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The "Where did you ride your bike today?" Thread...

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ray j willings said:
irondan said:
ray j willings said:
E84egLjl.jpg
Nice bike Ray! I'm jelly......... :D
Cheers irondan. I went up couple of routes from menton. The first col I climbed was better than the madone.
It was a brilliant day of climbing.
VFpju8ul.jpg

I don't care for your bike :p but I'm jealous about where you're riding. :)
My mountains can't compare to those! Glad you had a great day.
 
ray j willings said:
King Boonen said:
rick james said:
I cycled the Bealach Na Ba at the weekend as part of the Bealach Mor sportive....what a climb, stunning, i mean really fcking stunning.... the head wind up it was stupid crazy and it had everybody cycling it really grinding it out to the top..the whole route i done at the weekend was amazing, amazing views, amazing roads.

what i will say is that when you drop down into Applcross from the climb the coast road you have to cycle is mega tough, a lot tougher than the big climb, but the coast road you have amazing views over to Skye.

You would have seen people from all three clubs I ride with then, Lomond Roads, Glasgow Green and Glasgow Wheelers. Weather must have been fantastic and I'll bet you got some of the best views of the year while you were riding. When it's like that there is no where better in the world to ride, just different. I wanted to do it but couldn't sort out the time, will be there next year, hopefully on a fixed wheel! I've been told that many people who go up there to ride get to the bottom, decide against the climb and then find out that the coast road is actually much harder than the Bealach, very worthwhile knowing.


I ride almost every year in the north west of Scotland near Gairloch. Lots of climbing and incredible views.

I remember you posting that you like the northwest coast of Scotland, i'm not sure if you seen this but its Mark Beaumont doing the North Coast 500 route, it looks stunning and its getting voted one of the best routes in the world...stunning route


https://vimeo.com/143976799
 
Aug 4, 2011
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Thanks Rick . That's great a post. That is a really tough ride,the roads do not let up. I ride south of Ullapool around Laide , Gairloch area ,lookin at the route he took he must have rode on some of the same roads. There are no flat roads its just up and down. I love it around there, its great for climbing and is just as tough as anywhere to ride. Beautiful country ,stunning views.

Rick or KB keep us informed about the Bealach Mor sportive, See if we could all hook up and ride it.
If not we should at some time hook up and ride a Scottish mountain.

Nice one .
 
Just went out for a 25 mile ride. Averaged tad over 19 mph. Lovely ride! Low wind, sunny, 70 degrees.

Had to replace my rear derailleur yesterday. My old one finally gave up the ghost. I bought the bike used and I've put 13,500 miles on the derailleur...it had a total of roughly 14,500 miles on it. How long do you all usually get a rear derailleur to last on a road bike?
 
Jun 30, 2014
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Almost no snow in the Dolomites so far, it looks like we'll have sunny weather and no snow for Chrismas. That also means that I'll climb the Tre Cime on the 24th of December. :D
I'll probably take a few pictures and post them durning the holidays. :)
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Almost no snow in the Dolomites so far, it looks like we'll have sunny weather and no snow for Chrismas. That also means that I'll climb the Tre Cime on the 24th of December. :D
I'll probably take a few pictures and post them durning the holidays. :)

Yes, do post pics!. We have been having warm weather (and by that I mean short and T-shirt weather) up until today. I forgot what it was like to ride in the cold. I don't enjoy it! Hopefully things stay dry and snow free for you until after the 24th.
 
Jun 30, 2014
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Re: Re:

Jspear said:
Mayomaniac said:
Almost no snow in the Dolomites so far, it looks like we'll have sunny weather and no snow for Chrismas. That also means that I'll climb the Tre Cime on the 24th of December. :D
I'll probably take a few pictures and post them durning the holidays. :)

Yes, do post pics!. We have been having warm weather (and by that I mean short and T-shirt weather) up until today. I forgot what it was like to ride in the cold. I don't enjoy it! Hopefully things stay dry and snow free for you until after the 24th.
Right now they're saying that we'll have nice sunny weather durning the next week, so the waether shouldn't be a problem.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Almost no snow in the Dolomites so far, it looks like we'll have sunny weather and no snow for Chrismas. That also means that I'll climb the Tre Cime on the 24th of December. :D
I'll probably take a few pictures and post them durning the holidays. :)
That's a bummer, we have almost 150" in the cascade mountains right now. Not so good to ride a bike but that means it's time for a little skiing! :D

Looking forward to the pics, the Dolomites are beautiful with or without snow... :)
 
Jun 30, 2014
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Sorry, I got a pretty bad cold and a cold northwind started blowing, so climbing the Tre Cime wasn't a great idea and I just went for a hiking trip with my father.
I'll still post a few pictures.
On this one you can see the Plan the Corones/Kronplatz in the background:
P1020493.jpg

I was about 2550m above sea level, so the lack of snow is really unusual.
Same in the area around Lienz, you can see the Zettersfeld ski resort (Zettersfeld is one hell of a climb).
P1020491.jpg

The Tre Cime in the background:
P1020488.jpg

Maybe it doesn't fit the thread, but I didn't climb the Tre Cime and I wanted to make up for it by posting a few pictures from my hiking trip.
 
