Your ride today....

[booze and cake]

Thanks @Reynard , London does indeed have an amazing amount of green spaces, I've lived here over 20 years and still have'nt been to all the parks yet, and discover new ones all the time.

Trees are great bike props, but if you leave them there too long, the trees claim them as their own
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255706/Amazing-images-bikes-left-long-trees-them.html

 

[Stonechat]

Well fine weather called me out again. As my first ride back after injury was flat, I needed a modicum of hills to test myself
Went down to Chertsey, up St Ann's hill, then over to Egham and up Prune Hill.
Then through the Great Park to Cranbourne Gate and down the road and back in the Park at Ascot Gate.
Though not too hard , and I soon knew I needed more fitness

Still it was a good ride apart from the late slow puncture, I opted to pump in up and cycle on. This was needed 3 or 4 more times!

27.16 miles @ a meagre 14.9 mph
971 feet climned

However I am reasonably pleased with my power figures which were a little better than I thought

 

[gavgav]

A nice mild day meant pleasant evening conditions for a ride after work.

Headed out through Bayston Hill, up Lyth Hill (muddy track again) and then descended down to Exfords Green, with about 4 bats darting around above my head and divebombing me on occasions!

Had an annoying moment on the road to Stapleton, when I met an oncoming car about 50 yards away. I pulled in and they slowed down, flashed their lights as they pulled in as well and so I continued towards them and they decided to then plough on and squeeze past me on a narrow section

I called at dads for a quick chat and then headed back out to Condover and home via Betton Abbots.

15.7 miles

 

[PeteXXX]

After babysitting for the afternoon with No1 granddaughter and youngest grandchild, who's well into the Terrible Two'sat the moment, I decided that delivering my granddaughter home would best be done on our bikes. (much quicker and easier than getting a bike into a Clio and a beak for her from him.)
She decided that we should take a longer route home which was 1.5 miles rather than the usual half a mile.
Once clear of the kids, I thought I'd carry on round the block for a few more miles.
I've had a very slow, and unfindable, p*ncture in the rear tyre on my CX for a while. On my way round, I picked up a thorn or two and just managed to get to Halfords by pumping it up a few times.
As I didn't have a padlock, and wouldn't leave my Canyon outside a shop on a retail park, or anywhere else, I wheeled it in to buy a couple of new tubes. The lads on the cycling desk admired the CX and we spent a good 10 minutes chatting about Canyon, and bikes in general before I went outside to change the tube and pump it up using the track pump outside the store (Very helpful. I've used it several times now)

As I'd wasted enough time chatting and messing about, I headed home for dinner.

10 miles ridden and home by dusk.

https://www.strava.com/activities/869701175

 

[Mrs M]

Thanks @Pat "5mph" , I am going to do a separate thread eventually when I've written it all up properly, and so I don't carpet bomb this thread with tree pics, which may bore some folk into a coma. I always try and have a bike in shot for scale, and if I can get it hanging off a branch, as in that case, even better. I had no chance of that with those tall firs. I did climb up a few trees myself last year, but tree climbing in clippy cloppy cycle shoes, and even worse, jumping out of trees in said shoes, as I did out of the Black Walnut in Marble Hill Park last year, is really not recommended, what a pillock....so no more tree climbing for me.

Great, love that Jelly Palm
I love "different" trees (only have 3, a wee palm, a monkey puzzle and a spiral bay).
Looking forward to your new thread.

 

[Glow worm]

Thanks @Reynard , London does indeed have an amazing amount of green spaces, I've lived here over 20 years and still have'nt been to all the parks yet, and discover new ones all the time.

Love the pics especially the palm. I remember seeing a huge Canary Island date palm tree on a roundabout near the Houses of Parliament a year or so ago which must have been there for years. Theres supposed to be anonther big one in Fulham but I'm not sure where. Just shows how much warmer London is than surrounding areas.

 

[toffee]

Not posted a ride for a while but thought I would do today's as it was a bit different.

As Mrs T and I were on both on holiday today we thought we would go down to the velopark at Strategies and give it a try.

Rather than drive straight their we parked at Tottenham Marshes and cycled the the 5 miles in along the River Lee.

It was quite a pleasant cycle along the river with lots of people out. What was a surprise was the number of boats moored along the river which were lived in. Some had obviously not moved in quite a few years.

After paying our £4 each to enter we set off. We went round it around 13 or 14 times in an hour, which in the main, we were the only two going round. Another 3 people came on the circuit while we were there.

So after our spin round the track we set back off back to the car stopping in one of the river side cafes for a cuppa.

A good day out but circuits get a bit boring after a few

 

[Glow worm]

Just a short 12 mile POETS day ride here today here in the flatlands. After a fair bit of fettling, one of those rare days where nothing creaks, clicks or rubs, (the bike that is!) just a nice smooth ride. No doubt tomorrow will be a different story!

I hunkered down in my favourite barn owl watching spot as the sun set. Typically I was looking the wrong way when one appeared. There's a pair who hunt these fields each evening and one day I'll get a decent pic of one!

