Your greatest cycling achievements and memories?

[ChrisEyles]

OT for a sec.. was it an Alpine? See this thread!

Apologies for the OT again - but yes, it was the very same! Only mine was a good deal tattier, complete with unraveling bar tape,rusty chain, and slightly bent chainstays... my bicycle maintenance scheme has come a long way since those days

Looks like a lovely restoration job you did on the bike. It may not be a perfect ride (and I know *exactly* what you mean about old brakes - hence the yellow peril tag acquired by my old one) but I hope you're enjoying it as much as I did

Feeling nostalgic, I had a look to see if there are any more knocking around... but it just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't my original "peril". Hope it's gone to a good home!

 

[Donger]

It isn't - a lightning bolt which has just zapped its way through up to 10 or 20 miles of air isn't going to struggle finding its way through (or round) a few mm of rubber!

A young man was hit by lightning near my sister's local shops. It burned holes through the soles of his shoes, but somehow he survived.

Jeez! That's unnerving. What exactly should you do when you are in the mountains with no shelter anywhere and a thunderstorm is heading your way? looks like I played russian roulette and got away with it.

 

[ColinJ]

Jeez! That's unnerving. What exactly should you do when you are in the mountains with no shelter anywhere and a thunderstorm is heading your way? looks like I played russian roulette and got away with it.

Ideally, you don't get into that situation in the first place!

I had ridden over the local big hill once when thunderstorms were forecast for later in the day. When I got to the summit, I saw that they were already over Leeds/Bradford in the distance. What I should have done was to turn round and go home ASAP. I thought I had time to complete my ride, which was to descend to Oxenhope village, turn round and climb back up from that side. The storm arrived sooner than expected! I looked up the hill and saw lightning bolts hitting the top of the hill, either side of the road that I would have been riding up! I took shelter in the station building in the village where an old guy proceeded to tell me about how his neighbour had been blown over his garden wall when a bolt of lightning hit her back garden when she was getting her washing in!

Here's some safety advice and some more. Note the picture of the dead cows ... My dad once saw lightning hit a field and kill all the cows standing there!

As for standing under trees ... There are 2 dangers. The first is that the tree attracts the lightning because it is the highest thing around and then a bolt comes out of the side of the tree and zaps you. The other is that the current vapourises the sap in the tree which causes it to explode. A teenager was killed in Kenilworth when my dad lived there, when tree shrapnel went through him! (If you can't get away from the trees because you are in a wood or forest, find the lowest ones and hope any lightning bolts hit the higher trees!)

Don't mess with lightning!

 

[Donger]

Ideally, you don't get into that situation in the first place!

Here's some safety advice and some more. Note the picture of the dead cows ... My dad once saw lightning hit a field and kill all the cows standing there!

Don't mess with lightning!

All very good advice - and much appreciated. Still don't know what I could have done in the position I was in, though. A thunderstorm whipped up out of nowhere and immediately between me and my destination. I was on a cycle path in the middle of a big wide valley, with only the occasional huge tree for shelter. Quite what anyone is supposed to do when up an Alp is also beyond me. Certainly makes you think carefully before starting a big climb, as these storms just whip up from nowhere in the high mountains.

 

[MattMM]

Started in December last year as rehab from a serious back injury. When I started out, my ambition was to be able to get over Eaglesham Moor, highest spot in local area, very high and exposed - absolutely brutal in winter, almost like a mini Mont Ventoux. Also home to one of Europes highest windfarms.

After a coupla months training on my new hybrid in pretty crappy winter conditions, we had a decent day at end January and finally made it...

 

[slowmotion]

Jeez! That's unnerving. What exactly should you do when you are in the mountains with no shelter anywhere and a thunderstorm is heading your way? looks like I played russian roulette and got away with it.

I used to go long distance walking in the mountains a long time ago. If I remember correctly ( and I quite possibly don't ), if you are caught out in the open, you should ditch anything "pointy" ( bike, golf club etc) and assume a position like a Muslim at prayer with a well rounded back. Christian prayers may be said too....

EDIT: I got that a bit wrong. You are not supposed to prostrate yourself, just assume The Lightning Crouch like this...

 

[Donger]

I used to go long distance walking in the mountains a long time ago. If I remember correctly ( and I quite possibly don't ), if you are caught out in the open, you should ditch anything "pointy" ( bike, golf club etc) and assume a position like a Muslim at prayer with a well rounded back. Christian prayers may be said too....

