Todays ride

[Escape Goat]

I set the alarm for 5.45 and went out this morning for a few hours to avoid folk.






I've missed cycling outside. I really have.

[redefined_cycles]

That last pic @reg isn't it classed as a 'scenery' pic

[redefined_cycles]

Just a couple of hours around town. As sufferers will know, I

This one tis gorgeous btw (thw quarry?)

[RIP]

Ah, I have a convert . Heath & Reach Quarry, still operational. Basically Leighton Buzzard is a giant sandpit.

I've earmarked this exact spot for a local bivvy, It's on a wide bridleway. I always find it most unfortunate when you get a puncture JUST as it's getting dark, so that you have to stop and rest until dawn at the wayside during your bona fide travels, when you can then effect a repair in daylight and proceed on your way.

[redefined_cycles]

Ah, I have a convert . Heath & Reach Quarry, still operational. Basically Leighton Buzzard is a giant sandpit.

I've earmarked this exact spot for a local bivvy, It's on a wide bridleway. I always find it most unfortunate when you get a puncture JUST as it's getting dark, so that you have to stop and rest until dawn at the wayside during your bona fide travels, when you can then effect a repair in daylight and proceed on your way.

Love quarries Reg. They're ace maybe we should start a 'this quarry here' thread. Possibilities: endless

(Betterer than trains n buses n cars)

[RIP]

Don't encourage me Shaf .

Perhaps we could arrange an "access all areas" tour of Bob's brother's quarry, including a go on the monster truck .

[BigdummySteve]

One of youthful riding locations was the local slag heaps, sounds awful but it was a great place with a really unique ecosystem of lichens, fungi ( lots of fly agaric) and small trees, great trails with a very abrasive surface if you fell off. The other hazards included huge dumper trucks. There is no trace of Betteshanger now, Maggie did for the mine and the spoil heap was levelled and turned into a country park! Although it was a bit of an eyesore viewed from afar I do feel they lost an interesting environment.

[ScotRoutes]

More #beerienteering today. 64km which pretty much killed me. It just feels like I've lost loads of fitness, likely the after-effects of CV19. Still, a lovely, if slightly breezy, day so no hurry.

Loads of insects around now

P1060524 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

P1060519 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Huge swathes of bog cotton

P1060533 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

But the highlight came when I sat down to have some food and saw a bird flying over.

P1060523 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Looked hawk-like, but too big. Too "fine" in features to be a buzzard or eagle. Then I saw it heading to its nest.

P1060522 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

Osprey!!

[BigdummySteve]

Wow! Must have been great to see. Apparently we’ve had a sea eagle in Oxfordshire, runaway from the isle of white. It’s hanging out with the red kites ( over run with kites here)

[redefined_cycles]

Another consecutive ride of which I've lost count the days now. Probably 12 or 13th day. Tomorrows gonna be a toughie as a long shift (0715 til 2015) without a bike for commuting to it. So gonna have to fit it in somehow.

Todays ride I went out for my 'local'. Just short of 9 miles and decided to check on the ratio of mtb to rd. Stopped at every section leaving or entering the trails and took a pic of my mileage.

Home to trail 1.8 miles
Mtb section finished at 3.2 miles
Bit of road ended at 3.3 miles
Down a rocky track takong me to 3.8 miles
Bit of road ending at 3.9 miles
Down woods and up the rocky track taking me to 4.5 miles

Return same way as out. The answer is... I don't know, needs a calculation then times by 2. Seems a decent bit of mtb.

Met some killer cows

Managed to get down the steps without breaking my head cos that'd have been embarrassing

Thankfully managed to get up the climb of about 0.4 miles without dabbing (well almost didn't dab... I forget.. maybe I managed).

Got within a stones throw (if superman was throwing) of The Peaks ignore the 'home' icon in google maps as its the previous home. Not a quarry in site so couldn't get a pic of that. Thanks for watching and if anyones good at quick maths in your head then don't forget to add the road:off road ratio

[RIP]

Wow! Must have been great to see. Apparently we’ve had a sea eagle in Oxfordshire, runaway from the isle of white. It’s hanging out with the red kites ( over run with kites here)

I wonder if you might soon be seeing a Sea Kite or a Red Eagle?

[BigdummySteve]

Yeah a red kite with an 8ft wingspan would be very cool.

