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Yes indeed.
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
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Ah.Mersea.getting off with 10-year-old girls*.in tents.
LEAVE IT! I was a 10-year-old too.
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Beat my last time out by 0.01mph average, I'll take that as a win given how tired I was feeling at the start.
It's a testament to how stunning the countryside, and how much I enjoy this particular route that by the halfway point I'd decided to push a bit harder.
Glorious day today.
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This was indeed lovely! Special highlights were the utterly beautiful scenery, the cool breeze, the laughs at the tea shop, HMS and Benj's risque shorts. HMS - it occurred to us that you didn't need to flee with Benj and should have joined us for a post ride Peroni. Next time man. Lovely riding with you. More of that please!
Next time indeed! I needed to be back too for pre-planned family outing, which turned out to have been abandoned whilst we were out and replaced with a BBQ.. Can't complain.
Anyway - excellent ride. Never been out that way before and likely never to see as perfect day again.
//whatcyclingisallabout
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Fucking Garmin dumped my ride (and the correct time) when I 'overzealously turned it off'.
Anyway, I tested my 'Reservoir Dogleg' ride today, setting off at 6.30am to beat the heat and the traffic, and heading out into the headwind until I got a little bit beyond Hanningfield Reservoir. I took the Tixie-Fixie-Wixie on 79". That part of Essex can be a little non-descript, but of course it looked very pleasant this morning. Saw quite a few clubruns just starting out as I got back towards the Epping Road again, by which point my 2 bottles were nearly empty and the heat was starting to, erm, hot up. I don't really like anything over 20 degrees. Celtic blood and all that. The reservoir looked nice on the 200m stretch of road where you can actually see the fucking thing.
Also decided I would definitely ride past Hackney Downs Station on the way back, just to exorcise any latent demons after the PHV wiped me out there a few weeks back. There was no drama. The only near miss this time was a rabbit near Blackmore which came within inches of becoming diced rabbit in my bladed spokes.
Did spot the stats as I saved the ride, before the fucking machine then lost it. 81 miles in 3h58, so 20.4mph moving average. Did smash it a bit with the predominantly tailwind between East Hanningfield and Theydon Bois. Kind of wish I'd jumped on the train at Chingford, but then it's a rock/hard place situation: boiling carriage leaping up and down to move bike or whatever vs. the done-it-a-million-times shlep through Waltham Forest & Hackney.
In other good news:
i) I fixed the fucking creak my Burls has been making since puncheuring it up Highgate West Hill a few weeks ago: toothbrush clean of seatpost bolts + regrease; general clean of clamping area; removed metal shim/sleeve from seat-tube + cleaned + regreased; same kind of thing with seatcollar; epoxy putty around nose/rail interface where there was too much play (though that wasn't the big creak).
ii) There will be a large quantity of pizza and wine consumed this evening.
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Just back from about 80 miles into Essex, too, but later and I went to the Langdon Hills (near Basildon) instead, to stave off boredom with places where I'd been zillions of times before. Just glorious out today (as if it needed saying).
A good couple of traffic jams in the countryside, probably due to events, and the odd example of strange driver behaviour, like the elderly couple who just would not overtake even when the road ahead was completely clear, and despite being invited to a number of times, and who so annoyed the drivers behind that they thought it was my fault when they eventually roared past.
Through some strange coincidence (probably due to me doing some of the hills several times), they turned up behind me not once, not twice, but three times. By the third time, it was essentially a running gag. I couldn't say anything to them, as they had their windows firmly closed. They travelled at a steady 20mph. Still, I'll take a considerate driver over someone who speeds any time.
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Another beautiful day on the bike. This time with my wife and 9 year old son. We cycled from Blackheath to Walthamstow to meet some friends for brunch, and then cycled back this afternoon. Jago (my son) has just discovered the joys of climbing on a bike and maintained a steady 11.5 mph up greenwich park hill on the way home. I'm going to have to set up a strava account for him - he also has the best ever race-face!
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Hawkshead to Skipton offered a pretty good day out.
Entering the Dales from the North West I would definitely recommend, it offers a pleasantly gradual introduction to Yorkshire hills.
That's a genuine tip, by the way, not an ironic reference to the above climb.
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I don't normally do ride reports but I am in Devon and bored. So...
My boss had demanded I take a day off this month as I’d yet to touch my year’s annual leave allocation, and I’d picked Monday (today) without any real plans for it, so figured it’d make a good recovery day for a stupidride on Sunday. My original plan was something seasidesque of the Maldon/Dunwich ilk, but having nearly been blown off Tower Bridge on the Friday I decided to go for something more southwesterly. Which gave me the opportunity to try something I’ve been contemplating for a while: riding to my parents’ house near Exeter in one go.
I’ve done the ride a couple of times in 2/3 day attempts, but unfortunately this hasn’t helped me learn a decent route as I am a bit disorganised. This attempt was no different: managed to do route directions for the first 70 miles, then got bored and went to bed instead. I departed early Sunday morning sleep-befuddled, extremely unprepared and entirely unconvinced I was going to make it.
