Your ride today....

[HLaB]

My usual Saturday Ride today 54 miles round to the pub and 12miles home. It was forecast to be heavy rain, then prolonged light stuff. Whilst it had rained overnight I woke up to light drizzle which soon stopped and with the strong south winds it soon dried up.

 

[Donger]

Just my bread and butter Arlingham ride this evening .... just under 26 miles on the Ridgeback road bike. But I had to chuckle at an incident that happened just as I was arriving at the dead end in Arlingham at the banks of the Severn.

Ahead of me in the road was a mother carrying a young child and accompanied by a couple of little girls and a very small boy .... all spread out across the full width of the single track lane. I rang my bell twice to let them know I was there. No reaction from the adult. At the second ring, one of the little girls warned her mum, shouting "Cyclist, Mum!". Still no reaction, and nobody moved out of the way. The little girl shouted "Cyclist!" again and finally the mother looked around, stepped to one side and told the kids to make way. At that point the tiny little boy shouted "Cyclists!. Damn cyclists!".

The little kid was obviously reacting to the word "cyclist" with a curse he had heard his parents muttering when they were in their car! The irony was that it was now his mother who was blocking the road while traveling at slow speed ... doing exactly what she obviously hates cyclists doing to her. Out of the mouths of young babes .....

 

[a.twiddler]

23/5/25
Recumbent Ride (Also posted in Recumbent Rides)
Church Minshull Via Wettenhall and Paradise Lane.

Probably going to rain tomorrow so I thought I’d better get a ride in. My stuff was still on the Rans after the last ride so I decided to go on that.

Out through the gate then left, downhill and towards Darnhall. There was an unpredictable wind but it was pleasant in the sun. Still T shirt weather. Unfortunately, as evidenced by a large tractor ahead, and a cloud of dust, it was roadside verge cutting weather too. It was travelling just a bit more slowly than I’d have liked to go, but traffic was surprisingly busy, so it wasn’t easy to get past. After a couple of attempts I dropped back, hoping it might turn off somewhere. We were getting near the dip and traffic lights at Darnhall bridge anyway, so I wondered what it was going to do here.

To my surprise, it turned off down a private lane just before the bridge, leaving me and a following car to try our luck with the lights. The car didn’t try and pass me going down the hill. The lights remained stubbornly at red until my wheels had stopped turning then left me to climb up the other side from scratch. Still, it’s a more gradual hill on that side, and the Rans climbs deceptively well.

As I reached the top of the climb I saw another dust cloud ahead, and another tractor verge cutting. How many of these things was I going to have to pass today? It took a while to catch up with it and after a short wait I was able to get past, with my eyeballs well gritted by now. Fortunately there were no more after this one.

I wound my way through the lanes rowards Wettenhall, sometimes sheltered from the wind by the hedgebanks, sometimes not. Making good progress, but with my mind no longer distracted I couldn’t help thinking that there was rather more chain noise than I’d had on my last ride. Had something in the underseat rack moved to contact the chain after my off road interlude the other day? Or was it something related to the trouser deflector that I’d fitted?

I went down a steep dip and up the other side. Last time I came this way there had been a road gang here patching potholes, but the road still felt quite rough. I passed the “Little Man” pub and turned left. Soon I was turning into Woodgreen Lane. I stopped in a gateway and looked at my trouser deflector. I tweaked the rear end upwards while still sitting to see if it made any difference. I carried on. No difference. A huge artic came up the lane towards me so I pulled in to let it past. Then I carried on to Paradise lane. Now I’d become aware of it, I had to do something about the chain noise. I’d put in so much effort to get chain clearance while fitting the underseat rack that I would have been quite annoyed if the problem was something related to that.

I stopped in a gateway near the end of Paradise Lane and got off. I looked under the seat and could see immediately what the problem was. The chain had come off the idler wheel and was rubbing on its spindle alongside. By experimenting I could see that the idler, which was designed to slide sideways to accommodate the chain position in various gears, had a retaining bar over the top to stop the chain jumping off on bumps. The idler could be slid to its innermost position where it wasn’t covered by the bar and the chain wasn’t restrained by it, presumably so the chain could be removed. I put the chain back on the idler and slid it back into its normal position.

I got going again, and to my relief, silence was restored. Just something to keep an eye on in future.

I came to the end of Paradise Lane and turned right in the direction of Church Minshull. Annoyingly, quite a bit of traffic about. After a level stretch the road turned left then downhill. After being sheltered by trees and hedges on the flat, the downhill was exposed to the wind, which was quite noticeably in my face. I took my cap off and sat on it. I got into top and pedalled until I spun out, then freewheeled. A couple of cars came past. I hoped that they would keep going and not cause me to have to slow down. Sure enough, one of them indulged in comfort braking at the bottom of the hill, but was far enough away for me not to have to do anything about it. I was pedalling again by this time, into the village of Church Minshull through some bends and through a chicane, then stopped at a mini roundabout before turning right in the direction of Nantwich.

