Worst hour on a bike...

Vinz [quote]hippy You found an incline in London?!?! Share!!!! ;)

Somewhere around here? :)

[/quote]

looks like you should've taken a right turn...

bonked out three times. on the coniston 14mile run. couldnt get my legs to go at the 11mile mark...but picked it up again once crowds gathered in the end. another in merida mtb marathon. couldnt wait to get off the bike. endless climbs...plus i stacked it along the way which really fcked me up. then on my first sportive this year. the second 80kms i did on my own. strong headwinds and felt like i was being chased by the broom wagon. and even on a triple, i ran out of gears on the long climb. back seized up and had to get off the bike to stretch...ran out of water, gel and food in the last 20kms...but by then the sight of the town (finish) gave me a massive pick up.

winter 1999 as a courier, riding in from sutton ice forming on my endura tights, my lake winter shoes, i just wanted to go home, never been so cold but was skint longest 10 hours of my life.

Dragging my sad ass over the Lllangollen Pass, bout 11pm on a wet November night, knowing the YHA was gonna be shut.

Needing a shit and only having a swiss roll to eat.

Realising that a Viscount Aerospace is not a good touring bicycle.

I was fourteen, didn't know any better...

haha. i like your story kowalski.

it's funny how these involve either the bonk or the rain or both.

the rain is not the road cyclist's friend, not when it pisses down. i remember doing a ride of the falling leaves a while back and it turned into paris-roubaix. but without the mythology, it was just a grim trudge through shit.

Remembered another! One winter about 5 years ago the trains were screwed as it had hammered with snow all day. None were running from London to Sevenoaks, so I decided to ride home. At one point going downhill in south Croydon I nearly ended up under a lorry. Needed to stop, squeezed the brakes, nothing happened. Squeezed more and more until the front wheel bit the brake and I went down. Fortunately the lorry was coming up so could stop fine!

At one point (between Warlingham and Westerham) I hadn't seen a car for about 20 minutes. Stopped for a piss, and then I realised. There was no noise. Nothing. The air was as still as I had ever heard. Quite a surreal moment.

The last 5 or so miles I couldn't feel either my feet or my hands. Rode aprox 25 miles, I think it took 2 1/2 hours.

Probably your average commute for a Glaswegian!

pj haha. i like your story kowalski.

it's funny how these involve either the bonk or the rain or both.

the rain is not the road cyclist's friend, not when it pisses down. i remember doing a ride of the falling leaves a while back and it turned into paris-roubaix. but without the mythology, it was just a grim trudge through shit.

Rain is neither hot and soothing like a bath, nor cool and refreshing like a pool.

It's just wet.

i get pissed off when i'm 10 minutes into a 4 hour ride and i'm soaked to the bone. that's the kind of rain i don't like, the real rain.

This is why I woke up on sunday morning and decided to ditch the idea of riding to Rotchester.

So I went to B&Q instead

nice thread.
this year; after a reasonable ride from dieppe we crossed the bridge at poisy and entered some kind of fracture in the time space continuum ie got hideously lost in the paris suburbs including 20 minutes in the car park under la defense, took us about 3 hours to do the last 20 km - really frustrating more than tiring. not helped by loosing map, needing a piss every 30 mins and asking middle aged couples for directions and having to stand around patiently while they argued about their directions. 1 guy even told us that we were crazy for attempting this "giro" (if i had known what he was saying i think i might have punched him), finally got showed the way by an african guy working in a petrol station. getting onto the champs elysées made it all worth while (felt like we had new legs bolted on).

totally bonked out on my first (and only) club ride (round st albans). was on a bike bike i didn't like (a harry hall that was slightly too big), with a bunch of nazis who seemed to cycle really slowly (which i found really tiring in it's self). started to feel tired round the 60 mile mark so went and bought chocolate bars and fizzy drinks from petrol station, felt great for 20 mins, then absolutely nothing in the tank. got the train home. i was only 20 at the time, hence my ignorance about sugary hits. now i know, calvados or brandy is the way to go :)

We're mascochists the lot of us.

My worst was 10 hilly miles home with a loose saddle and no allen keys. Couldn't fucking sit down for the whole time.

dr oblong....your story of France is EXACTLY the same as mine....had the same problem with the suburbs surrounding Paris.and the mad we got didnt have that area on it! just as bad as losing a map.

the hour or so i spent cycling in the hard shoulder of a swiss motorway (at night) before falling off and breaking my ankle in 2 places. talk about lucky.

what! thats mental!.......im sure you spend some time on one of the french motorways...that was a bit shit.

