Tell us about your weekend ride

46 miles with Mum and Dad in glorious West Yorkshire, on the Freddie Grubb. Pork pies and tea at Beningborough Hall, pints of Sam Smiths and crisps at Askham Richard. Fantastic.

First century of the year.
Went on Braker's ride from Farnborough to Bristol.I was impressed he found a flat route!

Perfect riding fixed, and with the great company and the sun/tailwind combo we made great time for a forum ride (have spent longer riding to brighton).

http://app.strava.com/rides/5728526

Did the 75 mile BHF Cam to Coast ride, fixed, and im not really that fit!

Came in 20-30th 'ish with all the super fit club riders. Destroyed myself in the process!

Phone tracker crashed my phone about 10 miles in, mighty annoying, think I will be switching to strava..

http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/vv2Yl8MuEho

On Saturday I rode with a non-cyclist friend from North-West London to Brighton, about 60 miles. It was my first proper ride, having only done commuting, trips round London and laps of Regent's Park before.

Although we took forever, I was surprised by how achievable it was, that we didn't get lost at all, and just how much fun it was - helped by the beautiful weather. I'm really excited to start going on regular decent-length rides, I'm thinking of going to Cambridge or Southend next.

If anyone has recommendations for great rides of roughly the same length, ideally nice country lanes, pretty views and ending up somewhere fun, that would be really helpful. Obviously I'll keep looking around here for ideas too.

tl;dr = Went on first proper ride, had loads of fun, inspired to do more. Hooray.

^You'll love Cambridge - that's a brilliant ride, even easier than Brighton.

Maldon or Burnham-on-Crouch are nice easy rides and end with beer / fish n chips by the sea which can't be bad.

Cheers for the tips, I'll check them out. Never heard of Maldon (is that where they make the salt?) or Burnham-on-Sea, I'll get UTFSing and look for routes.

Burnham on Crouch =! Burnham on Sea

BoC is in Essex and BoS is in Somerset (and would be quite a trip!)

I had a quick ride from Forest Hill across to Streatham to form a gang of four to ride down to Bognor. Cold at first as we crawled up the downs but then blissfully sunny and warm as we approached the seaside. 5.5 hours on the go, with stops to eat mcmuffins in Horsham and to admire medieval wall paintings in West Chiltington. Egg and chips and a coffee at the Lobster Pot, then train back to Clapham and a gentle pootle back home.

its all going off now
track session for me sat after coaching,
some fast riding and feeling good and quick recoveries from interval efforts.
short ride over Purbecks sunday to get sweet cigarettes for the gf from Corfe Castle, again, divine to be out stroking the best bike around the blacktop.
too good for indoors this week, enjoy

Weekend before last spent riding from Bath to Barnstaple (well, nearly - but I like alliteration) in aid of #100climbs. Write-ups here if you're interested:
http://100climbsfor2012.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/epic.html
http://100climbsfor2012.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/day-after-day-before.html

Last weekend was Dartmoor, which was also fun and which I will write about in due course

I was pretty tired yesterday and didn't get out of bed till 1pm, but then I decided it was time to stop being lazy.

Did a great little ride around the hills in North London, up Highgate Hill twice (once up Swain's, then once up Dartmouth Park Hill), then across to Alexandra Palace and up the hill there:

Then a meander through the back streets of Wood Green and along St Ann's Road, up and over Stamford Hill, and back home through Stoke Newington and Highbury.

So glad I went out in the end, and good to put my new cassette through its paces, even if I did learn that my gears aren't as well-indexed as I thought.

I had a quick ride from Forest Hill across to Streatham to form a gang of four to ride down to Bognor. Cold at first as we crawled up the downs but then blissfully sunny and warm as we approached the seaside. 5.5 hours on the go, with stops to eat mcmuffins in Horsham and to admire medieval wall paintings in West Chiltington. Egg and chips and a coffee at the Lobster Pot, then train back to Clapham and a gentle pootle back home.

Do you have a route for that, if it was one that you would recommend? How is Bognor Regis as a destination? I always thought it was just 'that place' one used when making bad jokes about British weather.

On a different note, I am also finding it quite lolworthy that this thread has become more active recently. LFGSS: Fairweather cyclists? Surely not.

^ Fairweather all the way here when I can, done enough training / work riding in the cold and rain + weeks recovering from chest infections to know what I enjoy about cycling when doing it just for general fitness and fun.

