Todays ride

[redefined_cycles]

Thanks guys... Not as nails as you lot and my bottom was hurting (no chamoise, just boxers) on enroute to the station which made me wonder about the credentials of that Selle SMP saddle. Though maybe I'm asking it for a bit much, definitely not as comfy as the 600g Brooks copy off Ton...

[BigdummySteve]

On my way to the station, armed with 3 hours of sleep I greeted 'good morning' to anyone I saw. I obviously had my 'morning' and 'afternoon' mixed up. So to be sure I changed it to 'hi' or 'hallo' at the top of my voice.

Seems you made the news!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0ay9u1gg4

[redefined_cycles]

On my way to the station, armed with 3 hours of sleep I greeted 'good morning' to anyone I saw. I obviously had my 'morning' and 'afternoon' mixed up. So to be sure I changed it to 'hi' or 'hallo' at the top of my voice.

Seems you made the news!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0ay9u1gg4

Lol... you got me worried for a mo there. Wouldn't be too surprised though as they did look rather alarmed (tried to keep my tone subdued as much as I could and was riding slowly enough)...

[ScotRoutes]

DSC_1487 by Colin Cadden - Flickr2BBcode

[MuddyPete]

A short, murky and somewhat surprising bimble around central Dorset.

I departed the large free car park on Bulbarrow Hill, sped down the road past the new pop-up ice-cream shop (Tiny Tim's) and along the Wessex Ridgeway past a rather foggy and forlorn Okeford Hill bike park.

Taking a sharp right at the wooden bench, I bimbled along the singletrack, through the hedge and turned immediately left in the field.
Following the bridleway, meandering through the woods along "St Edward's Way" (including a sharp right in the woods) I arrived at the WW2 pilot's memorial that's framed by a well-trimmed hedge.

A quick snack then onwards, curving left for 500m until a short cheeky trail on the right led to a bridleway and a good blast down hill to the road .

I headed to Turnworth, stopping for PO box photos for Sean & Reg (are they still "a thing"?), then got a bit lost and took the wrong bridleway towards Bulbarrow-ish.

Having crossed a couple of fields I found myself "off-piste" in some woods, weaving my way through the trees, following an absorbing, smooth but very grassy "sort-of" path at a fairly brisk pace enjoying the serendipitous delights of the unexpected .

I popped out of the woods to be confronted by a bald middle-aged man wearing only a pair of blue, saggy boxers lying face-down in the wet grass .

Beneath him, his rather nubile female companion, clad only in the briefest of peach lacy nether-garments, did her best to hide her face (if not her modesty) in his chest .

I briefly considered asking for directions but, after exchanging courtesies, I bade them farewell, resisted the temptation to bunny-hop over them, giving instead a respectfully-wide berth and sped down the hill to the bridleway I was supposed to be following.

In life, one never knows what is around the corner .

Some photos here...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD6inWdlwVP ... 16qk6p0wj5

[RIP]

past the new pop-up ice-cream shop

past an ice-cream shop? What's wrong with you man?

stopping for PO box photos for Sean & Reg (are they still "a thing"?)

Absolutely!

Some photos here...

Plainly those aren't the pics that we're raring to see Pete mate!

[MuddyPete]

Plainly those aren't the pics that we're raring to see Pete mate!

I think you'll need the BareBoners forum for those, old chap .

Ice-cream: good point . Although: I've tried it before and it is rather yummy .

[sean_iow]

I was reading that and thinking Tiny Tims sounds familiar, obviously I'd already seen the instagram post but didn't connect that your both the same person.

I saw a rather nice post box on Friday, I'll have to ride over to it tomorrow for a picture. I've got to go that way anyway as I lost a KOM on a climb over near it recently, missed out on getting it back on Friday by 1 second, how dare mainlanders come over here and steal my KOMs

My ride today was 3 hours bimbling, only plan was to go past my workshop to read the electric meter, made the rest up as I went. It rained the whole time, quite heavily for some bits, it was strangely pleasant after all the relentless heat recently.

[fatbikephil]

Fair chuffed to bash out a 200k road ride on the Pacer today. Then saw Shaffs post Mind you his ride was all down hill whereas mine was quite undulating.

Somewhere out there is the Bell Rock lighthouse

[MuddyPete]

Cheers Sean .
Here's something super-niche, for the cognoscenti ....Okeford Fitzpaine's green telephone box and a "GR" post box .



https://www.instagram.com/p/CD7I51HFh09 ... 5qhccte7d0

[redefined_cycles]

Fair chuffed to bash out a 200k road ride on the Pacer today. Then saw Shaffs post Mind you his ride was all down hill whereas mine was quite undulating.

