Tell us about your weekend ride

Also there are far too many stats in this thread already. Someone needs to start a stats/cock waving thread.

Also most modern tractors can do c.30-40mph. I forgot this while out in Essex once and sped up because I didn't want to face the humiliation of being overtaken by a tractor. This is how I hurt my knee and ended up doing the Dunwich Dynamo in pain.

So if you are overtaking tractors at full pelt (especially those JCB ones) you're fast.

5 miles? most people ride 5-10 miles before they meet up for a decent ride.

the only stats I have from todays club ride are that a chip naan at 3am, then 3hrs sleep wasn't ideal prep. #suffered

I do ride further, this was just the first time I tested it out. Going for a ride for the sake of a ride I usually try and do 25-30 miles with plenty of hills. The roads are pretty narrow and windy round me so tractors can't go that fast except on the major a roads.

15 miles into some Evans sportive around Dorking, got taken out by this lovely road feature:

Front wheel refused to mount the edge and down I went. Abandoned at Effingham Jct :(

due to no mates spent 5 hours out on the bike saturday evening and managed to completly rip apart a 2 day old gatorskin on some glass on london Bridge, thankfully the guys at Evans were super helpul with a new tyre and tube and loaned tools :)

Yemble - what is the point in all that brick weave any way?

Bad luck Yemble. Having a word with the Council about it?

Bigpaintbrush and I had a short roll to Epping and back from Hackney, with some double loops of a couple of hills. Good to blow the cobwebs off a double hangover even if we didn't get out til 2pm. Lovely day, lovely cool air, forgiving breeze and amazing sunset. 1 puncture, 1 appalling attempt at fixing it (proper ham fisted). Funny moment on way out - a woman was all over our rear wheel on the horn at a narrow bit of road so I just took primary and rolled on at a decent lick... more horn and oddness. Eventually we were able to give her some space so waved her by and she didn't go, just stayed on us shouting at us. This got a bit freaky for about a mile so eventually I made a full on move to her window to ask what the bollocks she was playing at...

She shouted "BLACK HORSE!
... what?
"BLACK HORSE"
... I'm sorry love what?
"WHERE"S BLACK HORSE STATION?"
... are you asking directions?
"YEAH"
... Look at your speedo, how fast are we going?
"ABOUT 20"...
Ask a pedestrian, I'm a tad busy - are you nuts?
"OK SORRY!"

At which point she pulled a terrifyingly unannounced u turn and bombed off the other way. What a nutter!

Yemble - what is the point in all that brick weave any way?

I have no idea. It's only an inch high so not big enough to be a traffic calming measure and besides, it's in the middle of an intersection. My own fault though - shouldn't have taken a line along the edge. Dumb.

I took 2hrs into a headwind yesterday, and on my return, thought i would be pushed home by mother nature....
Bitch was angry.... turned on me.
I can't seem to get off the sofa today.

4 hours in Dammit's Volvo yesterday

"this is bat country"

Soz

I have no idea. It's only an inch high so not big enough to be a traffic calming measure and besides, it's in the middle of an intersection. My own fault though - shouldn't have taken a line along the edge. Dumb.

There's a mistaken belief that these timid measures (others being rumblewave or rumble strips) have an impact on 'road safety'. Basically, there was funding available and most local authorities tried to be seen to 'do something'. In practice, the effect of these measures is close to zero--you need cushions or full-width humps before there's a measurable impact on speeds (not that using them is necessarily the most commendable approach, either). This looks like a particularly neglected scheme. It clearly hasn't been looked at for some time. Sorry you fell--it's obviously good of you to accept the blame, but equally it is important to say that cyclists shouldn't be forced to have to make such decisions just because of shoddy standards of implementation and poor carriageway maintenance.

I managed a short route into Kent/Surrey. I even had sunshine - in fact it was almost perfect autumn/winter riding weather. I think the highlight was the bottom of Magpie Bottom, which has an amazing view...

My fixeh is now lovingly covered in filth.

Magpies bottom. If it rides as rough as it sounds...

Yesterday I started rattling toward Cambridge for the third weekend in a row; though I turned around at the half way mark, opting for a ride that finished at my front door. It struck me how quickly London disappeared as I cycled North, and how slowly it reemerged on the return journey.

I'm enjoying cycling on the flat at the minute.

