Graham needs a Jag, he's got that look.Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
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Graham needs a Jag, he's got that look.Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
Few things in life are certain, other than taxes and death, but another is that I will never ever drive a Jaguar (only suitable for spivs and cads) or a BMW (only for boy-racers) or anything Japanese (too ugly).Quote:
Originally Posted by mr brightside
In my formative years I did drive a Cosworth Scorpio (the acceleration!) and a Citroen XM, the last decent car Citroen made before they became rebadged Peugeots, after which I settled for the gravitas of the Mercedes C Class and for 28 years I have driven no other. (Well I did hire a Mustang once when in Colorado - but I was on holiday).
I understand you drive a Porsche and I must admit the 928 was a lovely looking car as was the Maserati engined Citroen SM, ah but...:)
Beautiful cold day with clear air. It’s just after 2pm. I’m only going out for about two hours, I don’t need a map because I won’t be going anywhere that I don’t know.
. . . Ooh, that track looks interesting, I haven’t been down there before. The sign says that it’s a public byway for 420 metres, then a public footpath. I’ll go and explore anyway. It’s a well-made farm track for well over 420m, and there’s even a public footpath sign at one point. But eventually it ends up in a field, although there’s a wide strip of unploughed land along the side of the field. Carry on along there; watch out for those little hawthorns. Hmmm, I can’t see any way out of this field. Back the way I came.
About 5 miles later, and still about 5 miles from home. I can feel the bumps in the road under my back wheel. It’s getting dark, I don’t want to fiddle around taking the wheel off to replace the inner tube. I’ll just pump it up and see how far I can get before it needs pumping again. A mile and a half later, stop to pump up again. Another mile and a half, and the tyre’s not looking good after the descent of Whittle Hill. Walk the remaining two miles home.
But I still wouldn’t have missed being out on such a beautiful afternoon.
Reading your post below, a thought 🤔.
Brought on by the fact our car, neither a jag, citroen or mustang (ok, it is a japanese thingy but forget what) has lots of warning lights flashing, quite festive for the time of year, but the garage cannot look at them for 3 weeks.
When will a cycle manufacturer start installing warning lights for malfunctioning parts? Imagine the fun of flashing handlebar lights and the tales to tell in the pub after a ride.
Yep!Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
I will get on to Cycling Weekly right now.
Puncture repair time this morning. Find the thorn stuck in the tyre; start trying to remove it, then realise that this old, worn tyre really needs replacing. Down to the bike shop on my other bike; find it shuttered, with a notice saying that from 1st November it will be closed on Mondays.
Nothing is ever straightforward in bike maintenance.:mad:
By the way, Monday seems a particularly bad day to be closed, given that most incidents requiring kit to be replaced will have occurred at the weekend.
You're right. Maybe the bike shop owner needs Mondays to fix their bike after weekend rides.
Or maybe he is banking all the money he extracted from the previous week's gullible fools?Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
Twenty one miles (1300 feet) along some local roads I haven't ridden for a month; so I noticed all the new road signs that have suddenly appeared. I now know one of the, very short, hills is 14%. If this road has been 14% since the Roman legions tramped along it I wonder what prompted the Highways Agency, or West Yorkshire CC, to suddenly decide that this information is now important enough to warrant a sign. Sign or no sign it felt much the same climb to me. As did the drizzle as damp, cold and fed up I finished in the dark.
In terms of pleasure I think this cycling lark is overrated.
Hear, Hear, Graham.
Having not run for 12 days, due to the calf playing silly buggers again, I have, over the last six days been on 3 bike rides totalling 108 miles and with 8'500 feet of ascent. Most of the time I have either been sweating my b******'s off going uphill or freezing them off on the descents.
I just cannot seem to get my cycling layers just right and this was without the fear of rain of which I encountered zero.
There were small pleasures to be had however. 5 new TP's bringing me up to 88 different ones for the year and a delicious cup of coffee at The Sycamore Inn at Parwich.
I had my booster yesterday and seem to have got away with just a sore arm for 24hrs. A 7 miles walk with the dogs this afternoon and felt OK so up to Bleaklow tomorrow for a bit of a wander and try and get my bearings for the Trigger.
Dressing for running is so much more straightforward.