Somewhere out there is the Bell Rock lighthouse

Hold on... your bike looks more posh than mine (but is it posh Italian Columbus steel )... what is it. What's a pacer and was that 200k of gravelly dashing

[sean_iow]

Forecast for today was rain from early afternoon - obviously it was already chucking it down when I left home at 10:00 I would have been tempted not to bother but I had some post boxes to photograph. I went past the sun flowers - the rain hasn't done them much good.



They're not actually mine, just a patch at the edge of a field.

Onward to the first post box of note



This is outside the front of the residence of a local post box collector, he also has a small campsite in the back garden which has rare post boxes scattered throughout it.

I went past this bonus VR I happened to spot



The box is doing better than the attached building which has been gradually falling down over the past few years. They've recently removed the remains of the collapsing roof as it was in danger of puling the wall over. Then it was more riding into the wind to the last location of note



Another VR but this one has been decommissioned and relocated to someones front wall for their own post. There's a note to say it's just for them, I assume as it's down a bridleway and only has a few houses around it that before they added the note that hundreds of letters a day would be posted there?

Then only the small matter of riding home, still somehow into the wind For the second day in a row Jane had cleaned the kitchen floor only for me to arrive home soaking wet and dripping mud off me

[RIP]

Quite like that black one. Reckon your collection is well ahead now .

"local postbox collector"!!! - yes, well, if you'd mentioned this right at the start it would have made things a hell of a lot easier wouldn't it? We could all have trooped up to his door in a big horde (of, er, two or three), requested a private viewing, and ticked all the varieties off in one go! Tchoh, I don't know .

Problems:

a/ probably cheating?

b/ on IoW and I've still not pulled my finger out to come down.

[fatbikephil]

Hold on... your bike looks more posh than mine (but is it posh Italian Columbus steel )... what is it. What's a pacer and was that 200k of gravelly dashing

Surly Pacer - no longer made but their take on a trad road bike - usual Surly chromo, horizontal top tube and lugged fork with bendy blades. Quite a nice thing and far more comfy than my Ti framed van nic, which languishes at the back of the garage unused.

No gravel whatsoever (apart from that washed onto the roads from last Tuesdays deluge) just hard blacktop.....

[Mythste]

Not as interesting as some, but I had a lovely shakedown ride from North Manchester to the Seaside on Saturday. My first time out with everything I intend to take on a couple of 3-4 nighters before the year is through.

The route was 50 miles and ~3k feet of climbing. Nothing mega but enough to find out what I needed to change - the first of which being a frame bag and water solution. The bottles fall foul of the frame back and as a result the bottle just kiss the inside of my calf per rotation. Drove me mad!

Secondly is going to be a saddle angle tweak. I really enjoyed the Aero bars but after more than a few minutes I noticed a distinct lack of tickle in my tackle. Completely numb. Fortunately it was repeatedly short lived but not something I want to have to get used to. I typically angle my saddle up at the nose ever so slightly so will level it off and see how I go.

Though I have "gravel" tyres on (GKSK) I anticipate this will be mainly a road based bikebacking job for all but the most forgiving forest trails.

Good fun all round, and looking forward to heading from Manchester to Newcastle in 2 weeks!

image0.jpeg

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[RIP]

"Not as interesting as some" - yes it is .

4 pints of water there? Might be considered quite a lot in these 'ere parts . Possible to reduce and top up en route? At a water source, fill a bottle and drink it, then refill it again. A water filter is a very useful ally, depending on the countryside you're passing through. Since you have the fork packs, could you ditch the frame bag perhaps?

[sean_iow]

The bottles fall foul of the frame back and as a result the bottle just kiss the inside of my calf per rotation. Drove me mad!

Is it one or both bottles that stick out? I have to use 500ml bottles and side entry cages with my frame bag.

[redefined_cycles]

The bottles fall foul of the frame back and as a result the bottle just kiss the inside of my calf per rotation. Drove me mad!

Is it one or both bottles that stick out? I have to use 500ml bottles and side entry cages with my frame bag.

Just to add to what Sean said... From your pic up there (well done btw) Mythste, it seems as though your 1L clear SIS bottle has room to come down slightly on the down tube as therr is the gab between the yellow and clear bottle.

Sorry if you already know, but a bottle mover plate (I usr Passport but others get away with the Shimano di2 adaptor for the battery I think and there's plenty others) could help have tour bottle sit lower down in the down tube...

[Mythste]

Thanks for all the advice!

I totally hadn't considered a bottle mount mover. that's a good shout!

The red bottle on the bottom is for fuel and really the only sized bottle that doesn't foul the front mudguard so that's staying put (and is quite neat, I think!)

