Tell us about your weekend ride

jimbo we are doing 200 miles back to Norwich during the summer if you fancy it?

Otherwise I'm sure there's a few good routes back.

200 miles is a bit mental but yes sounds great. Whats the potential date?

Did this with a friend yesterday. Included in ride are stop at greasy spoon in Great Dunmow and 2 pub stops in Stock on the return leg.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/586669

As it was Easter we decided to head out to the various Easters in the area. Truly grim weather all day and as i did'nt have any waterproofs I got soaked through very quickly. Nearly developed trenchfoot by the finish and shoes now carry health and smell warning.

Despite that there were some lovely quiet country lanes that would have been a joy in nicer conditions. Saw a few riders on the London Phoenix ride as we seemed to criss cross routes a few times. Just rode back to the smoke from Hutton now into bastard headwind all the way, drier than the day before but still hard going.

good effort, what route did you take and how did you map your ride? you take some sort of Sat NAv system?

am thinking of doing this this summer.

Went through Epping forest, Thaxted, Haverhill (dreadful place, apologies to the natives), Bury St Edmunds, East Harling, Norwich. I had Bikehub on the iPhone with the route planned in 20mile ish sections but didn't have it mounted. Just looked it out every few villages to memorise the next names and in the bigger towns to figure out the way through.

This was my first experience using sat nav and I wasn't convinced... Perhaps if I'd had a handlebar mount I would have been more impressed. The quality of Bikehub/cyclestreets directions is pretty miserable anyway.

Wouldn't mind seeing your route mate. My shortest (from Chingford back home) is 106 miles.

I didn't record the route, but a few mins with google gives a good approximation: http://g.co/maps/63x7s

I'd recommend going a different way out of Bury St Edmunds, that bit of road was quite busy & fast.

Great that looks good, this is the route I had planned;

http://g.co/maps/zch7g

I was back in Cheltenham for the Easter weekend and managed to get in a nice near century on Saturday. The weather started off pretty grim, brightened up for a bit and then it tipped down for the last twenty. Still, it was a nice route through some lovely country and had a couple of fun descents.

^ My neck of the woods.

I did most of my miles on Sunday.

We spent a lot of time on back lanes that'd had debris washed over them during the earlier showers and therefore managed to get four p*nctures between the five of us.

Wrong tyre fail.you wanna ask ed about that could be too narrow.

I didn't get one – riding fairly worn 23c tyres at 90-95psi. Ed can suck my presta valve.

Everyone knows that only tired cyclists p*ncture.

Some pre-emptive weekend riding for me. Had the day off so decided to explore some new territory on a route down to Lewes, and followed some more familiar terrain on the way back. It was my first solo century so am feeling pretty chuffed about that. I did wimp out and took gears but was duly rewarded with 2 punctures.

On dropout's recommendation I headed for Ashdown Forest - undoutedly the highlight of the ride - by which time the cloud had cleared and gave me some pretty good views, especially on a little detour to Coleman's Hatch. Headed down an amazing little road called Twyford lane which had an epic descent, two fords (hence the name?), and some rolling stuff through the forest. Awesome.

Dawdled in Lewes, and was punished by the hill out of town, but did get some good views of the Ditchling ridge on Lewes road. Felt a bit shit the whole way home, and was grateful just to make it to the top of the small rise out of Tandridge and up Gangers Hill. Blah blah great ride etc.

out with my club this morning - beasted.

Epping then into Essex yesterday. Did a fall off.

Epping then into Essex yesterday. Did a fall off.

Ahem... Understatement ahoy... more of a fly off I think.

Didn't feel like riding through the suburbs of London for one hour or less of nice rural riding so it was a boring ride today: 5 loops of Regents Park then 5 repeats of Swains. Still, felt pretty good. So nice rolling on 25mm slicks after riding 35mm Marathons all week.

http://app.strava.com/rides/6777745

Cursed myself today- mentioned that I'd had one p_nctr in two years, and that had been a pinch flat.

So, of course, I got that sinking feeling- still, a handy warning against hubris.

Otherwise a good ride, early incident was two columbian guys failing to stop for a corner on a descent- I heard a crash, turned, saw the first one on the deck not moving as the second one hurtled through the bushes at the side of the road.

I ran back up the hill to where the first one was lying, by which time everyone else had arrived.

Scary, the first guy eventually started moving, but he was just lying there face down for a long old time.

Emile and Lincoln fixed their bikes and they went back to London as we headed on to Penshurst.

We stopped there for tea and sandwiches, then headed back. When we hit the pilgrims was Emile and I went off the front as I needed to get to Wickes before it shut, and we had a nice blast at 20mph+ for the last few miles.

And I got to Wickes in time- winner!

[ame]http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168289637[/ame]

Obligatory Strave willy waving link

gf was doing the Hell on t' Hills Duathlon today so I tagged along and did my usual trick of going round the bike route backwards. This involved leaving Honley, rolling out through New Mills, popping through Hepworth and then working my way over to Dunford Bridge and onto the Woodhead Pass. After that it was a trip over Holme Moss and down through Holmfirth back to Honley.

Did it on fixed and very glad I went that way round because I'm pretty certain I would never have made it up Holme Moss the other way round, even with a paltry 65" gearing.

Legs hurting now.

Going on my first properly long ride in a while, I'm gonna have a stab at it fixed but was wondering what ratio you would all advise running, I commute on about 92" but its only a couple of flat kilometres, and I'm riding about 120km on this ride, any thoughts?

Sounds a bit spiny for that sort of distance- it'll take forever.

Best to get around 104 gear inches for anything over 60km

why no serious answer

Welcome to the forum.
72" has been regarded as a good distance gearing by some.
Depends on your fitness.
There's about a thousand threads on gear inches if you obey the magical formula of u.t.f.s

I rode the birdy today, around holes bay.

Haha thank you, I'm not even new! Just haven't been on a long ride in a while. Way ahead I you though and all search revealed was track related gearing, I'll go for a 72 test tide

Searching is only as good as the terms you give it.

Depending on what sort of terrain you're going on, distance, fitness, preferred riding style and cadence, bike geometry, strength and a bunch of other factors, good distance ranges from around 55 to 77 inches.

Otherwise a good ride
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168289637

Dammit - I thought I spotted you out on our ride this morning and your route makes me think I was right.

Out early for a 40miler to Ide Hill and back - it was great to be in the sunshine as I was expecting crappy weather for some reason.

http://app.strava.com/rides/6775004

didn't happen :(

was too busy faffing in the shed worrying about imploding wheel bearings. Turned out to be just the seal was dry so made a squeeky clicking noise O_o