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This was such a popular and agreeable thread last year, I thought we'd give it an outing again this year.
Just returned front the first major ride of the year. Only 17km and an easy ride besides because the only pedal pal who turned out for it was straight out a sickbed with the flu. Starting temperature was 6 Celsius, finishing temp under 3 degrees. Bad choice but still, last year we didn't get out until the end of January.
All the usual dogs were waiting for us. Not all the familiar trees survived the recent high winds though. A new waterfall has spring up on a familiar ride, or been exposed by trees destroyed by the storm.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/andre_jute_birth_of_a_waterfall_800pxh.jpg)
Birth of a waterfall, seen on our ride today, where there was none before.
Notice how the tree in the foreground, already weakened by parasites, was bowed by the high winds before it broke.
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Very nice photo Andre not exactly Niagara but never mind you have to start somewhere 8) .
no miles for me today it rained all day long,hate going out in the rain.
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No ride in Somerset today because of a very dark wet day but tomorrow looks better so may have some pics.
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Looks like rain up here for Sunday. So no ride for me either. :-[
Monday looks good tho'
Since last ride chain tightened up and cleaned.
Always think I go faster with a clean chain.
;D
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What a difference a day makes. Sunshine after the rain. We had about 30cm during the day yesterday and another lot over night but the day dawned with beautiful sunshine that lasted all day. All the hard work that was done after the floods last year has meant that the lanes have drained very fast and I found very few floods today. These are a few photos from my 30mile trip around Taunton in Somerset today.
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............... and a few more :-)
If you want to see a few more try this link
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/36142225_nP7whJ (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/36142225_nP7whJ)
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very nice i like your house i'de say it takes you all day to cut that grass ;D
i got a nice spin in today i'll ask dan to post the photos i have on facebook.
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Love the green grass of Somerset, Prince! And the clear blue sky!
Likely have to wait 'til April before I can post one from here, though I'm hoping my new Raven will be ready in a few weeks, so we might have a "still life" foto before spring... But, had a splendid 7 km trek on snowshoes yesterday, incl a 1.5 kms on a frozen channel of the Ottawa River. A weak mid-January sun on a mild & cloudy afternoon, and in a fresh dusting of snow, *lots* of tracks of deer, otter, wolf, fox and porcupine. Everything still and quiet in the woods, 'cept for the three of us on our clattering modern-but-effective snowshoes. :-)
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The sale of my partner's house closed on Friday; her son went back to college this afternoon. This morning I finally got back on my bike. Moving from a house to an apartment.. really any big move is just exhausting! But the moving is done. Now it is just trying to organize all the stuff... we downsized the space a lot more than we have downsized the stuff... yet!
Now my Fearless Nomad is stored outside, chained to a tree. I put some White Lightning Wet Ride lube on the chain a few weeks ago. We've had snow and rain since then. The chain seemed quite happy this morning. Looks like a solution!
Just an hour ride, ten miles, my usual tortoise pace! But good to get out, even with the headwind!
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/2014%20first%20ride/IMG_1840_zps8cf47c06.jpg)
A few more images:
http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/2014%20first%20ride?sort=3&page=1 (http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/2014%20first%20ride?sort=3&page=1)
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great photos Jim how though do they manage to keep the roads clear of snow ;)
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do they manage to keep the roads clear of snow
Our apartment is up off the main road about 240 vertical feet and half a mile. The climb is mostly the first half of that, up a public road that gets a lot of shade. The last half from the main road to our door is just through the apartment complex, a private road that gets plowed but not so well. So my studded winter tires earn their keep! When the snow is fresh enough that the plows haven't got it well cleared, I generally stay off the road. The bike does well enough but the cars are another matter!
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Another spin around the lanes of lanarkshire near Biggar, a dry day with light winds for a change.
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amazing sky great shot
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i got a nice spin in today i'll ask dan to post the photos i have on facebook.
Happy to do so! :)
Anto's (jags') pics from today. His descripton: "Along the long strand this morning cold and windy still got 22 miles done."
Posted on his behalf by Dan.
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This was such a popular and agreeable thread last year, I thought we'd give it an outing again this year.
Surely glad you did, Andre; many thanks.
I greatly enjoyed the 2013 version and the 2014 edition is looking great! Wonderful photos, all, and simply terrific to open a window on your respective parts of the world.
May many happy journeys pass beneath your wheels, and may your rides all by safe and happy with the wind at your backs.
All the best,
Dan.
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What a difference a day makes. Sunshine after the rain... <snip> These are a few photos from my 30mile trip around Taunton in Somerset today.
Fantastic, and thanks for sharing these. It brought me back to our visit there in September - it was just as sunny and a lot WARMER! :D
It also reminded me I need to get my finger out and continue the photo journal I started. My sister flies back to NYC on Wednesday, and things will finally return to normal around here. I'll get stuck in this weekend!
Sam
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Thanks Dan not great photos, must buy a camera some day.
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I'm really enjoying this thread, some great shots of open countryside, big skies and the solitude to be had.
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Rode out after dark. 10C, but 6.09pm is in the rush hour, so I popped into a car park I know which could have been designed to ride intervals in and rode intervals for an hour. Intermittent light rain but I was bone dry when I came home. Got my hear rate up two notches for 58m, which is outstanding as in my gym I have a hard time getting it up even one notch on the machines for long enough to do any good. In fact, at one stage I was perspiring, which is also great (for me -- you fit guys shouldn't sweat but I'm recovering from a couple of heart surgeries and controlled exertion right up to the point of perspiration is good for me).
Noticed again how poor the BUMM IQ lamps are on the wet, and made worse for their their distracting hotspots. Thinking also how smoothly my Rohloff now changes -- by comparison to when it was new 7000km ago; it will never be as smooth as a Shimano Nexus or Alfine shift. Of course, it was first time in a long while that I noticed it, and I was thinking about it only because of something I read here, so that tells the real story; we can be over finicky precisely because we're enthusiasts.
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Hi All!
After some cold weather here late last year (-23°C/-10°F), today was lovely, sunny, and pretty warm at 11°C/51°F, so I went out for a long ride on the Nomad.
Except for losing a glove in the river, it was an unremarkable ride, so I found myself looking for something to make it "interesting". On the return home, I stopped to make a phone call and snapped a photo of fir copse and thought I'd post it for the benefit of our Australian members.
At one time, Cougar Country was located in those trees; it was a wildlife rehabilitation center for Big Cats, mostly cougars (mountain lions) but also bobcats, raccoons and opossums. One day in 1986, I dropped by just before it closed for the day and was greeted with an apology by Terri Raines, a local woman who would become the wife of Australia Zoo owner and naturalist Steve Irwin. She grew up here and lived in the area for many years. Wikipedia entry on her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Irwin
Sometimes to add variety to a routine ride, I'll try to make a theme. Sometimes, I count birds, collect covered bridges, or look for the homes or birthplaces of prominent people, actors, authors and such: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Oregon . It beats just plowing along in between intervals!
Do any of you do "theme rides" to keep things fresh while just out training for fitness?
Good day, good ride, glad to be back on the bike. The cold returns next week, so likely less pleasant with snow next weekend and forecast for the entire last week of February. Winter's not yet finished with Oregon.
Best,
Dan.
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At one time, Cougar Country was located in those trees; it was a wildlife rehabilitation center for Big Cats, mostly cougars (mountain lions) but also bobcats, raccoons and opossums. One day in 1986, I dropped by just before it closed for the day and was greeted with an apology by Terri Raines, a local woman who would become the wife of Australia Zoo owner and naturalist Steve Irwin. She grew up here and lived in the area for many years. Wikipedia entry on her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Irwin
They say you can get connected to anyone in the world with fewer than ten phone calls...
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A bit of warmer weather passing through; managed to grab the opportunity today!
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/353372995 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/353372995)
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/IMG_1842_zps6b9a2cde.jpg)
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Looks like spring, Jim, minus the sunshine! I was in the hills on Friday, -1 and some splendid sun. Woke up today to 20 cms of snow overnight--perfect for skiing, not so good for cycling.
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Do any of you do "theme rides" to keep things fresh while just out training for fitness?
Our club 'Cycle Somerset' do regular themed rides throughout the sunmmer months
example here............
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/29749467_nhWwkh (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/29749467_nhWwkh)
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Our club 'Cycle Somerset' do regular themed rides throughout the sunmmer months
example here............
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/29749467_nhWwkh (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/29749467_nhWwkh)
Catch it while you can. What idyllic pics.
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DEFIANCE
Wind a steady 53kph here today, except when gusting higher. The huge eucalyptus outside my study window is lashing dangerously and has already taken out the satellite aerial.
Of course you can't bicycle in such weather but I took my bike out to show it the wind and the rain and wheeled it in a circle about me before bringing it back into the central heating and drying it off. Doesn't count as a ride but it gives notice of future intention.
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Of course you can't bicycle in such weather but I took my bike out to show it the wind and the rain and wheeled it in a circle about me before bringing it back into the central heating and drying it off. Doesn't count as a ride but it gives notice of future intention.
<nods> Very good, Andre. Best to introduce it to such things in smallish doses before subjecting it to the Real Heavy stuff.
I understand wolverines do the same, introducing their young to the Hunt in stages.
Best,
Dan. (...whose money is always on the man from West Cork in any sort of fight be it man, beast, or weather)
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well done andre a man after me own heart. ;D ;D
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Of course you can't bicycle in such weather but I took my bike out to show it the wind and the rain and wheeled it in a circle about me before bringing it back into the central heating and drying it off. Doesn't count as a ride but it gives notice of future intention.
I bet the bike was wagging its mudguards in excitement at the prospect...
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;D ;D ;D
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I bet the bike was wagging its mudguards in excitement at the prospect...
LOL. Exactly what I felt like too. Going stir-crazy.
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[Posted by Dan on jags' behalf...]
Photos of Anto's spin yesterday in the Boyne Valley.
That looks like a really tough climb once over the causeway and up from the river....
Very nice shots of truly scenic countryside.
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Thanks Dan yeah it was a lovely day weathersupposed to change tonight though so make hey while the sun shines ;D yes thats the village of slane famous i suppose for all the rock concerts that take place in Slane Castle bon jove played there last summer (i think).
not an orange man to be seen anywhere on the river boyne even though they reckon its belongs to them ;D ;D
oh you cruel sod anto..
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Definitely summer down here in New Zealand at the moment:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7441/12316941114_f470b7ed51_c.jpg)
Larger version here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nztony/12316941114/
Vicinity of Turakirae Head, eastern entrance to Wellington Harbour
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3726/12316922364_e33afcf87e_c.jpg)
Where the road ends and the gravel begins, Turakirae Head, Wellington South Coast
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3760/12335995144_a21df6507c_c.jpg)
And the very next day, on the other side of the harbour and the vicinity of Owhiro Bay, western approaches to Wellington Harbour
When I got my Nomad in late December 2013 I got off to a slowish start as I was doing lots of overtime and the days I did have
off were raining heavily, so on my last 4 days off I managed to get in 17 hrs 42 minutes riding time (I know this because my Garmin tells me!)
On my ride of a couple of days ago that took me through central Wellington (our capital city) an approaching cyclist yelled out: "I've got one of those, could you pull over for a minute?" I pulled over and the other cyclist (Reuben) told me he had a Nomad MKII and had ridden it 20 000km from the UK to NZ and then I was able to tell him "that is fascinating, and would you believe I have just been reading your blog on CGOAB" In fact I was reading his trip diary to help plot a route I want to ride through New Zealand in a few weeks time. Reuben's CGOAB: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/rf
I have had several 'coincidences' like this since I've been riding my Nomad, and I've only been riding it since December. I kind of thought these kind of things might happen, but I didn't think they'd be happening so soon and it's great, I'm loving it.
Best regards from NZ
Tony
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Nice pictures.
But spooky....
I was reading Rubens blog a couple of hours ago, too.
:o ;)
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Matt, but it's all good fun isn't it.
I am not sure if I have posted this on the forum, but how is this one for a nice coincidence: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nztony/11741301623/
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it's a small world indeed.
lovely photos tony bike looks great, did you do any camping on that trip.
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Jags,
No camping out this time around, although when I got home from the second ride (last photo) I went online and ordered a new tent to replace my much older and heavier one, so I should have it any day now. The timing isn't perfect, but I'm training as much as I can, as I will be in Auckland (700kms north of Wellington) in late March and if I feel ready for it, want to ride home. I've camped heaps as a hiker/tramper so that side of things should fall into place OK I hope. I think on my March trip I'll mostly tent at official camping grounds.
Tony
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If you weren't camping, what on earth did you have in all those panniers? :o
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Donerol
I've had my panniers for a couple of weeks, so I am practicing with them, to see how the bike feels/behaves with them, so by the time I go on tour I'll be used to them. I was carrying extra water bottles, a couple of thermal tops, my lunch, two cameras, and a few bits and pieces.
I've always been big on preparation and so far that has always worked for me.
Tony
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i used to do exactly the same thing more out of curiosity than anything else.
i found using just rear panniers stuffed to the gills it never made one difference to the sherpa, but once i put the front panniers on i hated the feel of the bike felt like it turned into a small truck .
a lot would argue the point you need front panniers to balance the load or bike ::) to me this is pure rubbish you only need front panniers to carry more stuff and thats a fact ;)
if you ever look at these guys in india carry half a house on the rear you will notice the front wheel never moves off the ground ;D ;D ;D.
no matter Tony boy i'm looking forward to photos of your tent and camping set up i'm sure your having a blast on that lovely nomad enjoy it and remember your not racing anymore nice and easy as the man said.
cheers
jags.
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Donerol
I've had my panniers for a couple of weeks, so I am practicing with them, to see how the bike feels/behaves with them, so by the time I go on tour I'll be used to them. I was carrying extra water bottles, a couple of thermal tops, my lunch, two cameras, and a few bits and pieces.
I've always been big on preparation and so far that has always worked for me.
Tony
Ah, that makes good sense!
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Nice pictures.
But spooky....
I was reading Rubens blog a couple of hours ago, too.
:o ;)
Y'know, I was kinda half-expecting that the same thing would happen when I got out there with my Nomad, but except for one guy who'd been reading about them (and wasn't on a bike at all when I met him), I haven't ever seen another Thorn in Oz, except for these pages. Strange indeed...
We'll be cycling the rail trails in Victoria after Easter, so that might change. (Wouldn't want to go there now - they're having another massive heat wave, and the place is burning up again. Hottest summer on record down there, I think.)
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I haven't ever seen another Thorn in Oz
Graham Smith in Victoria (frequent contributor to CGOAB, sometimes here) has a Sherpa.
We're a niche market, Sam, a highly selective (better I reckon than 'exclusive') lot. I think there may be about three in Canada, though I've never actually seen one, other than my own. Jim K in the Catskills, north of NYC, says he's never seen a Thorn in the flesh, as it were, in his part of the US.
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Not that I see so terribly many bicycles around here, of any stripe! There's a couple in the Woodstock area, really serious types - the fellow has completed PBP a couple times! - they have a couple beautiful bikes, 8 speed hubs in the back, fenders, nice leather saddles, 559 x 32 tires or maybe fatter, dynamo hubs in the front. I managed to exchange a few words with the husband one time. He thought me a bit strange for being such a bike geek. He thought the Rohloff beyond the pale, unjustifiable. It gets me up the hills! But I didn't say that to him. Anyway that's the closest thing around here. I talked once at greater length with the wife - she told me the PBP story - and I got a good look at her bike. I forget who made the frame but it started life as a derailleur bike.
On the other hand, work takes me upon occasion out to Seattle, where it is positively raining bicycles. One of my other bikes is an Azor / Workcycles beast. There's even a dealer in Seattle, and I saw a few out on the street. I think I saw a few Rohloffs as well, but anyway lots of big fancy internal gear hubs. Some NuVinci for sure. There were so many bikes there... not sure I'd necessarily recognize a Thorn, but likely enough I would, and I sure haven't. Selective, yeah!
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Egads - a little googling reveals about that Woodstock fellow: "He is currently planning and training to ride the Race Across America in 2015." - Now I have moved to Kingston, so I can talk about other people that way!
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I've seen a Thorn here in Ireland, in front of a pub. It belonged to a forum member.