I can’t actually remember the first 40 odd miles because I was half asleep and I was doing my old commute to Guildford, but I definitely woke up when I got a pinch flat while going down something pretty steep somewhere in the Surrey Hills. After managing not to land in a hedge I inspected the damage and only then noticed quite how bad a state my front tyre was in. Hmm, possibly wasn’t the best day to have only brought one tube and no patch kit. I checked the tyre pretty thoroughly, being aware that another puncture could fuck everything up magnificently; hoped for the best, and promptly punctured again approximately 2 miles later.
Being in the middle of nowhere I decided my best best was to try and head for a main road to see if I could hitch a lift to Guildford or somewhere, so I set off on a lovely countryside walk and tried not to have a tantrum at my own idiocy. After about 20 minutes a handy roadie with a long valve tube kindly sorted me out, and things were back on track. I pumped it up as best I could with my not-that-great mini pump, crossed everything and set off Godalmingwards with about 50psi in the front, no more spares and extra grit and determination.
The route from this bit to Alton was absolutely lovely, which took my mind off the state of my tyre and lack of equipment to deal with further punctures for a bit. It got even better when I crossed over the A3 and into some lanes towards Frensham when who should I bump into but the forum’s very own adroit, who was mechanicing for a CTC challenge ride. (Curiously last time I was out that way I bumped into him as well, on braker’s Bristol ride.) Absolute hero adroit gave me two spare tubes and an extra 70psi in my front tyre, and buoyed by this and the pleasure of bumping into a friendly face I set off to towards Alton, slightly regretting my decision to attempt this ride on 81 gear inches.
In Alton I stopped off for food and remembered that the Boots staff there hate vegetarians, and then headed off for Winchester via my old favourite New Alresford/Itchen Stoke/Kings Worthy route, followed by my favourite route out of Winch down Port Lane (because it makes me think of port, and it never has any cars on it. Oh, and it’s flat). Hopped onto the A road towards Romsey before picking up the magnificent Lee Lane (which for some reason has been closed to motor vehicles since I’ve known it) and followed that down to the Southampton bridge that takes you to the New Forest.
I’ve yet to figure out the rest of the route so everything went a bit shambolic here after I attempted to go heavy on the A roads but after getting about a mile and a half down the A31 the hard shoulder disappeared, so I spent about half an hour walking down the gravelly verge with cars shooting past 3cm away from me at 70mph. That was not a highlight. After finally finding a way into the actual foresty bit I cheered up at the New Forest’s various charms/pubs/ponies, and then proceeded to get really fucking lost for another hour before having a tantrum and getting on the A35 all the way to Lyme Regis.
There isn’t too much to add to the ride report on that as it was really just sitting on an A road for quite a long time, though I did grow quite fond of the A35 (or I did until it started getting hilly, anyway). Somewhere outside of Christchurch I realised I’d picked up yet another puncture, so attempted a tube change/boot job outside a petrol station, and set off, lamenting being back on 50 psi and longing for another track pump top-up. I punctured AGAIN somewhere near Dorchester and had a proper tantrum about that one and actually refused to change the tube and just pumped it up instead, so did most of the last 50 miles on about 20 psi. This unfortunately combined with everything getting really quite hilly; I had flipped my wheel so was running 48/18 instead of the 16 I’d done the first 120 miles on, but it was still pretty unpleasant. And it dragged.
By the time I got about 10 miles away from my parents’ house I was falling asleep on my bike again, which was extremely irritating. I must get better at dealing with that. However, I was cheered by some excellent Devon wildlife, including a shoal of deer having an evening snack; a dead badger lying on his front with his back legs sticking out like he’d just given up on the futility of it all; and a lone Basset Hound patrolling the countryside like he’d been born into the wrong body but wasn’t going to let his ridiculous legs stop him being Boss.
That’s it! I had a shower when I got home. I stank. Then I fell asleep. I think it was approx. 208 miles with approx. 13000 ft of climbing. Would totally do it again, but 1) with non-fucked tyres; 2) with a route; and 3) probably with gears.
Oops that was a bit long. Sorry for all the words.
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Ooh you should do Richmond/Cobham combined with what I did from the a246 yesterday, that would be a cracking route. Take good tyres though :l
(Also: thanks all!)
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On a phone atm but will make one this evening. It will go crazy at the crossing-the-a3 bit, just to warn you.
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^^^^^^^^^
Love going through the Blackwall on a bike - you can get some wicked speeds drafting HGVs through there - and yous never too young to pick up them skillz. However, we took the long route and went through the Dartford tunnel. Thought I'd chuck the lad in at the deep end... (also made him ride clipped in and brakless with no helmet)Actually the greenwich foot tunnel probably wasn't much less safe than the aforementioned river crossings. With all this pesky sun the great unwashed have been descending en-masse to Greenwich and Blackheath, and they have been leaving swathes of broken glass in their wake. Despite playing dodge the shards J still managed to puncture on a smashed beer bottle.
Oliver Schick
BringMeMyFix
Dammit
hms
Benj
FridayMarch26th
6pt
tricitybendix
tonyme
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Tell us about your weekend ride
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Ah.Mersea.cycling through Peldon village over the Strood pints of real ale and.oysters.