I couldn't agree more Marco. I wear a pair of Viking, the lawnmower arm of Stihl, glasses which have snazzy green frames and a sunglass type safety lens.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
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I couldn't agree more Marco. I wear a pair of Viking, the lawnmower arm of Stihl, glasses which have snazzy green frames and a sunglass type safety lens.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Ah. So you take performance enhancing drugs?Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
I’ve some quite snazzy sunglasses but, living in the Dales, I’m guessing for the most part I’ll be biking in the rain. Hmmm...Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Gee Stolly. Nobody cares about your (lack of) biking skills.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
It's the cool dash you cut that matters. That's what will turn heads and make hearts flutter.:)
If I do they are not working, but I have been called for my injection of EPO on Thursday so we shall see if that speeds me up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
You look like someone who enjoys a quiet tootle round the lanes after tea and a glass of Sauv.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Get rid of all reflectors, forget the helmet- they just make your head hot. Where is your toolkit and puncture repair kit? If you come off in that coyt you'll ruin it in a storm of feathers.
My first decent length bike ride today, a circular loop of the Ingleborough ‘massif’ from home. Horton to Ribblehead on the main road and ditto from there to Chapel le Dale. Then from the old church in C le D we followed the quiet lane (the old Roman road) to Ingleton, then the back lane to Clapham, then Austwick. From Austwick we went off-road following the Pennine Bridleway to Feizor (for take out cake and coffee at Elaine’s) and then, still on the Bridleway, over the top to pick up the lane to Helwith Bridge. Before scooting back home on the main road again.
25.6 miles and 1,820 feet of climb with a 2 hour 44 moving time :)
Thanks but I’m quite happy with my reflectors and helmet and will very much enjoy leaving some fancy ponced up cyclists eating my unfashionable dust in due course :). As for a tool kit, I’d guess the furthest away from home I was on that particular ride was 3 miles so I couldn’t be arsedQuote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
I see a "we" or two there?Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Is this Hester, your mistress the bike, the peloton of following admiring women or just the "royal we" as in Lord of Horton-in Ribblesdale.?
Or several of aforementioned? :o
This thing about carrying tool kits for bikes, back in the olden days we all used to carry tool kits for cars, because they kept breaking down. Nowadays cars are better made and rarely break down and if they do then we call a recovery service.
Perhaps manufacturers should make better bikes and there should be sort of cycle AA service. I tell you it's the future, any mechanical fault and you sit and wait for recovery or a man to get you back on the road.
Sod carrying tools about and getting dirty hands.
I've got cycle breakdown cover with the ETA: https://www.eta.co.uk/breakdown/bicycle/ . I have used it on one occasion, when a tyre failed, leading to a "blow-out" (rather than a puncture); I carry a spare inner tube and puncture repair tools, but not a spare tyre.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
Yes, we are now the Von Trapp family cyclists :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Wow, I never imagined a cycle breakdown actually existed, how wrong I was. If I cycled on the roads, had a mobile phone and a phone signal round here in the hills I would be sorely tempted.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
Just 16 miles today (900 feet) as I rode my bike home from its service at Woodrup Cycles (est 1949) of Kirkstall, Leeds. It had done 2400 miles since the last service and the only part it needed was a new bottom bracket - but with 4400 miles from new that was OK. It has done 2400 miles on the current graphene tyres without a puncture: so a happy bunny.
And, and...I saw 5p by my wheel when waiting at traffic lights.
I think it must be a gift.:)
https://www.strava.com/activities/4840718649
Today first climbing this year
Distance 45km, climbing 740m, 2h15m
I live in flatlands and I hate it. Can't have everything from life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
:(Quote:
The requested activity could not be found
I'm not sure how best to share strava activities.
I'm not sure neither.Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
I guess Strava blocked you because I don't have you included as a follower. I'd be glad to add you.