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Jags -
remember your not racing anymore nice and easy as the man said.
I hear you - I've got to keep telling myself I'm not 25 years old and a hard core racing cyclist anymore!
I've done five rides this week for 19hrs58mins, so I'm not sure if I'm taking my own advice too well though,
and I must admit the carbon machines the youngsters ride these days do look very nice. (although I am sure
I'd snap one if I ever dared to ride one!)
Sammy, when I say I've had a few coincidences, I haven't actually seen any other Thorns, just cycling related coincidences - the guy that
stopped me to chat was riding one of his 'other' bikes rather than his Thorn the day we stopped and chatted. A couple of weeks a racing cyclist
yelled out "Hey Tony" and it turned out to be the guy who built up my wheels for me, who I had not met. Did you see this too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nztony/11741301623/
Tony
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After another glorious weekend in godzone, I thought I'd throw my rides into the mix. Saturday was a 45km saunter along the Fernleigh Track, a converted coal railway that traverses some beautiful forest. For some unknown reason, the track was uncharacteristically uncrowded, and I love the quiet pleasure of loping along, listening to the bellbirds and other wildlife. It's only a short drop down into Redhead for a coffee at the surf club:
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7440/12389161383_6c424b8805_b.jpg)
Today it was over to Merewether Beach - only a few hundred metres away, so I had to ride around town for an hour to make it worth the effort :D
(http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3826/12403410713_b5c6b233ca_b.jpg)
We've had glorious weather, but truth be known - we need rain badly. I'd gladly give up a few dry riding days for a good regional soaking!
Sam
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Sammy - Great pics. Looks just like my Nomad, just a couple of sizes smaller, and similar weather to what we are having in Wellington lately, although I set out in very light drizzle on my first wet ride today.
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seriously think you guys should be banned for posting such photos ,do you guys realize we are all feckin freezing on this side of the planet.
only joking it's great to see all that lovely warm sunney weather.
Sam looking good buddy i can see how a fella could ride a bike all day in that weather and the scenery ain't half bad .
enjoy you lucky sods.
jags.
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Tonka yellow Nomads and sunshine .... heaven!
Many more pics like those and I might tip over the edge and convince myself I need a tonka yellow Nomad, especially since you guys seem to be having so much fun riding them between and before tours.
I had a nice 43 mile ride on my RST on Friday, but I didn't take any pics .... next time I will.
Jim
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We have been having a lot of bad & wet weather here in UK-shire.
Scotland for a change has had it light compared to Southern England. :'(
However, I manged out to the beach last week.
An exceptional low tide revealed an unusual sight.
Not this picture...
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-t_jVO_5CZwA/UvVNkzxEl3I/AAAAAAAABOU/xyqUvH98jds/w958-h719-no/aberdeenjfeb2014+003.jpg)
Following a constructive comment by a member here, I purchased some saddle cream and buffed up the Brooks.
I am sure I go faster now!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-fLJ6GLrTpOM/UvVP0xNEzfI/AAAAAAAABO4/bAc2z-Fdvuw/w958-h719-no/aberdeenjfeb2014+012.jpg)
Unexpected visitor
There are a lot of these in the area but had never seen one basking so close to the harbour.
Being watched over by a cormorant?
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GQWfFzQnEYI/UvVQHB7zpkI/AAAAAAAABPA/awlofLnDft0/w958-h719-no/aberdeenjfeb2014+020.jpg)
Beech trees on the way to the beach. Like the link? ;)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-xyXrohKkTWQ/UvVMvQShRVI/AAAAAAAABOM/xwmoQvMayQ8/w958-h719-no/aberdeenjfeb2014+001.jpg)
Seasons all to pot over here so nature never knows when to start Spring sprouting.
Last one showing me well wrapped up.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8Dr2tJZpiD0/UvVOYKIYoWI/AAAAAAAABQE/L4wqNVmGyK8/w958-h719-no/aberdeenjfeb2014+006.jpg)
And that about wraps up this post.
May I tag on a technical question, please?
I save my pictures to Google+
( My phone does this automatically)
When I try to use my Nexus 4 phone or Nexus 7 tablet, I cannot tag the picture to appear here.
I have to use my main PC to link the pictures.
What am I doing wrong folks? Or maybe it technology defeating me?
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super pic's Matt you sure look cold but still great to be out in the fresh air..
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Sammy - Great pics. Looks just like my Nomad, just a couple of sizes smaller, and similar weather to what we are having in Wellington lately, although I set out in very light drizzle on my first wet ride today.
Thanks, Tony. Mine's a 565M, but it's home built, so there's lots that's different from the "standard". Middleburn cranks, Magura hydraulic brakes, Abus Amparo frame lock and an n'lock stem, to name a few. I just installed a Thompson Elite layback seat post, and the geometry is finally just about perfect. I'm grinning every time I ride! :D
And whilst I feel your pain Anto, I'm not gonna apologise for enjoying this weather. And as nice as we have it here, it'll never be as achingly green as your beautiful Emerald Isle, to which my beloved only yesterday made me promise to take her on a cycling tour, which will probably be 18 months away, but it's now penciled in!
Jim, isn't it funny how we all know the colour as "Tonka yellow". Tonka trucks were the toughest toys from my childhood, and there's a direct connection from them to my mining career! The toys are still yellow, only MUCH BIGGER! ;D
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;)
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Following a constructive comment by a member here, I purchased some saddle cream and buffed up the Brooks.
I am sure I go faster now!
Nice, Matt! That Brooks looks fantastic.
I must say though, that I've never seen a reflector placed in that position before. It suggests numerous quips ;), but I'm curious if it is actually a useful placement?
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Say Sam is that a dedicated cyclepath your on in those photos, it seem to hug the coast line for a hell of a long way it must make for a windy ride.on one of my routes i cycle along the strand really nice but when its windy sure is tough going.have you other favourate routes inland.man your country is so so different than ours ,if you've never been to Ireland or the UK you would find the roads and scenery so different.
Spain was a real eye opener for me the views went on for miles big skys.so different from what i'm used to ;D ;Di loved it.
jags.
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Nice, Matt! That Brooks looks fantastic.
I must say though, that I've never seen a reflector placed in that position before. It suggests numerous quips ;), but I'm curious if it is actually a useful placement?
Well spotted.
It usually faces the correct way but I recently purchased the small saddle bag for a spare tube and multi tool.
I turned the reflector 180.
Guess since I usually keep the bag there I should remove the reflector. Not much use there, as you say!
Yet another ( well received ) prompt to tidy up the Old Bird.
Cheers Sammy.
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He thought the Rohloff beyond the pale, unjustifiable
Thanks, Jim. They really do things differently on the Left Coast, eh? Or maybe it's just that there's a different universe 'tother side of the mountains.
I'm with you on getting up the hills, which, oddly enough, seem to get steeper as I get older. The Rohloff is pricey, for sure, but a 38 x 17 offers me a couple of gears below my current derailleur setup, and liberation from constant adjustment of & uncertainty about the rear der.
On the subject of Ravens and other birds, BTW: heard a noisy cackle of crows a few times this past week. There's always one or two that hang around through December/January, but when Feb arrives, then the crows re-appear in numbers, a reminder that we will see spring before too long.
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At last...good weather for cycling in my part of the world. Managed to get out for a couple of hours in the bright sun and finally have a half decent ride on the Club Tour, nothing special just some laps around the Outer Circle at Regents Park to give me a 26 mile ride. Plenty of the 'road boys' down there putting my speed to shame but a very enjoyable ride all the same. Just wondering; are there many on here using Garmin Connect? Thought it might be good to see a Thorn group on there sharing rides etc.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/446032880 (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/446032880)
Chris
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Good weather up here today too, went up to Perthshire for a spin over one of our favourite routes from Braco to Comrie and back, nice to see some snowy hills.
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Wow Class photos stunning countryside.
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That light frost is pretty, Rual.
Went for a ride yesterday, only half the normal distance as the wind was picking up and getting dangerous by the time we reached home. Not the first ride of the spring, but better than nothing. I was getting stir-crazy inside.
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Finally got out on my new RST. So far it has coped with 100 commuting miles in some awful weather. Today was better and got a nice 36 mile run in.
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rualexander
Wow what stunning photos, love them. I particularly like the middle one. Are you like myself and have to take your own photos. i.e. set the camera up on a tripod and cycle past it several time to get the shot or were you cycling with someone else? Either way, beautiful photos and location.
Tony
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rualexander
Wow what stunning photos, love them. I particularly like the middle one. Are you like myself and have to take your own photos. i.e. set the camera up on a tripod and cycle past it several time to get the shot or were you cycling with someone else? Either way, beautiful photos and location.
Tony
That's my cycling buddy in those photos Tony, she rides a Raven Tour, photos of myself appear less often especially since I'm back to a camera (Fuji X10) with a maximum self timer of 10 seconds!
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The longer days are making getting further afield easier so a one hour drive north yesterday resulted in a good day out riding from Strathyre to St Fillans and back, including a circuit of Loch Earn, and some of NCN 7
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Oh! What a treat to see more of your photos, Rual -- always a pleasant break in my day and very worthwhile!
Many thanks for posting these.
All the best,
Dan.
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CLASS WHAT A STUNNING PART OF THE WORLD.
JAGS.
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That loch is from a fairyland. But my fave is the cyclist with the red jacket among the tall trees: The Escape.
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Splendid photos, Rual! I envy you All That, as I look out over the two feet of snow still in our back yard. Prompted in no small part by your photographs, have been thinking of a tour through the Celtic fringe of Europe sometime in the next couple of years, beginning in Bretagne, through Cornwall, Devon, Wales and
Ireland the Land of St Brian O'Driscoll, to Scotland.
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St Patrick's Day, a public holiday here. Went out at 0112am, 9C, to ride some intervals in a parking lot on a slope. Back at 0212. 46m of respiration elevated to 50% or more of maximum. Not exactly strenuous but useful. Would have stayed out longer but the wind was building and the night turned soft (which is what we say here when a fine drizzle appears).
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the day turned soft
"Soft" would be welcome, Andre, for sure. We had the coldest March 17 on recent record: -21 yesterday morning. Sunny, but still... A very few very hardy souls on bikes. DSMG, when will it end? We're all beginning to feel like characters in The Left Hand of Darkness, living on a cold planet for the rest of our days. Old-time winters for the sake of nostalgia and tall tales told to the kids are one thing, but this?? Was planning to get the city bike on the road this weekend, but there's 10 cms of snow due tomorrow. :-( Skiing instead, perhaps. :-)
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The truth is, John, that while Jags and I bitch about the weather cutting into our cycling, what we actually mean is that the 4 to 8 weeks of any year in which it is moderately uncomfortable to cycle in shirtsleeves or at most a light jacket has been extended by a week or two. We actually live in a temperate climate, classified by the anal retentives as a marine climate but usually shorthanded by me as "near-Meditteranean, not that you'll ever hear the inmates admit it". Icy roads, while not unknown in the North, in my part of the country are limited to a couple of days a year, and some years none. My pedal pals still talk of an occasion when I slid backwards on a hill on black ice for about twenty paces -- but it wasn't last year or the year before even, it was five or six years ago, an event that in Illinois or Canada would be forgotten in a day or two because it is so much more common. And it was a few days before Christmas... Recently I turned back from a dawn ride, being underdressed for a frost, and mentioned it to my wife: you can tell that our temperature doesn't normally fall to zero at all often...
"A soft day" describes a persistent drizzle, not insistent enough to soak through good tweed in a day, or even cotton in a couple of hours, and not cold enough to hurt. In cycling terms, it means that I have never, ever, taken out the plastic jacket and trousers I carry in my saddlebag because I read on this forum that a proper cyclist does. (No, I lie, I once took out the trousers to use to cut the wind on my legs while I was setting a truck-assisted personal record run of a 100kph. It wasn't raining that day.) Generally speaking, in the winter I wear breathable plastic to cut the wind and keep me warm, rather than to keep the rain off me. In the summer I wear a cotton jacket and when it turns soft (i.e. starts raining) I just ride for home, and my jacket is rarely soaked through.
So, for us Irish, especially in the far South, to talk of "weather" with posters who live in real cold, with snow and ice and all kinds of picture postcard nastiness that we prefer to keep on the postcards, or when real distanced to someone else's backyard, is just the tiniest bit hypocritical. Ireland is a very agreeable place, summer and winter both -- which perhaps accounts for it being one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in.
Sorry to hear you spring is a bit cool...
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Splendid photos, Rual! I envy you All That, as I look out over the two feet of snow still in our back yard. Prompted in no small part by your photographs, have been thinking of a tour through the Celtic fringe of Europe sometime in the next couple of years, beginning in Bretagne, through Cornwall, Devon, Wales and Ireland the Land of St Brian O'Driscoll, to Scotland.
e sure to look up saint anto if you do get to tour the land of saints and scholars (Andre)
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Last night, between hailstorms, officially before sunset, but dark already, I rode out. I live on a country road out of my small town but can't cycle on it because it is lethal, narrow with broken verges and speeding traffic, plus an official black spot a couple of klicks down the road; a schoolboy died on the pavement on the blind corner less than fifty yards from my house year before last, so even the pavement is dangerous...
Fortunately, this lethal road is crisscrossed by lanes. Here's one that loops around conveniently from a safe street near me, crosses the dangerous road, recrosses it, and returns to my house very agreeably, except for some badly broken surfaces and edges.
Some potholes are large enough for a drunk to drown in.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/potholes_800pxh.jpg)
As you can see in this unmolested photograph, when he road is wet, as after a hail storm, Herren Busch und Muller aren't much help. You have to know where the potholes are, or limit your riding to daylight hours. The lamp you can see isn't B&M but my extra daylight flasher.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/potholes_800pxh_visible.jpg)
And these are yer ekshul potholes, with everything lightened up so you can see what I'm talking about. As a check, the bike computer bottom centre of the piccie isn't backlit, therefore unreadable after dark, as in the first photo.
I come across here at 25 or 40kph, depending which direction I'm going. On narrower tyres than the 60mm Big Apples my Kranich wears, I'd certainly slow down for fear of misjudgment and bending a rim, or just smashing my coccyx.
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rough looking terraine andre,you must be planning a secret tour with all this night riding 8)
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Thanks for showing this, Andre. Man alive, you've got potholes...more like tank traps than anything else.
Do ride with care. Except for the floatation provided by the Big Apples, one might drop well below the surface.
All the best,
Dan. (...who can only say, "Yikes!")
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Snorkel and face mask required as extra precaution for night riding in your neck of the woods I reckon.
Alfie
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[About my ride today, as posted to my blog, link in sig, and my sketching forum.]
Last year for my birthday one of the gifts I received was the last Winsor & Newton Bijou Box from Green & Stone in London. I never actually received the brush supposed to go with this box but would in any event have chucked it out to fit in four more half pans, new total twelve, because the standard eight is one short of my minimum palette and a more normal palette for me is twelve colors. I have one of those WN travel brushes that came with another WN kit, and it is uselessly small, except I suppose to people who want to paint the eyes on gnats. The Bijou Box, about the size of a visiting card, now lives in my Little Watercolor Pochade Tin, a pocketable traveling watercolor kit kept on the hall table by my glove chest to grab whenever I go out. Today I went out on my bike, and the first thing I saw that I wanted to sketch was a well kept hedge, the pride and joy of some farmer's wife.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute__painting_the_hedge%20800pxh.jpg)
My favorite bike, a Utopia Kranich, and my Little Watercolour Pochade Tin, caught in action on the ten minutes in which it was pleasant to stand painting outside on a miserably cold spring day in Ireland.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute_painting_the_hedge_w_n_bijou_box_800pxh.jpg)
Andre Jute: The Hedge, 230g rough paper, 6x4in.
The photo shows that the Bijou Box is Winsor & Newton's most compact paintbox, about the size of a visiting card. The box itself isn't well made or finished, and will soon rust, starting at the bubbles and pinholes in the so-called "enamel"; with eight half pans of color it is grossly overpriced at 55 Euro, say about eighty US dollars. I'm not surprised that WN have stopped selling it if Fome cannot supply a better quality box.
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Love it your whole set up is only CLASS.
what a great way to spend a day cycling and painting, sure what more could a fella want.
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... sure what more could a fella want.