Ultimately, I'm in the fortuitious position that the fork mount you can't see is currently home to a folding chair. (it's only 400 grams...) so if I can't find an elegant and reliable solution, I will forfeit that comfort for another dry bag. In fact, The bag the chair is in isn't exactly a compression fit so you might be onto something. I'm booked in camp sites so an evening with a beer and a book in the chair is a delightful way to end the day.

I have ALWAYS carried too much water. Even on my touring trips with too many panniers - and even when I know i'm stopping somewhere with facilities. It's something I'm just not experienced enough to trust myself risking yet. I've only just recently, after 5 years of ~3000 miles a year, learned to pace myself properly!

Really appreciate the advice though, Hoping to transfer this set up to the hardtail for some more off piste fun in winter.

[faustus]

A short, murky and somewhat surprising bimble around central Dorset.

I departed the large free car park on Bulbarrow Hill, sped down the road past the new pop-up ice-cream shop (Tiny Tim's) and along the Wessex Ridgeway past a rather foggy and forlorn Okeford Hill bike park.

Taking a sharp right at the wooden bench, I bimbled along the singletrack, through the hedge and turned immediately left in the field.
Following the bridleway, meandering through the woods along "St Edward's Way" (including a sharp right in the woods) I arrived at the WW2 pilot's memorial that's framed by a well-trimmed hedge.

A quick snack then onwards, curving left for 500m until a short cheeky trail on the right led to a bridleway and a good blast down hill to the road .

I headed to Turnworth, stopping for PO box photos for Sean & Reg (are they still "a thing"?), then got a bit lost and took the wrong bridleway towards Bulbarrow-ish.

Having crossed a couple of fields I found myself "off-piste" in some woods, weaving my way through the trees, following an absorbing, smooth but very grassy "sort-of" path at a fairly brisk pace enjoying the serendipitous delights of the unexpected .

I popped out of the woods to be confronted by a bald middle-aged man wearing only a pair of blue, saggy boxers lying face-down in the wet grass .

Beneath him, his rather nubile female companion, clad only in the briefest of peach lacy nether-garments, did her best to hide her face (if not her modesty) in his chest .

I briefly considered asking for directions but, after exchanging courtesies, I bade them farewell, resisted the temptation to bunny-hop over them, giving instead a respectfully-wide berth and sped down the hill to the bridleway I was supposed to be following.

In life, one never knows what is around the corner .

Some photos here...
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD6inWdlwVP ... 16qk6p0wj5

Nice one! All of that used to be my back yard riding, and my folks still live nearby. Always nice to do some riding there when i get the chance. Can't say I stumbled upon such a lascivious sight myself...if only you had a GoPro on!?

I'm liking the 'post box of note' pictures, i'll start looking out for them along with surveying benchmarks (this one St Nichols church, Newbury):


Today's ride has noteworthy feature of multiple nuclear missile storage bunkers, Greenham Common:

[Bearlegged]

11.64km
2h16m27s

Was it
a) the tussocky death march from hell, or. .
b) a rather successful ride with the kids, including my half of beer being accidentally upgraded to a pint by the bar staff?

[sean_iow]

Given the lack of tussocks where you are I'm going to say b

[Bearlegged]

I'll quote you on that.

[RIP]

A Nasty Ride

Emergency half day ride round NE Herts with my pal Jezzer. As we discovered 2 years ago - JamesO, Pete, Si and meself - it feels surprisingly remote round there despite the glow of Stevenage over the horizon. Sorry not to let you know James - bit short notice. There's loads of fantastic green lanes including the 4 mile long one from Clothall to Great Munden. Four hours of this sort of stuff and no roads at all:



There are occasional dips where little crystal-clear streams cross the track. Beware trolls under stream bridges too.







The area feels like stepping back in time and some of the signs confirm the type of transport they're expecting in these 'ere parts:



A cute little construction trailside.
"I'm the Covid snake please add your decorated stones to make me longer..."





At the end of the long green lane is the hamlet of Nasty, with its signs predictably stolen by, well, nasty souvenir hunters, so no photos. However this was made up for by finding the Nasty Animal Rehab Centre presumably for all the alcoholic canines of the area who can't work out where they are because all the signs have gone:



Pausing to pretend we're not lost:



'Reg'

[ScotRoutes]

Last decent forecast before a break in the weather so decided to go high.

Not sure I should add this to the "Wildlife" thread.

P1060643 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr


Always think this looks man made, like some sort of pyramid.

P1060648 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr


Hard work done..

P1060652 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr



Just don't look down though!

P1060658 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr


I can see my last bivvy spot from here!

DSC_1493 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

And the descent. Steep, steppy, drop-offs, water channels and loose as feck as it's not been raining (much).

P1060660 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr


Midge was unbelievable though, even at the summit. I have 63 bites on my legs - between shorts and socks.

I also bumped into Mr HT550. He was approaching the summit as I was coming down.