Author Topic: RIDES 2017 — add yours here  (Read 84566 times)

Matt2matt2002

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #15 on: January 23, 2017, 08:08:20 pm »
I always enjoy your postings but is there any one true fact in that last paragraph?
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

jags

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #16 on: January 23, 2017, 08:52:06 pm »
great shots Andre west cork just beautiful .

Andre Jute

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #17 on: January 23, 2017, 09:29:44 pm »
I always enjoy your postings but is there any one true fact in that last paragraph?

The Shadow knows.

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #18 on: January 23, 2017, 09:53:40 pm »
Quote
they promised me a life-size statue and the one they made was barely nine feet tall

That's surely a tall one, Andre?

David Simpson

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #19 on: January 23, 2017, 10:22:51 pm »
I always enjoy your postings but is there any one true fact in that last paragraph?

Everything is obviously false, since Andre is not yet 50.

- DaveS

Danneaux

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #20 on: January 23, 2017, 11:40:13 pm »
Quote
I wonder which of these two really is the steepest hill in West Cork
There's two ways to answer your question, Andre.

One is with a SkyMounti inclinometer. One resides on each of my bikes (two on the tandem):
http://www.skymounti.com/html/gb.html

...or you could plot your ride on ridewithgps.com where the steepness/slope of the grades is easily seen and recorded and displayed numerically. You don't need a GPS, you can go back and plot your course manually, and there is no fee for the service.

I see Fairhill Road, coming up from Pope's Quay is 10.8% at its steepest so...yes, steep.

All the best,

Dan.

Andre Jute

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #21 on: January 24, 2017, 12:36:33 am »
Quote
they promised me a life-size statue and the one they made was barely nine feet tall

That's surely a tall one, Andre?

About five foot nine too tall, would you say, John?

I think you're right, DaveS. A man is as old as he feels. Or as his cardiologist permits him to feel. (Fortunately mine is also a cyclist.)

Thanks for those tips, Dan. I wouldn't mind having a Sky Mounti for an instant readout, but I'm not growing any more handlebar space. Your GPS tip though reminds me that I could just sit down with the Ordinance Survey Map, which is what we actually use to find out where we are (1), and calculate the average steepness of those hills, but it'll have to wait until I reinstall my entire computer, hefty OS and about thirty professional programs, many days of work, but I'd better do it before the whole thing crashes terminally on me. If you don't hear from me for a few days except for the odd grunt suitable to sending by iPad or iPhone, I haven't deserted you, I've been kidnapped by Apple.

(1) After a quarter-century riding the lanes hereabout, and hardly ever going more than 25m from home, you'd think I'd know every lane. Not so. New lanes keep popping up. It's like a huge lacework.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2017, 12:47:46 am by Andre Jute »

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #22 on: January 24, 2017, 02:00:37 am »
Mmmmm. Lanes and hills.  There are several dimensions to be considered here, and distance and vertical climb are only two of 'em. Sky Mounti's are very tidy and helpful devices, but time is at play as well, even if my Sky Mounti ignores it: I've learned in recent years that the hills of the Canadian Shield are uncompromising, and are eroding a little less slowly than my reserves of strength and endurance. Probably there's much of the same under way in the wester reaches of the Holy Ground, Andre. 

Still -- press on regardless, and keep those photos, sketches, and bons mots coming, eh?

Matt2matt2002

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #23 on: January 24, 2017, 09:45:37 am »
BusnBike.
Out yesterday for another BusnBike mini adventure.
At 8 am i popped the Raven into the bus hold and took the 1 hour ride North to Huntley.
Across to Dufftown was 20 miles of almost traffic free riding.
Beautiful day with the sun breaking through around 10 am.
No wind so the clear crisp air carried the smells of wood or coal burning fires.
I was looking for a way up to a small mountain nearby. Ben Rinnes. But time ran out before I could locate the trail start.
I'm sure it will be there when I return.

Back home via Dufftown and Keith.

Benveni Castle looked stunning in the morning sunlight.

Just 35 miles cycling but being an hour or so away from home for the start made it different.

« Last Edit: January 24, 2017, 09:58:38 am by Matt2matt2002 »
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #24 on: January 24, 2017, 03:12:20 pm »
Super photos and ride, Matt!  Glad as I am for you, I'm envious and confused: sunshine in Scotland in late January, and an Ottawa winter full of wet 'n' grey???