Hot'n'cold running barmaids with trays of drinks? Well, a few sausages and a mustard dip wouldn't go amiss either.
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;D ;D obviously you've done that as well.
did you spot the painting my son noel done on facebook.
jags
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Just wonderful, Andre. I do so admire your talents in this area as well.
All the best,
Dan.
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did you spot the painting my son noel done on facebook.
No. Find it, then in the comments box ask the same question again, typing my name and when a little box with my name appears, clicking on my name so that in your comment it is highlighted in blue. That way Facebook notifies me and I get a link in my mailbox. Otherwise it is impossible for me to find something on Facebook that someone else posted (or even that I posted, most of the time).
Just wonderful, Andre. I do so admire your talents in this area as well.
Another good reason for riding out, something to look forward to. It helps to keep up the momentum of exercise even on days that are not wonderful for cycling.
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potholes...more like tank traps than anything else
Andre, your fotos raise some interesting questions about the Annual Plague of Potholes. We usually have informal pools on the subject each spring. We judge the worst potholes by their size/menace/etc., for which blown tires, flattened rims and collapsed suspension are the standard mechanical indicators. (Colourful curses are another class of indicators.) Your photo of a wee lane pockmarked with several brutish examples suggests that there's another indicator which I haven't seen used here: surface area of potholes as % of road surface in a given length. Altogether terrifying, and a serious disincentive for night riding in such narrow confines.
Your sketching and painting adds a splendid visual dimension to our forum -- I say this as someone who has no ability in that area at all. The bike offers a nice entrée to that world -- during the day, of course!
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Andre check out on facebook noel kelly art.some nice stuff if i say so myself.
anto.
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Ironically, it wasn't a pothole that got me, John, not even a new one. In 2012 I was out riding in the false dawn, on the lane pictured above with the potholes, but on a section of it on the other side of the dangerous country road. Regardless of what sort of lamps you have -- right up to the Big Bang I had on test when it first came out -- you can only ride such lanes as fast as I do in the dark if you already know where the potholes and broken verges are. A degree of bike control is required.
I was coming down a familiar downhill section towards a lefthand turn. The part of the road I was on had only minor potholes, no bother to my maximum Big Apples, but a certain amount of unevenness from years of patching without a complete resurfacing. Also, the edges of the road were dangerously broken and in places dropped straight down 16-18 inches into the ditch. At 45kph, maybe 50, I hit a bump I knew about, a little ridge that I aimed for. I'd done this many, many times in both daylight and dark; so far this was a routine ride, at least when I'm alone (the pedal pals have neither bikes nor the inclination for this sort of riding). From there I would land about an inch from the edge of the road and pedaling hard push the motor wide open for the uphill left-hander, pulling the bike away from the lefthand edge where the bump threw me to the righthand edge to give me an apex on the lefthand turn. You can't do this on a lesser bike or lesser tyres, you understand: I tried on my very capable Gazelle Toulouse with Marathon Plus and front suspension, and all I succeeded in doing was smashing the suspension and falling into the ditch, even though I was traveling 15kph slower than on the Utopia. My Trek Smover, a pretty capable sporting bike from a sporting brand, was even slower than the Toulouse because it is stiffer, and I gave up because it shuddered with revulsion at that road on it's Bontrager Satellite Elite tyres, a Marathon Plus workalike but even harsher. (For the Toulouse and the Smover see http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLING.html) My Kranich just looks like someone's granddad's bike; it is awesomely capable though I don't imagine that 99% of the solid burghers who can afford it ride it like I do; they don't know what they're missing.
But on that morning, where in the dark I was supposed to find an inch of tarmac to land on before I fell into the ditch, a huge tractor had broken off two inches of the road, which of course I couldn't see; it wasn't just that the road was wet, but that at anything over 15kph it really doesn't matter whether you can see an irregularity in the road because you'll hit it within your reaction time. The bike dropped straight into the ditch, the axle on my vintage Phillips pedal snapped right off when it hit the road edge and ten feet further at around 50kph I hit a hillock washed into the ditch -- really a donga washed by heavy water -- and was thrown into the air far enough to fling up a hand so that the tree branches shouldn't poke out my eyes. When we landed again I flung the bike to the left into the hedge to save the irreplaceable paintwork (coachlined for me by a man of 89 who worked on the assembly line when my bike design was first built in 1936 -- I didn't quite see me explaining that I wanted him to do it over... you can perve the coach lining at http://coolmainpress.com/AndreJute'sUtopiaKranich.pdf) from the rough edge of the tarmac, and myself onto the road beside me for fear that if I knocked myself out falling into the ditch I could drown.
There I lay for about fifteen minutes, counting my blessings, and threatening to feed the pony in the field opposite who came to laugh at me to my wife's cats. Then I erected myself like Frankenstein's monster slowly rising to consciousness, fetched my bike out of the soft hedge, inspected the paintwork by the daylight flashing lamp, which slides off the mount and turns into a torch at the press of a button, then inspected the damage to my clothes and myself (bruising and abrasions but nothing serious), then drank some hot tea (Lady Grey with extra lime and honey) to settle the adrenaline, then completed the ride one-leggedly, and took a hot bath for the aches and pains.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/phillips_pedal_broken_800pxw.jpg)
The bike was unscathed but the vintage pedals had to be written off, much to my disgust because they suited me well and had cost quite a bit of money from a British collector of bicycle components, and there were none NOS available, and no spare parts either.
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Dear me, so much for nightly ventures into the quaint & quiet lanes of the Blessed Isle. Andre, that sounds all too much like the prose version of TE Lawrence's colossal & terminal wipeout on his SS100 Bruff-Sup, in David Lean's film ... with a happier ending (just barely) for you, and also for us
voyeurs spectators/readers. Never done anything quite like that--but then, I don't ride a Kranich, nor indeed the quaint lanes, etc., at night.
My decision to get a steel-framed touring bike (my Raven, now nearly fully hatched) came in part from some related "what-if?" thoughts: Going fast down the same steep hill on patched/corroded tarmac a couple of times on my rides through the Madawaska Highlands, forks and bars juddering, I started to wonder how long quality-but-ageing carbon-fibre forks could tolerate such stress, and what would happen to me when they said "Enough!" Now, there were no deep ditches full of water, but I could readily imagine acres of road rash on my tender bod, and it was not a pretty sight. Hope to do the same test with steel forks later this summer :-)
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When it comes to carbon fibre and rough roads, I remember that Prudence is one of the seven cardinal virtues.
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'Far From the Madding Crowd'-A re-run
A relaxed and sociable club ride. A re-run hoping for better weather
This link will take you to the archive
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38134959_W6MhH8 (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38134959_W6MhH8)
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som nice cycling done that day ,great photos :)
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Todays 'Post Floods Ride' to Moorland and Muchelney on the Somerset Levels
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38197064_ptDfJf (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38197064_ptDfJf)
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Great photos frogprince.
one day i'll buy meself a good camera.
jags.
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A utilitarian ride today, just eleven miles. Seems like from where I live, it's a busy road to get most anywhere. So I just ride on busy roads!
Mostly US 209 has a good shoulder through here, but it gets narrow over this bridge:
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/IMG_2099_zps94b14142.jpg)
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jim is that 11 miles down hill.
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Here is the route to shopping:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/392421886 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/392421886)
coming back is a bit tougher because our apartment is at the top of a hill - not huge but steep enough, especially with 20 pounds of groceries! Today coming home there was a nasty wind from the west so I had to pedal down the one descent!
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You're so lucky, Jim. Some of the roads we ride on here in Ireland are about as wide as that hard shoulder -- and that's for two-way traffic. And if we could have a consistent hard shoulder the width of yours on the bridge, Jags and I would start looking around for St Peter, thinking we'd gone to heaven. Instead, our hard shoulders appear and disappear without rhyme or reason, sometimes several times in the same mile. Sharing the road takes on a new, urgent, meaning!
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yeah the roads here are cat baloo to say the least,i'm about 5 minutes from the country lanes not a hard shoulder to be seen for miles not until you get onto the main roads but i avoid those like the plaugue.most of the time the hard shoulder is impossible to cycle on , not them all but most of them.i remember my first and only time in spain ,roads like carpets my average speed went up by 5mph even riding hills mountain passes was not a problem,here with the heavy tarmac it's tough going best of times.
mind you haven't said that tis a great wee country for cycling ;D ;D
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mind you haven't said that tis a great wee country for cycling ;D ;D
It's a beautiful country to cycle in for those with local knowledge, but the roads are lethal because of lack of planning for cycling (non-existent or disappearing shoulders are just the beginning of the oversights), over-trafficking, high speeds, generally low level of driving skills, but above all cycling-hostile attitudes. When a truck traveling at 90kph leaves oil on the sleeve of your cycling jacket, it is time to find somewhere else to ride. The police superintendent, who thought he knew better, was killed on his bicycle by a truck on that road only a few yards from where I was smudged and decided enough was a enough. Of the four major and four minor roads out of my town, only two are now safe for cyclists.
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Had a long weekend so got down to the Borders again and a nice spring ride today in fine weather although a bit of a cold wind.
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Going fast down the same steep hill on patched/corroded tarmac a couple of times on my rides through the Madawaska Highlands, forks and bars juddering, I started to wonder how long quality-but-ageing carbon-fibre forks could tolerate such stress, and what would happen to me when they said "Enough!" Now, there were no deep ditches full of water, but I could readily imagine acres of road rash on my tender bod, and it was not a pretty sight. Hope to do the same test with steel forks later this summer :-)
When you've done the ride, John, don't forget to send us a report of the carbon/steel fork comparison in on-the-edge situations. I'm sure that many here* lust after after a carbon fork, but it is anyway the sort of general knowledge that we should have on file to refer to.
* Not me. I lust after a Thorn biplane steel fork made for a 29er with geometry and extra-long steer tube suitable for my Kranich. That fork is the most beautiful thing about a Thorn.
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Lovely photos, Ru. Where's the bridge in the 4th pic? I like the stirk - you can see its brain trying to work out what's approaching :D.
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Lovely photos, Ru. Where's the bridge in the 4th pic? I like the stirk - you can see its brain trying to work out what's approaching :D.
Ettrickbridge.
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Thanks.
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Cycle Somerset Club....... 40mile figure-of-eight ride around South Somerset.
Click on the link to get the full story
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38437486_J7PDc3
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pure magic that's what cycling is all about.are those what you guys call CTC rides.no matter i love the photos thanks for posting ;)
jags.
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pure magic that's what cycling is all about.are those what you guys call CTC rides.no matter i love the photos thanks for posting ;)
jags.
Our club is a local club to Taunton in Somerset. We have about 50 members, a lot of us are 60+ and retired. Many of us are CTC members and our club is affiliated to CTC but our rides are not actually anything to do with the CTC organisation. We call what we do cycle exploring ...similar to what you would do on tour but 40-50 mile day rides with coffee and cake stops. We live in a county with very varied topography so we are never short of interesting rides. When we want to go father afield i.e. down into Devon or Dorset we have a trailer that can caarry 10 bikes. I organise a midweek ride and through the summer there is a Wednesday evening Pub run and always a longer ride on Saturday or Sunday.
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i used to take a local group out weekends but listening to there moans and grons done my head in so i left them to it,actually i met them going the opposite direction only last week . 2 women off the back struggling to get back on so obviously they still kill one another. ;D ;D
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Ettrickbridge.
Is this anywhere near Ettrick Valley?
If so - I have a pal who stays there.
Matt
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Is this anywhere near Ettrick Valley?
If so - I have a pal who stays there.
Matt
Yes, Ettrickbridge is in the Ettrick valley, strange as it may seem! ;)
Great cycling country.
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;D
OK. Got me there. Just eantedvto be sure.
Short hope Farm
Know it?
Matt
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Morning All,
Just came across this thread.
Many, many thanks for all your photo's - they are most pleasing and really interesting.
Don't stop - keep them coming. What a record of the changing seasons and from abroad too!
Thanks.
Ian
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Had a four-dale ride today. Started in Lonsdale, then Kingdale, over to Dentdale, before heading back through Barbon dale. Wonderful day!
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fantastic cycling country tough i bet.
jags.
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endless hills and not a tree to break the wind... that does look tough! Fabulous landscape!
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Yes, trees are rare on the limestone dales, too many sheep as well. You have to pick your day and today was perfect. Some steep climbs but brilliant descents. Just got to remember to stop to open the gates that cross some roads!
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Just got to remember to stop to open the gates that cross some roads!
...and close them behind! :D
Simply terrific photos, Geo'; such gorgeous countryside. I surely enjoyed going along vicariously by way of your fine shots. Well posted!
All the best,
Dan
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endless hills and not a tree to break the wind... that does look tough! Fabulous landscape!
If you like a tree-less area, pop up to Shetland.
I did see a few but they appeared to be very much a cultivated item and in well sheltered areas.
Fantastic place to visit/cycle.
Matt / who types this on the ferry back to Aberdeen. :'(
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Another Cycle Somerset outing for you to dip into..........
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38757275_8pTQGH (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38757275_8pTQGH)
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............ out on my bike needing to be alone. the trees were wonderful today.
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beautifull pic's great cycling country i love it.
did you have words with the group as you needed to be alone.
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........sort of ..... not really ...... I left the group halfway through a very hilly and rather pointless ride .....so I didn't have to ;)
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Simply wonderful photos of picture-book cycling country, Colin. I've so enjoyed "coming along" on your rides vicariously through your photos.
Always a treat.
Best,
Dan.
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Thanks Dan
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great photo's frog prince are they from your phone camera or do you have compact for your bike rides.
i left the group 2 years ago i ride solo these days , most of the time i come home as fresh as i went out i only do hills if i really have no choice. ;D ;D
jags.
also 60 something and enjoyng solo cycling.
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My camera is a Canon G15. compact but almost as good as a DSLR. This is a crap picture as it was taken on an old camera.
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thanks for that but to be honest i know nothing about cameras but i would love a really good one that's small and easy to use point and click. ;)
jags.
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Back down to the Borders for the holiday weekend, got caught up in the Selkirk Triathlon at one point.
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.................. just beautiful, one day I'll get up there :-)
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God's own country beautifull,but man i bet its tough cycling country,to tough as in to many hills for this kid ;D ;D
jags
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Just outstanding photography or gorgeous countryside, as usual from you Rual; such a treat to see and enjoy vicariously.
Thanks so much for posting these!
I've been meaning to ask...d'you use a mild HDR or tone-mapping effect on your photos, or shot and process them "straight"? At any rate, a really nice effect -- maybe one due to the lovely skies in your part of the world.
All the best,
Dan.
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Dan,
The last couple of series of photos I have posted here have been adjusted in Snapseed on my tablet, mainly using the 'ambience' adjustment but also sometimes the 'drama' adjustment. Seems to liven up the pics a bit if the weather has been a bit dull and gloomy (contrary to the impression John Saxby has taken from my pics, the sun doesn't always shine here in Scotland! ;D )
My photos on flickr tend to be the originals out of the camera.
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Where Jags and I live, you're always chasing the hole in the rain. But it's not always that well-defined!
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/chasing_the_hole_in_the_rain__600pxw.jpg)
Here I was on my way into the countryside on pure faith when I saw for the first time that I'd better pedal fast and be home again in less than an hour or I'd get seriously wet.
I made it in forty minutes for a 16km circle with plenty of hills (there's nothing but hills here; the only piece of flat road is 3km long and lethal for cyclists because of the traffic) and my leather saddle passed through the door again as the first fat drops sounded like drums on the rear mudguard. That's good timing.
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*Excellent* timing, I'd say, Andre!
A real treat to see a window on your world today. Thanks for the photo and ride account.
Best,
Dan. (...where it is mixed fluffy white clouds and blue skies at the moment with showers forecast for this afternoon)
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well captured andre weather up my end is not much better but very warm are ever going to get a bit of sunshine. :'(
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Where Jags and I live, you're always chasing the hole in the rain. But it's not always that well-defined!
Here in Cumbria where I live it just rains on the (w)hole ! ;D
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One thing after another, but very few of them on the bike, sad to say. 12 days since my last ride, but I finally got back out today for a short ride. A bit of a break through adventure, too! There are some woods back of here that held promise of traversibility... today I made it through! Did have to walk a few tricky places, but just ten or twenty feet. Marathon Supremes on mud and gravel - not ideal. But I am not sure that knobbier tires would have helped much.
