N0bodyOfTheGoat
Über Member
- Location
- Hampshire, UK
Yesterday late afternoon, I ended up riding the ~9 mile Wickham to West Meon direction of the Meon Valley Trail, for the first time since August last year. Think that's only four times I've done the north direction in ~9 years and two of those were before 2020 on my old fatbike.
I was fully expecting to find a gate closure somewhere near Soberton (just past half way) with a lane diversion, which was apparently announced by local parish a few months ago. But it was all clear, besides passing a fallen tree very early on after joining the trail at the Station Rd carpark link... So I ended up doing the whole length as usual.
What really suprised me was the time for the ebike segment, last year on 35mm front and 40mm Supremes with butyl tubes it took ~33mins40secs, with a tempo heartrate effort (~145bpm) from me and the max assist kicking in when I dropped below ~15.5mph.
But yesterday on 45mm Caracal Race with latex tube rear and 40mm Supreme up front with butyl tube, it was only ~50secs slower despite me only averaging a z1 ~120bpm effort with the max turbo kicking in... The Caracal Race has been making rides quicker this year, with its lower rolling resistance.
Funny how memory plays tricks, yesterday there were far more stretches of narrower path near ~4 feet rather than ~10 feet wide and the end nearer Wickham seemed like the path had deeper gravel and dry/loose soil compared to how I remembered it. The Wickham end felt really slow, without gazing at my GPS.
Wasn't too busy around 1800, a few more cyclists going the opposite way than I've encountered before, plus the odd walking group and/or dog walker. No horses this time, thankfully!
Thought about simply turning around at West Meon end to do the reverse direction, which I quite possibly have never done on my old bikes either, but my hands felt a little banged up... So I ended up doing a longer back lanes loop which took ~2.5 hours total to do ~38 miles and ~2000 feet climbing.
I was fully expecting to find a gate closure somewhere near Soberton (just past half way) with a lane diversion, which was apparently announced by local parish a few months ago. But it was all clear, besides passing a fallen tree very early on after joining the trail at the Station Rd carpark link... So I ended up doing the whole length as usual.
What really suprised me was the time for the ebike segment, last year on 35mm front and 40mm Supremes with butyl tubes it took ~33mins40secs, with a tempo heartrate effort (~145bpm) from me and the max assist kicking in when I dropped below ~15.5mph.
But yesterday on 45mm Caracal Race with latex tube rear and 40mm Supreme up front with butyl tube, it was only ~50secs slower despite me only averaging a z1 ~120bpm effort with the max turbo kicking in... The Caracal Race has been making rides quicker this year, with its lower rolling resistance.
Funny how memory plays tricks, yesterday there were far more stretches of narrower path near ~4 feet rather than ~10 feet wide and the end nearer Wickham seemed like the path had deeper gravel and dry/loose soil compared to how I remembered it. The Wickham end felt really slow, without gazing at my GPS.
Wasn't too busy around 1800, a few more cyclists going the opposite way than I've encountered before, plus the odd walking group and/or dog walker. No horses this time, thankfully!
Thought about simply turning around at West Meon end to do the reverse direction, which I quite possibly have never done on my old bikes either, but my hands felt a little banged up... So I ended up doing a longer back lanes loop which took ~2.5 hours total to do ~38 miles and ~2000 feet climbing.
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