Bristol's Biggest Bike Ride

[summerdays]

Bit late for anyone who doesn't know about it... but is anyone else going today. I'm intending to do the Failand Heights route myself - not particularly long - but I've not done this route before.

http://www.betterbybike.info/bristols-biggest-bike-ride-0

You can turn up and register at the event:

Ride Start Times
9.20 am Clevedon Challenge
9.40 am Failand Heights
10.00 am Sustrans Ride to Portishead
10.30 am Avon Gorge Loop
11.15 am Family Fiesta

 

[adds21]

My 5 year old and I did the Failand Heights ride today (I was towing him). We both really enjoyed the ride and the weather. My wife did the 9 mile family ride with the baby in the bike seat... It's pretty much the first time she's ridden a bike, other than a few days each year at Centre Parcs, and the 2 mile "test run" we did yesterday, so it's really good to get her into cycling!

Apart from the dead body (found by the Portway apparently, but must have been after we went past, but before my wife's ride started), we all had an excellent time.

 

[summerdays]

Err the dead body must have been found after us too... I did see a couple of kids having a tow on the Failand Heights ride... so it could have been you. I crawled up a couple of those hills (managed not to walk though not much faster) - so impressive doing it towing a child too. We did the ride in 2 hours on the dot.

Back in Millennium Square, we someone finish about the same time as us and then get a rag out to clean down his bike very though-rally.

 

[adds21]

Yes, some of those hills were pretty tricky. My computer said we climbed about 1,300 feet all in. I kept checking with my son whether or not he wanted to rest, but he just wanted to keep going. I did have to stop a couple of times up some of the climbs (much to his disgust!). Good fun though.

We did it in just under 2 hours as well, so we probably weren't all that far from you. Certainly wasn't us cleaning the bikes though! :-).

I have to admit to enjoying the fact that, as we were queuing at the end for the certificate, a couple of guys in front of us, on road bikes, wanted their time (2h 15) marked on their certificate, and we were quicker on a hybrid towing a kids bike :-) (yes, I know that's not the right attitude!).

 

[summerdays]

I didn't even get a certificate I must have missed that bit.

Did you see the unicycle?

I only ever saw it at the beginning.

I have one photo with a child being towed ... any chance it is you?

And yes there seemed to be some guys fully kitted out that didn't do it faster than us.

 

[adds21]

I didn't even get a certificate I must have missed that bit.

You didn't miss much to be honest. Good for the kids though.

My son saw the unicycle, but I missed it. there were a lot on the 9 mile route apparently (Actually, I've got one myself, but can't ride it... Yet!).

I have one photo with a child being towed ... any chance it is you?

Ha!! Yes, that's us!! Where was that? Ashton Court? I wish I could fix the tow bike so it didn't lean quite so much! (not that it bothers the boy!).

 

[summerdays]

Ha!! Yes, that's us!! Where was that? Ashton Court? I wish I could fix the tow bike so it didn't lean quite so much! (not that it bothers the boy!).

As I only took about 30 photo's some of which were blurred or at the start/finish I'm impressed that I manage to capture you! Yes it was Ashton Court near the bottom after the bit I hated the most - the rough track going in to Ashton Court.

 

[snakehips]

I did the 14 mile option with a family group which included my 6 y o granddaughter. Riding to the start and back added another 8 miles.

Fantastic day for it.

Snake


My Library

 

[adds21]

Yes, I'm quite impressed to find a random photo of us on an Internet forum! Good show!

That path into Ashton Court was terrible wasn't it. It's funny, because I sometimes go that way when I cycle to work (it's not really on the way, but can be if it's a nice day and I go the long way), but I don't think it normally feels as bad as it did today... Although that could be because usually if I do it it's not after several uphill miles of towing child!

The M5 bridge was easier than I thought it would be. I've only cycled over it once before, and had visions of it being very busy, but luckily by the time we got there it had thinned out a bit. Still, I'm glad we didn't do the Pill cycle track route because I expect that would be busy on the way back, and it's quite narrow in places (and we've done it several times anyway).

Looking forward to next year now. My wife enjoyed it too, and hopefully we'll get some more family rides in over the summer and by next year she'll be up for the longer one as well.

 

[summerdays]

I did the 14 mile option with a family group which included my 6 y o granddaughter. Riding to the start and back added another 8 miles.

Surrey is a lot closer than I imagined

 

[summerdays]

Yes, I'm quite impressed to find a random photo of us on an Internet forum! Good show!

That path into Ashton Court was terrible wasn't it. It's funny, because I sometimes go that way when I cycle to work (it's not really on the way, but can be if it's a nice day and I go the long way), but I don't think it normally feels as bad as it did today... Although that could be because usually if I do it it's not after several uphill miles of towing child!

The M5 bridge was easier than I thought it would be. I've only cycled over it once before, and had visions of it being very busy, but luckily by the time we got there it had thinned out a bit. Still, I'm glad we didn't do the Pill cycle track route because I expect that would be busy on the way back, and it's quite narrow in places (and we've done it several times anyway).

Looking forward to next year now. My wife enjoyed it too, and hopefully we'll get some more family rides in over the summer and by next year she'll be up for the longer one as well.

I agreer I think Ashton Court felt bad because it was near the end of the ride - I'm surprised there wasn't an alternative route for those on skinny tyres who would prefer the traffic to going on that surface.

Having come along the Pill route with a friend last year I can report it was extremely busy and slow going in places.

 

[summerdays]

Opps I was just going through my photos and I think I've also got one of you on Pero's Bridge... so we literally did finish at the same time. I had just gone ahead to take the photo and there was a little boy (he's not in the photo) who was telling his Dad he couldn't find something? just in front of me - looking back towards you.

 

[adds21]

Opps I was just going through my photos and I think I've also got one of you on Pero's Bridge... so we literally did finish at the same time. I had just gone ahead to take the photo and there was a little boy (he's not in the photo) who was telling his Dad he couldn't find something? just in front of me - looking back towards you.

Yup, that was us too! (thanks for the photo via PM). I've got a vague memory of him telling me he couldn't find something, but I can't remember what! - Probably the place we started, I'd told him we were going to go the same way at the end as we had at the start, but of course we were directed along the Cumberland Basin instead (presumably to avoid clashing with another ride going in the opposite direction).

Small world (as they say!).

 

[snakehips]

Surrey is a lot closer than I imagined

LOL

We were among the last to set off on the Avon Gorge Loop. Seems we were lucky to get through before the road was closed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/10360613.stm
We noticed an ambulance and two police cars moving at surprisingly high speed !

Snake

My Library

 

[adds21]

We were among the last to set off on the Avon Gorge Loop. Seems we were lucky to get through before the road was closed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/10360613.stm
We noticed an ambulance and two police cars moving at surprisingly high speed !

I'm pretty sure they didn't close the road for bikes (obviously it was already closed for cars). My wife did the Family Feista ride, which set off a couple of hours after we did, and although there were a number of Police cars as she went past, the ride was still going on. We must have gone past before the body was found.