Nicholas We're mascochists the lot of us.

My worst was 10 hilly miles home with a loose saddle and no allen keys. Couldn't fucking sit down for the whole time.

LOL

My saddle broke one evening, so I had to cycle from Hammersmith to Victoria standing up. Normally fine, but I was pissed out of my brains and riding a Brompton. I vagely recall shouting "come on then, lets 'ave some!" at every car that drove past!

PS Great thread this!

the final hour of my first ever journey to london,
having just started uni i thought it would be fun to cycle to brick lane for breakfast in the morning before my first lecture, so i set off at about 7 and started cycling, at this point i think it would be good to point out I had neglected to purchase a proper A-Z and so i discovered that mine only did central central london, and not out past bromley (kent) where i had started.

So getting there was ok i didnt get too lost but by the time i go there i realised i needed to get back, so i turned round and headed back. Cutting a long story short a 10/15mile return leg became 35miles, i made a few fatal mistakes, i thought that like back at home posties would know the local area and thus would be good to ask for directions (this is not true they seem to not even know where they are) So the final 15 mins ended up being a bit of slog back to uni and as i was about 5 mins away from the uni my final chainring bolt fell out (i have discovered that my cranks like to losen my bolts) and i had to attach my chainring on with a shoelace for the last 2 miles. I dont think i touched my bike for about a week it was not a fun experiance

i'm with pj, i left work on Friday thinking its just drizzle less than two minutes on my bike, my arse was soaked (mudguads still need to be bought) then another hour and fifty minutes in the rain, not that much fun

flickwg i'm with pj,... Friday.... my arse was soaked ...then another hour and fifty minutes...not that much fun

Sorry could not resist.:)

lol, its good to see that tommy's eyes only pick out the words that make a dirty story

Props to anyone who was out on bike yesterday. I left the house once - to buy ingredients for plum crumble. This is why BMMF tackles the Catford Hillclimb and I watch on...

45km MTB ride in Andover a couple of weeks ago. Freezing cold and raining hard, had to keep stopping to wait for my mate (with injured shoulder) to catch up, so couldn't even work harder to get warm. The wind chill was vicious - I got an ice cream headache on every downhill.
To cap it all I'd stupidly put sealskins socks over thermal tights, which just wicked the rainwater down into the socks, so I ended up riding with my feet in 2 bags full of cold water. By the finish my hands were so cold I couldn't push the button to unlock the car to dump my sodden kit. Getting changed was pure hell, I just wanted to lay down and quietly expire.
Miserable.

Fsck, I didn't go out yesterday. I think I'm still not recovered from something. Usually I'm fscking amped Mondays but this morning I just trudged in, late, slow, tired and I've lost my nerve so to speak. The gaps I'd go through without a second thought have become like instant death so I just roll up behind vehicle, stop, foot down and sulk. Blurgh! But then you ask yourself - rest? or ride through it? What sort of bug is it? Will I get better or worse if I ride? What a pile of poo. :(

Above the neck = keep riding, below the neck = rest. If it's too vague to fit one of these categories then keep riding but take it easy.

I've got a lot of experience riding slowly while I recover from various injuries (it's been that kind of year). Just repeat kind, soothing words to yourself when people overtake you instead of being tempted to race them. It works better with a broken bone than a vague illness, but give it a go.

Momentum Above the neck = keep riding, below the neck = rest. If it's too vague to fit one of these categories then keep riding but take it easy.
I've got a lot of experience riding slowly while I recover from various injuries (it's been that kind of year). Just repeat kind, soothing words to yourself when people overtake you instead of being tempted to race them. It works better with a broken bone than a vague illness, but give it a go.

Yeah, tanks. I know what you're saying. It's hard being a competitive cnut and just giving in. Reminds me of doing base miles.. trying hard NOT to go into the red chasing people down.. it was only this morning that I thought to myself "fsck, this doesn't usually happen, rest+food and still sluggish and unmotivated".. which made me wonder if I'm still fighting off a virus? In these situations I try and force my rides to take as long as possible.. ie. say to myself "right, higher number on the clock at home is better" or "make sure to finish slower than an hour". Even doing stuff like counting traffic lights (seriously!) makes me slow down. I just have to remember to do it! :)

107 traffic lights on my commute btw..

is this why you're not feeling on top form fella? too much fun on sunday night