Today's Bike Ride

Demonstrating one's heroic qualities by going out in the late afternoon in the wind, rain, cold and oncoming gloom is all very well when impressing the neighbours, but one can over egg it.

So after checking out progress on the four new housing estates being built on the outskirts of Skipton near Embsay I decided that 21 miles was enough.

I do ponder where all the inhabitants of the hundreds of "little boxes" will go to work but perhaps the notion of "going to work" marks me as a Neanderthal in these days of WFH - or should that be wFH since I am dubious about how much work is actually done "at home".

Anyway when I arrived home - my work having been done - all the curtains were drawn so nobody saw me arrive. So they may all think I am still out there pushing those pedals?

21 miles (1300 feet) and on the ADV rather than what my charming widow neighbour calls my "pretty bike".

I think she likes the colour. But who wouldn't? :)

Trust me Graham, it is very much Wfh. I go into the office for a rest!

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Originally Posted by PeteS

Trust me Graham, it is very much Wfh. I go into the office for a rest!

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I take it all back. :)

Yes its not even 8am saturday morning and i should be on my way out to the gym... but working (from home).

If I don't work from home at least I can ride...so with the excuse of an errand in Scholes (one of the villages north east of Leeds) today was my first 50+ miles ride (2400 feet) of the year taking me over 300 miles for this year. This allowed me another perambulation along the new-ish bypass to the Leeds north east ring road, which connects directly to the M1.

Because the new road crosses all the northern radical roads to Wetherby, York etc there are frequent roundabouts with traffic lights and because the new road is equipped with a bridleway/ cycle path/ footpath in both directions around these roundabouts are another set of concentric routes and lights for non-motorists which can be quite complicated. So although one can zip along the fine-grain cycle lane tarmac one repeatedly comes to a shuddering halt to cope with all these. And because Leeds CC has already built side roads to cope with future developments these cul-de-sacs are equipped with the appropriate, but currently unnecessary, deviations for bikes.

And people think cycling is boring!

Of course it would be far, far faster to ride on the new wizzy dual carriageways but other road users - such as BMW drivers - might think that was bit naughty.

And of course cyclists, particularly me, are always good.

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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

If I don't work from home at least I can ride...so with the excuse of an errand in Scholes (one of the villages north east of Leeds) today was my first 50+ miles ride (2400 feet) of the year taking me over 300 miles for this year. This allowed me another perambulation along the new-ish bypass to the Leeds north east ring road, which connects directly to the M1.

Because the new road crosses all the northern radical roads to Wetherby, York etc there are frequent roundabouts with traffic lights and because the new road is equipped with a bridleway/ cycle path/ footpath in both directions around these roundabouts are another set of concentric routes and lights for non-motorists which can be quite complicated. So although one can zip along the fine-grain cycle lane tarmac one repeatedly comes to a shuddering halt to cope with all these. And because Leeds CC has already built side roads to cope with future developments these cul-de-sacs are equipped with the appropriate, but currently unnecessary, deviations for bikes.

And people think cycling is boring!

Of course it would be far, far faster to ride on the new wizzy dual carriageways but other road users - such as BMW drivers - might think that was bit naughty.

And of course cyclists, particularly me, are always good.

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Very impressive, Graham. A 50+ mile ride, and a total of over 300 miles, is very good considering we're only in the sixth week of the year.

I can't say that my mileage figures are anything like as good as this, (roughly half for both), but I did record 27.6mph on a flat stretch of the A513 in the Tame valley on Sunday in windless conditions.

In my search for something 'competitive', I have stumbled across what seems to be an invitation-only group of vagabonds and misfits, (which suits me just right), who actually want to ride their bikes, rather than just parade them to coffee shops (which also suits me just right).

Whilst the main club in Tamworth states 'we have a large waiting list' (really?), and the club in Lichfield state you can't ride with them unless you're a member, this is something different. It's not a club or a society, and there are no fees; you just pitch up for a burn-up, so it's about the closest you'll get to EOD in cycling.

It does depend a lot on who turns up, but on Sunday there were six of us and we averaged 21mph on slow roads for the 10.2 miles from Lichfield to the river Tame via the A515, Kings Bromley and the A513. At no stage did we ride two abreast, and upset the traffic, as we were too busy riding an unofficial 6-up team time trial.

On the subject of cycling being boring, I should point out it was only 3 degrees C on Sunday morning when we were riding, and the roads were a bit greasy. My view is that if you find cycling boring then you're not going fast enough!

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Originally Posted by Marco

It does depend a lot on who turns up, but on Sunday there were six of us and we averaged 21mph on slow roads for the 10.2 miles from Lichfield to the river Tame via the A515, Kings Bromley and the A513.

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That's too fast for me. I tend to average high teens on a good day.

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Originally Posted by Marco

It does depend a lot on who turns up, but on Sunday there were six of us and we averaged 21mph on slow roads for the 10.2 miles from Lichfield to the river Tame via the A515, Kings Bromley and the A513.

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Originally Posted by mr brightside

That's too fast for me. I tend to average high teens on a good day.

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It was a lot slower this week, even though 5 of the 6 desperados from last week turned up. The problem was that 6 of the slower riders decided to turn up too. We even lost one experienced, ex-racing, rider who had 'front wheel trouble', we later heard, with his very expensive bike with 24 electronically shifted gears. Goes without saying that my very cheap Raleigh with 16 manually shifted gears was faultless, again.

Must have had at least six 're-groupings' at the side of the road, as we waited for stragglers, so when I got home after 29.5 miles the average was only 17mph. I did somehow manage to rack up 1060ft of ascent, according to Mr Garmin, which is really impressive for this area.

So how does the diligent cyclist know when to change a rear tyre? My rear on the winter Dolan has a definite flat surface to it now. I don't care about 'performance' and will happily ride it until the belting shows through; it's a kevlar lined Gatorskin and may have lost as much as 3mm of rubber off the centre area.

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Originally Posted by mr brightside

So how does the diligent cyclist know when to change a rear tyre? My rear on the winter Dolan has a definite flat surface to it now. I don't care about 'performance' and will happily ride it until the belting shows through; it's a kevlar lined Gatorskin and may have lost as much as 3mm of rubber off the centre area.

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I’d be tempted to change it now.

Having said that you could always wait until you get a puncture but having a severely worn tyre will heighten the chances of it tearing. I’d suggest carrying, in addition to your spare tube, a length of plastic cut from an empty fairy liquid bottle in order to line your potentially damaged tyre.