If so, planning to ride around 30-40 miles on Sunday morning. Will give you a shout if I'm back.

benno68

cjcp wrote:

Benno - might be in Cardiff the w/e of the 9/10 Jan. If so, planning to ride around 30-40 miles on Sunday morning. Will give you a shout if I'm back.

Sounds good CJ, I'll bring a tow rope this time to keep up

cjcp

It's going to be a nice, easy pace. I thought about doing a similar route to this -http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/286243 - but with a few more miles added on by carrying on up Laernock Rd and doing some of the hills down by the marina and sea front. I plan on going nowhere near Leckwith Hill. Up or down.

benno68

Looks good CJ. Your idea of an easy pace - hmm :roll:

itboffin

Just a quick ride to the chemist (6 miles) then the return home off road and country lanes, deep puddles, mud, muck, stones & rocks everywhere, it was awesome 8)

CX bikes rock - FACT!

Edit: I may have also taken the bike to the jet wash :oops: :roll:

itboffin

Started the morning with a gentle 10 miler which was rudely interrupted by a mile of sheet ice.



Being sensible I got off and walked along the frozen grassy verge, with my bike slipping and sliding under my hand, very scary stuff.

When I got to the bottom of the hill and rounded the corner I found 3-4 inches of slush and ice.



Whilst terrifyingly scary to cycle on, this was very pretty, the picture doesn't do it justice.

benno68

30 miles to start the year. Loop from Llandough through Dinas Powys, Cosmeston. Then onto Llandaff, Llanishen and back.

I thought I'd done ok. But no - it took 2 hours, will I ever average over 15mph?

rolf_f

Managed an end of year and a start of year ride - couldn't be much more different.

End of year was from folks in Haywards Heath to Ditchling via a swamp wood, up the Beacon and along the Downs towards Lewes and back. The Beacon was a lovely little climb - almost the perfect gradient and length. A bit of a doddle but good for post Chrimbo workout. A mile of wet chalk putty turned the bike and me white which would have been fine if I hadn't ridden through a nest of puncture fairies. Just coming off the Down, I noticed the front was flat. Removed the claggy tyre, failed to find the hole so bunged the spare tube on and hoped there was nothing still in the tyre. Picked bike up to carry on and noticed rear was flat. Fixed that. Pumped it up with my useless Trunoflo mini pump (oooh, 20 PSi - how impressive.....) and walked off the Down. Back on the road I repumped and carried on with air still being lost. Luckily, I found a fellow puncture victim with a frame pump so was able to put enough air in the rear for it not to feel like the bike was handling like a water bed. Got home - fixed the second puncture. Then I put the tyre back on and then removed it to fix the 3rd puncture. Total 4 punctures in one hit.......

Still, it was a nice ride - see pics.


Today I managed to get out for a ride around Kirkby Malzeard Fell in N Yorks. The snow was mad - couldn't tell what was hard and what wasn't so in the end I gave up (see pciture of my tyre tracks - me trying to steer a straight course!) the original route and carried on down into Nidderdale and back via Pateley Bridge (much harder climb than Ditchling Beacon.

rolf_f

Ditchling Beacon


Me on the South Downs!


White P7


Festive Nidderdale (Pateley Bridge)


A straight course......

cjcp

Cool pix.

itboffin

Hows everybody coping with the ice?

I really want to put in my first metric sometime this weekend but I can't find enough ice free road, and don't fancy another 11mph avg ride like yesterday

roger_merriman

itboffin wrote:

Hows everybody coping with the ice?

I really want to put in my first metric sometime this weekend but I can't find enough ice free road, and don't fancy another 11mph avg ride like yesterday

ice free locally but once into the lanes gets quite bad so probably will not bother as i've fallen off twice now, once stuipity and once just sheet ice on a slight down hill even at walking pace I couldn't put my foot down.

so I'll probably have to use big open roads or just use the MTB and head off road.

still could be worse my folks place is quite snowy, and it froze so the snow is now like cast iron.



I'll be commuting but then london even the outer edges is fine just once you head out.

itboffin

I spent so long fettling today I almost left no time to ride by the time i'd switched tyres, tubes, bottle cage, pedals, saddles & seat post, then I noticed the shocking state of the drive train on the hybrid, long story short the bike is now running smoothly again.

Off I set to try out the ice, seeing as everywhere was white I didn't have to wait long, check out the top of these steep hill, completely covered :shock:



[smug]Wouldn't want to tackle that one without studded tyres [/smug] that smile was replaced with complete fear as I turned the corner, same road as my last ride report photos but now totally covered for 1.5 miles :? I could feel the rear tyre twitching like crazy, I dare not touch the brakes, shame I not long use my HRM it would have been off the scale

That's kind of a problem for me as it's the most direct non main road route for my winter commute !?! guess me and that stretch of road will be getting up close and personal very soon.

Trying to be smart I switched to the canal path, which is not so much a path but more of muddy frozen strip of banked grass by the edge of the water, with a scattering of walkers and fishermen, I half regretted not having the FS pogo stick, my newly converted hybrid into a NO sus MTB did a good job, I would have kept going had it not been for the fact that my late start meant the sun was dropping and with it the temp. riding home along the canal getting slower and slower at each bump sapped a bit more energy until I could take no more and hit the roads for the last 5 miles.