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/409901738 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/409901738)
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sitting and working all day long... generally I don't like to ride on a Saturday evening, the roads are just too dangerous! But now I have opened up the territory through the woods back of here... it's not grand adventure through Tadjikistan, but it's a bike ride!
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/413115894 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/413115894)
http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/jockey%20hill%202014-05-10 (http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/jockey%20hill%202014-05-10)
the puddles can be deeper than they look!
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/jockey%20hill%202014-05-10/IMG_2120_zps18b5b34f.jpg)
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/jockey%20hill%202014-05-10/IMG_2123_zps92baf3cc.jpg)
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Your own Land Rover assault course!
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Jim --
Those are the kinds of "roads" that I love to ride on. There is something about riding amongst the trees that is good for the soul. And even though you do not ride as fast as on a smooth road, the fun per mile/km is much higher, so that you actually enjoy the trip better. I know some cyclists prefer going fast on the roads, but I'm all about the enjoyment of the journey.
One question: What is the white tape(?) on your forks, chainstay, seatstay next to the tires? Reflective tape?
- Dave
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Heading off to watch the giro very shortly it will be passing through my town but i'm heading out the road to get a better view.
jags.
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Heading off to watch the giro very shortly it will be passing through my town but i'm heading out the road to get a better view.
Don't get on road, Anto. Those maniacs will run you over. (Says he now he's retired. http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLETourofIrelandwithLance&Andre.pdf )
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hah i actually think the weather was worse,i got soaked to the bone but it was great to see,
the speed of these top racers is unbelievable they just eat up the road.only managed to get one photo.dan is off on his travels so if andre or jim wants to post it here great ive no idea how to do it.
anto.
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Local ride today, first half warm and sunny, second half very wet and cold, including some thunder and hailstones.
Photos taken about ten minutes before the downpour started.
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hah i actually think the weather was worse,i got soaked to the bone but it was great to see,
the speed of these top racers is unbelievable they just eat up the road.only managed to get one photo.dan is off on his travels so if andre or jim wants to post it here great ive no idea how to do it.
(https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/p180x540/10365893_590385477734973_3094306919626783599_n.jpg)
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excellent Andre thanks for that, look at the weather mental or what, that was around 2pm lashed rain most of the day.anyway thats the 5 man break that stayed away until 6 km from the finish in dublin.
i enjoyed it ever though the weather was dire and got soaked to the skin .
jags.
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Looks miserable Anto, we were lucky here no rain at all, just windy. Didn't you borrow your wife's umbrella this time?
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left in in the car >:( what a geek.
i sure hope those lads get better weather when they head back to italy ::)
anto.
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Y'know, guys, there's a line in the early pages of Thomas Flanagan's book The Year of the French, his account of the '98, where he says, "It was one of those days on the West Coast of Ireland when the entire world seemed to have turned to water." ... and to think people race bikes in such weather!
Today being Mother's Day, Marcia & I rode down to Dow's Lake to look at the tulips -- our first warm day of the year, a nice 23 degrees, and sunny, with no bugs. Yet. Dow's Lake, btw, is a bulge in the Rideau Canal formed by what used to be a malarial cedar swamp, round about the '98, until in the late 1820's it was drained by Irish sappers working under the kindly direction of Col. John By, as part of the construction of the Canal between Kingston (on Lake Ontario) and the scruffy wee settlement that would later become Ottawa. The tulips are a gift in perpetuity from the Netherlands--the Dutch royal family lived here during WWII, along with the Dutch government in exile. I'd happily trade our tulip bulbs for a gift of decent cycling infrastructure...
Just one short ride with the Raven so far this year, an hour and a half up into the Gatineau Hills across the river this past Wednesday. But I hope to get a half-day next weekend. The foliage is about 3 weeks late, only now beginning to appear -- but I might get a foto or two next weekend.
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All dressed up and ready to go ...... C to C charity ride from Watchet to West Bay for Somerset and Dorset Air Ambulance tomorrow and then East along the South coast to the Isle of Wight and back home over next week. I loaded the bike with all my stuff and rode it round the block ....a bit wobbley but I soon got used to it.....I've done 2500 miles on the Raven since I bought it last September but this is the first time I've been fully loaded.......... don't know if I'm anxious or excited. I'll post a link to the ride pictures when I get back next weekend.
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If you are interested It's 300 miles and fairly hilly ;D
60 miles a day. The flags are my campsites and I'll spend a couple of days on the Island. Bit of a nostalgia trip as I spent my childhood in this area and visited the Island many times.
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What a great ride, Colin -- enjoy, and I hope you have good weather for your view E & W over Lyme Bay on the Dorset coast. Couldn't be sure from the map--will you have a downhill ride into Abbotsbury? Wise choice if so. Do give a nod to Corfe Castle for me if you're going S of the Purbeck Hills.
In late April I was visiting Somerset for a couple of days with our daughter, Meg--my aunt, her great-aunt, lives in Weston. En route from Weston to Glastonbury, we stopped at a vegetarian bistro (foto attached) on the southern edge of Cheddar -- Cheddar being one of the places we used to visit ages back, when I was a wee kid living in Corfe & Salisbury. First-rate food, most of it locally produced. Not sure how the Bistro's pastel wall would go with your splendid red Raven, but I have no hesitation in recommending the menu.
Safe journeys,
John
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Colin
That looks excellent, the bike looks great in red with your red panniers and glad to see the Click-Stand doing its job. I'm way over in New Zealand, but your journey looks excellent, so I hope we'll see lots of photos and write ups.
Best of luck
Tony NZ
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Hi Colin,
Looks like you will have fabulous weather for your charity ride tomorrow. I am cycling for Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance when I do my John O' Groats to Lands Ends in August.
The Raven looks exactly as it should all loaded up and ready to go. I have yet to try my Sherpa loaded up, as I only have rear panniers at the moment and have got to get some front ones as soon as I have a little spare cash. I certainly don't notice the 1 rear pannier that I carry when I take the Sherpa to work.
That area around the South Coast tomorrow certainly is hilly but beautiful and it should be a great ride. I see you are using the chain ferry to cross at Sandbanks, great fun. The Isle of Wight caught me out when I took my 2 sons on our first little mini tour there. We cycled half way round and then stayed overnight in a hotel, then cycled the other half the next day. East side especially has some hills and we ended up going wrong and had to really pedal hard to catch the ferry back to Lymington.
You are probably passing fairly close to me on your return, though can't see enough detail on your map. I am in Gillingham, and if it had been a week later I would have said pop in for a cuppa as I would be on half term. Hope you have a great trip.
By the way, I really like the way you have your bars set up. My stem faces downwards slightly and I think I will possibly look at turning it over to give my bars a little more height and or raising the bar ends.
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What an excellent bike. Very smart looking.
I'm a Raven man as well. Same handle bars/position.
I like the look of the positioning for the front bag. I must look at lowering mine. At the moment it is high and easy to access.
Is it a problem having it further forward and lower?
Good luck with your trip.
Matt
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Is it a problem having it further forward and lower?
Works fine for me and access is very easy.
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My MK 1 Nomad at Thurstason. My early morning ride starts at Seacombe and takes in New Brighton, West Kirby and Thurstason before heading off to Willaston and then home. Much of this ride follows the coast and The Wirral Way; best avoided at peak times. Here is a link: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/recreation/article/wtr_nw_lei_wirral_wanderer
I've just fitted some Thorn straight bars and Ergon GP5 grips so fine tuning is in progress. The Brooks is hidden 'neath a gel seat cover as we are only just getting to know each other. The Moorhen just photobombed me!
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The Brooks is hidden 'neath a gel seat cover as we are only just getting to know each other.
A shy Brooks!
The Moorhen just photobombed me!
Bloody critics are everywhere! Never mind, I think it is a fine photograph.
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...and a very smart black-and-silver colour scheme!
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Took the trusty Red RST around the Lakeland 200km audax on Saturday. A fine day out !
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Oh & the descent down to Buttermere: :o
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Across the River & into the Hills
This past Monday was the first really splendid day in this Year of the Late Spring, sunny and warm with a fresh breeze from the NW. It was also Victoria Day, our quirky archaic nod to a 19th-century imperial queen whose name pops up in many Canadian towns and cities. Having been chained to my desk for most of the past couple of weeks, I decided to saddle up Osi and take my first ride of the year across the Ottawa to West Québec and up to Champlain Lookout in the Gatineau Hills. This is my standard ride away from the city, a nice 60-70 km round trip (depending on the loops) up to the Lookout at 300-some metres, with a grand view from the escarpment northwest back across the river. The hills are forested, a mix of deciduous trees—maple, birch and beech, in the main—and conifers, pines and spruce. There’s water everywhere, spring streams and lakes. We’re so privileged to have this year-round mini-paradise for cycling, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, camping and paddling; with some good Québecois cafés within easy reach as well.
The combination of the brilliant weather and the public holiday meant that I had to contend with a bit more motor traffic than usual, though I’d guess that there were at least as many cyclists on the roads as drivers.
The first stop is a lookout over Pink Lake, named after a settler in the early 19th century. The lake is deep and cold—a month ago, there’d have been ice here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/811h6jzhcp2xymt/1%20-%20Osi%20at%20Pink%20Lake.jpg (https://www.dropbox.com/s/811h6jzhcp2xymt/1%20-%20Osi%20at%20Pink%20Lake.jpg)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i9omt9azalknii0/2%20-%20Spring%20comes%20to%20the%20Gatineau%2C%20late.jpg (https://www.dropbox.com/s/i9omt9azalknii0/2%20-%20Spring%20comes%20to%20the%20Gatineau%2C%20late.jpg)
The most beautiful of the woodland flowers is the trillium, Ontario’s symbolic flower (and the model name of my canoe) but common on the Canadian Shield in Quebec as well. Here’s a cluster:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ew38nkypmh59g72/3%20-%20No%20daffs%2C%20please%20--%20a%20cluster%20of%20trilliums.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ew38nkypmh59g72/3%20-%20No%20daffs%2C%20please%20--%20a%20cluster%20of%20trilliums.JPG)
Each plant blooms only once every seven years, so it’s rare to see a dense carpet of them. White is the default, but one occasionally sees a deep maroon-claret bloom. Lovely sight on a spring hillside:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqa4fkgs2fmucz8/4%20-%20Tilliums%20beside%20the%20road.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqa4fkgs2fmucz8/4%20-%20Tilliums%20beside%20the%20road.JPG)
Champlain Lookout is about an hour and a half from my house, more if you pause for the trillium fotos. There’s a couple of good informative plaques, one of which recreates the view westwards out over the river as it might have been some 11,000 years ago, after the ice had retreated. Thus:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/35333w6csi0a5b1/5%20-%20Looking%20N%20from%20Champlain%20Lookout%2C%2011%2C000%20years%20ago.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/35333w6csi0a5b1/5%20-%20Looking%20N%20from%20Champlain%20Lookout%2C%2011%2C000%20years%20ago.JPG)
Today, the same landforms are visible:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dg3lg8ujxpgdhc4/6%20-%20Looking%20N%20from%20champlain%20Lookout%20today.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/dg3lg8ujxpgdhc4/6%20-%20Looking%20N%20from%20champlain%20Lookout%20today.JPG)
Hard to imagine that the spot where I was standing was, back in the day, under more than a mile of ice, in the form of the Laurentian/Wisconsin Glacier:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8p6fn0uov49ft8/7%20-%20A%20mile%20of%20ice%2C%20imagined.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8p6fn0uov49ft8/7%20-%20A%20mile%20of%20ice%2C%20imagined.JPG)
The bike enjoyed its rest in the sunshine, oblivious to the weight of history all around:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vez3xcyflleblv/8-%20Unconscious%20of%20the%20history%2C%20enjoying%20the%20sunshine.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vez3xcyflleblv/8-%20Unconscious%20of%20the%20history%2C%20enjoying%20the%20sunshine.JPG)
(The passers-by, I was pleased to see, were also oblivious to Osi, maybe stunned by the warmth & the return of the sun, but completely uninterested in my so-obviously-a-touring-bike, despite its trick hubs.)
The ride back to town is always enjoyable, especially the back way past the ski club on the north slope, a sustained downhill which is also used for a serious uphill time-trial route by The Plastic Bike Brigade. My freewheel made a terrific clackety-ratcheting high-pitched buzz in 13th and 14th, and the bears stopped their snuffling and foraging among rotten tree stumps and ran for cover. Well, maybe they didn’t – I didn’t actually see any bears, but had there been bears, it’s entirely likely that they would have fled: bears are smart creatures, they know which side of their toast has the honey, and I think they’d be plenty quick to bail out from an otherwise inviting hillside at the sound of a large, fast and angry swarm of African killer bees coming down the hill. Come to think of it, that’s probably why I didn’t see any…
The big river is very high this year, with spring rains and late snowmelt upstream, so the bikepath on the Québec side is now very close to the stream:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tbevcdo32nrn2i/9%20-%20Bike%20path%20beside%20the%20river%2C%20very%20full%20from%20rain%20%26%20snowmelt%20upstream.JPG (https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tbevcdo32nrn2i/9%20-%20Bike%20path%20beside%20the%20river%2C%20very%20full%20from%20rain%20%26%20snowmelt%20upstream.JPG)
Lovely ride, and the bike was once again very comfortable. Judging by the gears I needed (unloaded) for the steeper bits of the Gatineau, Osi & I will manage OK with a full load of camping gear on the tougher hills in the region.
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Amazing photos, Brummie and John. Keep 'em coming!
I'm almost over the shock of Brummie's elevation...
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Day 1 of my South Coast Tour. The Dorset and somerset Air ambulance C 2 C charity ride.
Click the link to get all the pictures
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/41035915_mcwjhT (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/41035915_mcwjhT)
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Day 2 of my South Coast Tour. Burton Bradstock in Dorset to Milford on Sea in Hampshire
Click on the link to get the pictures
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/41036305_Pqvm9f
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Day 3 of my south Coast Tour. Esle of White, Alum Bay and the Needles.
Click on the link to get the pictures
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/41036529_kvvPkq
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Day 4 of my South Coast Tour. Round the Island Ride
Click on the link to get the pictures
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/41036916_tFbgPd
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Day 5 of my South Coast Tour. Start of the return journey.
Click on the link to get the pictures
http://colinandelaine.smugmug.com/Other-4/Day-5-Hampshire-Dorset-and/41037211_3ZnKNv
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Day 6of my South Coast Tour. Last Leg.
Click on the link to get the pictures
http://colinandelaine.smugmug.com/Other-4/Day-6-Toomer-Farm-to-home/41037539_J5Pj65
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stunning photos frogprince what a beautifull country thanks for the pics.
jags.
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Great photos, Colin, and what a splendid ride! (The smugmug setup is a good one.) Thanks for the view of Corfe from the North side, Sandbanks, all those places. You did well in arranging the weather. :-)
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What a great recount of what sounds like a thoroughly enjoyable trip. It was great to see pictures of so many familiar places to me. Your bike also looks a lot like mine, it's just the Rohloff that is different. Glad you had a great time though.
How did the bike ride with all your luggage, especially the front panniers. I am trying to work out whether to buy front panniers or not. I could probably make do without, but it is handy to have a little empty space for shopping when the need arises. I remember from my short trip last year trying desperately to fit my food for the evening on the bike before I reached the campsite at the end of the day.
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jacki i used2 rear panniers most of the time just rear ortlieb plus panniers and barbag the bike handled fantastic,
go as light as you possible can, the cloths is the big issue, get them sorted and the 2 panniers will be fine. 8) please take a camera.
anto
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Loving the RST, riding the Bowland fells in Lancashire!
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How did the bike ride with all your luggage, especially the front panniers. I am trying to work out whether to buy front panniers or not. I could probably make do without, but it is handy to have a little empty space for shopping when the need arises. I remember from my short trip last year trying desperately to fit my food for the evening on the bike before I reached the campsite at the end of the day.
