Tell us about your weekend ride

Waterloo -kings cross.epic.
Shouted "get off the pavement" at a couple of kenbikers,
#doingmybit

Went out with a mate to ride the biggest hills I could think of near mine on the geared bike.

It was actually less taxing than I expected, next time we'll have to venture out into the Dales I think.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/300499261

Beautiful day for it.

4/20 Vancouver Art Gallery... not for the Asthmatic but could be fun.. hope i don't forget where i Live

Went out with a mate to ride the biggest hills I could think of near mine on the geared bike.

Was one of you wearing a Rapha country jersey? Saw you near almscliff then again at Shipley (was out climbing). You were just short of a couple of big ones (Langbar, over towards Fewston or towards Haworth).

Lovely day for it!

Quick blast out west on the TT bike.

They haven't fixed any potholes.

Fucks.

Out today with Bernie, Esstee, mountaingoatmatt, miss b and the black lion to box hill and back 70 easy miles, glorious weather, no overshoes, no 3/4 bib shorts, no jacket, no full finger gloves.. Just summer riding gear with gilet and arm warmers.

Was one of you wearing a Rapha country jersey? Saw you near almscliff then again at Shipley (was out climbing). You were just short of a couple of big ones (Langbar, over towards Fewston or towards Haworth).

Lovely day for it!

Guilty, small world eh, should of DAS'd us.

I had this route in my head and wanted to see how challenging it was, not amazingly.

Done Langbar before, had forgotten about it, would've mad a good inclusion today...

The other week we did Harrogate to Ilkley via summersbridge and grassington on fixed which was breathtaking..

Next time I think will head out the back of Bingley towards Hebden Bridge, that's a great one.

^^ pothole-tastic out there at the moment. Had a mostly lovely spin with Wrongcog, but we had punctures and snapped chains and mech failures. I'm hoping that today has got my bike bad luck over and done with and I shan't have to pick up a tyre lever for the next 6 months.

There was a vintage bus festival in Theydon today. I had no idea that the was such a thing as a bus-fancier, but the world seems expanded and richer after seeing the how many Mr Toad's there were, ogling the beautifully restored sharabangs and saying 'poop, poop!' under their breath.

The country also smiled on us in the form of Eric - most def not on here - who looked like a man least likely to have a chain tool (lumpen hybrid, jeans, flouro, etc) but who turned out to have a bag filled with every bike tool you can imagine. Thanks to Eric I was saved the LONG walk from banks lane to Theydon and a train journey home.

In fact the more I think about it the better today gets in affirming the general goodness of folk. My Garmin fell off somewhere just north of the Greenwich foot tunnel. I realised in the lift at the other end and sprinted back northward, to find that someone had found it and left it with the newsagents kiosk at the entrance. I looked so flustered when I claimed it that the guy offered me a cup of tea!

So, 65 sunny, interrupted miles filled with excellent conversation that ranged from discussing the various excitements / woes of our successes/failures in the studio, the Killing, vintage buses (natch), Paris-roubaix, John Major and American frat movies. That'll do.

That'll do indeed. More like "Tell Us About Your Weekend Sit On The Verge By A Road" but fun none the less. If you'd lost your garmin - that would have been the icing on a very unlucky cake.

Raising a beer to Eric as we speak.

Nipped out for 20 odd minutes on the fixie around Oxford

http://app.strava.com/activities/49743995

20 Miles of mud, sun and wind.

Some fallen trees too.

Quick ~50 miles with BC, last part Chris and I chased off the front as we had to get home, great fun.

http://app.strava.com/activities/49884258

Couldn't use the Garmin yesterday as out computer was rebooting or something and just tried to wing. Had a Bendix-esque ride out to Kent along horrible A roads. Throw in a hangover and a big fat fry up about an hour before we left, it really wasn't the nicest of rides.

Going to try and get some after worker action in this week given the good weather ahead!

Managed to do 5 hours today faster than 2 hours yesterday. Quiet roads out there today and a brisk pace 140km to Windsor and back with the original blue and black train.

http://app.strava.com/activities/49895892

http://distilleryimage7.s3.amazonaws.com/210fee72a9e511e2868722000aaa088a_7.jpg[/IMG]

Lift your head up. Apart from not looking where you're going you're turning your lid into an air brake. No need to thank me for those 21 seconds. ;)

Managed to do 5 hours today faster than 2 hours yesterday. Quiet roads out there today and a brisk pace 140km to Windsor and back with the original blue and black train.

http://app.strava.com/activities/49895892

I went near Windsor today for a recce of a 25 TT course and I was in Grump kit! #csb #wrongforumbro

As others have said already, yesterday was a day made for cycling. Shame my physique isn't made for the at least one size too large padded Lycra shorts I persist in wearing, but a razor-sharp saggy gusset's a good prompt to awaken those cyclists' slumped in the fashion doldrums of properly fitting attire while waiting at the traffic-lights.