Yesterday was first ride in near 3 weeks - it wasn't raining or horrible - a gentle pootle round the loop of about 17 miles and 1000ft.
I also find cycling has little to commend it through the winter months, other than the occasional perfect winters day, the rest is dire. Not having cycling clothes probably doesn't help but going out in rain is horrible, wind is dangerous and so is any frost and potential ice on the roads, plus every time I go downhill I freeze again. I am too old to take those risks as my bones no longer bounce when I fall over, they will break given any opportunity.
And then there are the wet and muddy bikes to deal with that promptly go rusty overnight when put back in the garden shed.
Fell running was so much simpler and warmer, I am happy in any weather on the hills and can keep warm and snug even when running down. Lovely sunny morning today for a bike, but freezing and ice on the roads still so a walk it is.
The Craven Arms, Appletreewick.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
My ironic, and I hope amusing, letter developing the theme is published this week in Cycling Weekly.
To show gratitude for your inspiration I gift you all of my author royalties.:)
I presume Cycling Weekly is a weekly cycling magazine - which like most magazines struggles to find anything more to write about their subject on a weekly basis?Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
I used to write for a few magazines (running, fishing, countryside stuff) and did some articles and photography for Runners World or whatever it was called, we are talking 30 years ago, unless royalties have increased massively above inflation rates please keep any that come your way and treat yourself to a half pint of best bitter after your next race. And think of me 🍺
Alas CW only prints one letter a week and the glory has to suffice.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
When I was at school I submitted a few short pieces (a handful of paragraphs) to NME (New Musical Express) which they published, gave me name credit and paid me £3 guineas for each. That is equivalent to £70 today which was quite nice for someone who should have been studying for his "A" levels. So it is NME's encouragement that is to blame for all those articles I now write for The Fellrunner:)
Being paid in guineas says it all, serious money for a youngster 👍.
Spring must be in the air because I've been out twice this week - albeit on the winter bike - a 19 miles/ 1700 feet and a 24 miles/ 1900 feet on local country roads. One steep climb I had only done once before (from Bradley) was when I had been delayed and was riding home in the dark without lights. I was so nervous to avoid being mown down by some lunatic in a BMW that I didn't notice how long the climb was - but I did today.
I was having coffee with my son before I set off (Cafe Nero) and someone on a Cervelo carbon dream machine asked us to "watch his bike" while he went inside. My son noticed something was odd about his gears (Shimano so I didn't understand) and the guy had a 34 on the rear. When he appeared he explained he had put it on for when he did the Coast to Coast and said, looking at my son's Fred Whitton top, "at the end you just want to finish don't you".
Yep. I'm sure that is right.:)
Big Chevin is worse for people trying to get past you. They just go into oncoming traffic or on the blind bends and crests leading up to York Gate. It bothers me a bit because the direction of force would sent them into me if a collision ocurred. The idea that you can't be at fault if you're overtaking very slowly on a blind crest or bend is commonplace; it's the thing of, "it's your fault because you were going faster than me, and should have slowed for the dangerously reckless manouveur i was attempting".
There was a time when I would have been satisfied to ride 2600 miles in a year, but now I feel only embarrassment after a 28 miles pootle up local favourites like the slurry fest that can be Black Hill near Bramhope today took me over that total for the year.
To offset a potential mid-life crisis I am blaming the return of fell races and the kindness of RO who recognise a V75 category. So thank you Whittle Pike, Thievely Pike, Shepherd's Skyline, Whinberry Naze, Race To The Summit...and even Hurst Green Turkey Trot.
I love you all, they all count and Happy New Year from an old man.:)
Having finished the old year on the Boardman I thought I should take the Bianchi out under a clear blue sky to Beamsley Beacon and past Bolton Abbey before the rains came. And come they did as the sky blackened and every approaching car met me with headlights blazing. Shortly before I reached home an ambulance screamed past me with siren sounding and blue lights flashing on its way to a domestic 999 call. A few minutes later I passed the ambulance in a side road and the paramedic emerged from his cab, looked at my bedraggled drenched state and cheerfully observed "rather you than me mate" and went about his duties.
Still, 23 miles and 2000 feet. They all count.
