Your ride today....

[FrankCrank]

Xmas day ride along the Mekong

Merry Xmas all.

 

[chriswoody]

Because presents are exchanged here on Christmas Eve, I had no real obligation to be in the house this morning, so I rose early and set out on a lovely ride. I'd created this ride a while ago, but never actually ridden it, so decided to give it a go this morning. It was a brisk Minus 7 when I set off and my hands were agony for the first half an hour from hot aches that left me questioning my life choices. I was soon crossing the river at the old hydro electric plant and stopped for a brief break.

Normally I would swing round and head home, but today I keep heading east along the gravel cycle path, in summer this is crazy busy, but deserted this morning. Through the edge of the town I ride on back into the forest, the light is amazing and the trails are sublime.

I'm heading towards a series of small lakes that are popular place in summer, but a scene of conflict between anglers and bathers. The forest here is amazing and a popular place for mountain bikers for the single track trails that weave between the pines.

I'm soon on a roller coaster trail that flows next to the lakes, the ground here is really sandy and the bike bogs down frequently and threatens to throw me off. This really is the wrong bike for here in many ways, but I would never be having so much fun on a more appropriate bike.

Onwards the ride mellows out now for a while before heading back into deep forest trails that appear to be rarely trod, It's heavy slow going.

Emerging from the forest, the ride calms down as we head on dull trails between the meadows. The frozen ground is heavily rutted and it's a real slog to make progress, I'm counting the kilometres until I reach Wolthausen, where I'm now back into familiar ground. From here a fast forest road leads me up to the perilous broken bridge of doom.

Safely across I'm enjoying the fast roads and trails ahead, before the last bit of fun single track awaits through the forest.

Home is now only 8 km away and the last kilometres pass pleasantly enough on a mix of different trails, the urge to take a few sneaky shortcuts through the roads is resisted. I arrive home on tired legs and hungry after a wonderful 50km and an average temperature of minus 5, feeling ready to face the rest of the day.

 

[wafter]

Awoke knackered and sluggish but aware of the need to get outside. Drawn by the bright, crisp morning; pushed by the knowledge I’d not been in the saddle for nearly a week and the looming spectre of regret if I remained inside and rotted all day.

A million things done, panniers more stuffed than usual and I was finally out on the Fuji; well-wrapped for the cold and bracing wind and complete with my new MP3 player packed with a fresh gig of ridiculously deep techno mixes robbed from Youtube..

Into town and it was quiet but not deserted. The light was very nice and I got drawn down the side streets chasing photos, most of which turned out to be worse than anticipated when I got home..

Having got chilly and more jaded standing about with the camera I pressed on north-ish in to the brutal headwind before heading back in on the tow path, stopping at the park for a passable session on the rings.

Back into town, had a chat with a couple of homeless folks; the first declining festive flapjack due to gluten issues but the second was happy to take a few pieces... I felt bad that I had nothing for his very wall-mannered Staffie. Most of my flapjack returned home with me but it was good to see so few of the city’s homeless on the streets and by extension hopefully somewhere less bitterly cold...

Minced about a bit more and had some short, civilised exchanges and Christmas greetings with a few people; the latter always initiated by them but returned out of courtesy / the fear of being unmasked as not one of them and it all going a bit Invasion of the Body Snatchers..

Dragged myself home; mindful of beating the dusk and the inevitable drop in temperature.

Nice to get out but glad to be back after 22ish miles / four hours ; for once feeling zero guilt for resolutely doing sod all with the rest of the day.

 

[bluenotebob]

A reminder to everyone that Week 1 of the 2026 edition of the ‘3 x 30min rides x 52 weeks’ challenge will start on Monday 29th December – and will run through until Sunday 4th January.

If you do three outdoor rides of over 30 minutes on at least two separate days in Week 1 then please post the details of your rides in Week 1 of the challenge. Photos are particularly welcome.

It would be REALLY nice if more people entered this challenge!

The thread for the 2026 challenge is here:

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/three-30-minute-rides-each-week-of-the-year-2026-challenge.309247/

 

[cyberknight]

1st ride of any distance since october as i have been resting my knee so i joined the social ride of ashby ivanhoe road club to sudbury courtyard.
I spent the entire ride sitting on wheels as i was not sure how my knee would react and i knew my fitness was not up to riding on the front yet , 14 of us in total so i had plenty of wheels to follow .At the cafe a ride mate wanted to take a picture of me by the tree so i had to add a bit of humour

50 miles in total for me which i am happy with , knee aching a bit so i had a hot bath and a couple of pain killers and feeling ok now .

 

[sevenfourate]

7am out the door (To beat an expected ‘mass’ of folk back at work) was unsurprisingly dark, cool and breezy.

This was 5-6 miles up the road in Hopton:

Onto a breezy 😳 Gorleston Sea-Front….

Up the Norfolk Coast; where I spotted this cool car by the river inlet of the Harbour:

Onto Gt Yarmouth. Where I stopped to take this photo. Only to realise there is a young seal in the shot !

Still heading up the Coast - and onto the entrance to the Venetian Waterways:

Through Yarmouth and on to Caister on Sea:

Where I stopped for a snap infront of the Holy Trinity Church Tower:

A cool’ish, but dry and very enjoyable 50k. And more cake earned 😉

 

[EltonFrog]

I have pretty much lost interest in cycling, I don’t know what happened, I just stopped apart from the odd utility ride. However I’m currently on holiday in Oz, and we decided to hire a couple of E-bikes to ride around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, about 25 miles of paved traffic free paths.
First proper go on an e-bike, good fun it was too. About 30 miles in 28° sunshine.

