Your ride today....

[Supersuperleeds]

16 miles with our lass this morning and she gets a puncture. No problems, take the panniers off her bike, turn it over, and bugger. Her rear wheel isn't quick release and I don't have a spanner. No problem, for once I have patches with me, I'll patch the tube with the tyre still on the bike. No I won't, I can't find anything in the tyre nor the hole in the tube. So I leave her to start walking and ride straight home, another 7 miles, to get the car.

Get her home and decide the tyre is knackered so replace that and the tube. Cleaned my bike as it was disgustingly filthy from yesterdays ride. My bike now looks like @ianrauk bike when it is "mucky"

 

[Elybazza61]

Nice club run yesterday and my first for a year,the mudgurded Icarus threw a flatty on me and with no time to fix it had to get the Helium out,needless to say it and me got covered in nice fenland grime(bad phone pics);

Got put to the back of the group like a naughty boy for being guardless but a nice ride none the less;

https://www.strava.com/activities/254813938

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

1.3km is awesome....wonder how long it will take me to get there? I'm going to set a random target of 10 days.

Keep up the good efforts

It's taken me 3½ months since the disk ruptured to get to this point... A little over 2 months since the back surgery... I'm getting very bored.

 

[ColinJ]

It was a looking like it would be a totally murky day here. I was making excuses not to go out, despite nearly a week off the bike to attend a friend's funeral in the Midlands. (He died suddenly, but in his sleep, so at least that is some consolation. 59 is too young though! I knew him for 51 of those years .. RIP old pal. )

***Ahem, cough*** - back to the cycling ... I spotted a few sunbeams and decided to get out quick before the opportunity was lost. I managed to get a hilly little ride in and get home before the clouds closed in again, though they nearly did while I was out on the tops, as you can see in the photo below taken looking west-ish over the top of the Cragg Vale climb.

My route: Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd, Cragg Vale, Blackstone Edge, A58 east down to Blue Ball Road, little roads to Steep Lane, back up to Cragg Rd, Mytholmroyd and ... (I decided to add a bit on) ... steep climb of Midgley Rd, Height Rd, Old Town ... and (for a change, rather than returning via Pecket Well I took the precipitous option which I once used to terrify @potsy after a post-forum ride pub lunch in the village ) Sandy Gate, Birchcliffe Rd.

Profile:

Murky view over hills above Cragg Vale

It was 16:10 when I got back into Hebden Bridge and I wanted to check that the Co-op was still open, so I rode round there to confirm the closing time. It in fact is 17:00 on Sundays so I had time to rush there after dropping the bike off and getting changed.

I will have to try and get my February metric century and metric half century rides in over the next week or so. I don't want to leave it until the end of the month.

 

[Booyaa]

A tidy ride today with the wife along too. Struggled badly as only my first ride since January and second since July time. Good to get out again but I have lost so much in my chest and legs in that time.

Lovely cool day out so never overheated too badly, was pretty slow but still enjoyable, when I could breathe properly again. Found a new hill on the edge of Stafford I never knew about, will enjoy trying to conquer that one in the future.

 

[ColinJ]

I broke my hip in 2012. 2 months later, I got back on the bike (on a turbo trainer) and rode for half a mile.
It took 11 minutes 20 seconds, so that makes you walking faster than me riding

It's not where you start from that matters, it's where you end up.

Exactly!

It took me a couple of months to build up to doing the 300-350 metre walk to the local shops, and I was having to stop 4 or 5 times in each direction to rest and get my breath back! 2.5 years further on and I am almost back to where I was pre-illness. (I suspect that I will never get back the last 10% or so of health and fitness, but given the alternative, I am not complaining!)

Keep it up, @mooseracer and @SatNavSaysStraightOn!

 

[sgl5gjr]

The Teen and I planned a long ride today, but Mrs Sgl decided she wanted to join us........ Now.... bear in mind it was her 2nd time out on her Roadie..... she did a respectable 10 miles..... at 8 mph with a couple of stops and the "how do these gears work" "it goes fast compared to my MTB" cries......lol.....
All in all she enjoyed it ...the teen was a little disappointed but it's half term so...who knows....
I'm busy servicing Bikes all week so little chance of rides (other than test rides) for me.....

 

[PeteXXX]

I've been looking locally for a caged headset bearing for my SL4 Hardtail and haven't had much joy so, as I bought the bike from Leisurelakes in Daventry, I'd ride over with the old one and see if they could help (it's a Cannondale size, ie, non-standard)
I decided to do the hilly part of the route first, then back on slightly flatter roads.
On the canal path near Rothersthorpe, a pair of MTB'ers were walking along. On stopping to ask if they were OK, I noticed a distinct lack of chain on one of the bikes. He'd snapped it a few miles before we met. I did offer to get the multitool out and join it back up, but they said they only had a mile to go but thanks for the offer anyway..
From Bugbrook and Kislingbury onwards it gets quite lumpy, finishing with Newnham Hill, a Cat4 climb. I've not done this side of the hill before.