The weather forecast said "wintery showers" which, if this includes snow, sleet, rain, winds and an average temperature below zero C for the whole ride was spot-on, but did I mention the ice on the road? ADV on my Boardman stands for Adventure so today the Bianchi stayed snug and warm. A trip north to Bolton Abbey-Embsay-Skipton was chilly and noticably short of fellow riders but farmers were hard at work so why should I weaken?
From Skipton turning south the rain came down in sheets and the roads turned into lakes where the drains couldn't cope. There might be some activty more miserable than being drenched in cold filthy water by a lorry passing a few feet away but rather than reflect on that I decided to move to the canal bank for a few miles back to Kildwick. There might be something ironic about being dryer (in relative terms)a few feet from a billion gallons of water on a canal bank than on a cambered metalled road, but never mind.
At this time of year nobody cruises on canals so all the boat yards are full, if not fuller than full. Quite an array of colour.
Anyway 1200 feet in 26 miles - most of them grim but all of them character building.
I spent a good many weekends last year cycling the length of Ullswater, from Pooley Bridge down to Glenridding or Patterdale.... i can recall only one occasion where i didn't get utterly drenched on either the outward or return journey. Perhaps the worst was in October when i arrived at the venue for the Hodgson Relays absolutely drowned, just in time to spend a few hours on the storm-racked fells following the first couple of legs around.
As Graham says... character building.
New Highway Code changes are due at the end of Jan 2022.
As a keen equestrian, I try and avoid riding on roads as much as possible, but rather stick to the fells or an arena.
Our group Christmas Eve hack down to the pub, about 5 miles there, reminded me why. Despite 8 riders, all with hi-viz, we were 'buzzed' by two cars, who failed to slow down. Just as I'm sure many cyclist, runners and general pedestrians have experienced, there are some right plonkers driving cars (but to be fair some riders - horse and bike - can be ejets too).
Anyway, the Government are due to implement changes to the HWC. I post here as it has great relevance to bikers. Here's a summary.
https://www.driving.co.uk/news/cycli...-need-to-know/
The key take is that there is a 'hierarchy' of road users. As a horse rider,it was nearly 'always the horse and riders' fault in the past, even when it wasn't, as it was often considered to be an animal control issue.
How does one find out about these updates?
I didn't know until signs started appearing around here that it is illegal to park parallel to double white lines where broken or solid. Has this always been so, I last read the Highway Code around 45 years ago when I passed my test.
Despite this lack of knowledge I believe I am a fairly careful and considerate driver (and bike rider).
A good point.Quote:
Originally Posted by bigfella
As a cyclist I tend to take note of such things but as a member of Cycling UK (CTC as was), I've been painfully aware of them lobbying the government for months to try and get them to inform the general public, a lot of which are plainly unaware of the changes. Of course if you are a Daily Mail reader then you can't possibly have missed the headlines on how these non-road tax (sic) paying lefties are taking over the roads and would be well aware of the changes....
Ah, but it's also well known that we horsey types are all Countryside Alliance, drooling bloodsport, flog-a-peasant-a-day rightwingers, don't cha know. No lefty oiks here. Taxes are for the lumpen prolls :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteS
That all sounds good. Where can I get hold of one of these horse things?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
You can find them walking about on the moors, just take one home, put a carrot in your pocket and they follow.
Added advantage is they don't go rusty when you put them back in the shed after a wet ride and they only have 4 gears (walk, trot, canter, gallop) so no faff with indexing.
You should look out for an Italian model, they have Ferrari stamped on them.
As with so many things in life, we all need to be careful of what we wish for.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
'Horses: Filling your heart and repairing your soul, while emptying your wallet and breaking your body' (equestrianhub)
Come to think of it, perhaps not so different from cycling, but X 1000 ;)
There was only one craven heifer (1807-12), although with every town in West Yorkshire having a pub of that name one might think otherwise, of which the one on the Grassington Road near Skipton is exactly 10 miles from my house and so suitable for a quick blast today before darkness fell.
I thought I might see Mr Brightside there but since I did not venture inside, perhaps that was unlikely. In fact in the twenty miles of riding I saw no runners and no cyclists. Well somebody went past me on an electric bike but that doesn't count. Actually I haven't seen an electric bike for a long while - presumably they are generally only ridden when the sun shines.