When I did finally get home I had a sudden and painful rush of bloody to my face, WTF is that about!?, in fact it's still very red now!

The new "winter" commuter - check out that razor blade saddle


What's the scariest thing in the world? cycling on ice with SPD's :shock: :?

Bassjunkieuk

Been a while since I've had a reason to post on here! Hopefully I should become a slightly more regular contributor to this thread as I'm hoping to build up my fitness for a sportive later in the year :-D

Got up nice and early today in preparation for a nice, crisp early start for my first big ride of the year. Set off shortly after 8am with a quick glance towards the weather station on top of the telly showing a outside temperature of 0.7C

Despite deciding I was going to head out this morning earlier in the week I still only had a rough idea of where I wanted to head until about 15 minutes before I set off! I knew I wanted to visit some roads that I'd found whilst exploring alternative routes home from the M25 in the car with the sat nav, so I sat down with my TFL cycle maps and planned out a rough route. At the last minute I changed it to include an extra climb on the "excuse" that it cut out a section of busy dual carriageway and was a lot more scenic :-)

Heading south it was pretty much standard town riding until I turned off to start that extra climb I'd planned in. It wasn't anything serious but I haven't gone up it before (at least on a bike) and it did seem a lot bigger then I expected as I started, not helped by the light covering of frost that was to become a familiar sight over the next 5 miles or so! Changing down a few gears I found a nice rhythm and made an effort to control the breathing and slowly I could see less and less hill ahead of me. As is usually the case once I reached the top I was rewarded with some lovely views:





I headed off again after a quick drink and made my way along the country lanes to rejoin the A23 shortly before it joins the M23, but only used that for about a quarter of a mile before I turned off to find those roads I was looking for. I did curse myself as I'd completely forgotten how steep that road was (Star Lane for those familiar with the Hooley area.....) Eventually found the road I was looking for after a couple of stops to check my bearings on the map, the first of which was great fun as I attempted to stop at small junction which turned out to be a small patch of ice!! Felt the rear wheel drift sideways, but got un-clipped and stopped whilst remaining upright :-)

Narrow icey and potholed country lanes where soon replaced with lovely wide open residential streets, with large houses on the left and a lovely forest on the right. Can't say I had much time to admire the view as it was the first time in a good few miles that I was hitting some decent speeds! Went down on the drops and went up a few gears and had a nice blast until the bike started feeling a little "odd" Knowing I had a steeper section ahead I reverted back to the hoods and took it easier down the next section, thankfully I had a clear view through the little chicane ahead and picked a fairly straight line through it.

Once I rejoined the A23, just short of the Coulsdon bypass I was feeling quite good, I did a quick check on the cycle computer and I'd already covered about 17 miles with a average of 15.2mph. Having had some slower riding for the last 5 miles or so I thought it would be good fun for a quick ride home to improve that lowly average, I reckoned I had about 4.5 miles to drag it back up! Soon I was tooling along at about 19-21mph, giving the occasional cyclist nod to the dozen or so cyclist I saw heading in the opposite direction. The going was good and I even gave chase to a bus in a vain attempt to draft it, didn't quite get in it's slipstream but had fun trying!

Eventually arrived home about 1 1/2 hours after leaving, having covered 21.45 miles with a 16mph average (according to the cycle computer, Nokia STB seems to have missed some sections....)

STB capture here and now looking forward to my next one :-)

itboffin

Cold, that is all...!

MonkeyMonster

a minor pootle round hyde park to test the lungs...

managed tis back to normal for the commute - huzzah!

cjcp

Ride around RP with JG. Did the equivalent of five laps. "Yuk" sums it up - JG blitzed me out of sight up Dark Hill and I generally struggled to keep up :oops: .

itboffin

Whilst out this afternoon quite literally dragging myself & bike up and down part of the Highclere sportive route, at what seemed little more than walking pace, I got to thinking is this really helping my cycling fitness? okay so it's keeping my weight in check but honestly what good is it doing for road technique, it's 100% off road riding what with all the ice, mud, snow, rocks and hills.

Plus after 2 hours in those conditions and even with lots of technical clothing I start to lose feeling in my toes and "face" :?

I'm thinking 30 mins a day on the turbo plus the 23 mile commute would be more worthwhile and less likely to injure myself?

Bassjunkieuk

itboffin wrote:

I'm thinking 30 mins a day on the turbo plus the 23 mile commute would be more worthwhile and less likely to injure myself?

At least on the turbo you shouldn't get any PF visits ;-) Although knowing you I wouldn't be surprised it you managed to get a flat on it

@CJCP - I'm thinking of including RP in some rides at some point to mix it up, especially when I want to increase the mileage so I might (if I take leave of my senses) join you at some point ;-)

jonginge

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

@CJCP - I'm thinking of including RP in some rides at some point to mix it up, especially when I want to increase the mileage so I might (if I take leave of my senses) join you at some point ;-)

More the merrier

Was a bit chilly out today but a good ride nonetheless. It was pretty quiet in the park but we did spy one LondonLivvy going in the opposite direction. Livvy, we were going to stop and say hi on the next circuit but you must have been done for the day on that lap.