I'll pray to anyone if I ever get caught out in another one like that. Makes you wonder what would happen if a thunderstorm hit a TDF stage like Alpe d'Huez. Hundreds of cyclists abandoning their bikes, and tens of thousands of spectators squatting with their heads between thier knees (as, I now note, the official advice goes). That devil guy would even have to drop his trident.

p.s. Sorry for this ongoing distraction from the main thread. I'll go away now. Keep the great memories coming everyone.

 

[4F]

For me it was last years Dunwich Dynamo there and back. My longest ride by a long way 242 miles, 16 hours riding time and just under 24 hours door to door.

 

[speccy1]

Got loads, first club ride, first time trial, trips abroad, sponsored weekends away, hill climbs, watching Tour of Britain, LEJOG, etc etc but to name a few. All tied to one bike which is my most treasured possesion. Not worth a great deal to anybody else, but would break my heart to part with it

 

[BigonaBianchi]

Lots

The climb at Hoosier pass on the transam, dipping my wheel at Yorktown after riding acroos the states, riding into john o groats, making it to Montpellier from.Bremen, reaching the top of.mount Olympus, the stunningly.beautiful climbs at kantara northern Cyprus, hitting 51mph in.northern Cyprus,several.century plus rides but the longest and best was 112miles last summer. One of the best was the night I.spent in hells canyon idaho next to the lake. Cycling through.the Somme, having a four course dinner with champagne in a cowfield courtesy of caravanners, helping a souix Indian find his truck, cycling with a heard of 50+ deer in Essex, the list goes on...

 

[Dayvo]

Quite a few.

140 km ride at night in Tampere Finland with one of my best mates. It was very cold (in June) but there were plenty of good food stops.

Pedal for Scotland from Glasgow to Edinburgh with a large number of Scottish CCers.

Crashing on the first day of a three-month tour from Nordkapp to Gibraltar, breaking my collar bone in the tunnel linking Nordkapp to the mainland. (re-started four weeks later in southern Sweden).

Coming down into Spain free-wheeling for 20 minutes and into glorious sunshine after weeks of crap weather for most of the ride since leaving Sweden.

Cycling through/below a MASSIVE flock of starlings in Spain.

Arriving in Gibraltar six weeks and 4,500 km after starting.

Hitting 78 kmh fully loaded with large timber-carrying road trains thundering past in Australia.

And looking forward (one day) to my first FNRttC.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

<snip>

Crashing on the first day of a three-month tour from Nordkapp to Gibraltar, breaking my collar bone in the tunnel linking Nordkapp to the mainland. (re-started four weeks later in southern Sweden).

Coming down into Spain free-wheeling for 20 minutes and into glorious sunshione after weeks of crap weather for most of the ride since leaving Sweden.

Cycling through/below a MASSIVE flock of starlings in Spain.

Arriving in Gibraltar six weeks and 4,500 km after starting.

Hitting 78 kmh fully loaded with large timber-carrying road trains in Auistralia.

And looking forward (one day) to my first FNRttC.

Tis a pig of a tunnel that one and steep, not to mention so very cold as well. Well done on restarting 4 weeks later though.

 

[JoeyB]

Off the top of my head:

• Hitting just short of 50mph whilst descending a freshly surfaced road on the way back to Calais from Boulogne. My fastest speed on a bike to date.
• My first FNRttC - which was only a few weeks ago. It was cold and wet, very wet...but I loved every minute of it! The night ride around the IOW was also pretty epic.
• My solo 200KM Audax ride from Denmead to Brighton and back - I had attempted a 200KM ride previously and packed half way for various reasons. This is my longest ride to date.

 

[glenn forger]

It was 1983, an exciting time to be young. I had a white blouson Spandau Ballet style shirt from Top Man with pinball phrases written on it.

TILT

It said. Also

NUDGE

My dad gave me and my bike a lift to Portsmouth and we hugged at the ferry port, I got the overnight ferry to Cherbourg and set off at dawn with no real idea where I was going. Made it to St Cast and found a lovely campsite where I lost my enamel mug and virginity. I have never in my life felt such a sense of freedom and self determination, I would end up where I turned the handlebars, where I held the heat of the summer. Local people would shout Bon route to me and other encouraging phrases in Paris talk. It was the little country roads and lanes where Polanski filmed Tess. I'd buy salted Normandy butter and a baguette that was still warm inside and munch a cheese sandwich by the roadside. Happy days. But it wasn't like slaking a thirst, rather the opposite, five years later I packed my job in, rented my house out and set off again, followed the same route for a bit then banged the gears down, stretched my legs and made it to Greece. That was the best year of my life.

 

[Cyclopathic]

When I realised I was riding on my own without my grandad holding on to the back. About a year ago now.