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But the problem with that is that the first and last half hour of each ride is a bit of a slog, which also sets a minimum distance for a ride to be "worth" the slog.
Can relate. When I was in SW London, all my pals would ride out of East which was 30km of London traffic for me to the start. So when they'd do a "just 70k on Saturday morning" I'd end up on about 130 by the time I got home. Effort.
Now that I'm in the countryside, the off-road riding is surprisingly worse. My county is super hilly and there's no gravel, just mud which is horrible when wet (most of the time) and bone rattling when dry
PhilDAS
Belagerent
amey
Yesterday I didn't want to ride one of the three off-road loops that are available to me so I decided to take a train out of town and ride back home. I really shouldn't complain about the off-road riding available to me, but I guess the problem with riding more as that I'm becoming a bit bored with the options. Basically I can ride out of town in every major direction and within 10km I'm on nice unpaved tracks which I can loop together for however far I please to go. But the problem with that is that the first and last half hour of each ride is a bit of a slog, which also sets a minimum distance for a ride to be "worth" the slog.
So I guess I'm starting to realise the point in having a drop bar bike, by making the ride in and out of town part of the ride instead of a means to an end I a) can also go out for 1,5-2 hours and have a good ride b) become a bit more flexible in where I go. Although I do wonder if I'm just taking the fun part out to trick myself into thinking paved riding is fun, and I really hate being around cars. But I do feel some motivation to get the drop bar bike back into riding shape.
Anyway, yesterday's ride was great. There's a colony of bee eaters some 50k north of Leipzig which was my goal for the day. I spotted some, but from quite far away so I couldn't make out much more than a silhouette. Should have brought binoculars I guess. After that I rode home via the Dübener and Presseler Heide, which was full of the most luxurious gravel roads I've ever been on.