[Bearlegged]

Red Eagle?

Already been done, I suspect Sean is well-acquainted.

[Bearlegged]

Love that osprey pic, ScotRoutes.

[ScotRoutes]

Thanks.

I'd have loved to have got closer for a better photo but the bird was keeping an eye on me and I don't want to disturb the nesting site. I only had my compact camera with me so I might take a trip back with the SLR and big lens.

[sean_iow]

Red Eagle?

Already been done, I suspect Sean is well-acquainted.

I've wasted many an hour on that boat, drinking my overpriced caramel latte I try to avoid the Red Funnel if I can as it takes an hour, we refer to it as the mini-cruise The Wightlink from Yarmouth is only 35 mins.

I've I actually went out for a longer ride on Saturday, I managed 72 miles with just under 8000 feet of climbing. I had to use the Spearfish as I've for a split in the tyre on the singlespeed, we also had 40 to 50 mph winds which I was riding into for the first 2 hours. At least the gears helped with the headwind.

I rode again on Sunday and Monday but this time with Jane. We've went hunting down early/rare post boxes, we found 2 Edward VIII ones on the Island. I must have been tired from Saturday as I was in danger of being dropped by Jane

[sean_iow]

Here is one of the rare Edward VIII post boxes form my ride.



I believe that only 161 were made with Edward's cypher. Quite how 2 ended up on the Island I don't know. I've only been taking an interest in post boxes for a few days, since John Climber put some up on FB. It turns out that the current Elizabeth II ones are actually quite rare over here. I assume that as we still have perfectly serviceable on from Victoria onward they don't feel the need to replace them.

[RIP]

Excellent that, our Sean. I reckon JC and myself have started something with this 'ere postboxpacking. I copped two lovely ones during the V-WRT as did JC of course. You could probably even bivi in one standing up if you were desperate.

[RIP]

Right this one's for Shaf's eyes only after he foolishly showed a minor quarry interest the other day. Biiiig mistake . Everyone else move along in an orderly fashion please.

Went back to the same area again to double-check the potential Spot.



I seem to have "Done A Cummings" and ended up 100 miles away for no good reason, or I'm in some space wormhole to the the Peak District:





"Some sand". Actually five different rare flavours in this quarry Shaf, including the super-rare white stuff.



The wheels turn, where they stop nobody knows.



One of only two examples of remnants of the old sand railway system:



Oy, stop peeping! I can see you. This was only meant for Shaf. I did warn you .

[MuddyPete]

[Boab]

Was going to post this yesterday evening, but fell asleep on the sofa, as you do. Slept in the garden on Sunday night and was woken up at 04:30 by the wood pigeons making an utter racket. Once I extracted myself from the tent, it was into the house for a litre of water and half a litre of cold brew coffee and tonic water. Once hydrated, I started getting in the cycling kit, only to discover that I'd left some of it in the bedroom, so had to sneak in and retrieve it.



I haven't cycled further than ~70 km during lock down, so fancied going a bit further for a change. My route took in some new to me, bridleways and byways, this one was quite nice:



This one I imagine would be hellish in the winter, or after heavy rain, being basically the bed of a stream in places:



I then headed off into Breckland, with the intention of linking up with the Icknield Way and following it home. So I skirted West Stow and headed off road towards Culford Heath. The next three photos are all from the "same" byway, i.e. I didn't turn left or right, just plowed straight on. First up, flint strewn double track, then some single track through some pine trees, followed by some grass alongside open farm land:







The main issue with cycling in The Brecks, is the sand (and the flint). Some of the byways were basically unridable, I think I'd have still struggled on my old fatbike with really low pressures. The best place to ride was just on the edge of the verge, well, it was until you found the verge blocked by fallen down fences etc, then it was an exercise in trying to stay upright, while making any sort of forward progress:



The last time I cycled through Deadman's Grave was on my March BaM ride, the weather couldn't have been more different. At least then, the low cloud and pissing rain meant that you could cycle in the wheel ruts, no such luck yesterday, so grass verge it was again. I also encountered cows, the bastards were lounging all over the f'ing track, so I had to detour round them:



All to soon, it was back onto the local bridleways and byways that make up my morning loops:



It was lovely to be out for longer than three hours and to go a bit further from home. At about 85km in, my legs were certainly letting me know they weren't used to the distance. So while I'm furloughed in June, I'll have to do something about that. I should've drunk more water and taken some of Mary Schmich's advice, but over all, it was a fantastic ride.