No bike today, save for a trip to the plumbers to buy a replacement shower head holder. My current interest in resolving minor household maintenance issues is slightly shameful.

not at the weekend but day off college. rode 21.5 miles into the countryside from cheltenham to woodmancoate-gotherington-gretton-winchcombe and back. lovely views, atmosphere. proper isolated middle of nowhere feeling riding through the quite villages. surprised how comfortable it was even running 48/16, lots of cruising on the drops.

Stolen from the offroad thread.

Today was great fun.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132716564

5 went out into the woods today, and 5 bikes came back intact, with their riders unscathed! Clearly we iz well good and shit, or more likely we are just getting a little luckier.

mdcc_tester, Unharmed, Ben., Gabes and myself were the rag tag bunch. The Ti Transport was driven by Gabes, and he picked Tom and myself up from Kew on the way to Swinley - hugely appreciated by the passengers. Upon arrival we re assembled the bikes - a VW golf has limited space so wheels had to be taken off and seatposts removed (except the dwarf bike). One minor glitch was the loss of one of Tom.'s gloves between my house and the forest.

Rendez vous at the Lookout and the infamous 'Tester and Unharmed were ready to go. For some reason I have become the default leader for these trips, its like having the blind leading the partially sighted. I do worry that other people might be trying to follow my line. Given my dreadful habit of being able to spot a tiny potential hazard and then go straight towards it, this is a concern, but I am usually just struggling to keep the bike upright so can't always witness the expressions of "WTF is this muppet doing today", its probably a good thing.

Recently I have been reading up a lot on basic skills - my knowledge on such matters is that I don't know any thing about them.

http://www.mtbtechniques.co.uk/

The above link has been really quite useful in explaining how things ought to be tackled, so today I was trying to put some of it into practice. I had previously understood the need to be out of the saddle, but had never taken on board the notion of trying to ensure the weight is over the pedal axle (so moving fore and aft depending on if going up/down/flat). There is also useful advice on how to attack berms etc, and today I found myself not overshooting to the same extent, riding into the berms is a great tip. I fucking hate roots, but again there was a lot of advice on unweighting the bike, and that if you go faster over them there is less time for things to go wrong.

Trying these changes did seem to benefit my riding and increased satisfaction levels. It was a good day for me as all my fuckups happened out of sight of the others (though they may have heard me muttering to myself through the trees).

As a group we seemed to be fairly evenly matched, though I need to bare in mind the SS riders a little more on the ascents. After each of the sections we tended to regroup, gossip, banter and even admit moments of closet hippie dom (hugging trees), overshooting turns etc. There was a lovely sense of humility amongst the pack, no dick swinging and a lot of sharing of advice.

The trails were possibly the busiest we have ever seen them, a few other 29ers were also out, so Ben and I did not feel quite so out of place. It was generally fairly dry, but a with a few muddy puddles and somehow each time I splashed through the mud managed to avoid my glasses and splatter my eyes.

There was a very kind offer of lunch with mummy_tester, but too many in the group had other commitments to be met today. There had been suggestions of a quick lunch and then continue but Tom's lack of glove on one hand had started to cause some blistering and things were unlikely to improve on a post lunch excursion. Additionally the light drizzle was looking like it was going to get heavier so we returned to our respective homes. Back at Kew the glove was found on the railings outside my house, a satisfying end to a brief but satisfying ride.

^ Sounds like a great ride, I'm already looking forward to my offroad excursions in the peak district after christmas.

Reports like that are what this thread has been missing. More please.

A quick dask up to St Albans. Tried out the Sports Tracker app on my new Nokia N8 as a bike computer (see image). Great for free. Is it worth shelling out for a Garmin Edge 800? Any users out there?

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Magpies bottom. If it rides as rough as it sounds...

It was pretty rough. After the view is a short but relatively steep climb. It was quite a lot of fun picking a line through the mulchy leaves and mud; it was hard to tell where the road ended and the bank began in some places. Loads of lanes with moss down the middle too.

I was thinking of doing a rerun of the route closer to christmas as there are a few 'festively' named roads in those parts. If I can be bothered...

Friday night, Paddington to Leytonstone, 1 hour on 70s fold up shopper, with badly perished tyres!
Was fun.

An icy Saturday morning with a horrible hangover is all I've managed this weekend. Bad weather and christmas are starting to get in the way.

Circle line! Enough said!