I used the front panniers for clothes so they were quite light. It meant they didn't take up too much room in the tent. The bike performs well as long as the front panniers are not too heavy. I had all the heavier stuff, the camping stuff, electronic stuff and food etc in the back. I unpacked and left the empty rear panniers outside on the bike over night. Personal stuff, money etc I carried in the in the bar bag and waterproofs and tools etc in the rack bag. There was enogh room in both of these to carry food etc purchased at the end of the day before setting up camp. Everything stayed dry. The large panniers have roll down tops but you can store the wet tent under the covers on top of these. I had to pack up in a down pour on the last morning. Only the outer tent was really wet as the inner can be taken down and rolled up under the outer tent ....a bit hard on the back and knees though :-)
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Anto, not to worry I will definitely be taking a camera. In fact I am going to have to buy a new card for it as I will not have enough space on the one I already have.
I understand about going lightweight. It is sorting what is luxury and what you really can't do without. I really missed my chair last time I toured. I have a thermarest one where you fold up your sleeping pad and use it as a chair and they are really comfy (hard to get out of though). The actual chair is minimal weight, but the problem is I like sleeping on my exped downmat (easier on the hips and shoulders and lovely and warm) but that means I can't use the thermarest chair unless I also take my thermarest sleeping mat (which is what I used to do on the motorbike) I think that it is more important to get a really good nights sleep though rather than sitting comfortably, but I wish I could have both. I could, but that means carrying an extra kg almost. (mmm, maybe if I lose another 2 pound in weight then I could take both - quickly puts down the snickers bar she was about to eat ::)) Also like the look of the helinox chair.
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Thanks for the information Frogprince. Keeping the front panniers light makes sense. What I don't want to do is take more stuff just because you have the space. On the other hand putting the weight of the front racks and the panniers on just to carry a few things seems a bit silly, but I do feel that spreading the weight out along the bike saves those unplanned 'wheelies' on the steep hills.
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I definitely didn't have any wheeliies this trip on the Raven :-) I have had before on my Giant with just rear panniers :-)
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jackie those helinox are fantastic bikepacker had one with him when he was over with me pack small super comfy and hes a ig man so obviously strong piece of kit.get one today to hell with the expensive you'll be dead a long time ;)
jags.
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I have the REI version bought in the USA. About half the price and not quite so strong but I wouldn't be without it now
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Overnighter, Wicklow Gap, Ireland. Last night.
(http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc356/Kilroy8282/DSCN0556_zps14167bfe.jpg) (http://s527.photobucket.com/user/Kilroy8282/media/DSCN0556_zps14167bfe.jpg.html)
(http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc356/Kilroy8282/DSCN0561_zpscafd732c.jpg) (http://s527.photobucket.com/user/Kilroy8282/media/DSCN0561_zpscafd732c.jpg.html)
(http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc356/Kilroy8282/DSCN0565_zps0a473306.jpg) (http://s527.photobucket.com/user/Kilroy8282/media/DSCN0565_zps0a473306.jpg.html)
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Great photos Planet X only been up those hills once in a car.. ::)
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i'm not long in from a lovely sunny 40miler around the north east coast (Ireland) plenty of cyclists out this morning such a beautifull day at last.
still having pain in my back and feet when the road rises, so i try my best to pick routes that there's not to many hills,not always easy ::)
still great to get out.
anto.
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Great pictures planetx. Looks beautiful. Was it wild camping or a campsite? I have yet to do any wild camping, though it is something I would like to try, just a bit wary about being a solo female on. can't wait until I can get camping with the Sherpa, but I am having to save every penny at the moment, so can't go waltzing off here, there and everywhere. Mind you I will make up for it in the Summer.
Jags, glad you managed to get out and enjoy the good weather. Been dry here, but a bit cloudy and muggy. I completed my first ever metric 100 yesterday. In fact I ended up doing 103km or 64 miles. I think I could have gone a bit further too. No ill effects today from muscles at all, BUT ... I have my first saddle sore. I thought my sit bones were just feeling a bit bruised to start with, but no. It's mainly just the left side and I am wondering as it seems to match just where there is a 'seam' running along my Brooks B17 saddle. I hadn't really noticed this before. I also have a B17 Flyer (B17 with springs, and that doesn't have the seam running around it) In fact the Flyer seems to be a better quality leather.
It's not really a seam as such is is just a line that runs all the way around the seat that is slightly raised. I just wondered if this was normal for the B17. I actually prefer the comfort of the men's B17 over the ladies Flyer because it is longer, and on the Flyer I find I am sitting very close to the nose which of course is not too comfortable. However, it is now starting to soften up a little and is showing signs of shaping up to me, which of course the B17 is not. It does seem to be taking a bit longer for the B17 to show any signs of wear as I have done just over 300 miles now and there is no sign at all as of yet.
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Jacki try dropping the saddle quarter of an inch and forward the same.are you wareing good padded shorts ;)
man i went through saddle sores big time ,but the fizif alanti sorted me out the B17 champion special i had on the sherpa was class.
i got cream from my doctor Daktacort w/w cream excellent cleared the sores up in no time.
ah the sherpa is fantastic for all day cycling at least i found that,did you try getting all your gonna need into rear panniers. good barbag like ortlieb will hold loads as well.
jags.
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just watching this jackie you might fine it interesting.. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVFWZurNAcQ
jags.
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Hi Jags, I will give the adjustments a go, it could just be the body objecting as I have never done that sort of mileage before. I hate messing about with the saddle as you can never seem to get it back to how you want it. As far as cycle shorts are concerned I have a pair of Corrine Dennis padded boxers which I really like, I also have a pair of Ronhill shorts which are not so great and a pair of Pearl Izumi which are ok. I don't like all the ridges in the padding though, which is why I like the Corrine Dennis as they just have flat padding. I do find any of the cycle shorts are comfortable to start with, but once they start 'warming up' I find they start to become uncomfortable. On shorter rides I prefer not to wear any padding and when it was a bit cooler, I wore my Altura winter tights, which were not tight at all and were like fleece lined joggers and I much preferred this set up. I have yet to do a long 'non padded' ride though. I am hoping as the Brooks softens a little it will become much more comfortable. I don't want to have to keep buying saddles at this moment in time.
I haven't tried loading the panniers yet, but I do already have an Ortlieb handlebar bag in yellow to match the Ortlieb rear panniers. I would also get the same front panniers too. I have the map attachment for the bar bag and have bought a Philips Navigator large scale atlas from which I will tear out the necessary pages and hopefully laminate. I have bought a Garmin E Trex 20 which I am trying to come to grips with. Unfortunately I am no whizz with gadgets and I can't load the Garmin Software as my computer is too old and I need to download new 'Microsoft Net' programmes, whatever that means. I have had a couple of practice runs with it, by loading routes manually and it seems pretty good. I think I will need it most if I have to go through any large towns, though I am hoping to avoid as many of these as possible. Hate the thought of city riding. It's bad enough that I will have to ride from London Waterloo to Euston to catch the sleeper. It's only about 2.5 miles thankfully and I will have studied the maps carefully, but I bet I end up walking some of it. ;)
At the moment, Sudocreme will have to suffice, ::)
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excellent shorts those corrine dennis i have couple pair of the bibs well pleased.
caldesene powder is great as well sprinkle the shorts before you put them on.
ah you'll be fine ,if you can get your cloths sorted out the rear panniers will be plenty ,theres a lot of climbing to do so lighter the better.
jags.
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@bikerta. That would be Wild Camping, my preferred option. ;)
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Planet X
Is that a couple of cans of coke I see by your tent? If so, I heartily approve!
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3691/13654998685_a9c7820146_z.jpg)
Addicted!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nztony/13654998685/
Nice bike and campsite - I didn't notice it was a LHT for a little while. And, you have your own Hollywood sign in Ireland?
Tony
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Yes, a brace of full fat Coke, Litre of milk and a mega packet of crisps. That did me for the day really.
Not a campsite but a mountain pass, wild camping.
Passed through a village called Hollywood. Yanks named theirs after ours........obviously! :)
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Planet X, glad I'm not the only coke drinking cyclist - you wouldn't believe the hassle I get just because I drink it.
I don't drink tea or coffee, so got to get my caffeine somehow I guess.
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can't believe the crisps are not TAYTO ::)
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Planet X, glad I'm not the only coke drinking cyclist - you wouldn't believe the hassle I get just because I drink it.
I don't drink tea or coffee, so got to get my caffeine somehow I guess.
I'm in the same boat. I've never acquired a taste for coffee or tea, and so I don't find hot drinks refreshing -- except for perhaps hot chocolate on a very cold day. I'm a bit addicted to Coke (and chocolate for that matter). Sometimes people at work at surprised that I drink such unhealthy junk, since I am a cyclist. I explain that I can drink that stuff without guilt simply because I am a cyclist. I have earned it. ;)
(I won't mention that I have also never acquired a taste for beer, since that may no go over well with this predominantly-UK crowd.)
- Dave
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davidjsimpson
I know the feeling - I want to cycle Scotland in the next year or two and everyone tells me which Whisky Distilleries I must visit and sample - I couldn't think of anything worse I'm afraid. I'd still want to cycle Scotland though. And to make it worse, my mother was born in Scotland and I'm still not interested in whisky.
Tony
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Another Coca Cola (and crisps) junkie here.
Although just back from tour of west highlands and western isles and hardly had any of either the whole two weeks.
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Guinness now how any right minded person can that stuff down there neck is a mystery to me horrible stuff ;D ;D
i sometimes use coke and water as an energy drink but other than that i'm a tea /coffee aholic .
jags.
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Just back from a weekend away with the Raven.
A bus from my house in Aberdeen to Inverness.
Free for me and the Old Bird. ;)
The 6.30 departure saw me arrive at 9.30 and hit the road to Fort William at 10.
Took the road to the South - less traffic.
Good weather and had to change into shorts half way.
Here's our stop at Suidhe viewpoint, a mile or 2 from Fort Augustus
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-l8ALJ_Mk2Js/U42LCIok7hI/AAAAAAAADWU/2eMudf0bX9A/w958-h719-no/Sea2Summit2014+005.jpg)
70 miles approx - 7 hours total time including plenty of stops.
Return trip was along the North side of Loch Ness.
Certainly busier with cars but avoided the massive hill out of Fort Augustus. Don't honestly know how anyone could do it with panniers.
Anyone here done it?
Matt
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Great photo, Matt, esp the skyscape! (I see you borrowed Rual's camera.) Nice to be able to put Da Boid and self on the bus, and to ride free of charge.
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Thanks John.
Not all buses take bikes. This one was like a large coach with plenty of storage space underneath.
As an over 60 kinda guy - I get the ride for free up here in Scotlandshire.
Amazing.
I'm almost tempted to hop on a bus even when I don't want to go anywhere!
(Mrs. Matt said I should do that more often!)
:o
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I wish more buses would take bikes. Some times there's a lot of room underneath for luggage that doesn't get used. As you say one of the benefits of being over 60 is the bus pass. I almost never use mine but if I could take my bike I would use it lots.
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class photo. ;)
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Look at that sky! Incredible colour. If you painted it, people would accuse you of "improving on Nature".
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Hi Matt,
Lovely photo and good to see because this is the road I shall be taking on my JOGLE. Sounds like I am doing it the right way round then. Hopefully the sky will be the same colour for me!!
Jackie
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Thanks folks.
I had the front panniers on the back since it was only a 2 nighter away.
Still managed to take too much.
Ended up bringing food home with me!
And why did I need 4 pairs of trousers?
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This one taken near Fort Augustus
Guess it was the old road?
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fQ2Xa9qRles/U4786Chr--I/AAAAAAAADaY/xy7XU83sKb8/w958-h719-no/CmaeracardbackupJune2014+027.jpg)
No 'sky' since it was very over-cast. Good day for cycling but not for sky.
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wow that scotland is some country pity its so feckin hilly or i'd be over there next year for a nice weeks tour. ::)
jags.
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Funny you should mention hills, Jags.
I knew there were going to be a few so decided to psych myself up before I hit the road.
I decided there would be no hills only slow roads and fast roads.
When I saw those pesky " slow",roads ahead of me, I knew it would take longer to reach the top but accepted my fate.
Well, it worked for me.
But then I believe anything anyone tells me.
Even me!
Matt - from the slow lane.
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i do that as well matt never works though ;D ;D
mind you i have to say i can get over most hills but in the last few months i'm having bi g problems with back and foot pain,once i rest a while i'm ok until the next hill, so if i can pick a route that has as little hills as possible i'm away in a hack ;)
matt your photos of your part of the world are only fantastic, you would get a job with the scottish tourist board no problem.
jags.
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I haven't been out much on the bike lately, just too many other things going on! But still, I squeeze in a ride when I can.
Right by where I live, the routes are rather constrained. One barrier is the Esopus Creek. It must have had a lot more flow before it was dammed to form the Ashokan Reservoir and its water diverted to quench the thirst of New York City! There are rich farms along the creek but not too many bridges. One bridge nearby, on Wynkoop Rd in Hurley, is now out. I rode by today to take a look - the old bridge is just totally gone. A local fellow was there with a camera, looking at the empty space. He said the plan was for the new bridge to be finished in three months. Rats - there is a nice farm stand on the other side of that bridge!
When I worked on the 2010 I needed to explore some of the back roads in that area. I tried to cross the Esopus in Marbletown using Fording Place Rd. The road quickly degenerated as it neared the creek so I turned around and went down to Tongore Rd instead, the next bridge across. Today I decided to see whether I could get across on my bike.
Nowadays I am riding in Teva sandals on VP-191 platform pedals. A good set-up for today's ride! There is a Road Closed sign and the road just disappears into the river. But it is indeed a good fording place. I didn't try riding across - the rocks at the creek bottom were rather lumpy. But the footing was fine and the water maybe 8 inches deep at most.
Fun to pioneer new routes, right close to home!
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/436532512 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/436532512)
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Where I rode, and stopped to admire and capture the flowers.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute_carpet_of_flowers_june_2014_watercolor_in_custom_sketchbook_a5_800pxw.jpg)
Andre Jute: Carpet of Flowers, Mishells, June 2014, Watercolor in custom sketchbook, A5
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That is such a great way to deepen an experience, to paint like that!
An old friend of mine from high school is involved with this magazine:
http://www.outdoorpainter.com/
and here is one of my pen pals:
http://toutparisfrancais.blogspot.fr/
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What weird and wonderful -- and talented -- people you know, Jim!
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Wonderful watercolour, Andre.
Here's a source that you might enjoy, as well as the many photographers who post on the Thorn forum:
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
This comes from my friend David, in Amsterdam, who modestly describes himself as a sketcher.
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great stuff andre . ;)
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Thanks, Jags. It's a phenomenon familiar to you, the verge outside a farmer's house, where his wife completes with the farmer's wife next door. This is just past a beautifully clipped and square topped hedge too low to keep in even lazy sheep, but running for more than half a mile by bike computer: pure ostentation!
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
This comes from my friend David, in Amsterdam, who modestly describes himself as a sketcher.
Super link, John; thanks. I have a sketch for a painting of a very odd cloud formation that'll happen the next time I'm stuck indoors. I'm a sketcher too -- a painter needs more time than the ten minutes I'm willing and able to give to any item; tell you friend David to come join the other sketchers at http://www.sketching.cc/forum3/viewforum.php?f=2 (And your Paris friend too would find a welcome there, Jim.) BTW, I haven't forgotten your friends at Prince Albert; it's just that my first attempt at painting them was a disaster because I chose the wrong colour of Mi Teintes paper, which then fought the dioxazine violet which is essential for some of the flowers there, and the mountain too.
Forecast miserable, squalls have fallen and will again, wind gusting, but the sun shines on and off so I'm off to ride while I can. If this is the summer, somebody can stick it.
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Yesterday was a delightful ride, 36 miles to New Paltz & back, almost entirely on rail trails.
http://www.wvrta.org/
http://www.traillink.com/trail/d--h-canal-heritage-corridor-%28ow-rail-trail%29.aspx
The glitch at the end, half a mile from home: my first flat since I got the Nomad three and a half years ago. A nasty 5 mm gash right through the tire carcass. Seems like that's the end of that tire. It wasn't actually bulging when I put in a new tube but looking from the inside of the tire, that gash is quite apparent. The flat happened at the 28/209 intersection, a cloverleaf with lots of traffic and nasty stuff along the edge of the road.