[Dean]

Must say, that I don't look forward to riding non-fasted as it is quite liberating not having to worry about food and water preride...

I have never eaten while on short rides of less than three hours as I don't see the need for it (either fun rides from home or commuting for an hour to work, but I will eat instantly on getting back though), but no water?

Good job on ten consecutive rides, I am furloughed and also struggling with motivation to ride even twice a week.

Yeah... no water was the bit I was trying to takw it easy with. I actually had quite a neat syrategy on the 42 (becime 32) miler which was to keep HR below 135ish. But first little uphill section and it hit 162 so had to rethink it. Settled on 155ish... Ride lasted about 7 hours but riding time was 4 of them with a prayer stop in between as well as stopping for a rest whenever I felt I was getting close to a limit...

This doesn't quite apply to the above ride, but I read in an AK mag years ago about some famous alpine climber. He'd drink 2L of water before departing which would ensure he was able to stay out longer before needing hydration... Works well (though in mt particular case this time, the last drink was about 10 hours previous)...

I don't use a HRM but I reckon my heart rate wouldn't dip below 120bpm for my rides. I don't hang about when on the bike so our rides are completely different. That is probably why I have to take a bottle with me. When hiking I often drink a pint of water before breakfast but when riding I sip small amounts frequently to keep topped up without my stomach feeling like a goldfish bowl going over roots/descending.

Why carry water when you have powdered water beneath your feet? :)

[redefined_cycles]

fasting month over for me now so no need to keep such a snails pace no more

[summittoppler]

I moved away from biking on the coast yesterday as I went to 'check' on a summit
By riding on my own from home and sticking to trails I know well, it meant I stayed within the Welsh governments guidance (Wales has different guidance than England) and i had a tougher by biking to Drum which stands at 771 metres.

Its only up from here
20200527_102946 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

You can just make out Conwy castle in the center of the pic
20200527_111204 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20200527_112302 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

It was so dry...
20200527_113808 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

20200527_120419 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

Its a long way to the top
20200527_131000 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

IMG_20200527_173217_009 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

I even had a snooze at the summit!!
IMG_20200527_173217_010 by Jeff Price, on Flickr

[RIP]

Now things are slightly more 'open', one arranged to go for a spin with one's pal Lord Jezzer of Bell End, aka Jeremy Bell. The idea was to meet exactly half way and then do a loop, so we ended up riding a sort of "squashed omega" shape. Last time we met was for a pub crawl (*) and we didn't see why this time should be any different despite current circumstances. Well, except for staying very non-pubby distances apart, which turned out to be quite easy to do. Interestingly it's become second-nature now anyway; felt a bit strange riding near someone else but we just always seemed to stay at least ten feet away, didn't touch the same gates etc etc. Worst bit was Lord Jezzer not sharing his second bag of crisps with his faithful retainer.

(*) it was quite a strange crawl because we only ended up in the one boozer. A lot of crawling took place in said hostelry though.

My straight line took me over the A5 and along a very thin bridleway:



Met up with Jez and set off, but we'd only ridden a mile when we decided it was time for a pub stop. Well there's no point rushing things is there? Here we are at the "Six Bells" (yes, visited this church on my last ride), proper glasses, beer, crisps, and the obligatory talking of considerable quantities of rubbish:



Taking our leave, we wobbled past the postboxes of my last ride, and into Woburn Woods, where by some amazing stroke of luck we came across another boozer - the "Lady Of The Lake":



Suitably refreshed, we proceeded leisurely through Woburn deer park to Eversholt, via one of my favourite bridleways-with-a-river-running-down-it, spare pair of socks obligatory:





Where there's a cricket pitch there's ALWAYS a pub, so we called in at the "Cricketers" for a final quick half:



By this time we were getting a bit disorientated so it was absolutely no surprise to end up here:



A sure sign that it was probably time to draw a discreet veil over the proceedings, and we parted company, whereupon I rode home the same way with panda insisting on a minor diversion down a very pleasant green lane:



'Reg' - gentleman's gentleman to Lord Jezzer of Bell End