Andre Jute

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #25 on: January 24, 2017, 07:12:40 pm »
The Tourist Board's cheque is in the post, Matt. Super photos.

Here in Ireland you can by common usage take your bike free on the bus -- if the driver permits, and there is space in the luggage compartment. The driver can charge you if he wishes, or even refuse to carry the bike, but it appears a discretionary decision; the charges aren't outrageous and most bus drivers, in the country at least, are friendly. You ever try it, Anto?

jags

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #26 on: January 24, 2017, 07:37:44 pm »
never did Andre but i know a lad that has cycled every greenway in ireland north and south mind u he has free travel,  he used public transport to get to the nearest town cycles all the cycle routes get's the bus or train home doesn't cost him a penny. ;)
im 3 years away from free travel  ;D.

i have some crackin cycle route i do but theres a lot of hills to cover,
talking to Dan the other night he sent me a link to a motor that attaches to  BB connect a roller to wheel very near job  if i could afford it i'd buy it because im having big problems with my back  especially when the going gets tough ,any help getting up these hills would be greatly appreciated  ;)

anto.

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #27 on: January 24, 2017, 10:15:52 pm »
Quote
any help getting up these hills would be greatly appreciated

A couple of thoughts on hills and our ageing bods, Anto. Two things that have helped me are:

    >  Lower overall gearing, either via smaller chainrings or larger cogs, or a combination of the two: say, a 24T small ring at the front, mated to a 34T low cog at the rear. (I've forgotten -- do you have a triple on your Audax?); and

    >  Mounting the bars so that the stem clamp is higher than the nose of the saddle. (How high? Depends ... on my Raven, it's a couple of inches.)  That way, you're slightly more upright when you're on the hoods, and if you're on the drops, they are easier to reach.

Cheers,

John

Matt2matt2002

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #28 on: January 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm »
Good thoughts on saddle height John.

In later years I have come to think of hills as my friends.
I stroke them softly with every pedal rotation.
Never pushing too hard. Just enough to keep the momentum going. Descending through the gears slowly.

I use to think of down hills as laughing at me since they knew that despite my free ride downwards, I would be caught out on the up hill section.
This was a battle.

I decline that challenge now.
I embrace the hills. They are my friends.
We don't work together, rather coexist in a fluid forward state.

Anyone for Zen?
Never drink and drive. You may hit a bump  and spill your drink

Andre Jute

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Re: RIDES 2017 — add yours here
« Reply #29 on: January 24, 2017, 10:51:31 pm »
i have some crackin cycle route i do but theres a lot of hills to cover,
talking to Dan the other night he sent me a link to a motor that attaches to  BB connect a roller to wheel very near job  if i could afford it i'd buy it because im having big problems with my back  especially when the going gets tough ,any help getting up these hills would be greatly appreciated  ;)

The thing about a motor is that a battery suitable for any decent day's cycle is so heavy that it essentially takes you out of the roadie category and puts you in the recreational cycling category. If you skimp on the battery, you might find yourself merely adding dead weight on the way home, when you're already wiped, and the hills are always steeper. I didn't have to give up anything when I added a motor, because the motor and available batteries suited the sort of circular or figure of eight rides around my house I already did, and the distances too -- in fact, with the battery I'm going a bit further than I could in recent years, because I know I can get back up the hill, so to speak.

But in your case, as a fast roadie daytripper going well afield, I'd advise putting off the motor as long as possible because I suspect that, instead of opening new possibilities to you, you might find it tiresome (my batteries last so long -- longer than the motors -- because I charge them after every ride, regardless of length) and limiting (the smart way to use a motor is never to let the battery fall below one half charge before you're well on your way back home) in both radius and time on the road. Also, as Iain pointed out, year before last I think, a motor isn't a permanent installation like a bike, but a consumable part, and the battery definitely ditto, so a bicycle, which ideally should be costless once you've paid for the components, gets to be a constant capital replacement drain on resources. (I'm not complaining, just pointing out that an electric bike is well removed from the workingman's ideal pushbike.)

PS Yo, Matt, you can be the board poet!