So this morning I replaced the dead Supreme with a Dureme. Then this afternoon I went out for a short spin, a bit of exploration. Jockey Hill Rd got so steep and with the loose gravel I just couldn't pedal up, the back tire would just spin. The Dureme doesn't have enough grip on gravel! I only walked about 20 yards though. Plenty of crazy rough stuff the rest of the way, but just not that steep again.
http://www.fatsinthecats.com/?p=1009
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/448086540
It is really grand fun to have a tough bike like the Nomad. That's why I call mine "Fearless". I was really pounding the mechanism along that trail and everything holds up perfectly.
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... I replaced the dead Supreme with a Dureme. ... The Dureme doesn't have enough grip on gravel!
Jim --
Are you saying that the Dureme has worse grip on gravel than the Supreme? Or just that the Dureme has worse grip that you were expecting?
I am very curious, because I do a fair bit of trail riding on gravel, and got the Duremes over the Surpremes because I thought they had better grip on gravel.
- Dave
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That was my first time up Jockey Hill Rd so I have no basis for any comparison. I expect the Dureme really does have better traction on gravel than the Supreme. I don't know that I would have expected the Dureme to meet the challenge of that little stretch of Jockey Hill Rd. I imagine most folks riding through there have deep knobbies, full suspension, etc.! I might try the Mondial next. But most of my riding is much much less technical. Mostly it's on nice smooth asphalt! I demand a lot from my equipment, to behave well on the road and yet still handle such crazy rough terrain!
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I demand a lot from my equipment, to behave well on the road and yet still handle such crazy rough terrain!
In the main I find it a pain to keep several bikes ready to ride, keep most of mine on the third floor of my house in a dismantled state, and ride one favorite bike all the time. But sometimes I eye a really rough trail and for a moment understand the people who have a different bike for every purpose...
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Having been up all night last night with a sick book I'm helping a protege knock into shape, I was just about to go to sleep this morning when one of my pedalpals called to go cycling. I didn't take any photos, using my sketchbook instead, but here's a photo my pedalpal Helen took. Superb, isn't it?
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/chipper_photo_credit_helen__22_june_2014_800pxw.jpg)
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Yes, Andre, Helen did a very nice job composing and taking that photo. A pleasure to see.
All the best,
Dan.
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yip it sure is Andre only class. ;)
anto.
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Perfect riding weather here today! My ride wasn't so long but I got to explore some new territory. I have been back and forth nearby many many times over the years. But today I traced my way along Shaupeneak Ridge!
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/462328798 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/462328798)
My goal was Slabsides, where John Burroughs lived and Walt Whitman visited:
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/slabsides%202014-07-05/IMG_2155_zps4790342c.jpg)
more at: http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/slabsides%202014-07-05?sort=9&page=1 (http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/slabsides%202014-07-05?sort=9&page=1)
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very nice jim so different to my part of the world.
i got a 53 mile spin in today with the local group .lovely spin over to a wee town TRIM couple castles in trim then headed for hill of tara ancient burial ground .
sorry didnt take any pics but take it from me it was a class day out on the bike..
i suffered like a dog with lower back pain and burning feet just took more drugs and now heading to me bed..
anto.
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Super photograph of the Burrough residence, Jim.
Here a warm day but on the highest hills I had to put my jacket on because of the cutting wind, and my heart rate shot up to 120% of max pedalling into the wind. I was looking for something to paint, and found it, on the return journey, about twenty paces from my front door: my neighbour's wrough iron fence and flowers...
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uh, I must confess, I am thinking that the interesting building I photographed is not really Slabsides! The real thing seems to be tucked back a little deeper in the woods. I will have to figure out a way to make an official visit!
http://johnburroughsassociation.org/index.php/visit (http://johnburroughsassociation.org/index.php/visit)
I think 53 miles is well within my capabilities, Anto, but riding in a group, impossible! Here is my record of my last attempt:
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/pepacton_zps36fc30f9.jpg)
That was the last I saw of anyone, about 5 miles into a 50 mile ride, a couple years ago. Except I got lost and it became a 70 mile ride for me! But I got to see some wild and remote countryside that day!
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looks fantastic jim my kind of cycling.going out again in a few minutes lovely day here try and take some pics this time.
anto.
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Recently got back from a 'Walking' holiday in Northumberland. I was able to take the bike and got in a couple of great day rides. Here's a link to the first
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/42720795_7pMCCx (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/42720795_7pMCCx)
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aw summer days do a fella heart good lets hope for another few months of it.
lovely pic . ;)
jags.
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Oh! What a stunningly beautiful photograph. Makes me want to pack my bags and tour there *right now*, which is saying something, given I climbed through Belgium's Ardennes today and am writing this from an equally beautiful gite between Huy and Dinant.
Keep those photos coming, please!
All the best,
Dan.
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You're moving too fast for us to stick pins in the map, Dan.
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dan i posted a few on face book ;)
;D ;D ;D
now now andre i know what your thinking.
anto.
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Still light. Time to get in a short ride after dinner.
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Second Northumberland ride. This time NCR 68 to Bellingham and then a circular ride near the North Tyne River on NCR 10
Click on the link for lots of pictures http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/42728728_Z4d5VC (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/42728728_Z4d5VC)
These roads are what the Raven was built for :-)
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stunning photos you certainly know your way with both bike and camera..
love to buy a quality camera for my jaunts around my part of the world,last sunday route was stunning but my phone camera just didn't do it justice,better get saving i suppose.
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thanks FrogPrince for sharing.
anto.
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Great photos and I see what you mean re the twee converstion!
On another note your GP5s seem set up similar to mine; your 'horns' are set around 10-11 o'clock and the flat bits around 3-4 o'clock. It took me a while to get mine right but they are very comfortable now. I wonder how 'bikerta' has set hers up?
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On another note your GP5s seem set up similar to mine; your 'horns' are set around 10-11 o'clock and the flat bits around 3-4 o'clock. It took me a while to get mine right but they are very comfortable now. I wonder how 'bikerta' has set hers up?
Works for me.....I get minimal hand numbness and stay comfortable for 50 - 60 miles.
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My bars are also set up very similar to these. I think my hand grips are probably a little higher at the moment between 2 and 3 o'clock, but I am thinking of moving them down a little. I have been very pleased with this handlebar set up.
Jackie
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Jackie remind us again when your trip starts.
cheers
anto.
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Got out today on the Bowland Fells. Great views across the dales to ingleborough and the Lake District. Here's looking back down the climb up the Hodder valley.
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Got out today on the Bowland Fells. Great views across the dales to ingleborough and the Lake District. Here's looking back down the climb up the Hodder valley.
That's some climb. Handy post for leaning a bike against. Beautiful scene, beautiful photograph as always.
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Jackie remind us again when your trip starts.
cheers
anto.
Hi Anto,
I leave here on the 29th July (2 weeks on Tuesday) on the train up to London, Waterloo. I then have to cycle across London :o to Euston station to catch the 9.15pm Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness. I arrive in Inverness at 8.30am on Wednesday morning and have to wait a couple of hours to catch the train up to Thurso, arriving there around 2.30pm. It's then a fairly gentle 20ish mile cycle to John O' Groats where I will set up camp ready to start the ride on Thursday morning. (31st July)
Did a 45 mile ride today loaded up. Was pleased with how it went, in fact the first half of the ride was just a quick as when I have done it with an empty bike. I soon realised why though when I started to turn back towards home and hit the headwind. Needless to say the second half of the ride was not quite so quick. Still managed to climb all the hills though and in fact climbed 1 short but steep hill that I have not managed before. Legs must be getting stronger, but you can certainly feel the loaded bike tiring the legs much quicker than usual. I can keep the mileage down to between 40 and 50 miles on the trip thank goodness. I would not be able to do it if I had to cover 70 to 80 miles every day.
I was lucky enough to be given a voucher to spend in Tri UK which we have a branch in Yeovil, so managed to treat myself to a pair of Assos shorts to try and help the saddle sore situation. Not too bad at the moment it only seems to be a problem if I do over 50 miles or so. Also bought some of the Assos chamois cream whilst I was there too, this feels much nicer than Sudocreme.
Am getting very nervous about the trip now, but excited at the same time. I am worried about not getting everything ready on time as work is horrendously busy at the moment and I have so little time at thome. I will be covering a few more smaller training rides this week and will then rest for the final week before I go to give the muscles a chance to recover.
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Excellent Jackie i sure hope all goes well for ya sure why wont it ;)
anto.
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Jackie,
I'm so pleased and excited for you! All best wishes for the trip of your dreams. You're doing everything right and all should go well as a result.
For what it's worth, I never leave for a tour without a few butterflies...it is normal for me and ensures the first few hours I remain alert and unlikely to do something foolish. You'll do fine, I just know it!
All the best,
Dan. (...who is headed toward Strausbourg tomorrow)
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What spurs you guys on to tour solo.i dont think i could do a long tour on my own well i know i couldn't.Long day rides are not a problem even night rides, i often left me warm cozy house on a cold winters night for a 25 mile spin. ::)
just curious .
anto
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What spurs you guys on to tour solo.
It may sound selfish but a week of totally 'me' time is wonderful. Once the initial butterflies have gone I spend the week feeling better, sleeping better, exercising more and eating less............got to be good for me :)
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Anto, sometimes it has to be a solo tour as I don't have any of my friends who are cyclists. Actually, most of my work mates think I am totally mad. I think there are things for and against solo touring. I will be able to go at my own pace and stop when I want, go which ever way I want, eat what I want and you also get lots of time for thinking and sorting yourself out in your mind. This is a necessity in the whirlwind lives we lead.
The downsides of course is that it can become lonely at times, especially in the evenings and there is no one to share the WOW! moments with or the LOW moments either. Nipping into a shop or the toilet becomes a pain as you have got to find somewhere to leave the bike. I will have to carry a huge lock weighing nearly the same as my tent just for this purpose. I probably wouldn't bother if there were 2 or more of us as 1 could stand watching the bikes. If something goes wrong with the bike it's more tricky to sort it on your own as there is no one to just nip and get some spares for you.
I think if I had the choice, I would prefer to tour with 1 close friend, but I know that going with a big group would not be my idea of fun as you can never please everyone.
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Very best wishes for the trip, Jackie. Your comments about your 'trial ride' loaded are interesting; the Sherpa is ideal for your sort of trip, that is when they come into their own, and on all my rides, even the long slogs uphill, which I am not good at and the heavier Thorns not ideal for, you get the feeling that the bike is looking after you and doing its best for you.
You'll be fine.
Lewis
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Yeah i can see the benifits of solo touring but i think a good companion is worth there weight in gold.
jackie as for the bike lock just get a padlock and a good strong cable i would be looking to cut as much weight as possible from my load.
anto.
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It may sound selfish but a week of totally 'me' time is wonderful. Once the initial butterflies have gone I spend the week feeling better, sleeping better, exercising more and eating less............got to be good for me :)
Agreed apart from the eating less bit, how do you manage that on tour! I get very little time on my own in the rest of life and cycling is my escape. One of the things I like about touring is that everything comes down to getting over the next hill, finding the next meal and place to stay. That is all more acute when you are on your own.
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Dan. (...who is headed toward Strausbourg tomorrow)
You crossing the Vosges? There are some serious climbs! I like Strasbourg wonderful buildings but the food is about 90% pork... It's well served by fantastic flat cycle routes.
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Agreed apart from the eating less bit,
I camp so eating is very simple and I'm so occupied that Itend not to snack so much.
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I camp so eating is very simple and I'm so occupied that Itend not to snack so much.
so besides having your freedom eating whatever you want what don't you like about touring.please don't take that up wrong i don't mean to be a smart arse god forbid.but for me its being at a campsite early and having absolutely nothing to do ::) makes for a long night but having said that I'm a feckin fidget at the best of times got to learn to relax :-[
anto.
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Good luck on your tour, Jackie.
Take your own food on that train to Inverness, even if it is only a packet of biscuits. I've been on it (going from Inverness to London), and the advertised dining car is a lie; unless you book your meal in advance, you get nothing, and even if you book it, you get salmonella that's still fighting back. (The people who made my booking during an air strike thought they were doing me a favour when they ordered me a lobster meal...) And in any event they don't serve breakfast, so you must have something of your own. I'd rather fly RyanAir than go on that train, that's how desperate it is.
I'm sure Jags has already told you, but please take plenty of piccies; one of the pleasures of this forum is riding vicariously along on everyone else's tours.
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Downsides to touring - not many but I guess one is the decisions you have to make before you leave, about what you can take with you and what you have to leave behind. Not knowing what weather conditions you are going to face makes the clothing issue a little difficult. You don't want to be lugging heavy warmer clothing if you end up with hot sunshine all the time, but nothing worse than having to sit in your sleeping bag in the evening because you are freezing cold. Chair or no chair, thick sleeping bag or thin, tent with larger porch or lighter smaller tent and so on.
Of course the weather plays a huge part of touring and nothing you can do about it but a week of wind and rain would test most of us in the enjoyment stakes. Lots of the Scottish campsites seem to have a campers kitchen where you can sit and cook under cover. Great idea. Turning up to a campsite that looks great in the pictures only to find it's a dump when you get there. I also object to paying more than £10 for a single person in a small tent with a bike. Aches and pains on the bike (especially in the saddle area :o ) You hope that you will stay fit medically, but a dodgy knee or shoulder or saddle sores can also put a dampener on your trip.
I am hoping to reach the campsites reasonably early in the day, but certainly won't be in a situation where nothing to do. By the time you have pitched, showered, washed all that days clothing, shopped for food to cook for that evening and for the next days lunch, cooked, read a book, completed a few crossword puzzles, gone for a walk I reckon I will be well and truly ready for my bed. Up pretty early the next morning to cook my porridge and pack away ready to leave by around 9 am, hoping to reach next campsite by around 4pm.
No campsites booked for my trip which could add a bit of pressure to me at the end of the day, but I have used UK Campsite website to list all campsites on my route with address and telephone number, so I can check for spaces before I climb the mile long hill to get to them. This leaves me more flexibility on the distances I travel depending on the way I feel that day.
I am hoping to stay positive throughout this experience and enjoy every minute of it. There a parts I am looking forward to more than others (Scotland - yes, midges - no, views in Cornwall - yes, hills in Cornwall - no, parts of Lake District - yes, urban areas of Warrington, Wigan etc - definite no, reaching my fundraising target of £1,000 - I would be delighted and it's looking very hopeful with total amount so far of around £850.
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Thanks for the advice regarding food Andre. I had intended taking my own as I need to keep my costs down as much as possible, but hearing about your experience means I will definitely be taking my own. You make the train sound so much fun!!!
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Jackie the very best of luck ,man your going to have a blast for sure i can't wait to see the photos if your on that crazy place facebook please join my page i can annoy you much more often there.dan andre matt and jim will back me up on that score.
anyway off to me bed ;D ;D
cheers
anto.
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Jackie,
If your route is via Edinburgh then you are very welcome to stop here (Dalkeith).
Julian.
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Jackie, good luck on your ride. You'll be fine -- look forward to the fotos and tall tales. Safe riding, and enjoy.
Not quite so dramatic, here's a story of an easy-going shakedown cruise from a month ago. (Too many complicated excuses to explain the delay in posting this, so I won't even try.)
Here’s my short report on a week’s riding in Eastern Ontario in mid-June, a shakedown cruise for Osi, my Raven built this past spring. I rode about 280 kms south and west from Ottawa to Prince Edward County, the “Isle of Quinte”, an almost-island in the north-eastern corner of Lake Ontario, joined to the mainland by a skinny neck of land on its northwest corner.
“The County” and I go back a ways. I grew up in rural Ontario about 35 kms west of there, and regularly visited when I was young – I often rode my motorcycle through the area when I was studying in Kingston, 50 kms to the east, where Lake Ontario eases into the St Lawrence. The County was known for its quaint and defiantly British quality—it had been settled by United Empire Loyalists (as they became known), refugees on the losing side of The Prolonged Unpleasantness Next Door between 1776 and 1783—and even in the 1960’s, people used to fly the Union Jack as the default mode. Unkind wags used to advise would-be visitors to turn their clocks back thirty years when they got there.