Banana power!!
Newnham Hill is about a mile long with the steepest part near the top being 25% for a short distance. The blast down t'other side into Dav is great though. I did have to slow down for a few of the bands as the roads were a quite greasy today.

This alpaca seemed to be laughing at my pathetic attempt at hill climbing

The easiest way to Leisurelakes LBS is through the town centre as the by-pass isn't a nice road to use.
I bought the bearing I needed for the princely sum of £1. (30 miles to buy a £1 bearing, then the ride back as well... )
I'd hoped to grab a coffee there but they were so slow serving the two people in front of me that I gave up and headed homewards.

Never mind, Whilton Lock and the Marina have a café that also serves cake. Not a huge slab, but that was just as well as it was really rich!

After a 20 minute stop, I aimed home through Nobottle and Duston, then the final 10 miles via the bike paths along the Nene and up the hill in Gt Billing.

Home on 51 miles in slightly warmer weather than I've been used to recently.

https://www.strava.com/activities/255316005

 

[Licramite]

My first ride this month ! - cut short by my gears deciding not to go below 4th. Hmmm some of them hills need a 1 or 2 so it was home james and avoid the steep ones.
still can't sort it, gears work fine when on the ramp, put it on the road and nope stuck at 4 and no lower.

 

[Spartak]

I took the MTB over to Kielder today for a spin round the pond and despite a misty overcasty (with a hint of warm) start to the day I opted for shorts and wasn't disappointed

By the ½ way point the sun had come out and it was starting to get quite warm.. and so was I due softness for the track surface calling for a lot more effort than other times I've been. I've done this loop numerous times and today was by far the hardest. So a quick rest was called for....

All in all a super day out, and with only seeing less that 30 other folk round, it felt like I had the place pretty much to myself

@Ffoeg your rides always look fantastic !

 

[vernon]

The ride that I planned on doing didn't match what I ended up doing. I had aimed to pedal out to York via Wetherby then along the York Selby cycle route before heading back to Leeds along the A63. I took my Dave Yates Randonneur out for the ride and was five minutes faster to Wetherby than I was on the Woodrup. I was just at the edge of York when Mrs Vernon rang me to tell me that the Sunday dinner was going to be an hour earlier than expected. I could have completed the loop but I'd be chancing it if I was going to sit down with the rest of the family for the meal. I caught a train back to Leeds and pedalled home via the canal and Kirkstall. A modest thirty two miles, thirty less than planned.

A factory chimney topped out campanile style by the Leeds Liverpool canal

Old and new at Leeds Granary Wharfe

Another campanile chimney.

 

[gavroche]

Finally managed to go out this sunny morning. Within two minutes of leaving my house, I nearly had a crash due to a Volvo 4x4 coming out of a road on my right. I shouted and the driver heard me and stopped. He then put his hand up as an apology. I carried on and as I was turning right at the coming roundabout, I positioned myself on the right hand lane. The Volvo driver came on my left, opened his window and orally apologized again. Nice touch I thought but something told me he was also a cyclist and he felt bad about his carelessness.
A few more miles down the road, I met a school colleague walking his dog and had a quick chat. The rest of my ride was quite uneventful and 22 miles later, I was safely back home.

 

[ruffers]

Just myself and Mr @rb58 for today's run out. A great ride to the centre of the Universe. Other wise known as the BP Garage at Ashford in Kent. I take Ross to all the best places. It was a little cold and misty this morning with the sky blanketed in boring grey cloud. But we did have a few glimpses of blue sky and of that yellow orb.. I've forgotten what it's called. The roads were a mix of wet, mucky and dry. A good thing I put the raceblade on the bike to keep the worst of the muck off.
We saw what looked like a pro-woman's cycling team being paced by a couple of motorbikes. Ross did say we could have had them if they hadn't of turned off...black kit with red pipping, anyone know who they are?

Anyway. 105 miles for the day. Century #5 for the year and # 139 over all.

The outward journey.
View attachment 79912

The return journey (with the horrid Igtham Mote Hill climb thrown in for good measure)
View attachment 79913

The bike and the slippers all mucky
View attachment 79914

The bike and slippers all clean.
View attachment 79915

Nice bike, what model Is it

 

[rb58]

Nice bike, what model Is it

Not the right one.... It's a VN, a cheap imitation of an Enigma.

 

[ruffers]

Not the right one.... It's a VN, a cheap imitation of an Enigma.

Still nice