Home by 6 and still not properly dark and a gloves free ride- spring definately on the way.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

When I've got a few days off work become Dracula: make day in night, night into day!
Still, forced myself up at 8am to join Freewheel North, the cycling hub in Glasgow Green for their Friday ride.
Riders at the start:

Quite nippy this a.m. we soon warmed up as 25 of us left the park heading towards the west end, through Kelvin (it's a river!) Park, then joining the canal path to one of our favorite coffee stops, Lambhill Stables.
There are no horses in Lambhill!
But there's Claudio the bike mechanic (we have common heritage, hehe) and his team.
Thanks to the mechanics, one of our riders re-acquired the use of her low gears, just in time for some short, sharp, uphills on the return journey.
We passed quite a few points of interest, but in a large led ride I can't stop every moment for a picture like I would do on my own
Canal path view:


I left the group to head back to the suburbs, needing to do a wee detour before going home, I had to find out where a certain venue was that I have to attend next week.
It was up a big hill, on a heavy trafficked main road.
The venue looked seedy.
I might not attend a meting there at 7.30pm
Around 25 miles today, I'm gaining up on @skudupnorth on our yearly challenge

 

[Jenkins]

After a morning of domestics and a quick trip to mum's this afternoon, having stuck a casserole in the oven, I really only had time for a quick 10 mile run to check the accuracy of the computer settings on my new Giant Rapid 1 compared to the Garmin with the idea of finishing off the vacuuming, etc before eating.

Unfortunately, things went somewhat awry when I started to think about a couple of tracks I'd seen on a map on Thursday was going to check out on Saturday when I had them loaded onto the Garmin Touring - they just had to be done today. The first involved what I thought was a surfaced bridleway or track through the Orwell Country Park and under the Orwell Bridge - unfortunately, after an initial wrong turn down a muddy track (difficult to get back up on slicks!) my chosen track turned out to be little more than a heavily rutted farm track with added damp sand and rocks so I probably won't bother with that again.

Once back onto normal roads, I encountered Friday afternoon Ipswich traffic heading across to the second track I wanted to have a look at. Although I knew the road name and where it led off, I didn't know exactly where the turning was and almost missed it. This led to a completely unmarked footpath under the A14 leading to a road into Sproughton which could be useful as a future short cut. From there it was over the River Gipping with a quick photo stop for the old mill...

before continuing back into Ipswich and the normal back road home once out of town.

Somehow the quick 10 miler had turned out to be a 30 mile, 2hr outing, but dinner was perfectly cooked in that time!

https://www.strava.com/activities/869792581

 

[Reynard]

Thanks @Reynard , London does indeed have an amazing amount of green spaces, I've lived here over 20 years and still have'nt been to all the parks yet, and discover new ones all the time.

Trees are great bike props, but if you leave them there too long, the trees claim them as their own
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255706/Amazing-images-bikes-left-long-trees-them.html

That article's kinda cool

One of my favourite "quiet spaces" in London isn't actually very green, but it's a lovely place to just stop and pause - and that's the Emirates Stadium. On non match days it's a haven of peace in a really busy part of town.

 

[Reynard]

Love the pics especially the palm. I remember seeing a huge Canary Island date palm tree on a roundabout near the Houses of Parliament a year or so ago which must have been there for years. Theres supposed to be anonther big one in Fulham but I'm not sure where. Just shows how much warmer London is than surrounding areas.

There's a mahoosive palm tree outside Hackney Town Hall

 

[Reynard]

Today's ride - well, technically yesterday's ride now - was the 10 mile round trip to Ely Station. First time on the commute since mid-November that it's been so mild; was a lovely sunny morning on the way out and a cool but not cold night on the way back. Hiking coat and altura gloves were a bit too warm today, but at this time of year I'd rather still be too warm than too cold.

Lots of cyclists out and about in the morning. Saw a chap coming the other way on a hybrid barely a mile into the commute, then got overtaken by a very cheery chap on what looked like a flat bad roadie on Downham Common - he said hello as he passed me. Soon after I passed him as he was having a drink and a snackette at the bottom of Lawn Lane. Saw several more cyclists on the road into Ely.

Legs felt good, and I made pretty swift progress en route to the station. I'd have made better progress if I didn't have to stop at every single red light in town and the lights for the roadworks on the Downham Road. Took me 35 mins all in, so plenty of time to get the bike in the racks and catch my usual train. There were quite a lot of cyclists on the train too - several people with Brommies, one chap with a folder that *wasn't* a Brommie and a lady with a Bobbin who said hello when she spotted the helmet tucked underneath my arm.

Got back later than I'd intended - busy day and train delayed, so didn't get back to Ely till 20 past 11. Took me half an hour to cycle home. At that time of night, there's no traffic, no drunks spilling out of the pubs in town, just me, my bike and the night.

 

[booze and cake]

Love the pics especially the palm. I remember seeing a huge Canary Island date palm tree on a roundabout near the Houses of Parliament a year or so ago which must have been there for years. Theres supposed to be anonther big one in Fulham but I'm not sure where. Just shows how much warmer London is than surrounding areas.

Well remembered! I did the Parliament and the Fulham one, and a few others on a ride I did in November:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today.173254/post-4570957

There is also 4 big ones near the Bristol car showroom in Kensington, here's 2 of them:

And here's another totally dominating a tiny front garden in Clapham:

That article's kinda cool

One of my favourite "quiet spaces" in London isn't actually very green, but it's a lovely place to just stop and pause - and that's the Emirates Stadium. On non match days it's a haven of peace in a really busy part of town.

Ahh you mean the library, its that quiet on match days too (I support the other team in North London, but lets not get into that here...)

There's a mahoosive palm tree outside Hackney Town Hall

Ooohh great, thanks. I have'nt got that one, duly noted, I'll try and papp that over the weekend.

 

[biggs682]

Well 38 miles done and dusted this morning out before 5.30am so nice and early .

Cross country to Yardley Hastings , Olney and back via Harrold , Sharnbrook and Irchester with only a quick stop at St Peters in Sharnbrook .

Furthest ride to date on the Bmc and it rides well just got to stop the saddle creeping back now .