But it’s a very attractive “island”, with lots of sunshine, water all around, gently rolling farmland, and some spectacular sand dunes, of all things, along the western edge. The farms have long been fruit and vegetable producers, and in the last couple of decades, the sandy soils and sunshine have generated a flourishing wine industry. And, the County’s charms have been discovered by retirees from Toronto and other urban centres. So, there’s been a lot of investment in B & Bs, artists and artisans have set up, and there’s some A-grade food available, as well as quality local beer, cider and cheeses. It’s also become well-known for gentle recreational cycling – easy terrain, not too much traffic, lots of back roads, decent weather, and lots of reasons to stop and eat, and load up on wine to take back to your campsite, B & B, whatever.
So I arranged to meet some friends, also cyclists, from New York City, in the wee village of Bloomfield. Bloomfield is pretty much in the centre of the island, and I reckon would easily fit within Central Park. My friends would drive N & W for 8 or 9 hours, I’d ride S & W for three days, we’d spend a few days doing some easy day rides around the County, and my wife would drive down from Ottawa at the end of the week to join us for a few days.
It all pretty much worked out that way. I had good riding weather (my tarp kept me 'n' Osi nicely dry during a monster rain-and-windstorm on the 2nd night of my ride), my friends found Bloomfield with no difficulty, we ate and drank fabulously well, and our wandering Manhattanites were entranced by this odd little corner of rural Ontario, and especially the food.
Oh yes, my shakedown cruise. I did three days of easy distances, 80 kms on Monday June 16 to Merrickville, a pretty village due south of Ottawa. On the second day I did about 105 kms S & W of Merrickville, stopping just north of Kingston, and on the third day I rode west along the north shore of Lake Ontario, from Kingston to the County, again about 100-plus kms. My route for the first two days pretty much followed the Rideau Canal, the 200 km-long system of lakes, rivers, locks, and constructed canals which joins Ottawa and Kingston. This is a treasure—built by Irish and French-Canadian labourers under the command of British Army engineers between 1826 and 1832, it includes 49 locks, constructed with simple tools across hard terrain in appalling working conditions. It original purpose was military, to enable the British to move troops from Lake Ontario to Montreal without being exposed to cannon fire from the U.S., following The Renewed Unpleasantness between 1812 and 1814. Its commercial life lasted only a few decades, until the coming of the railways later in the 19th century. Now, it’s used for recreational boating.
The canal offers one of the world’s great camping bargains: show up in a boat, on foot, or on a bicycle, and you can camp for $5. Or, if you arrive after the lockmaster’s office has closed—as I did—you can camp for free. “Wild camping,” it ain’t, nor “stealth”; but it’s beautiful, and it’s cheap-to-free. And often, there’s good food and drink to be had nearby, in places like Merrickville, for example.
Osi managed everything with no fuss at all. Only the second day offered any difficulty: 100-plus kms of steady and tiring up-and-down across a spur of the Canadian Shield, beautiful as ever, especially in the green of early summer, but a sustained stiff headwind.
The Raven is a very comfortable bike to ride. This was my first prolonged encounter with larger tires, and the 1.6” Supremes were outstanding, especially in soaking up road buzz. (I used about 45-50 psi in the front, and 50-55 in the rear.) The Rohloff performed as advertised—no shifting problems at all. I did find that, after the first 500 kms (total), towards the end of my ride, that the cables had stretched slightly, so I adjusted those when I got home, and that made the shifting more positive. (Things had become loose enough that I wasn’t engaging my lowest gear – though it was a good sign that 13 were enough, riding with a camping load through hilly terrain. #1 reappeared after my adjustments.) The V-brakes (with Koolstop dual compound pads) are well modulated and have plenty of power, certainly by comparison with my Avid cantilever brakes on my Eclipse derailleur bike. The Thorn frame was steady and reassuring under all the conditions I met, including an unplanned ride over a 6 – 8 cm tree branch along the roadside. My raised handlebars (clamp above the nose of my saddle) proved to be very comfortable on the 2nd day, when I spent 60-70% of the time on the drops.
Here’s a collection of photographs taken along the way, with captions & more or less in sequence:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e6guj05ceco6imw/AADgFJpjPQ6uirUNkRcBA4ffa
Of course there were chance meetings, enjoyable conversations, and unexpected delights along the way:
? While I was camped at Merrickville, a fellow wandered by and asked about my bike. He had ridden across the U.S. with his daughter a few years ago, and was thinking about getting back into cycle-touring. But, he had a project to complete first. He was from Boston, and was just getting into an extraordinary safari by boat: he’d sailed to NYC, up the Hudson through Lake Champlain to the St Lawrence, west up the Ottawa River from Montreal to Ottawa, and was heading south to Kingston. From there he’d go west to the Trent-Severn canal system that runs NW from Lake Ontario across Central Ontario to Georgian Bay & Lake Huron. From there, he’d go through The Soo to Lake Michigan, south to Chicago, through the Chicago Canal to the Mississippi, south to Nawlins, then east along the Gulf Coast, around Florida, and up the coast and home to Boston. This would take him a year, he reckoned. He and his buddy had—wait for it—a handy tool for the job, a 34-ft power catamaran with 17 feet of beam and twin 75-hp diesel engines. Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!
? Eating lunch under a shady tree in the little village of Bath, en route to the County, I waved to a guy with a trailer behind his Trek hybrid. He was from Luxembourg, heading west from Montreal to Niagara Falls, then back again via friends in Toronto, with a view to cycling through eastern Québec to the Gulf of St Lawrence, including the Gaspé peninsula. An ambitious trip, and a good intro to eastern Canada, for sure, though the hills along the Gaspé would be a handful. But, he was young enough—40-ish—and had done plenty of cycling in France and Spain. We shared a grumble about the cost of campgrounds in Ontario, so I recommended he try the locks along the Rideau Canal if his route took him to Ottawa.
? On “the island”, riding with my friends, we found some A-grade cafés and wineries, one of which had just built a large outdoor sculpture gallery, due to open on June 21st, mid-summer’s day. We made a couple of visits, and some of the sculptures—imaginative, beautiful, slightly bizarre—appear in the photos in the link. We also found a new small cheese factory, specializing in goats’-milk cheeses. I have a deep sympathy for cheese factories and their products—there was one in the village nearby to our farm, all those years ago, and Ontario used to have hundreds of them, but the multinationals have gobbled them up one by one. So, a new one is worth celebrating; and this one sold the best goats’-milk brie I’ve ever eaten (with nettles added!), better than any from west Québec. (Colonial that I am, I can’t speak for the variants from France –- but this was better than any cows’-milk French brie that I’ve found here.)
? We stayed in a very good B & B, not too pricey, and just up the street was – a well-established bike shop! Bloomfield Bicycle Company managed to be busy and laid-back at the same time. I remarked that they seemed to be enjoying good business, sales and rentals. One of the mechanics reckoned that “Cycling is the new golf.” Not sure I want to go there … but hey! If it keeps another bike shop open & thriving, why not?
Worth another visit, for sure.
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That's a superb report, John, worth waiting for. That almost-island sounds just the business though I would hope there are more artisans than artists. It really helps to be able to get the plumbing fixed!
PS And a second look at your photographs reveals the "Carriage Factory". Lovely!
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Thanks, Andre, for your kind words. The balance of artists & artisans is a shifting one: the influx of well-heeled retirees means a fair bit of trade for builders/repairers of all kinds, though I reckon a big slice would be specialists in the wine biz (including, remarkably, people able to restore 200-year-old wooden buildings.) Then there are those in the food biz -- growers, transporters, preparers. Some people sit nicely on the divide: in Bloomfield, for example, there's a brilliant wood-turner who makes hardwood creations--usable kitchen items with an artistic flair--and helps himself and others by cleaning up hardwood trees damaged by ice (winter casualties) or high winds (summer).
Then there are descendants of Pennsylvania Dutch & Germans who arrived in the 18th century (some of them Quakers who preceded the Loyalists), farmers who are resourceful people able to turn their hand to most anything.
One of the unexpected benefits of being a bit of an economic backwater for much of the postwar period is that the farms, being of modest size, weren't turned over the chemical/industrial production as they were in more prosperous parts of the province. In the 1960s and 1970s, quite a few started organic agriculture and lo and behold, now the growing number of bistros, etc., pay handsomely for their produce.
There's a strong sense of history about the place, and it's dotted with plaques, and on the mainland nearby, a few historical parks and homesteads. There are not so many public acknowledgements of the part played by the Mohawks who settled just north of the island, and you may guess who got the better land.
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Thanks for the further illumination, John. I live in an area just like that, or that thirty years ago when I arrived was just like that.
In some ways it's a pity so much is given away on the net free of charge. Once upon a time a report of this quality of observation, with such attractive accompanying photos, could have been sold for real money to a glossy magazine, and the same applies to the reports and photos of several other contributors to this thread. Of course, that's a benefit for the rest of us.
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Great report, John! Well written and illustrated. Sounds like my kind of place - I want to go!
You've also inspired me to stop lurking and dust off my ride reports for sharing. However, as it's 3:00 am here right now, it will have to wait until morning. :)
Best regards,
Sam
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you know John and Andre when i read your posts i know for sure how brainless i am ::) ::)
but what the hell i enjoy reading your adventures.John your photos are stunning country side is only beautifull for sure.thanks for posting and shareing.
anto.
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you know John and Andre when i read your posts i know for sure how brainless i am ::) ::)
You could try kissing the Blarney Stone. It's only thirty miles up the road here. Done wonders for me:
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andre_jute_kissing_the_blarney_990x257_clickme.jpg) (http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/)
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;D ;D ;D nope i talk enough s...e without any help thanks all the same ::)
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The Bandon River, on which I live, is one of the places the Whooper Swans overwinter. I often ride out on either of the two roads that flank the field on which they sit. You can get very close on one road, where cars have accustomed them to noise and people, and on the other you can look down on them with binoculars. But you shouldn't conclude from this painting's name that it is a realistic rendition of a Whooper; it isn't, it is an allegory, a Whooper crossed with Dante's Inferno, and I've crossbred it with a snow goose from some vague notion that a snow goose wouldn't like the heat of Sodom & Gomorrah. The mind of a literarily inclined artist is awfully confused— er, I mean subtle.
(http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/andre_jute_superwhooper_escapes_the_isle_of_the_damned_2014_acrylic_on_canvas_6x8in_800pxw.jpg)
Andre Jute: SuperWhooper Escapes the Isle of the Damned, acrylic on canvas, 2014, 6x8in
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Sam and Anto, glad you enjoyed my thoughts & fotos from a week's riding. Andre, you might consider taking your sketchbook & watercolours to the County in the spring or fall: the Bay of Quinte, on the north side of the island, is one of the biggest waterfowl rest-and-feed stops along the Great Lakes, during the birds' migrations northwards & southwards. Not sure if you'd get quite the same effect as the big swans offer, but who knows?
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I might at that, John. My in-laws took a train journey across Canada that they talked about for quite a while. Canada, as a whole, is one of the unspoiled frontiers. Interesting how Canadians get to be extra-discriminating.
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Be delighted to welcome you and yours, Andre. The distances are vast, so you might want to choose a few spots in which to spend some time -- I've found that here, as so often elsewhere, most places are best explored slowly, on foot, by bike, by canoe, etc. The trains can be a good way of moving from one place to another, but our rail system is very primitive, by comparison with Europe.
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Be delighted to welcome you and yours, Andre. The distances are vast, so you might want to choose a few spots in which to spend some time -- I've found that here, as so often elsewhere, most places are best explored slowly, on foot, by bike, by canoe, etc. The trains can be a good way of moving from one place to another, but our rail system is very primitive, by comparison with Europe.
Thanks, John. We can but dream.
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I'm on tour again! Crossed the New Forest today after work in Southampton and will get early ferry from Poole to Cherbourg tomorrow! Met a blue raven tour owner running the train along the pier at hythe. Was it anyone on here? Will add photos later.
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how much later im watching rambo then its bed time , ;)
jags
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Back from a small 3 days tour - on the Isle of Wright ....
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The tour continues... A few interim thoughts pending report. Normandy is largely flat, Brittany largely isn't. My bike looks like it's been across the Serengeti, not France because of the dust generated on the voie Verte tracks. Most of Europe doesn't do Lycra and I'm now officially post-padded shorts for touring.
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Strange ride today. The basic plan was to ride over to Rhinebeck to meet a friend for lunch: 25 miles or so total. Might as well stop along the way to drop some stuff at my storage unit. I order tires from bike24 sometimes. The shipping is rather high but its a flat rate, so I like to order a bunch of stuff. A month or so ago I got Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tires for my partner's bike and for my bike too. Then, why not, a spare Mondial and a bunch of spare inner tubes. I put the Almotion tires on our bikes a couple weeks ago & the rest was headed into storage today.
Well, maybe two miles into the ride, thumpa thumpa, rats, what's this, ouch, a huge sheet metal screw right through, yes, right through a brand new Marathon Almotion tire, in the back. The front tire must have kicked it up just perfectly for the rear to land on it perfectly. Going to be late for lunch in Rhinebeck!
There is a pizza place right there. We are still sorting out the pizza routine in our new location. I have been meaning to try this place. It's quite busy at lunch time! So I got lots of comments as I fixed the tire with an audience. I decided to treat the experience as a bit of an omen. I replaced the Almotion with the Mondial that was in my pannier. Probably the Almotion is OK. I can easily see the hole where the screw went through, but being a round hole it didn't cut too many cords. Unlike my flat maybe six weeks ago, where I got a quarter inch slide through the Marathon Supreme!
Three years in Woodstock and I had zero flats. Six months in Kingston and two nasty flats! The roads are really nasty! I am looking forward to completion of a local bridge replacement:
http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20140430/bridge-replacement-projects-in-saugerties-hurley-take-priority
which will reopen access to many routes without traversing some of the nasty stretches. Still, there aren't many bridges across the Esopus! It was the Washington Avenue bridge in Kingston where I ran over that stupid screw today!
Then as I continued on my way after my tire repair, I started encountering cyclists going the other way. A group of three, one lone fellow, another, then a group of maybe six. I did a U-turn - I am *really* going to be late for lunch - but I had to find out what all these people were doing! Aha!
http://www.ptny.org/hudsontour/index.shtml
It's the sister ride to that Erie Canal ride we did a couple years ago. Maybe a hundred folks on this Hudson Valley ride. They were all eating lunch in Rhinebeck! The little town was mobbed with bicycles still by the time I got there!
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That's tough luck Jim. I'm sure the statisticians will tell us it's all to do with probabilities, but I've lost count how many times I've punctured within a week of a new tyre. Then no problems for thousands of miles. It is chance and some objects will get you whatever, although I do think tyres get some hardening with use. I once drove a 1964 landrover down the African rift valley across sharp lava flows with another guy in a land cruiser. He had 4 punctures I had none!
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Three years in Woodstock and I had zero flats. Six months in Kingston and two nasty flats! The roads are really nasty!
Expensive morning, that, Jim. And irritating, with a new tire, especially if it can't be saved.
Makes me appreciate my lanes even more: even if they're potholed and rough, at least there isn't sharp rubbish on them.
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Anybody ever notice that events conspire against cyclists in ways that do not affect the rest of the population, well except perhaps young lovers wanting to go on a secluded picnic?
Monday and Tuesday this week were perfect cycling days, and my pedal pals were free, but I was in hospital for stress tests. The purpose of these Holter and stress tests are literally to decide whether they can tell me, "Bugger off, carry on cycling, you healthy, fit, fellow. We have sick people who need our attention more than you do." But they do it on what might well be two of the ten best cycling days of the year! I read them a mini-lecture on putting their minds in gear, keeping their eye on the ball, etc, but they just chuckled and said, "Any more of that, sir, and we'll take your blood pressure again — and keep you in until it starts raining again." At least they were pretty and entertaining.
Another fine day. Off to make up for two missed days. Ciao.
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I didn't spot any Thorns, & I have to admit I wasn't on mine this time round ( chose the fixie ) - but here is a brief film by Damon Peacock about some strange happenings up T'North this weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsro8ay0Qo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsro8ay0Qo)
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Thanks - a really friendly bunch, the way it came across!