I looked at the Garmin reading down this hill. 33.5 wasn’t as high as I’d expected, but in the face of the eye watering headwind it was reasonable. The last time I came down here, on the Linear, there wasn’t so much wind, and it was 30.2 mph. So at a crude estimate, 10% faster this time. Comparing like with like, there’s potential for more yet. In general use, the Rans feels as if it rolls easier than the other two.

It’s a very black-and-white Cheshire village, with many listed ancient buildings, though I wonder if the traffic which surges through it every day appreciates much of it in passing.

Through another chicane then up a long hill. The road levelled off at the top then I took a right turning to get on to a lane in the direction of Wettenhall.

Despite being on a more minor road there was still a good deal of traffic. It gave me plenty of room, so I just sucked it up. The wind was generally following me, so I was able to keep a good pace fairly easily.

It didn’t take very long to reach Wettenhall where I rurned right and continued my good pace. The Rans certainly lives up to its earlier promise to go well in favourable conditions.

I continued to a large dip where I rushed down it and most of the way up the other side before slowly getting over the top. Normal service then resumed for the rest of the way to Darnhall.

Rolling downhill towards Darnhall Bridge the lights went red then immediately green again so I rushed the dip and again got most of the way up the other side before having to change to the lower gears.

A little later I passed my back gate and did a little extra before turning back after having rounded it up to 15 miles.

Distance 15.14 miles. Max speed 33.5 mph. Average speed 10.2 mph. According to Garmin.
Ascent 287 ft. According to Bikehike.

 

[geocycle]

A Very windy day called for some lateral thinking. It was blowing 25 mph from the west and showers were forecast but after being housebound yesterday I felt like getting out for a ride. So I headed out eastward, surfing the wind to Ingleton and then took the backroad to Clapham. The first shower lasted all of 5 minutes but the sky became ominously black. I followed through Austwick into Ribblesdale when I paused to take a picture of Penyghent. Next was a lunch stop at Settle. I had just started a sausage roll outside the Naked Man when the next shower landed. By now a plan of catching the train home had become appealing. I was going to head to Gargrave but thought the moor road would be too exposed so instead headed to the valley and the station at Long Preston. The train arrived spot on time. 64 km with 870 m of climbing.

Picture of Penyghent.

 

[HLaB]

We had a really strong rider on a knobbly tyred gravel bike this morning. You can see when he came through to the front from my Strava achievements. I was quite glad when he upped the pace as it got blood flow into my fingers and toes again; they had been going a bit numb!

 

[cyberknight]

very rare bank holiday ride as mrs ck not working for a change although she was not best impressed when she found out i was going out To be fair the kids dont surface till midday if were lucky anyway and this makes up for the missed chance on saturday .
AIRC club ride with 12 riders heading to outwoods woodland cafe with a planned route of 63 miles so by the time i rode to the meet up and back just under 73 miles under the belt.After 3 miles one rider had a blowout and trashed the tyre so she had to call someone who bought out a whole spare wheel eventually but we did lose maybe 45 mins waiting till we got going again , luckily the weather was still nice enough with the forecast rain not arriving till we were close to the cafe and then stayed off till i got home .
Found out one of the riders lives next door to the house i was in around 11 years ago and in the same village so we had to have a chat around that and he was thinking of moving out as there were issues which is why we left anyway.
The legs are definitely coming back so i was in the faster groups up hills and i have the ability to do an explosion at the start of a steep climb then push on through the pain so i can get a head start so im not doing bad as some of the riders i reckon i could be a grandad for based on age !
Photo taken in ride , you can just see my old faithful boardman , everyone else is on the latest all singing and dancing bikes but im keeping rim brakes alive

 

[HLaB]

A really enjoyable bank holiday ride today out to a new cafe for me Dovecote Farm 😋

 

[CarbonClem]

Did a fairly standard Severn Bridge loop today from Gloucester , through the Forest of Dean to Chepstow, over the Severn Bridge to Thornbury and then blown up the A38 to Gloucester again. 100km. Had to shelter from the rain as I’d dressed for the zero precipitation forecast. Managed to stay essentially dry and the warm wind sorted the roads out quickly.

 

[wafter]

Nothing intrinsically exciting, however outings over recent days FWIW:

Sat: 16ish miles on the Routier to facilitate a (sober on my part) pub crawl with some mates; the bike fulfilling its brief perfectly as something I could lock up and forget (although as it happened in most places it came into the beer garden with us).

Sun: An unexpected 30 utility-ish miles on the Fuji (and a bit of a walk in the woods / by the river afterwards ).

Today: "Just popping round the block for a shakedown" on the Routier turned into about 24.5 miles; the slipping seatpost and not-quite-committed saddle pitch setting still not right but at least a lot more comfortable than previously. The ride itself was nice in parts (tried to take some routes other than those I typically cover) however the wind was sometimes challenging and I got soaked to the skin at one point so was ultimately glad to get back.

Last week I came perilously close to hitting 500 miles over 30 days (which is a lot for me) but fell just short. Unexpectedly I just topped it today, marking the most miles in a month since Covid; although granted they're likely a lot slower.

