Grateful for the day off today after a fairly manky weekend I intended to make the most of it and the glorious sunshine.
Out at about lunchtime on the freshly (yesterday) washed Fuji, heading away from town for once on small rural roads.
While somewhat familiar with this area I've not ridden it much, being preoccupied with utility within the city as well as not really having found a satisfactory route outside that misses out all the roads I don't like.
Once convincingly away from civilisation I headed west, my plan being to stay on small roads and keep going until something palatable presented itself to start looping back on myself.
I had a rough route in my head and as usual failed to adhere to it, pushing much further south than planned. Uncommitted to any particular plan of action, when choices presented themselves more often than not I elected for the longer route as it was such a fantastic day.
I'd elected to take the camera; my reward being lots of distraction in the name of some pretty medicre images. First stop was Marcham church, the outside tap of which kindly donated some water to my already half-full, ill-advised single water bottle.
Leaving Marcham saw me on roads I'd rather not be; sure enough getting close-passed by some imbecile trying to squeeze past; also causing the traffic coming the other way to brake to prevent an accident.
Off onto quiet roads I passed through Fyfield; stirring pleasant, long-forgotten memories of regular sunny rides out this way for eggs during the halcyon days of Covid.
Continuing out towards Appleton I encountered a number of other parties coming the other way on bikes, all exchanging greetings and doubtless also very happy to be out on such a nice day.
Through Appleton and on to Cumnor; electing to continue West away from the city instead of heading East back in through Botley.
Got my aero tuck on heading down the hill towards Farmoor and touched 36.5mph, then rolled through Farmoor to Eynsham; nipping down the gloriously deserted / effectively car-free old Cassington road to indulge in the day's first leak-stop before crossing the horror that is the A40..
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From there it was through Cassington and Yarnton before joining the oh-so familiar stretch of tow path back towards Wolvercote and town.
By this point I was starting to feel it in my legs, however my upper body had done nowt so I stopped at the park for a relatively limp, but at least begrudgingly complete session on the rings.
Leaving the park an interesting old Raleigh caught my eye - a Pioneer with drop bars, I stopped to grab a picture as I wasn't sure if it was something original I wasn't aware of, or a home-brew effort.
Whilst doing so the bike's owner returned and conversation ensued; turns out she likes old bikes, drop bars and Stis so converted this one along with various other sensible mods. We talked about rear axle spacing and adjusting V-brakes, and she seemed both very knowledgeable and mechanically capable. Definitely wife material.
Parting ways it was on to the shops to trawl for reductions; my freshly sunny disposition torpedoed by a collective of four dickheads ragging very illegal ebikes down the Botley road; two on the wrong / my side of the road, one of the pavement. Gobshites - be a shame if they ended up under a bus..
An amount of spoils acquired I sat by the business school and consumed one of my 65p spinach and feta cheese slices while watching the world go by
Moseyed onto the nature reserve for the second leak of the journey, passing this on the way:
The tranqulity of the park was destroyed by my discovery of some fresh damage to the end of my NDS crank arm; evidently from where I'd struck it on the steep side of the road while rejoining from leak stop No.1 earlier in the ride. I thought it was the pedal at the time and wasn't concerned as they're tatty. This however is irritating; especially because it could have been avoided. Bugger.
I headed back along the tow path, stopping at the Iffley Rd Co-op. As I looked for somewhere to lock the bike up (the only provision was those crap wall-mounted things that only secure the front wheel) I noticed a woman begging outside so I headed towards the other side of the door so I didn't have to interact with her. As I was trying to get my head around lashing the bike to some inappropriate street furniture I heard "can you spare any change" from immediately behind me. I responded that I didn't have any money. She made a sarcastic comment about my buying stuff from inside "on credit". I let out an exasperated sigh. She f*cked off.
After that I didn't feel comfortable leaving the bike outside so just cracked on. Stopped at the Isis for a drink, which unsurprisingly (since it's on the river and has no vehicular access) was full of cyclists. While parking a conversation was struck up with a woman loitering with a bike to ensure I wasn't nicking her spot. She asked about panniers and mudguards; my confirming that her partner's bike had mounts and he could do better than the sketchy little seatpost mounted MTB-style guard currently gracing his steed.
I noticed a couple of interesting rides lashed to the railings - which turned out to be a Thorn of some description apparently made of some Reynolds 9-series tubing I wasn't familiar with, and a gloriously green Dawes Galaxy. Both had Rohloff hubs and Carradice luggage, and looked like they'd been built by someone with knowledge and purpose..
Guinness gone it was a meandering route home via the local shop for a few bargains and a brief chat about bikes with the sound student bloke who works in there.
Just under 41 miles and the most I've done in a while. Largely a really nice, chilled day out... although retrospectively some sun tan lotion might not have gone amiss..
