Tell us about your weekend ride

Sussex was all happy 'good morning' with a smile today, 100% response. 55 miles on my own in lovely lanes covered in less-than-lovely mushy leaves. Plus drizzle, naturally......

To be fair between neck warmers, helmets, caps and 14 layers of clothing the standard nod is hard to spot at the moment, most people round here (bucks/berks) seem to go with a wave, and there are very few 100 yard stares going on...

Everyone around here seems shocked to see anyone else.
It does mean you get a nice heartfelt wave though.

Second race in the London X league for me today out at the Gravesend Cyclopark.

Excellent course, friendly staff and lots of racers enjoying themselves. I've not done much racing, but CX seems an excellent way to start.

Aye, I'm with Dan on this - I'm sure that most of the riders misread the signs as Sufferrey, not Surrey. I fancy that far too many of them have looked at the waffa website, seen that no-one smiles and thinks that's 'pro'

Rode for a bit, binned it, rode some more, punctured, rode some more. Ate cake.

The Chilterns were full of smiles and waves. Chilterns >>> Surrey

First ride after moving to London today testing a Stoke Newington/Aldgate commute, pretty straight forward on a sunday - looking forward to some rush hour action...

Went to the Epping Forest today. It was muddy.

Then I had some mushrooms.

I have to say though - I had a sub 10% success rate with saying hello to other riders today. Sometimes when I ride in Surrey I wonder why people even come out on their bikes when they are having (what ostensibly looks like) a miserable time.

If you're not enjoying it, then what's the point?

Because *Rapha.
*

It ain't the weekend, but I work in retail...
Yesterday's ride was just about perfect. Plus I popped my 150mile cherry.

http://www.strava.com/activities/96037977

Echoing above sentiments, I think I got one smile from an old couple on their touring bikes today. The world champions, team GB and Team Sky members of Surrey were looking thoroughly miserable.

https://www.strava.com/activities/96858537

Oh and made props on the ride Jammy!

Heather Dawe rocks
http://www.heatherdawe.co.uk/a-bicycle-ride-in-yorkshire

40 odd miles on my Steamroller in the essex lanes with Lea Valley CC. Out to Moreton and back with the return loopskirting Matching Green

Leaves still on the trees, but only just . Now more golden than green and they won't be there much longer. Next week it will be golden snow in the forest.

Definetly a winter smell in the air: a mixture of wood smoke, damp air and slowly rotting wood.The roads are all damp and muddy. Potholes are getting bigger. Time for mudguards and fatter tyres.

That is Surrey for you. They are a friendly bunch in Essex. Particularly the old geezers.

Yes , in Essex we have good manners and wave at you whatever bike you are on- even if you are a lost Dalston fixed gear no braker whose ventured out to the High Beach Tea Hut; all are welcome...

105 slow k's arround the Hanua Rainges with a few mates and the misses. 26degrees, amazing views, no wind, more views, beers at the end. Below are some photos that other people took and put on the internet. I didnt take any as I was too busy riding my bike. Sprint down in NZ isnt to shabby.

^ so jealous.

This was me

Leaving London in the dark early hours of Saturday morning, spinning up the Great North Road with both front lights strobing away and Daft Punk's "Contact" playing was suitably trippy and more than made up for a Friday night in.

Miles: 112
Miles of smiles: c.110 (see below)
Number of 'roads' identified by Googlemaps as B-roads, but which were in fact ploughed fields: 2. Fuck you Google.
Number of horses having a mid-morning freak-out (buckaroo style): 2
Time warming frozen todger at pee stops: 3 minutes
Enormous alien-craft-hiding silos sighted: 2 (what the hell are these things?)
Hills: 0

I found the map dataset OSM Cycle to be more precise on the state of the road (5 categories in clasification). Check out ridewithgps.com.

They might be the airship hangers?

That's exactly what they are/were. It's an old RAF base where my grandad used to work.

I've been meaning to post in here for a while, but never got around to it.

I'm working in Australia for a month or so and flew my bike out. Working nights means I can be out from about 6am and ride up until 11/12 when it starts to get too hot for my Irish blood.

It's beautiful countryside here. Lots of tropical rainforest, volcanic ranges with some peaks at about 3500 feet and as it's coastal you can do long flat rides too. Cycling heaven.

As this is the weekend rides thread, here's mine from Sunday.

http://www.strava.com/activities/97009098

There's a national park called Springbrook that is a decent climb, though I'd never done it from the west. So I decided to give both ascents a go. I'm no climber, so why I thought this would be fun I have no idea and truth be told I didn't enjoy the second ascent much at all. But the view from the top is worth it.

(Not my pic)

I was so bloody slow that my Garmin gave up the ghost as I limped home, missing off the last 20 miles and another 1200 feet.

Number of 'roads' identified by Googlemaps as B-roads, but which were in fact ploughed fields: 2. Fuck you Google.

I'm glad to hear that the guerilla road sabotage movement is still active around these parts. It's a pretty effective strategy to just bury roads.

TheoryGirl and I have just returned from a free week at a Portuguese 5 star resort in exchange for writing a gushing review of it. As if that wasn't good enough they'd organised a riding session I wasn't aware of beforehand with Marcus Burghardt.

A 55 km ride around the Algarve with him and a few others in perfect weather was a real thrill. He's a very relaxed, considerate and approachable bloke, happy to share tips on group riding and general road-craft without ever being patronising - many times he advised I should change gear to improve my pedalling. He spotted the saddle of my hire bike was too low so shortly after a quick coffee break we pulled over a few times while he adjusted it, meaning we lost touch with the other riders. Once the saddle was bang-on Marcus gave me a tow at, to me at least, a decent clip, while sheltering me from the wind and explaining the technique of holding the wheel of the very bike he rode in this year's Tour. Those few minutes catching up with the group with his help were an experience I'll never forget.

That's amazing. What an experience.

Very jealous.