The flipside to the utility riding that's been my saviour over the past few years is that exertion levels have gone through the floor. Ideally I'd like to go out and do some all-out efforts up a big hill just for the hell of it, however I typically lack both the energy and appetite while none of my bikes really encourage such behaviour.

That said I did have close to a max effort stab at Headington hill on the Brompton after a bad day last week..

 

[cyberknight]

Did a fairly standard Severn Bridge loop today from Gloucester , through the Forest of Dean to Chepstow, over the Severn Bridge to Thornbury and then blown up the A38 to Gloucester again. 100km. Had to shelter from the rain as I’d dressed for the zero precipitation forecast. Managed to stay essentially dry and the warm wind sorted the roads out quickly.

View attachment 774294

I have done that a few times in the past too .

 

[Pduk]

Headed out on Sunday for my longest ride in years, have been working on building back up over the past few months and surprised myself with the results, especially as it was a smidge windy out there.

Excuse the worn bar grip, I need to replace them at some point 👍

 

[13 rider]

Headed out on Sunday for my longest ride in years, have been working on building back up over the past few months and surprised myself with the results, especially as it was a smidge windy out there.
View attachment 774333

View attachment 774334
Excuse the worn bar grip, I need to replace them at some point 👍

As monitor of the 50km ride a month challenge ,I thought I would point out that 50kms is 31.07 miles you just needing a tad more to do half a century 😁. I like to encourage everyone wether in the challenge or not to do that bit extra 👍

 

[Pduk]

As monitor of the 50km ride a month challenge ,I thought I would point out that 50kms is 31.07 miles you just needing a tad more to do half a century 😁. I like to encourage everyone wether in the challenge or not to do that bit extra 👍

Ah, I didn't realise there was a challenge to be honest, still very new to this forum and finding my way around. I'll keep it in mind on future rides and see if I can eek out a smidge more 👍

 

[Binky]

First ride since last Thursday so nice to get out. 36 miles 2500ft so a rolling terrain with only one nastyish hill made worse by the headwind. Good ride though.
Bit of a countryside roadblock on way home.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Once again, apologies for posting rides late.
Saturday 17th of May: I was supposed to have been working on a bike for someone else but that didn't happen in the end so I took the chance to get a ride in. I took a while to decide on a route and, after not really being inspired by any flatter routes, decided that heading up the Long Mynd would be nice.

Using the direct way to Condover it felt like the wind was against me, but I was setting a fairly decent pace anyway. There wasn't too much traffic about which made this bit of riding more pleasant. After Longnor I found that the potholes along the old Roman road have finally been patched. Not the best job I've seen but it's good that the holes are gone.

Reaching Leebotwood I found the A49 was oddly quiet, while The Pound seemed to be doing a good trade from what I could see. The start of the climbing went nicely and the bike felt really good since I last adjusted the saddle - happy with that. Apart from some photo stops on the way, I wound my way up the climb steadily and was pleased to still have two gears in reserve on the steepest bit.

I'd started off under an overcast sky with the day feeling cool in the wind but it cleared up during the climb and by the top it was feeling warmer than it had when I left home so I was able to take off the fleece I'd started in. There were more photos taken at the top of this climb then I headed across the plateau aiming for Pole Bank (the summit). There were plenty of walkers about with it being a Saturday and I did catch up with a group of mountain bikers after Shooting Box. I overtook one of them but when I attempted to overtake the rest of the group I heard "I'm not having that!" and they put on a spurt that I couldn't keep up with as I was on the rough and loose edge of the gravel path.

Having got a few more pics at Pole Bank I dropped down to the road and doubled back towards Boiling Well, finding that the wind was actually coming from the north-east so I did have a proper headwind now.

Descending along the Burway is always fun. I do like the surprised looks that I get from the motorists up here. I met a group of mountain bikers on their way up, just at the top of the steepest bit - they asked if I was enjoying the downhill. A couple more from their group were still on the climb and the one lady confessed that she'd walked about half of it. It's still an achievement managing this climb under your own power and I'd never have known if she hadn't said.

A guy on a road bike came past fast and close while I was stopped for a photo - no need for that I thought. He continued the descent like a rocket - braver than me and I wasn't taking it slow.

Reaching Church Stretton I turned northwards into what felt like a brisk headwind but, like earlier, didn't seem to be slowing me down too much. There was another surprisingly quiet crossing of the A49 (not complaining!) then I enjoyed the mostly downhill run back along the old Roman road, through Longnor, Ryton, Condover and back to home.

29.7 miles at 13.4 mph average. Strava claim 2023 feet of climbing but oddly it lists the climb up High Park as the biggest climb I've ever done when I'm sure I've done it at least twice since starting to use the app.

Passing through Woolstaston on the way up the climb.

A good display of bluebells before I get to the steep bit.

I've climbed a fair bit by the time I get onto the plateau.

The Long Mynd ponies.

Nice view from the toposcope at Pole Bank.

Winding road across the top at Boiling Well.

The view as the descent of the Burway starts.

The steep bit of the Burway with one rider in a heck of a hurry.

Much flatter ground on my way back.