Your ride today....

[Pale Rider]

I may be something of a Luddite, but I've discovered a new-fangled contraption called a photocopier that is most useful on occasions. It's the future.

There's a lot to be said for carrying the relevant page from a road atlas on longer rides.

It gives a better overall view than a Garmin.

Handy if you want to reroute as @Donger did to get a direct route home.

I did something similar on my recent York 105 mile ride when I wanted to shorten it by heading for a railway station.

 

[Pale Rider]

My ride today was a rerun of my banks of the Wear circuit I did on Monday.

There wouldn't have been much new to say, were it not for progress with Sunderland's new bridge which now has its main support in place.

This is what it looked like earlier in the week:

And this is how it looked today:

Which also answers my earlier question about the need for such a tall crane.

The ride was also notable for the mess I nearly made of fixing a puncture.

The new tube went on OK and stayed inflated, but the tyre wasn't sitting properly on one part of the rim.

It's only a short ride so I decided to trundle home steadily and sort out the tyre in the house.

Turns out that before refitting the tyre I had managed to drop one of the valve locking rings into the well of the rim.

The ring had become wedged in the rim/under the bead of the tyre, preventing the tyre from seating properly at that point.

Which is not what I was expecting to find, but at least there's no harm done to tube, tyre or wheel.

 

[alicat]

About 28 very shivery miles to Newton Regis garden centre and back. I noticed Harlaston church was open so I went and had a gander. Wished I hadn't, it seemed colder when I went outside again.

 

[13 rider]

About 28 very shivery miles to Newton Regis garden centre and back. I noticed Harlaston church was open so I went and had a gander. Wished I hadn't, it seemed colder when I went outside again.

Last week I was working in the telephone exchange next to the church and thought it looked very intetesting

 

[Gareth C]

Just out of curiosity are those tank traps from ww 2?

Shaun

Shaun, yes they are. There are loads up the Northumberland coast, plus the odd machine gun bunker. There are even some on the County Durham coast where the odd valley might have allowed a landing to get established.

There's a blog by "coastkid" or "coast rider" (am out-and-about, so can't check). He mentions a bit about them on his blog. I think he even has a picture of a couple painted up as dice!

 

[Gareth C]

That looked fun.

Would have been more fun being on the bike this weekend, rather than editing video on a slow computer and watching the rain/sleet :-(

Double pass-out for next weekend though, so might manage something adventurous!

 

[Jon George]

Add another 8 miles to the day. On impulse, I cycled out to The Shannon at Bucklesham for several afternoon pints and a chaser. Now feeling relaxed ...

 

[galaxy]

I may be something of a Luddite, but I've discovered a new-fangled contraption called a photocopier that is most useful on occasions. It's the future.

I`m old fashioned, i love maps, for walking and cycling, dont own a Twatnav.

 

[galaxy]

My ride today was a rerun of my banks of the Wear circuit I did on Monday.

There wouldn't have been much new to say, were it not for progress with Sunderland's new bridge which now has its main support in place.

This is what it looked like earlier in the week:

View attachment 337326


And this is how it looked today:

View attachment 337325

Which also answers my earlier question about the need for such a tall crane.

The ride was also notable for the mess I nearly made of fixing a puncture.

The new tube went on OK and stayed inflated, but the tyre wasn't sitting properly on one part of the rim.

It's only a short ride so I decided to trundle home steadily and sort out the tyre in the house.

Turns out that before refitting the tyre I had managed to drop one of the valve locking rings into the well of the rim.

The ring had become wedged in the rim/under the bead of the tyre, preventing the tyre from seating properly at that point.

Which is not what I was expecting to find, but at least there's no harm done to tube, tyre or wheel.

Where is it you actually live, i gre up and found my passion for cycling in the North East back in the mid 80`s

 

[Salty seadog]

Been off the bike for just over a week. I was visiting my parents Sunday night, back home at abot 9pm. Though I'll just pop out and do a couple of miles round town to get the legs going again, just 5.5 miles but nice to do.

