Your ride today....

[EltonFrog]

Another group of work utility rides today. One of the mini buses needed a new tyre, a drive to work with Brompton in the boot. Parked the car and took the bus to the tyre depot, didn’t bother to load the bike because I thought I was going to wait for the tyre to be replaced then come back, collect bike ride to office. Wrong.
Tyre fitter said he would be about 20 minutes, so I went to the cafe and had a cuppa and a bacon sandwich. Went back for the bus, then was told the tracking needed doing, another 20 mins.
I walked the 1.5 miles back to the car, by which time I got a call to say bus was ready.
Unloaded the Brompton from the car and rode the long way back to the tyre fitters, up Cockney Hill, down to the back of Tilehurst near the station, then along the Oxford Road. A nice 3.5 mile route along mostly quiet roads.
Loaded bike into bus, took bus back to site, unloaded bike and road 3.5 miles to office via the Bath Road into Reading, then along the Kennet and Avon tow path, then cut through to London Road, then my destination. Another 3.5 miles. One done in the office took more or less the same route back.
When I got home I had another bit of riding to do because I can’t park in my driveway because of building work.
All in all just over 11 miles, cold, blustery, wet riding today, still enjoyable though. I bloody love my Brompton.

 

[Jameshow]

MTB ride with 2nd favourite daughter!
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Favourite younger daughter?!

 

[Dogma F]

You do know we all secretly hate you ….. 🤣

You do know that after days, I am still laughing with your post

 

[Spiderweb]

Favourite younger daughter?!

No, just the second favourite out of the two I have!
It’s a little joke amongst us, Alexa is the younger though.

 

[Ian H]

Usual pubrun yesterday evening. The weather forecast being awful, I wimped out of riding the 20k to the designated start and opted to ride direct - a mere 12k. There were already large puddles on the road from earlier rain and I started in a shower, which eased fairly quickly.
I splashed my way to Feniton via one huge submerged pothole, and quickly checked that the Nog was indeed closed. Onwards to Payhembury as the rain started again. The old fellow sitting smoking under the sunshade said I wasn't the first. Inside, Ted was at the bar. We chatted to another old boy about his grandfather's bicycle. He left, we sat down, two more sodden cyclists arrived.
Beer, cider, chips and conversation.
Some time after 10 we left to go our separate ways. It was raining properly now. The roads were awash, with impromptu rivers flowing in places. Nothing impassible though. And finally home.

 

[FrankCrank]

Being as it's pi.....sistently raining, my ride today is a bus into town for my 'Spoons lunchtime curry.
I always feel defeated getting the bus instead of riding my klunker into town, but this is typical British weather I guess ☔
Still, if I was in Thailand now I'd be complaining about the heat 🥵

 

[EltonFrog]

Being as it's pi.....sistently raining, my ride today is a bus into town for my 'Spoons lunchtime curry.
I always feel defeated getting the bus instead of riding my klunker into town, but this is typical British weather I guess ☔
Still, if I was in Thailand now I'd be complaining about the heat 🥵

Don’t blame you. It precipitating down here, I was going to cycle/train/cycle to my platelets donation today, but in the end I thought, feck it and drove in.

 

[EltonFrog]

Don’t blame you. It precipitating down here, I was going to cycle/train/cycle to my platelets donation today, but in the end I thought, feck it and drove in.

Actually I wish I had MTFU, driving back was a feckin PIA.

 

[FrankCrank]

The bus into town was rammed with school kids, half day for the start of Easter hols, lucky to get a seat.
Must admit, it was a very nice curry, compliments to the microwave operator.
All the more enjoyable seeing folk traipse past outside, wrestling with umbrellas.

 

[Landsurfer]

We are in our caravan in Redruth … … on the way down this morning we had snow west of Exeter … driving hail … torrential rain …. We have a moat around and about the pitch … luxury !!!
No one has said Granddad for 12 hours … I’m cycling in the morning down to Newlyn … followed by Julie and I folloping around in the caravan, or the Bondage Barn as our kids call it ….Just the break we need 👍👍👍

 

[Big John]

Worst ride in a very long time. Windy as hell, flooded roads everywhere and it threw it down. Oh, let's not forget how cold it was. Soaked to the bone, dithering and fed up to the back teeth. Three hours of misery. If the weather doesn't pick up soon then I'm taking up snooker.

 

[Landsurfer]

The wind !!! The Jesus H Tap Dancing Christ wind !!!! 40mph …. The first mile from Long Rock took me over 7 minutes …. I got to the harbour in Penzance and a massive hail storm descended ….. I hid in a doorway….. The waves were breaking over the sea front just past the Lido depositing rocks the size of house bricks on the esplanade …. And on any of the brain cells running through the spray …
Nice ride though …. Especially on the way back ….

The wind … the wind …. Never mind the waves ….

 

[EltonFrog]

A utility ride to shops on the Brompton, except when went the garage to retrieve said velocipede the rear tyre seemed soft, even though I inflated the tyres yesterday. Further investigation indicated that there might’ve been a slow leak.
Fortunately the hybrid was ready to go, bunged a bag on the back, clocked my leg over and rode the 6.5 round trip to the shops, uneventful ride, bloody windy though, a bit of a shower, and sun. I hate riding in the wind.

When I got back I whipped the rear wheel off the Brompton, sorted the slow puncture, gave the derailleur and cogs a degrease , put everything back together ( eventually) and had quick test ride to make sure the gears all worked. Mending a rear wheel puncture on a Brompton is not something I’d want to do at night in the pissing rain.

 

[geocycle]

An unexpected opportunity for a ride presented itself today. Mrs G volunteered to do the shopping and the day started sunny despite the wet forcast. It was too good to waste so I set off northward along an undulating route toward Milnthorpe. I had a route planned via Sedgwick but the road was flooded. Plan B took me to the river Kent with its lovely rock cut channel. The first shower hit as I was at the river but I ploughed on through it. I’d considered lunch at Sizergh castle but it looked rammed so did a loop through Brigsteer and Lyth valley to Levens village shop. Enjoyed a £1.50 cappuccino, pasty and flapjack In warm sunshine. Headed back down to the Kent estuary and home via the AONB and an unforgiving hailstorm! 83 km with just 668 m of climbing.

pictures of River Kent and it’s estuary

 

[HLaB]

It was going to be the planned Z2 workout (straight up and down the old A1) but as I was about to get ready a couple of my mates said they were meeting for a ride to Stamford. We sat outside a pub (our cafe stop) in the warm sun at Stamford but a while later we found us diving into another pub at Barnack to avoid a total soaking and that was an excuse for a pint. Overall the ride was fairly relaxed but after the slower rider departed, I had a threshold effort straight into the strong headwind holding a steady 89-91%HR for the 2.5mile length of Castor Road knowing my other mate could hold my wheel and enjoys to do so. You can probably tell where that was from the HR profile.