Recumbent Rides

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First ride this year on my Trice... and first recumbent ride outside this year. Weather up in my corner has been foul, if it's not been pouring with rain it's been snow and ice... and tons of road salt. I qualify the "outside" bit as I have done more miles this winter than ever before on my VTX on Zwift! My hope was that would make the spring riding a bit easier. Sadly I wasn't able to test out the hypothesis as my left knee has been giving me gyp again and it was apparent that my pedalling was not evenly split between left leg and right.

I was going to grab frames from my new action camera for illustration but it turns out that I didn't upload them the other night and the card has now been formatted... I did get a few images though.

So the purpose of the ride was to see the carnage after the Spey viaduct near the mouth of the river Spey collapsed last month. This used to be a regular ride for me but now no longer... until the council figure out some solution, which they at least appear committed to. It's part of the NCN Route 1 and has been long popular with walkers and cyclists of all abilities.

It was a good day to get out for a ride, beautiful spring day, nice ride on quiet country roads. The lead in to the bridge from the Garmouth side had a flapping laminated A4 sign saying the route was closed and given it was a weekday it wasn't surprising that I pretty much had the railway path to myself.

You do get a good if distant view of the bridge from the approaching road upstream... this and the next photos from my compact camera:

It was very clear that I wasn't going to be riding across the bridge though!

I dismounted and took a photo through the bars...

Some of us are just plain stupid and can't be told, but I went under the first section to get a view from underneath...

That pillar in the middle of the shot is, I think, one of the ones that river eroded away the base of the span and caused the sudden catastrophic failure (apparently satellite photos from before the collapse indicate shifts were happening in the month beforehand... but nobody noticed)

Finally a view from the side...

Same place, only a few years ago and a different trike on a cold and frosty day...

Bit of a sad experience, really, but the sun at least helped ward off the emotional gloom.

Rolling on the road back home reminded me why I ride recumbents - I love the panoramic view! But what was that bright shiny thing in the sky?

Distance: 10 miles. Speed: fast enough!

 

[a.twiddler]

25/2/26
Tiny Recumbent Ride
Fine Day Shopping on Rans

A mild day today, sunny at times so I crowbarred myself off the settee to go and do some shopping on the Rans with its new -old Carradice panniers recently transplanted from the rear to the front.

Out through the back gate, wheeled across the road due to the levels of traffic which don’t seem to have died down even though the recent roadworks on Swanlow Lane have been completed for a couple of weeks now. Perhaps having found this alternative route some of the drivers have come to prefer it, to the detriment of us local residents. Anyway, once rolling it was not a problem, and I settled down to the rhythm. I was soon at the uphill lights in the cyclists’ advance stop box waiting to turn right. There was quite a flow of traffic coming the other way on green. You just have to blag it and not be intimidated, though it was more irritating than anything.

Soon I turned right and then was accelerating downhill after turning left for the town centre. A mini roundabout was disposed of without having to stop as it was clear of traffic, then the next set of lights went green and cleared of traffic too. This must have helped to push my best max speed this year so far to 26.8 mph which is not stupendous but considering the weather and few cycling opportunities will have to do. Hopefully longer trips and bigger downhills beckon.

I turned in to the local surgery to drop off a prescription. The access road is impressively pot holed and cratered. Fortunately the large wheels rolled through them OK.

Then out, across the road on to a pavement cycle path to turn right then left and alongside a supermarket car park to lock up at the usual barrier.

After the usual target driven shopping I was out again to load up and get going again. Into the car park, left at the exit roundabout, left at the next, on to the pavement alongside the dual carriageway, then on to a cycle path after passing the library. Reaching the main road, straight across then right.

Hopping up the pavement to avoid a queue of cars at the lights, then left up the long hill alongside the dual carriageway again.

Left at the top on to Swanlow Lane, not too much traffic here. After a quarter of a mile, right after a traffic island then into a short stretch of bridleway.

I stopped for a couple of photos

before pressing on to the end, through some bollards, right on to Over Hall Lane, left on to Beeston Drive. The distant view of Beeston Castle was indistinct today as I rolled downhill to a left turn. After another quarter mile I cut through some estate paths to reach a road, then out on to the lane that passes my back gate.

All this winding about and stopping didn’t do much for my average speed but is useful practice in low speed riding and manoevreing. The loaded front lowriders were noticeable, but didn’t stop me doing what I wanted to do.

Distance 3.4 miles. Max 26.8 mph. Average 7.8 mph. According to Garmin.
Ascent 120 ft. According to Bikehike.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Out to one of the Greenwich meridian markers today. I did pass two but forget to photograph the second. Think I will make this a mini project for one of my rides each week. A few within riding distance.