Your ride today....

[Maverick Goose]

After a grey and misty start, the sun decided to come out to play here in the South Lakes (south central...home of the saddlebag), which was really dramatic, with shafts of sunshine breaking through the mist around the Langdales (lovely reflections in Blea Tarn and Little Langdale Tarn as well) and clouds being turned pink by the late afternoon sunlight. Up Red Bank from Grasmere, luckily not meeting many cars, but an awful lot of people wandering randomly around in the middle of the road ....then downhill all the way to Chapel Stile and along Great Langdale to the ODG, where the road narrows, then starts going up...and keeps going up. I've seen cars struggling on that road before! Anyway I dispatched it fairly painlessly and had a quick pause at the cattle grid overlooking Blea Tarn to enjoy the views and munch some Green & Blacks, zip down the lane into Little Langdale, then a few more ups and downs along the valley towards Colwith and left towards Elterwater. Time for a quick pit stop at the Britannia for a couple of pints of Derwent Dark Mild (only my second outdoor pints of the year) and then a nice fast run back to Grasmere via Skelwith, Under Loughrigg, Rydal and White Moss, with just the one climb after White Moss carpark. You can avoid the climb by staying on the A591, but I prefer not to spend any more time on that road than I have to!

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

It's been commuting miles for me as usual during the week and here is a brief roundup:

Monday: Grey, damp and drizzly/misty (a pattern that was to last most of the week) otherwise nothing to report.

Tuesday: Had to be up early as the gas man was coming to call so used the extra time to do the extended ride to work. Nice trip in. Polite drivers, Tailwind when I needed it. Very enjoyable.

Wednesday: Went over Lyth Hill to start with then dropped down into Condover. Got distracted while riding through the village and managed to clip a wall. Broke my watch and scuffed my new bar ends so not a happy bunny. It then proceeded to drizzle heavily on me for the rest of the trip so I wasn't in the best mood by the time I got to work,.

Thursday: Over Lyth Hill in the grey and drizzly weather again. Avoided any mishaps and the legs felt strong so I quite enjoyed the ride in despite the weather. I was quite late leaving work but again the legs felt strong so I made very good time on the way home. I could have been earlier still if it wasn't for a good five minute wait for a gap in traffic on the A49.

Today: Thick fog and cold this morning. The thermometer showed 4C so I didn't bother with ice tyres but needed a change to full finger gloves before I'd gone quarter of a mile. Plenty of drivers out with no lights on despite the conditions (probably the ones who moan about all cyclists having no lights ) I wasn't especially quick in the cold and thought I could have done with another layer but it wasn't too bad.

By the time I reached work my arms and chest were white with frost while the bike had a clear coating of ice on every bit that wasn't in contact with either me or the road.

The fog cleared just after lunch and the ride home was in clear conditions with the sun setting ahead of me. I braved the main road through Atcham (Edit: bit of a moment here when the front wheel washed out while turning off the main road - managed to stay upright though) to shorten the route home which saved a good ten minutes even with a photo stop part way.

Another 117.2 miles racked up for the week. Going well so far in 2017.

One from Thursday. Crossing the old bridge at Atcham and showing the grey, drizzly conditions that have made up most of the week here.

Foggy this morning

Not a great photo but shows some of the frost that formed on my gloves this morning. It was like this up my arms and across my chest too.

A contrast to the morning. Still cold but really clear and with a nice sunset on my way home.

 

[gavgav]

After a grey and misty start, the sun decided to come out to play here in the South Lakes (south central...home of the saddlebag), which was really dramatic, with shafts of sunshine breaking through the mist around the Langdales (lovely reflections in Blea Tarn and Little Langdale Tarn as well) and clouds being turned pink by the late afternoon sunlight. Up Red Bank from Grasmere, luckily not meeting many cars, but an awful lot of people wandering randomly around in the middle of the road ....then downhill all the way to Chapel Stile and along Great Langdale to the ODG, where the road narrows, then starts going up...and keeps going up. I've seen cars struggling on that road before! Anyway I dispatched it fairly painlessly and had a quick pause at the cattle grid overlooking Blea Tarn to enjoy the views and munch some Green & Blacks, zip down the lane into Little Langdale, then a few more ups and downs along the valley towards Colwith and left towards Elterwater. Time for a quick pit stop at the Britannia for a couple of pints of Derwent Dark Mild (only my second outdoor pints of the year) and then a nice fast run back to Grasmere via Skelwith, Under Loughrigg, Rydal and White Moss, with just the one climb after White Moss carpark. You can avoid the climb by staying on the A591, but I prefer not to spend any more time on that road than I have to!