Where did I ride my bike today? Around the block. I sold my Gitane when moving to the US, founded a family, and I bought an old '86 Raleigh Technium 480. Downtube shifters, 14 speeds, but quite light. I participated in many CN win-a-bike contests/drawings...and never won :rolleyes: . So I kept riding my clunker...

Being a man of limited means, I can't afford a new bike. But over time, I put a few dollars aside, did a lot of craigslist watch, hard bargains for parts, and after the end of my '15 season (after the GDL), I began stripping, priming, sanding, painting, sanding some more... as of 5 hours ago I finished upgrading my bike to...this.




It's a Frankenstein, mix of 6600 Ultegra and 5600 105, with a S series Sram 53-39 carbon crank. Exactly 10 kilos. I took a test ride this morning. Not an EMX 525, but it's mine :) . And it rides great.
 
Tonton said:
Where did I ride my bike today? Around the block. I sold my Gitane when moving to the US, founded a family, and I bought an old '86 Raleigh Technium 480. Downtube shifters, 14 speeds, but quite light. I participated in many CN win-a-bike contests/drawings...and never won :rolleyes: . So I kept riding my clunker...

Being a man of limited means, I can't afford a new bike. But over time, I put a few dollars aside, did a lot of craigslist watch, hard bargains for parts, and after the end of my '15 season (after the GDL), I began stripping, priming, sanding, painting, sanding some more... as of 5 hours ago I finished upgrading my bike to...this.




It's a Frankenstein, mix of 6600 Ultegra and 5600 105, with a S series Sram 53-39 carbon crank. Exactly 10 kilos. I took a test ride this morning. Not an EMX 525, but it's mine :) . And it rides great.

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing. Frankenstein bikes are great imo. They have a personal touch...none like yours. :)
 
I had a brilliant ride yesterday. I went collecting weather and road conditions and I got all of them:D

Sun, rain, sleet, snow. Perfectly clean smooth roads, broken up rubbish and a CX detour, sheet ice and grit and gravel, it was fantastic. 135km, 2100m climbing all on a fixed 74" gear.

For those who know the area I went over Queens view, the Pipetrack, Dukes Pass, round Loch Katrine to Stronachlachar, back to Aberfoyle and home along the A81 through Drumgoyne (past the distillery ;) ). Not once did I wish I had gears.

I also have a load of video to upload :D fair warning, these roads could make you incredibly jealous! :p
 
Re:

King Boonen said:
I had a brilliant ride yesterday. I went collecting weather and road conditions and I got all of them:D

Sun, rain, sleet, snow. Perfectly clean smooth roads, broken up rubbish and a CX detour, sheet ice and grit and gravel, it was fantastic. 135km, 2100m climbing all on a fixed 74" gear.

For those who know the area I went over Queens view, the Pipetrack, Dukes Pass, round Loch Katrine to Stronachlachar, back to Aberfoyle and home along the A81 through Drumgoyne (past the distillery ;) ). Not once did I wish I had gears.

I also have a load of video to upload :D fair warning, these roads could make you incredibly jealous! :p

Looking forward to it.

Question; when you ride with a fixed gear for that long, how tired are you compared to when you do have gears? Or is there no difference? That's a decent amount of climbing for a single gear.
 
Re: Re:

Jspear said:
Question; when you ride with a fixed gear for that long, how tired are you compared to when you do have gears? Or is there no difference? That's a decent amount of climbing for a single gear.

More tired in general but it depends on the ride. You can't push on when on the flat as you end up spinning and it becomes anaerobic, which burns you out the same any sprint would. So if your ride is completely flat you'll be less tired. However on rolling roads you're pretty much guaranteed to be more tired due to having to push harder on the hills due to being in a bigger gear than everyone else and having to spin on the downhills to keep up. Yesterday I was watching the guy I was out with. On the ups he was doing about 3 revs to every 1 of mine and on the downs about 1 rev to every 3 of mine, so I was working harder on both the ups and downs. You do get used to it though and you'll find you get up a lot of climbs you never thought you would when you started. So, a bit like riding a geared bike really! If I find I can get up the Tak Ma Doon Road on it when I try I can't see much point in keeping the geared bike. Yes, you do have to get off and push at times and yes, you'll always be slower on the climbs, flats and descents than you would be on a road bike. But if you're not out trying to smash records I find it a much more pleasurable riding experience.
 

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