So along with feeling superior to lesser mortals that is another benefit for riding in the rain.:)
I used my e-bike on sunday in very unpleasant conditions.
My second bike ride of the year was a mix of tarmac, trail and bridleway on the Arkose. From home to Youlgreave and up to Friden where I joined the High Peak Trail and followed it to Minninglow. Down the bridleway known as Minninglow Lane and onto Cardlemere Lane before a left turn took me to the plush holiday cottages at Uppermoor Farm.
Down to the A515 and across it onto the Tissington Trail and then all the way to Parsley Hay where I re-joined the HPT and followed it to its end at Dowlow. Back onto tarmac and then home via Chelmorton and Flagg.
A cold, breezy and bright day and I needed all of the 3 layers I was wearing. Only a few walkers and cyclists about but no runners seen. An enjoyable afternoon of 30 miles, 2,028 feet in 2hrs 27mins.
I also heeded my New Years resolution for 2022 which is to unclip from my pedal/pedals when opening and closing gates on bridleways and trails. I have had so many close shaves and made myself look a prat whilst doing it clipped in, that I have decided I am too old for such shenanigans.
The old stone pack-horse bridge in Ilkley (1675) is blocked off to vehicles with parallel barriers on both sides which sometimes you can cycle through slowly without unclipping - but only I find when no-one is watching!Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
Fourth ride of 2022 today. The promise of no rain meant she in celeste was allowed out and I found some hills: 26 miles and 2500 feet. Along the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey, Bardon Moor, Skipton, Bradley - the best day out of the year so far. The sun came out at one point - Spring must be on its way.:)
I am prepared to admit that sometimes, sometimes, riding in January, head winds, rain,...is not a lot of fun but today I cycled to Skipton (30 miles and 2900 feet) via a variety of grass-up-the-middle roads that only exist to connect farms. What joy! No traffic! Well except for the occasional quad bike.
Could life get any better you may wonder?
Well yes because whom should I meet in the berserk, bedlam of Bradley but...Mrs & Mrs FRA Forum (+ black labrador), aka Mrs & Mrs Bedlamite, aka Mr & Mrs Race Organisers par excellence.
Fortunately I was on the Bianchi so was a vision of loveliness, and thinking of that; it occurred to me that in over 6000 miles I have never had a mechanical (ah! that's Campagnolo for you) and only one puncture (when I just walked to the railway station and went home by train) so why do I carry "stuff" with me "just in case..."
Just in case of what exactly?
Just in case the one puncture happens at Greenhow Hill, from where it's a rather long walk to the nearest railway station.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Ah well I do carry a purple flag of the Loughborough University Shield and a handful of £50 notes to flaunt, one of which is bound to get me a lift home.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
In a previous life I had multiple double wheel punctures in the pouring rain and was walking home along the Skipton bypass (around 10 miles from home) and a member of the FRA Committee drove past and thought:
"Poor ******. Should I stop and help?
Naah!"
It has never been clear if his failure to stop was because he didn't recognise me - or he did.
BrilliantQuote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Mrs Bedlamite asked me a while after, "How did you know it was Graham?"
I replied that it wasn't the old goretex jacket or the weird riding style but the Celeste....
I'm a cyclist through and through...
Lovely to have a chat!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
A glorious day for a bike ride so took the Scott Solace (mudguardless) out for a spin. I had expected the roads to be drier than they were but most were wet with a combination of salt, drawing the moisture, and cowshit/slurry left by farmers who don't give a shit!
Up to Chelmorton,Flagg and on to Parsley Hay. Down Long Dale and up to Heathcote and Biggin before a stretch of the 515 to Newhaven across to Monyash and home via Magpie Mine.
A total of 33 miles and 2,631 feet in 2hrs 23 min.
CW this week has a bike review, by an ancient member of staff (ie approaching 50) of the Officine Mattio Lemma 2.0 (7.3kg).Quote:
Originally Posted by brett
OM is a new obscure Italian brand and the bike is mostly plain carbon with a couple of red flashes. It's £10,200 (and that's without the most expensive fittings in the world) and the reviewer feels a bit short changed saying "let's face it, bikes like this are partly about being seen."
Partly about being seen!!!
I hope that idea doesn't get around.:)