My favourite area!! Yes the ODG is a fair pull isn't it. You earn't your beer at the brilliant Britannia!

 

[Aravis]

Given the promising forecast, I'd been eyeing up today for a while. It turned out to be colder, frostier and sunnier than originally predicted, but with a bit of care, it was OK. In other words, I stayed upright.

A delightful circuit of 103 miles, and it felt pretty good. Anticlockwise on the diagram below:

A couple of snaps from the big(gish) climb of the day. The first is the Malvern ridge from Castlemorton Common:

And looking the other way towards the Cotswolds, just visible today:

As I said on Strava, January days don't get better than this. However, I also think there are at least 10 months that often do provide better days, for cycling anyway. Here's to a good year for one and all!

 

[Reynard]

Nothing special today, just the 10 mile round trip commute to Ely station.

Was lovely out this morning; chilly, no breeze at all and very pleasant in the sunshine. Most of the drains out here in the fen were frozen over though and there was plenty of ice on the roads this side of Downham. Several new potholes seem to have materialised on the B1411 towards Ely, so had to dodge those. Saw plenty of cyclists out and about and there was a fair bit of traffic in town for a Friday morning. Had a close pass in Lisle Lane where the cycle lane filters past a pinch point - some little old dear on her way to Sainsbury's seemed to think that the cycle lane was a good place to drive in while I'm trying to use it... Still, managed the journey in 35 minutes, which is pretty good going.

Bike racks at the station were half empty, no problem finding one this time. Saw a bike in London called a Bobbin Noodle which made me giggle.

The ride home this evening was cold. Very cold. Think it's probably the coldest one yet. Put on an extra layer underneath jeans, fleece & winter hiking coat, but that did nothing to keep out the chill. I might have defrosted by the morning, I hope... Got back into Ely later than intended thanks to bus-related problems at t'other end. At 10pm at night there's not much in the way of traffic but it does mean plenty of distracted pedestrians near the pubs & takeaways. Noticed that the potholes I spotted this morning have already been circled in yellow paint, so hopefully they'll be fixed soon. There were a few patches of black ice, but managed to avoid coming a cropper. 35 very cold minutes saw me home.

I do feel much better after a few hot cups of tea and plate of seafood linguine though.

 

[galaxy]

60.4 miles today on the Fratello. Dropped in early morning for a brew at Arnside before heading out to Natland, Kendal, Burneside and Staveley for a brew & carrot cake at Wilfs cafe, Staveley mill yard. The Sun came out late morning and twas a lovely ride. The Garmin sent me on single track roads claggy, muddy, slippy and more suited to a Cyclocross bike but the Condor handled it all brilliantly. What a bike
View attachment 334121 View attachment 334122 View attachment 334123

Lovely Bike. We had a pasty and cuppa there back in September, wernt on the bike, but wed walked round the head.Lovely place, bet your ride was good.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Yesterday's ride (Internet was down).
At last some sunshine. Cold and the threat of ice on the road tho'. I met Margaret P-R on Hook Bank and we took to the lanes first having checked the ice situation. We were lucky there was little or none to be found. It was a fairly standard run out with lovely chat. My rear tyre went down (seems to be a theme at the moment) so that had to be sorted. Practice makes perfect they say. Chats continued as we rounded by Strensham to Upton where M invited me in for some tea and more chat with her and Graham. Then I took my standard route back. Nice outing today. It just "hit the spot". 35 smiles

 

[colly]

Up and out early-ish. It's been nice and dry for a few days and I thought I had better take advantage while the going is good. I have work to do today so rather than getting straight down to it and then resenting the fact I'm not out then later in the day getting tired and losing enthusiasm, I thought it would be best to go out before anything else gets in the way.
So it was out just after 6am. Dark and cold, though not so cold as I thought it would be. I went north and got nice and toasty getting up Wellington Hill (aka Boot Hill)
On to Bramley Grange and Thorner, Bramham, Boston Spa. Across the Wharfe and into Wetherby.
Rather than a quick run back home along the A58 I carried on west through Sicklinghall and Kirby Overblow, where it was beginning to get light, back across the Wharfe at Harewood Bridge and took the road to Pool-in Wharfedale. I turned towards Weardley and climbed through the village and had two options. Struggle up Weardley Bank or take the next left which arrives at the same place but is a longer more drawn out climb. It's a road very little used and once I got onto the climb proper I had to get off and walk. Mainly because it the road was covered in loose stones and mud and my back wheel was losing traction. Once I had stopped there was no way I would have got going again. So pushed it up the steepest bit and once past the wet muddy patches I got back on and it was a bit of a haul but made it to the top ok.
Past the New Inn (good lunches) and around Eccup Reservoir up to Harrogate Road, into Moortown and back home. Really nice ride out and it set me up for the day.