Off I set into the sun's promise with legs keen to oblige 50 miles without straying beyond the centre of town or repeating a street, and maybe to find a few rewarding new ones that brighten the eyes. Within minutes my mind had turned to a video Pistanator posted a while back in the 'epic fail' thread of two spotty little lads 'rapping' about how best to manage an incomparable sense of criminality that had outgrown Crewe's limitations - in recognition of their struggle to avoid eating too many sweets on bullet-ridden streets I hummed silently to their melody, which made an obvious connection to the 'what do you sing while cycling?' thread.

Funny where the mind wanders as the body fights to catch up. Dismissing such thinking I realised as I passed alongside the Thames how much we rely on sunlight to cheer not just ourselves, but the built environment that itself afflicts our mood - yet more connections. But not only that - the conditions gave me the sense I could ride forever, beyond any horizon or forever occupied pelican crossing. There's no stopping a cyclist with conviction and freedom his companion.

Apart from the Rapha cafe of course, where I paused with 28 furiously zig-zagging miles on the clock to be greeted with Dancing James who didn't, and Cornelius Blackfoot who if he did needs to improve his footwork. After sampling a couple of Greasy Slag's finest crème brûlée tarts it was time to ride...somewhere. That place turned out to be Regent Park's Inner Circle. To a cyclist I immediately noticed I was heading in the opposite direction to everyone else - me clockwise, them the opposite. This made good sense though, as it saved them from gawping at my arse unleashed from any restrictive Lycra burden. A good move on their part.

After a single lap I tired of going nowhere. Even when I'm heading nowhere I like to still remain on the go, to be somewhere different than I was just moments before. So I headed up to Highgate. What's marvellous about London is the activity in every corner - it doesn't fizzle out like a comedian's tepid punchline lost to the heights and disinterest of a theatre's stalls. Up there were people doing much the same as those in Soho or Clapham, oblivious to one another but tied in commonality. Folk lounged around Highgate Ponds as I struggled my way up Fitzroy Park, a climb that satisfied my hope to discover a new road if not my inner-masochist. To be riding around and through the best of life was somehow affirmative.

Come the end I'd crossed the river twice and only briefly broke the grip of zone 2 of this ceaseless metropolis. Arriving home Strava announced 50.1 miles, only to change its mind once the ride had been synched and dock me 0.4 of a mile. No matter. Within minutes of setting off a few hours earlier it had already been worth it. I couldn't have enjoyed it more.

Woo hoo.
Finally it's Spring. Bib shorts and track mitts and 100 glorious kilometres of north Kent Downs (didn't get to peel off the arm warmers though).
Toys, Ide, and Star hills. The last was a struggle.

Did see a cyclist down at the start of Shire Lane running up to Downe, paramedics were there he wasn't moving and there was claret. Hope he will be ok.

nice sunny ride out to Downe, there and back.
takes a long time to get out of the suburbs, kept getting slightly lost in Beckenham-ish, which seemed to go on forever. Gates Green Rd / Jackass Lane is an absolute gem though, cross the road and suddenly you're in the country, with shetland ponies and fields and a horse lane next to the road (although most of the riders seemed to be police out for a walk). lovely. time for chocolate milkshake in the village and then headed back along more or less the same route.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2384281

(still failed to get any Big Hill practice in, I need to correct this... )

Absurdbird- I was wearing bibs, base layer and short sleeved jersey+arm warmers, it was cracking.

^But we're you wearing your lobster gloves?
I eschewed a base layer.
Cause I'm hard.

Fingerless gloves today, but it was chilly first thing hence baselayer.

I left the arm warmers on for the whole ride also.

Beautiful out.
No armwarmers!

It was 1 degree centigrade when I rode past Hertford at about 7am. Had to raid the winter wardrobe again this morning. 11 degrees when I jumped on a train in Barnet at 11am. Thank fuck for zips.

Beautiful out.
No armwarmers!