I thought I’d share.

 

[VinSumRox]

Possibly last ride of the year, 85km 1400m of up chilly 2c and minimal rain.

 

[sevenfourate]

Why on Earth would you take the car to run an errand or two, when you’re on Holiday and it’s as gorgeous as this outside……

 

[a.twiddler]

30/12/25
Car service ride by Brompton.
Unknown time needed for investigations -took Brompton in case I needed to come back by train.

A few things needed looking at as well as a service at the main dealer so I took the Brompton in case I had to come home by train and pick the car up later.

I dropped the car off in the dark and settled down for a pootle round Crewe until I had more information. I hadn’t used the Shimano hub dynamo for ages but when I turned it on it just ...worked, like everything else on the Brompton, clunks, squeaks and other strange noises notwithstanding. The Chinese Knog-a-like bell disintegrated as I unfolded the handlebars after surviving for the last three years. I have plenty of mini bells in my bits box at home but that didn’t help my uncontrollable urge to ring a non existent bell at passers by all morning.

It was unexpectedly cold, and after a few miles of trundling round the cycling infrastructure I headed for MacDonalds to try out their breakfast menu. It was quiet, so I smuggled in the non folded Brompton with no complaints.

After a coconut and hot chocolate drink and a sausage thing in a bun I felt revived and pushed off to the town centre. I had a mooch round Mountain Warehouse wheeling the Brompton as it’s the sort of bike you can take liberties with in these situations, then to Halfords to see what the response might be there.

The bike department is upstairs so it’s a bit of a heave to get it up there with its front bag on. I can’t help thinking that a stairway channel to roll your wheels in might be a user friendly thing for what is nominally a bike shop. Still, once I was up there, I wasn’t told that I can’t bring that there bike thing here, nor was I inundated with offers of assistance either.

A helpful customer insisted on helping me to get it back down the stairs despite me insisting that this was the easy bit. I thanked him anyway. Perhaps I look more decrepit than I feel.

Then I got a bit lost until I went past the station. I took a photo of the Crewe Arms Hotel in passing.

I thought I’d go back to the car dealer to see if it would be worth waiting or heading for home for a few hours. It turned out that the work needed was simpler than expected, so I stayed in their waiting room until the job was finished.

Nobody batted an eyelid.
Perhaps not the most glamourous Brompton you ever did see, but it's fully functional. It even has a 28T chainring tucked away inside the big ring for those big climbs.

Finally I coughed up, loaded up, and headed for home.

Distance 13.35 miles. Max speed 22.6mph. Average 10.2 mph. According to Garmin.
Elevation 120 ft. According to Bikehike

 

[chriswoody]

Just before Christmas I'd noticed on RWGPS that I'd ridden 3750 km this year, now there was no way I could let the year slip by without rounding that up. So this morning I was left with 60km to go and lovely clear skies so what was stopping me? Well the small matter of lethal conditions, the last days have been damp and drizzling, but nights have been sub zero. So with the thermometer showing minus 3 it was bound to be slippery, so I'd better be careful. Heading North I gently tiptoed out of town then thankfully the quiet road has a nice gravel verge that provided some modicum of traction.

It's slow cold progress, but after 6km I hit the relative safety of the forest and I'm soon making good time over the frozen ground, the sun arching down through the trees is beautiful, I do love sunny winter days.

After a few kilometres the temperature in the forest has dropped to minus 4 and passing by the small lakes at Kohlenbach, there's a brave/foolish/mad? family skating out on the ice. We really haven't had a prolonged period of sub-zero weather, but the ice appeared to be holding for now.

I continue on through the forest, the trail is frozen but generally good going. After 20km I stop for a coffee and a small break near to the open heathland, watching a Buzzard circling overhead.

Reaching the edge of the forest I head along the frozen road to Anglebechsteich, which is completely frozen, no crazy ice skaters here though.

I head up onto the Tiefental and now we are on the open heathland. Whilst this is over run in the summer, I see only one intrepid dog walker out today. I head down to the ridge line that's always good fun to ride, the dip at the end is normally next to impossible to ride because of the deep sand. Today however, it is completely frozen and whilst rough, is easily traversed.

I soon leave the heathland behind and head back into the deep woods, it's dark in here and the trail is heavily rutted from a forestry vehicle that's passed this way.

It's not long though before I'm out blinking in the sunlight, onto wide gravel fire roads again. The speed picks up now and I'm soon flying along on the compacted gravel, however I can feel that grip is tenuous at best as the tires squirm on the frozen ground.

Through to Reberllah and a quick stop for a coffee from the flask and some home made flapjack.

Then we're back for the last stretch on good fire roads, followed by a short stretch on a gritted cycle track before finally arriving home after 60 km. A tough and demanding ride but I'm pleased to see that I've achieved just over 4000 km of leisure riding this year with 434 km this month alone. I think that will do for the year, time for a coffee.

 

[VinSumRox]

Wee 30km Hogmanay spin with the OH, it clouded over and drizzled , then cleared up again when we got back! Got me over 4000 miles this year though 😃

 

[Glow worm]

A crisp, sunny day here for my last ride of the year around Burwell Fen on the local patch. Keeping the bike clean was a lot easier today as the worst of the mud has frozen! Just an 11 mile circuit today bringing the year‘s final total to 2669 miles. Happy new year to you all and here’s to plenty of rides to come in 2026.