 

[Katherine]

Yesterday's ride. Six of us set off in the bitter strong wind, from Swinton for the A ride to Rivington and it wasn't my turn to lead which was nice. One of the riders turned round after half an hour because he was too cold for our pace, he should have gone on the faster ride but didn't want to be out too long. Then when we were nearly at the cafe, the leader stopped because he had a migraine starting and had forgotten his medication. Of the rest of us, I was the only one who had been there before!
A warm welcome, a wonderful fire, hot coffee and toasted tea cake were just what we needed. On the way back, which luckily I could remember, it was even harder. Once I'd got them onto the A6, where it was an easy straight forward route home, I sent the guys on, because I was struggling to keep up against the wind and I didn't want them getting cold waiting for me. I made it but it was sleeting a bit as well by the time I arrived home.
Very glad to have been out in the "fresh air" though! And better for the exercise. We even had a bit of sunshine at times but in the speed of the wind, it didn't last long.

 

[Spartak]

Took my 7 year old daughter out on her bike this morning.
She was soooo excited at the prospect of cycling into Bristol for the first time :-)

We left home & joined the ring road cycle track as far as Mangotsfield station it was then downhill all the way into Bristol on the Bristol/Bath railway path.

We rewarded ourselves with coffee & cake at the excellent Roll for the Soul cyclists cafe in Bristol ( daughter had a babycinno ;-) )

http://www.rollforthesoul.org/

Then we crossed the centre to meet Mrs S. who drove daughter & bike back home.

Whilst I cycled back up the track.

 

[Old jon]

All sorts of good news arrived this morning, so a good start for a freezing ride. Which I promptly screwed trying to ride through the town centre without giving it much thought. Idiot I am. After visiting Nigel at the Nut Shop ( I kid you not ) in Kirkgate Market, ‘cos him and Joanne had never seen the Ellis Briggs, I lurched out of Leeds centre and headed for the Oakwood Clock. By the time I reached what was once the Market clock circulation had returned to fingers, and the long, long climb of Boot Hill beckoned. Up I pedalled, across the Ring Road and turn right onto Red Hall Lane, then Skelton’s Lane and the first Thorner Lane of the ride. Into a most unusual headwind. I turned the camera on for the whizz down Sandhills, but it does not look very whizzy. So you don’t get to see that one. In search of a whizzy vid, I rode past the church and left onto Milner Lane, up that spiteful little hill to the second ( different ) Thorner Lane of today, bear right for East Rigton.

Even in the soprano monkey weather of today, that road, and on to Collingham is just plain gorgeous.

And having reached Collingham, the warmer option was straight and mundane along the A 58, down Boot Hill and back across Leeds to home. Twenty seven miles, all of them freezing but dry and very enjoyable indeed. Full marks, even.
A bit of a map, or the Garmin will sulk,

 

[booze and cake]

I've been a proper lazy bar steward over the weekend, preferring the warmth and comfort of inside, and doing no cycling at all. Thankfully the sun was out this afternoon and so it was a bit easier to force myself out, and besides that weekend jaffa cake ballast isn't going to magic itself away....Nothing particularly exciting, just a gentle 33 mile dawdle about town.

I did come across this Hummer for Hobbit-ses which made me chuckle. Shonky parking, only a short walk to the curb...

And just round the corner from this I stumbled upon Stirling Moss' house in Mayfair, it was for sale a few years ago so I'm not sure if it is still his. Apparently he bought the plot of land in the 1950's as the plot was damaged by German bombing in WW2. The plot of land cost £5000, he then built a 2500 sq ft house over 5 storeys for another £25,000. It features an automated bath, an electro-hydraulic dining table that can move from the kitchen on one floor directly down into the dining room on the floor below (how cool is that!) and a letter tray which transports post from his office directly to his wife’s. It also has a carbon fibre lift built for Sterling by the Williams Formula 1 Team (bling).
Note at the top of the house the old style F1 cars images. It was valued for sale at between £6-8 million. Wow that was a good investment.

Despite only having a pedal cycle, powered by a middle aged man with a jaffa cake habit, I still made racing car noises all the way home.

 

[EltonFrog]

Another utility ride on the Whyte today, down to the cafe where I volunteer for a couple of hours on a Monday, just over a mile each way, not worth getting in the car for that distance.