Oh, so THAT is a hill then!

[Andrew_Culture]

Blimey.

I think that I will stick to riding in Norfolk & Suffolk.

Would your wife really castrate you if you got a new bike?? Surely she would understand, in the circs.

Last night I got my wife to pick up my bike then the Cervelo for comparison. She was quite surprised. The seeds are sown. It's more to do with the fact we never buy anything on credit.

 

[asterix]

So your mate was on a compact 34 : 32 Cervelo weighing in at about 7kg and you were on a standard double with a 39 : 25 Ribble weighing in at 9.5 kg.
Did he set the route? cunning buggers Northeners!

9.5 kilos? Bloomin luxury. My lightest bike is 11kg, lovely hill climber it is..

..and as for the tourer in my avatar, that's a 32kg load going up the col de la croix de fer. I can't travel without a kettle.

 

[Saluki]

Last night I got my wife to pick up my bike then the Cervelo for comparison. She was quite surprised. The seeds are sown. It's more to do with the fact we never buy anything on credit.

I hear you there. We are much the same. Somehow its much nicer to have something when you have saved up for it.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

More happening tomorrow, this is the steed I have borrowed

 

[avsd]

Nice gentle start to the Lakes - 300m in first 5km. With friends like that .....

 

[Andrew_Culture]

This morning we're off to do hungover mountain biking. Does it ever stop raining up here?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Well if I thought the roads were tough the muddy lanes with rocks the size of cars was MUCH tougher.

 

[avsd]

This morning we're off to do hungover mountain biking. Does it ever stop raining up here?

No it never stops raining. I think the clue is in the word "lake" The scenery more than makes up for the rain or "liquid sunshine" as it is called in Ireland

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Nearly 2000ft of climbing on a 14 mile ride. Mercy.

http://www.strava.com/activities/83471734

I now consider that I have NEVER done mountain biking before today. The ascents were brutal, so much tougher than road biking and the descents were frankly terrifying. The bike was remarkable, I was using a single finger on the hydraulic brakes which were astonishing and I was slamming into rocks that I would have assumed would destroy the bike and it safely carried me over them. It took a lot of nerve to follow the instructions I was given to just relax and let the bike follow the path it wants to, especially when the bike chooses to aim at a huge boulder.

I have never come off a bike so much in a single ride ever before, I also had my first clipless moment, into a hillside of ferns. I appreciated the rest. I managed to stack the bike on a fast descent, I think I hit a large flat (wet) boulder while leaning into a corner. The first hint something had gone wrong was when I noted that I was running down a rocky hillside minus a bike. I had to climb back up the hill about thirty metres to retrieve the bike. I heard it CLANK on a big boulder and it landed on the transmission side, the bike I was lent was worth about £2500. I was sure it would be destroyed. It was fine. Amazing.

Mountain biking is like parenting a toddler - long periods of brutal grinding hard work interspersed with brief moments of sheer terror, with a guarantee that you will often get wet and covered in brown stuff.

 

[Moon bunny]

No it never stops raining. I think the clue is in the word "lake" The scenery more than makes up for the rain or "liquid sunshine" as it is called in Ireland

"Granny fortnight*" ends tomorrow, so the weather will improve next week.

*or "fossil fortnight" depending on how disrespectful you are to your elders. The grandparents that have been minding their working childrens' kids during the school holidays get their chance to clog up the roads, have heart attacks on Helvellyn etc.

 

[DiddlyDodds]

This is a proper hill

 

[Andrew_Culture]

This is a proper hill

We didn't have time for that one

 

[Kestevan]

This is a proper hill

Only time I've ever walked a road bike "down" a hill.

The bottom 100m of hardknot is virtually vertical, and the tarmac was potholed, cracked, running with water and covered in loose gravel. Cowardice proved the better part of discretion and I got off and walked down...... I spoke to a very sore and bruised lad who tried to ride down in the pub after the event, he ended up going over the bars, and had to do the next 120+ miles with a pair of sprained wrists and a face full of gravel rash.

 

[Fnaar]

Nearly 2000ft of climbing on a 14 mile ride. Mercy.

http://www.strava.com/activities/83471734

What happened at mile 8/ Did you fall off a cliff?

 

[Andrew_Culture]

What happened at mile 8/ Did you fall off a cliff?

That was my first ever mountainside descent, I found that going into the ferns did nuffink for slowing me down. I also had my first ever clipless moment, but was glad of the chance to have a lay down.