Here's a pic I took yesterday. The view isn't so nice when it's pissing it down with icy rain and you've been riding into a strong headwind all day as part of training (Coventry -> Buxton Easter 2007 or 8, the memory fades).

I put one in the calendar already after a little chat with dov and jaygee, we're thinking an organised strike might have some impact.

You need to be working with Rollas, not grumps.

Or maybe all should work together. Starting my season next weekend if the bike is ready.

Fairweather aside. Fox and I (again) made our way to a tiny village hall in Golden Green for the Man of Kent 200k. Loads of club riders, mamils, and even the odd fixed wheel. Most well turned out audax crowd I've seen so far (rapha present), but also the most diverse, with plastic bikes - I spotted some SRAM red - plenty of steel, tandems, etc.

Route was fairly flat with a couple of reasonably steep hills at the start, into cold, wet fog, where we intersected a TT going the other way. Forum's own JAMIE was there. Views from that road would have been great, were it not for the dense fug. :l

Anyway, we eventually got some sun as we rolled back towards the start, over gentle undulations just west of Ashford. It was quiet lanes from then on, and great scenery. I feel like I've explored a lot of new territory, which I'll no doubt visit again. The Elham valley and lanes around Pluckley are worth picking out. And this:

Although I do feel they should try and add "Wind" and "People who drive like cunts" for accuracy.

londons looking gorgeous this past week or so, cant wait to get my fixie sorted :D

"what I most like about riding through winter" thread
[QUOTE=Alamara94;2783150]londons looking gorgeous this past week or so, cant wait to get my fixie sorted :D

Sorry 5 years too late for fixies.find current trend please kthx bye.

Burnham on Crouch =! Burnham on Sea

BoC is in Essex and BoS is in Somerset (and would be quite a trip!)

Aha. Noted. BoS not until later in my cycling career.

one of my favourite rides around here (south wales) Black mountain ride
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/161931468

we made a concious effort to take it easy, soak up the views etc instead of worrying about strava segments and avg speeds

There'll be an electronic route somewhere: if you search FNRttC and Felpham it should show up.

In summary, the route was Streatham, Tooting, Mitcham, Sutton, A219 and then fork right towards Dorking, cross the A25 to Betchworth, Newdigate, Rusper, Horsham, Itchingfield, down Trout Lane, West Chiltington, Amberley, left by the station to avoid that nasty climb on the main road, a bit of a ride across a field full of cows to the Gurkha Bridge, through the woods to the bridge over the Arun at South Stoke, Arundel, Ford, Yapton and Felpham.

We stopped at the Lobster Pot at Felpham - more genteel than Bognor, I'm told. Rode through Bognor to the station, which is a lovely place (as stations go).

Do you have a route for that, if it was one that you would recommend? How is Bognor Regis as a destination? I always thought it was just 'that place' one used when making bad jokes about British weather.

The weather was pretty much perfect today so I headed out to Surrey on a nice loop out to Box Hill. Was feeling pretty good so when I got to Box at 25 miles in, so I decided to do the loop round to Little Switzerland and up Box again before a cuppa. I still felt ok after a banana and tea so went round the whole loop again before smashing home.
55 miles at a 19.1 mph average. Happy with that!

Dartmoor last Friday: http://100climbsfor2012.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/dartmoor.html

Including the climbs of Rundlestone, Dartmeet, Widecombe, Haytor Vale and Salcome Hill Road. Delightful sunshine, dense fog, and a horse that looked like a sheep

I've had a couple of ace rides recently. Half a day on the skyline downhill bike park in queenstown NZ which was incredible. I'd forgotten how much I love riding offroad and a short ride on my fixed from Akaroa to a nearby village over a massive hill. Amazing views and only 3 cars the whole way.

There'll be an electronic route somewhere: if you search FNRttC and Felpham it should show up.

In summary, the route was Streatham, Tooting, Mitcham, Sutton, A219 and then fork right towards Dorking, cross the A25 to Betchworth, Newdigate, Rusper, Horsham, Itchingfield, down Trout Lane, West Chiltington, Amberley, left by the station to avoid that nasty climb on the main road, a bit of a ride across a field full of cows to the Gurkha Bridge, through the woods to the bridge over the Arun at South Stoke, Arundel, Ford, Yapton and Felpham.

We stopped at the Lobster Pot at Felpham - more genteel than Bognor, I'm told. Rode through Bognor to the station, which is a lovely place (as stations go).

FNRttC off to Felpham next Thursday night :0).