View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/12655870

 

[13 rider]

After another 3 day commuting week the legs were protesting this morning but we're told to shut up and Out with the bike at 1030 having waiting for any frost to thaw. Me @Supersuperleeds and @tallliman were discussing on another thread about a local rd calked breakback rd which I had riden twice before but not recently so with no plan that became today's target . Anstey ,Cropston ,Rothley ,Swithland ,Quorn and into the town of Loughborough . I normally avoid Loughborough due to traffic but it does have good cycle lanes around the main road due to the university . The only problem with the cycle paths is you have to give way at every junction so slow progress . Up Nanpantan rd to the crossroads and onto Breakback rd a nasty rolling road with 5 climbs in about 2.5 miles with very little rest on the few downhill dips . Made it to the under end and I can confirm its a nasty rd . Nice downhill to Woodhouse and back home via Swithland ,Cropston ,Anstey 23.1 miles in the bag decidedly out there today

 

[gbb]

Had the lurgy since Xmas, it just won't clear, hacking cough, occasional headaches, occasional raised heart rate and weakness so the bike hasn't seen much action sadly. Still unwell but needed to go to the butchers maybe 1.5 miles away...was priming myself to get the car out...no, don't be lazy.
So a meander down on the hybrid and even that 3 miles left me puffing but a small battle was won.

Roll on when this virus clears up.

 

[gavgav]

Had the lurgy since Xmas, it just won't clear, hacking cough, occasional headaches, occasional raised heart rate and weakness so the bike hasn't seen much action sadly. Still unwell but needed to go to the butchers maybe 1.5 miles away...was priming myself to get the car out...no, don't be lazy.
So a meander down on the hybrid and even that 3 miles left me puffing but a small battle was won.

Roll on when this virus clears up.

Glad to hear you are on the bike again

 

[Dave 123]

I dropped Mrs Dave in Cambridge and drive off in the direction of Brandon country park. Once there I hopped across the road and joined the poacher trail. This was nothing too exciting, but it was nice to be riding my MTB on sandy, well drained ground rather than a swamp. Once at High Lodge I joined the shepherd trail, again nothing exciting but traffic free.

At the end of this loop I joined the red trails. This was more fun! Rooty, narrow single track among the pines, berms and what I believe are called bomb holes.

There was a nice section where they've recently clear felled an area. Here they've constructed a down hill berm section that was good fun.
Next came a bit of a swampy section that had to be taken a bit slower!

Back into the woods and some steep up and down bomb holes that were really nice to ride.

I rejoined the poacher trail at High Lodge and made my way back to the car.
Good fun! I'd not done any riding like that since my 20's and that was a few years ago!


https://www.strava.com/activities/839157554

 

[chr15b]

Woke up to a cool 3° this morning so got out for another cycle. I really need to do more than the 300 miles I done last year and start doing some more midweek cycles. Today I took a cycle down the path to Castle Semple in Lochwinnoch for a steady 20 miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/839143585

 

[tallliman]

After my first blank 10 days off the bike since some time in 2015, I thought I'd best get out today. Planned a Veloviewer Explorer box ticking ride to Cafe Ventoux for a round total of 67 miles. However, with my heart rate not wanting to sit at a normal level, I assume I'm not quite over the flu!

Managed 50miles in the end with a first stop of the year at Nice Pies. Most of the route was in and around the Wreake Valley and still managed to tick off a couple of boxes. All in all, a decent ride if one that was crazily tiring!

 

[dim]

a commute on my S-Works today ....

brand new Continental 4 seasons tyres .... 1st ride with them. All went well to my client who lives in Swaversy (25km) away

On the way back, 5km from Swaversy, (in Longstanton) a back puncture. I never took a spare tube or pump or CO2 canisters, and there was no-one at home who could fetch me

so I ended up paying £24 for a cab

I've just sorted the puncture with a new inner tube, and it was a shard of glass that caused the puncture

but on the upside, I received my vintage Pinarello today (it was delivered while I was at work), and I'm well pleased.

It's in really good condition, paintwork is immaculate and I thought that it had tubular tyres, but it has Nisi HR22 rims .... It needs new tyres as the ones fitted look 30 years old (I don't even see a name on the tyres)

from what I have googled so far, it seems like the Nisi HR22 rims are clinchers, so I'm happy and I will add a pair of Durano Plus tyres (I'm not a fan of tubs). I was going to buy a set of clincher wheels