Yes perhaps. I think the easiest way to do this is for you to post your Strava profile page - I can then follow you from there. Mine's here if anyone wants to follow me: https://www.strava.com/athletes/15135388Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
Thanks. That worked, I can now see your activities. Some good photos on there too. :)
There is a limit? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
15 degrees? I reckon it reached a mighty 6 degrees here today.... in the pissing rainQuote:
Originally Posted by Marco
The sky may not have been celeste but it was certainly blue enough for me to treat my taut and tuned post-service best bike to a 40 mile 3500 feet treat along a favourite route: Addingham, Bolton Abbey, West End, Greenhow, Grassington, Linton Falls, Burnsall - just yummy with lots of views of the ravishing River Wharfe. (But alas one that will change because the West End idyllic country road environment [between the A59 Skipton-Harrogate and the A59 to Pately Bridge roads] will be destroyed when the Kex Gill bypass is built). One short section around West End has always seemed a bit steep and now, thanks to Strava, I see it is 24.5%. Fortunately my brilliant Vittoria Graphene tyres (unpuctured in 2400 miles) topped up to 110 psi before departure, coped admirably - and why wouldn't they?
The B6265 betwen Pately Bridge and Grassingon also has its ups and downs (in additon to glorious moorland views) with two 16% descents. Since I last rode this route two huge signs have appeared near the top of the western descent down to Dibble's Bridge warning cyclists of a steep descent of 16% and referring to checking brakes. Well OK - but I doubt if anyone looking down this long straight descent needs advising that it is steep but what would be helpful to know is that at the bottom the road does an "S" over the narrow bridge over the River Dibb for which you do need to be well prepared or all your earthly cares will be over. Interestingly a little later there is another 16% descent but no special notice at all. In either case I knew my Campagnolo rim brakes would stop me on a sixpence. In the current Cycling Weekly Mr Froome suggests that he is warping his discs on alpine descents. Really Chris? I think he needs the publicity.
The road from Bolton Bridge up to Kex Gill is steep, three lanes, a couple of miles long and fast (60 mph limit) and so is a favourite haunt for police "safety camera vans". As I trundled up it I noticed descending cars were flashing the ascending traffic to warn of the police van hidden in the bushes. Naturally I slowed from 6 mph to 4 mph while I pondered that speeding is not yet universally regarded by drivers as such a henious a crime as, say, drink driving - or overtaking me and immediately turning left so tightly that my front wheel comes within a metre of your bloated Volvo estate. Volvo drivers?
What a fantastic day.
I set off up to Taddington and then straight down into Millers Dale and then Tideswell. Left at the Anchor and then the back road towards Castleton before another left up over Bradwell Moor to join the A623 above Peak Forest. Down the hill into Peak Forest, left at the crossroads and over to Buxton via Tunstead Quarry which is a huge hole in the ground.
From Buxton up Manchester Road and then down into the Goyt Valley which was heaving with people. There was surprisingly no queue at the Mr Whippy ice cream van at the roadside so a 99 was woolfed down. :p
Up the Goyt to the Cat and Fiddle which has reopened as a distillery. I have not been in for years, I think its been closed for at least 5 years, so went in for a nosy. Only one room was open selling outrageously expensive Beers, Wines and Spirits along with coffee to take away. I ordered a Latte, £2.90, and as I handed the youth serving me £3.00 he said "we don't have the facility to handle cash" whilst pointing to one of those card machine things. I replied that I didn't have the facility to pay by card and there was an awkward silence which was broken by a very nice lady stood behind me, who said, "I'll pay for your coffee".
I think she must have taken a shine to my new Orange Le Col Cycling Jersey. I thanked her and insisted that she took my £3, which she did.
Back towards Buxton and a right onto the Congleton Road and down to Allgreave. Lovely views across to Shutlingsloe which seemed to have at least a dozen folk at the summit, all stood in a row! Up the Dane Valley and a right to Goldsitch Moss before popping out on the A53 at Ramshaw Rocks. More uphill to The Winking Man, a right, and across the moors to the Mermaid before a lovely cooling descent to Hulme End and Hartington. Up Longdale to Earl Sterndale, over to Chelmorton and Taddington and a retrace of my steps home.
A total of 75 miles and 7,638 feet in a moving time of 5hr 17min. At least 40 other cyclists seen, none of which had the pleasure of overtaking me. (All the good ones must have been going in the opposite direction!)
Back home dead on 5pm in time for the rugby. A glorious ride, Wales beating England and a 99 in February. Days don't get much better than this:)
Local legend on my fav hill is a guy who climbed it 28 times in the last 90 days.
I climbed it 39 times in the last 6 days ��������
Just a short ride, as I didn't get out on the bike until after 3:30. Visited the 4 W's: the villages of Wysall, Widmerpool, Willoughby and Wymeswold are situated roughly at the corners of a square of side about 2 miles. If you fancy buying a house in Widmerpool, you will need a 5th W; Wealth.
