Totally agree about the lights and dipping them on a bicycle, might be earlier in this thread, it would be impossible to police I know, but can be downright dangerous. I came across such an equipped bicycle in a pitch black little lane a few years back. I was in a car and only doing around 20 miles an hour but had no choice but to do an emergency stop as I couldn’t see a thing when he turned direction approaching me. Got around 14 miles in, just about to deploy the billycan.
Thought it was a bit chilly this morning - about 4 miles into the ride I tipped the bike into a roundabout and spotted frost on the road. I thought "at least it's only frosty" and then ay almost exactly the point I rode past a frozen puddle... Hmm - took it easy tipping it into the corners from that point. Plus 4 degrees at home falling to minus 2.5 for the last 15 mins of the ride..
I've managed to get my usual winter hours in this week, if i can top 8 hours a week at this time of year, I'll take that. Been a watery, muddy affair on the mountain bikes this week. Gonna be wetter next week
finished the week off with a 28 mile round trip to pick up my new exhaust brackets. Looking forward to next week when I'll have 5 days to do my weekly mileage rather than the last three "compressed weeks" I've had...
Splashed out on a whole new front brake, what is wrong with me? It’s beautifully made, going on the E bike, but hose too short so have to get into that now.
Sorry about this fellas, but I’m lapping up some good weather in Australia seeing my daughter at the moment.. My head still doesn’t know what time zone I’m in as we’ve only been here a few days, but I felt okay for a little 48 mile leg stretcher out to the coast for some brekkie. I’ve got 3 of my old bikes at my Daughters so I’m well set up for something to ride, just no motorbikes! Went to a place called “ Woody point” north of Brisbane, this pic is taken on the pier at Shorncliffe on the way back, 10:00 am and it’s 27 deg C, got to 32 C just after lunch …stunning weather, not missing the sh1te at home at all ! But the best part is,….I’m here for 3 months .. I know, ..I’m an utter “ barstewart “
What fun, just risked 3 miles this time, and battery is still showing 80% charged. Only gripe is that I have come in cold as virtually zero exercise! I can’t wait for my new gears to arrive.
Another week of God awful weather up here, another week on the bloody turbo. February been dire. Enjoy oz Poucher, you're missing nothing here
Certainly will do @H2pots , although it still rains over here as I found out yesterday… Just to illustrate some “ Yang” to the other days “Yin” I foolishly set off for a ride yesterday and I knew showers were forecast, got about 3 miles away from the house and it pissed down …it was however fairly warm piss, temperature still held up at about 21 degrees C, so by comparison to my normal North Yorkshire Moors 5C , 40 mph winds and horizontal rain….it was actually quite pleasant! So I took refuge under the next bridge I came to, now it was bone dry when I stopped here, but within about 5 or 6 minutes, the storm drains started dumping gallons of rainwater on the bike path, and all of a sudden I was stood in about 2” of water and it was flushing all sorts of little critters out of the drains…. This lizard kind of popped out and just sat looking at me for ages, probably thinking “ hey, I don’t have any choice but to be out in this, …you on the other hand”.. It eased a bit after ten minutes so I thought I’ll crack on and go to Sandgate, about a 40 mile round trip, it was a bit drizzly for the rest of the day but still okay, you end up wet over here anyway, when it’s 30C and 70 % humidity your still soaking. The bikeways run alongside the main M1 motorway for a while, you can see what thundery skies are about Didn’t hang about long in Sandgate, quick cup of coffee and scrounged a plastic bag off the old dear serving, as my phone, money, driving license etc were getting a bit soggy by then One great thing about riding over here is the infrastructure they put in for cycling, miles and miles of bike paths so you don’t have to spend too much time on the roads with people who think cyclists are “twats” ..like a certain forum member on here Just look at this lot… It’s like you’ve got your own road system to yourself, particularly yesterday in the rain, I think in 40 miles I saw one other bike! The sign up above mentions the Boondall wetlands, it’s a nature reserve area just outside of Brisbane, a kind of a flooded delta that attracts loads of different bird species, it has quite a long section of raised wood boardwalk that was a bit “ Bon Jovi” yesterday,..if you get my drift Spits you out the other end and Brisbane airport is just the other side of the river Still enjoyed the ride, but it is pretty slippery over here in the rain so I was just in cruise mode yesterday taking in the sights and sounds, also the smells going through the wetlands were fantastic, the eucalyptus trees are obviously pretty hot before it started raining and when the rain hits them you get this great kind of “ menthol “ smell in the air and in one area the noise from the cicada’s was absolutely deafening ! You could close your eyes and still be in no doubt that your in Australian, it’s dead atmospheric, I love the place Have also been on trailer duties with the two grandsons.. Now these two and the trailer must weigh about 45 kgs in total, ..gets you blowing outta your arse ! The youngest one, William, it’s the first time we’ve met him as he was born 18 months ago, during the Aussie travel ban, but boy did he like the trailer!!…went bezerk when his Dad tried to lift him out, screamed the place down, wasn’t having a bean of it so funny! Only been here just over a week and seems like I’ve done loads, will be hooking up with an Aussie cyclist I’m friends with and he takes me on some good rides so I’ll try and keep the pictures coming,..give you all a couple on minutes escape from the British shitey weather, laters chaps
Great post poucher Yes please,keep the pics coming, they cheer me up as the rain lashes the windows while I'm on that bloody turbo I can dream of long summer days and dry trails.... In my head
@H2pots Try some of the GCN cycling training videos on YouTube when you’re on the turbo, you can search for 30 mins fat burning sessions or 1 hour hill climbs , when the first lockdown hit us and they shut the gyms I managed to cobble together this setup with an old turbo trainer I scrounged off a mate.. At least they are some nice sunny scenery to look at and on some of them you can try and match the stats on the screen, cadence, watts, sprint intervals etc I find them a lot better than just staring at the wardrobe door
Yeah poucher, I already use the gcn turbo vids. It keeps me spinning and sweating. I were outdoors this morning though, 20 miles on the mtb in the horse work headwind and eventually rain. Was grand to get out nonetheless. You can't beat being in the outdoors, turbo's are ok for keeping you spinning but the fun is the outdoors. Winter miles, summer smiles.... That's my mantra as the wind, rain and sub zero temperatures batter my face.... I just keep telling myself that. In truth, for the mountain bike, we've not had a bad winter, I've hit me hours week on week, February has been the worse month for getting out and it's nearly done with now, few weeks and we should seeing an improvement. Enjoy oz pal..... And keep the pics coming