Sorry, Marco, but my shorts are still in the cupboard. At the speed I cycle, I don't generate much heat; and it was actually rather cold by the time I got home just after sunset.
27.6 miles and almost 3,000 feet of climb today. Horton, Stainforth, Dale Head, off-road on the Dawson Close track to Litton, through Littondale to Arncliffe, up to the top of Yew Cogar Scar, Malham Tarn, Henside, Stainforth and Horton. Yorkshire Dales cycling at its best :)
The climb out of Arncliffe to the cattle grid at the top of Yew Cogar is an absolute rip snorter
The Strava segment ‘Arncliffe Killer’, which just does the hard bit of that climb, is the business. 13.3% full bollocks over half a mile :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
It is said that, in terms of weather, March comes in like a lion and the Garmin record for today's 36 miles (2700 feet) trip via Burnsall, Linton, Grassington, Cracoe etc showed an average temperature of 32.3 F. I suppose it was the 0.3 F that meant icicles did not form from the tears in my eyes from the cold. I am not someone who, when alone, stops for coffee and cake so people can admire my bike but today I did divert to Grassington for a double espresso and, knowing that no one would believe this dilution of my image, I even took a photograph of the takeaway cup.
I left my bike by the shop door unlocked (the cold and the clag meant Grassington was somewhat devoid of humanity) and the next customer commented that there were now few places where it would not have been stolen, even as I watched it, Grassington being one. However I am sure SPD pedals divert those who still believe in toe clips away from thievery.
Around Ilkley I saw dozens of cyclists but as I moved North virtually none, apart from a small group of ladies in a virtually deserted Burnsall. It was in Burnsall on my last trip out that I met a polite couple who were both riding Bottecchia bikes - the brand Greg Lemond rode, and famously in the Paris time trial when he, to my annoyance, beat Laurent Fignon to deny Laurent his third Tour.
I guess if you ride a Bottecchia you are partly saying "look at me" (or us) which is perhaps not the case on a Boardman. Yet Boardman markets a model that retails at £2300, although whether one would recognise that out on the road is perhaps debatable.
Anyway,wet days,warm days,cold days: 500+ miles so far this year
What the heck? 32.3 Fahrenheit? Surely you mean 273.317 KelvinQuote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Oh yes. That sounds much warmer.:cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Today: distance 48km, climb 897m, 15 hill reps.
I'm local legend now with 54 efforts in the last 90 days (actually last 8 days), second is a guy with 27 efforts.
14 and a bit miles and 1,325 feet for me yesterday lunchtime. Straight up the road from home to Ribblehead, right on the Hawes road but only to just past Gearstones, where I went off piste on the Dales Way (the first bit of the Cam High Road). This pretty immediately turns into a fantastic dirt and stones 450 foot climb to the top of Cam End, where I then hooked right following the Pennine Way. Here it was now mostly gradual down hill bouncy rubble until Ling Gill, where the going became grassier and softer before picking up tarmac again at High Birkwith and a fast undulating 3 mile run in to home
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EvasfatW...jpg&name=large
I also know he was found by the side of the road apparently beaten and died at 32 which may have been connected with his reluctance to support the fascist cause.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
No. Falkensteiner, same hill as last year I'm afraid :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
I live in flatland and I hate it. The only possibility of climbing is by doing hill reps on this minuscule hill. Bigger hills are hours of driving away.
I remember at the time I applied for this job thinking "the job will be great, but damn I will be living in flatlands and I will hate it". Now 10yr later I can confirm at least the job is good.
My next race is in the dolomites, over 4000m of climbing.;)
I did exactly the opposite moving from Birmingham to the Peak District leaving a great job for one I knew I wouldn't like. Job lasted 6 years I was made redundant, the hills are still here so its all good.
Just be thankful that you don't live in Bremen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._German_statesQuote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
I'm amused that the rubbish tip is higher than any of the natural hills.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
I’ve actually removed my toe clips now and replaced them with pedals that have the threaded grip pins sticking out. These I really really like and get on with....... apart that is from stabbing myself a couple of times in the calf, walking the bike out the back gate :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
16 hill reps
49km, 953m, 2:38