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I didn't spot any Thorns, & I have to admit I wasn't on mine this time round ( chose the fixie ) - but here is a brief film by Damon Peacock about some strange happenings up T'North this weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsro8ay0Qo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsro8ay0Qo)
brummi thanks for that i seen a lot of that guys videos he great,
btw that woman at the end who won a prize i think she has a vidoe on reviewing the akto up on the moors if not she has a double.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvvC8G1ACa4
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Hi All!
Just a data point here on the return leg of my long tour...
All done on a new pair of Schwalbe Marathon Deluxe tires. Not the lightest or smoothest rolling, but so far not a single p*ncture.
Not bad, considering where I've ridden. My second tour through Liege, BE, and I'm now more convinced than ever they pave the streets with broken beer bottles.
Best,
Dan.
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Click on the link to enjoy a recent Cycle Somerset outing
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/43354333_MDQfjW
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Great pics frogprince lovely cycling country for sure. ;)
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(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute_out_on_my_bike_painting__overlooking_macroom_road_800pxw.jpg)
Out on my bike with my pochade box, painting. That's only a couple of kilometres from my house, though you need to know that what appears to be a farmer's driveway is in fact a public road to get there.
Also put in one of the harder rides hereabouts (as it happens crossing the impossible Macroom road via farm lane and back road just at the electricity switching station in the photo and the painting) before the rains started here. I'd been working towards it, but last year and the year before it didn't happen, so I'm pretty happy to tick it off this year.
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great set up Andre 8)
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great set up Andre 8)
That's an electricity power switching station down there. You reckon they'd let me plug in?
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I'd be mindful of charring me tripes and incinerating me chitterlings stopping so close to that beast. That said I'm sure the fragrancies of the wider Mersey basin chemical works do my respiratory system the power of good. I had a ride of such stark contrasts yesterday: Across a marsh boardwalk, into an industrial estate and down a lane leading to the old port of Shotwick; silted up many years a go. One of cycling's joys is discovering these old paths and tracks that modern life has made either invisible or difficult to access. Thankfully one of Mr Beeching's victims has been transformed into a cycle way that aided my home run so perhaps there is new life to be found in the ways of yore.
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Espallion - Part of the St Jacques Chemin Compostelle
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Conques - A real gem of a place hidden in a valley. A delight to descend in to and a sloe grind out of the place. Beautiful!
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That's an electricity power switching station down there. You reckon they'd let me plug in?
with the amount of juice coming from that place ,just point your bike at it and bobs your uncle.
but what a fantastic way to cycling flask of coffee sambo and the talent to paint the view your looking at amazing.
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The top of Col Aubrac - a descent for 24km without pedalling - believe me when I say "It puts a smile on your face!"
There is also the benefit of a lovely town at the end - St Come d'Olt.
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hoodatder fantastic photos looks like tough cycling though but worth it..
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You cannot comprehend how beautiful it all is. We started in Valence and rode up to St Agreve - no mean feat after travelling 24 hours and only cat napping.
Yes, it was hard in places, but the rewards far outweighed the "pain", which to be fair is 90% psychological.
I would download more pics but my camera doesn't do it justice. Perhaps my mates photo's will.
We finished at St Jean Pied de Port and then cycled up the coast to Bordeaux. Only 1 days rain in 23 days cycling - bliss.
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Seem to be making a bit of a Horlics out of this.
Sometimes my reply will take 2 x pics with a little bit of annotation, sometimes it wont.
Sometimes it wont even take 2 x pics although they have been reduced in the same format.
Then it says my file is too big, so I revise it and then I'm informed that this post has already been posted. I'm confused.com.....
I thought that once before I had posted 3 or 4 pics in one go - maybe that was on the CTC forum?
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can't help you there buddy ,but no hurry post whenever you can worth the wait. ;)
jags
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My, fellows; what overly photos of outstandingly beautiful countryside you've posted. Please keep 'em coming!
Poor comms prevent a more comprehensive reply expect to say I sure liked the photos.
All the best,
Dan.
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Seem to be making a bit of a Horlics out of this.
'orrible 'orrocks strikes again! Beautiful photos Hootatder. I've taken one of yours and modded it for easier posting, and couldn't resist balancing up the colour too. Here's your original:
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/hoodatder142a.jpg)
Here it is again, this time
--reduced to a screen res of of 72dpi in both directions
--set to 800 pixels long in the longest direct with proportional scaling on
--the standard colour balance of the app clicked (GraphicConverter, highly recommended, very cheap, lot easier than Photoshop for non-professional to work in)
--saved at 90% quality rating (you can't see the difference even if you're an expert) to save some kilobytes.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/miscimage/hoodatdermodded142a.jpg)
Two of these per post should give the software no hassle; I've on occasion sent more per post without hassle. It's a little smaller physically but the forum software won't cut it off at the right, or present it at an odd size, and the clarity of the photo is enhanced, and the actual image requires a little less storage, and is rewritten into standard web format with excess code stripped off.
When the software claims it posted a message it rejected that you are posting again, just add XXX at the end and post again.
Jags will fill you in on anything I missed out. :)
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I'd be mindful of charring me tripes and incinerating me chitterlings stopping so close to that beast.
I used to operate Quad ESL63 electrostatic panel speakers without the covers. Of course, I took care not to brush up against a charged 5600V capacitor, which is what those speakers basically are. But my wife's cats... Well, if you aren't a cat-lover, you can find out by getting Two Shorts: High Fidelity & Christmas Oratorio, an advance extract from my memoirs, free of charge in any format from Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=andre+jute (http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=andre+jute) or from Apple and all other good vendors (not Amazon!).
with the amount of juice coming from that place ,just point your bike at it and bobs your uncle.
Suck on the ether! If electric bikes really take off, there will be a plug next to each ATM in front of the bank, the new filling stations.
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Thanks for the info Andre.
I will post 2 x reduced pics with a little spiel and see if it works.
If it does, I will tell you how I did it.
Ian
The streets in Le Puy are cobbled and very steep. I rode someway up them and common sense prevailed. Being clipped in and cycling up cobbled streets, loaded up and the back wheel skidding is asking for disaster!
The photo of the church on the walnut whip (volcanic plug) is St. Michael d'Aiguilhe. This was taken from a cast iron statue at the top of Le Puy.
The ascent out of Le Puy drains you - it really drains you and leaves you depleted for the rest of the day - especially after the euphoric descent into the Monistrol Valley and the inevitable climb out!
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Ah well, that worked. I have Office 2007 and I resized my pics as follows:-
Right click the photo
Select "Open with Microsoft Picture Manager"
Click Auto Correct - (thanks Andre)
Click edit pictures
Click resize
Click redefined width
Scroll down and select "Small 800 x 600"
Click ok
Click on file - top left corner
Click Save as
I was half doing the above but the auto correct and 800 pixel opened the door. Hope this helps others who have difficulty posting pics.
Sauliac is in the Cele Gorge, part of the Lot Valley. For me, this was as interesting as all the ascents + descents + panoramic views.
The river twisted and turned, there were houses chiselled out of the cliff, it was serene with dappled shading. There were idyllic hamlets / villages with bars + boulangeries.
Altogether a pleasing and calming days cycling with the titbit of St Cirq la Popie to rest up.XXX
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Not sure if you can zoom in on the church spire.
I don't know if it was built like that or the green oak twisted over time and did it's "thing"
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Hi,
I cropped the original photo and then enlarged it, just in case it was impossible for any of you to enlarge - zoom in on it.
That's about it from me. I mainly took videos and my mate took the photos.
I was taking a video whilst cycling on the way into Estaing. I passed a walker from behind and hailed "Bonjour". He nearly jumped out of his skin and you can hear me laughing on the video. The camera is still rolling as I approach Estaing. I slow down and unclip my right foot only - still riding - and start to come to a halt at a very, very low wall on which I can rest my right foot, all the time giving commentary. Just as I touched the wall, I gauged it wrongly and ended up pushing myself sideways away from the wall with my left foot still clipped in.
Result:- a over t squared with the ignominy of the aforementioned walker coming round the bend and witnessing the whole debacle.
What goes around, comes around or was that walkers prayer's being answered?
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Great photos! do you have a link to your videos?
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What great countryside (except for the hills), what great photos!
One more tip, Hoot: do the colour balancing (autocorrect) last, just before you save the photo. Among other things it deals with stray unwanted artefacts of the various scaling processes, usually manifested as stray pixels, so professional practice is to leave "balancing up" till last.
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Hi,
Unfortunately not. I'm still at the baby steps stage with the Brownie camera.
I will post my companions photos when he has edited and sent them to me - might be a while though. He had a decent camera and a good eye for perspective.
To be truthful, I was a bit blasé about taking the photos, having done the whole route from Valence to Finistere 9 years ago. I have a photographic memory and it is hard to convey to the onlooker the ambience of what one feels in real time.
If you want a flavour of the ascents + descents, go to bikehike.co.uk and plot a route from Valence to St Agreve and the look at the profile - then plot Le Puy en Velay to St Roch - then plot Aumont Aubrac to Estaing, one hell of a downhill ride.
I'll try to dig some more snaps out, but I didn't want to bore you all and dominate the thread for too long.
Here's hoping------
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Thanks Maestro,
Will do.
Always grateful for professional and common sense help and anything else that will educate me.
"hoot"
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The 1st pic is looking down on to the cathedral but NOT from the top of the statue.
The 2nd pic is on the ascent out of Le Puy looking back at the town.
You can see the statue on the left and it's height above the cathedral. I climbed up inside the statue and there are viewing holes at various places.
On the Notre Dames head is a plastic "goldfish" bowl to get a 360' view, but it was difficult to get a good view. Apparently, the statue was made out of melted down canons after the battle of Sebastopol.
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1st pic is looking back on Conques but still not out of the woods. I got as near to the edge as I could / dare and not fully zoomed in so that again, one gets the perspective of the backdrop and a feeling of steep ascent.
The first time I went here. I came in from the NE and this place is just hidden from view, not an inkling that's it's there - and then, out of nowhere, there it is. You can feel the relief of the distant pilgrim seeking refuge when approach from this way. Approaching from the NW, again it is hidden from view, but entry is gained by ascending to it, rather than descending into it.
On leaving Conques, you descend down a steep cobbled and quite dangerous path and over a seemingly fragile medieval bridge. The climb out is shaded but the feeling of looking back and seeing Conques nestled in all that tranquillity is rather humbling, especially after lodging for the night in the abbey.
Rocamador, on the other hand, is a bit like Lourdes - Blackpool with religion!! It might be hewn out of the cliff side and buzzards wheeling 10 a penny above, but the garish and brash atmosphere detracts from what is actually a stunning piece of craftsmanship logistical miracle.
Not many pictures of this. My mate was dehydrated and not up to par, but nothing a few beers couldn't put right!!
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Great to see such fabulous pics of France. Next year's tour might have to pass that way...!
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Saw the forecast last Sunday and made a snap decision to cycle to Kielder Water from York. Camped overnight at Darlington and Hexham and hired a cottage for 3 nights. Apart from the 7mph NNW wind on the first day, cycling conditions were perfect and so was the scenery.
In my hasty preparations I overlooked one crucial element. I decided to change saddles and break in a new Spa Nidd saddle. I didn't set it up properly and paid dearly for it 2 days later. In fact, if I had been abroad it would have ruined the holiday!! I have always considered myself able to jump on abike and ride it without any complaints and have always had the stamina to "get there", no matter what. This nonchalance got me into deep crap stranded in the middle of nowhere, but a lesson has been learned - don't abuse your body and take it for granted.
The 1st + 2nd pics are entering Teesdale. Here all the vegetation is green and by the 3rd pic you can see the landscape starting to change to purple.
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An hour later and I'm surrounded by wall to wall purple. This is the ascent up the North Pennines into Weardale. I had to keep stopping and look around me to take in the panoramic views and witness the changing hues of purple, mauve, plum and maroon.
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Apologies if this gets repeated, but I'm still having problems having post rejected, then me reducing it and re posting it and then being informed I've already sent it - but it ain't on the forum?
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20 mins later and I'm at the top - with a view of things to come. I had run out of "fuel" by now so I went to the car across the road with the hope of begging some chocolate. The engine was running, Radio 4 was on full blast, the driver was asleep and I couldn't rouse him. So I psyched myself up - it was only 10 miles to Stanhope and all downhill - not!
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Pic 12 is what I've just come over. Pic 13 is what I'm going to go over. Notice how the landscape is now changing to a warm / sandy inviting enchantment where one dreams of idyllic cycling - wrong! I arrived in Stanhope having "hit the wall". I fuelled myself - rightly or wrongly - with fish + chips + coffee. I was pre booked in for the night at Hexham and determined to get there. When I asked the locals about my route via Edmondbyers, thet all unanimously said
"Divnt gan up Crawleyside Bank man. It's killer. You wadna make it up there, 'specially with that load on. Gan via Rookup (Rookhope to you and me). It's a lot easier that way".
So I went via Rookhope and was immediately presented with17% climb after 3miles (pic14) and then a 20% climb after about 7 miles and then another 20% climb after 7 miles. I was totally destroyed and the hasty saddle replacement and now come into it's own with 12 miles still to go.
I found out the next day from a fellow cyclist that it would have been better and quicker to "Gan over Crawleyside Bank"
Happy days!
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Bonnie Heather.
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Rode a 209k Audax yesterday on my Thorn Audax Mk.3 here in Ireland in 8hr. 15min (ride time). Door to door was 10 hours on the nose.
This is the bike I bought of leftpool and I really like the ride. Very comfortable ride.
Last month one of the two seatpin bolts popped out an hour into a ride. My fault as I assume I hadn't tightened it sufficiently. Yesterday the seat pin slipped just as we were about to stop for a break. Again, fine. Multitool out and tighten, no probs.
These are teething problems of my own tinkering about and good to be aware of them. Enjoying the bike though, my current bike of choice for training.
Next up, October Bank Holiday is another 200k Audax, The Dying Light. Signed up for this also and looking forward to it.
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hoodader that was a hell of a spin fair play to you buddy bet those chips tasted real good. ;)
jags.
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Great pictures Hoodater. I know that area well from various coast to coast routes. Some serious hills!
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Thanks Jags + Geocycle,
Scenery was great, weather was great, beer was even better but I was in a sorry state.
I will return again, fully fuelled with my Brooks B17 and nail those bleedin' hills - rest assured!!
What I would give for a stable and reliable climate to cycle all around this island. It's not bad is it?
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class part of the planet.
tho cols in the TDF would be a doddle after climbing that lot. ;D
jags.
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Here it rained and the wind blew so nastily that I did woodwork instead of cycling, working on my large pochade box (16x12 inches paintings accommodated). I sawed and planed and sanded a block of wood to brace the box where the ARCA Swiss quick release plate will fit to use it with a photographic tripod, and cut an aluminium slide plate to protect the vintage box's fine veneers and lacquer against the inevitable careless handling near metal parts. The pochade box, a 055 Manfrotto tripod and an optional shooting stick to sit on are the entire, self-contained painting kit; there is literally nothing else. It all fits in one of the Basil Cardiff pannier baskets I like to keep on the bike to chuck stuff in; a utility bike without somewhere to chuck stuff in is not a utility bike but a poser's bike.
Yestercday I went for a longish ride, accompanied by my physician, and met a nurse out on her Trek Madone, which I lifted up with one hand and found very light. Apparently one doesn't goe out on it when the wind blows. We got wet in a light shower in the middle of the ride but by the time I reached home I was fully dried out. Par for the course in Ireland.
Andre Jute
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Andre photos please need to see all this handy work of yours and some of your favourate routes you use to set up your easel.
i took the wheelers out on a lovely 45 mile spin but the last hill done my back in big time. i barley held on to the group for the last 15 miles i thought home i'd never get to get drugs into me. ::)
anto.
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I'll publish photos of the pochade box later on my blog, Anto. Since you're so keen, here are some photos of a painting expedition by bicycle:
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute_faux_tuscan_photoref_2014_800pxw.jpg)
andre_jute_faux_tuscan_photoref_2014_800pxw.jpg
This looks like something I could paint!
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute_country_plein_air_kit_1.jpg)
andre_jute_country_plein_air_kit_1.jpg
There's even an appreciative audience. In the bicycle basket the complete kit of easel, black bag with paints and tools, and shooting stick to sit on.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/andre_jute_country_plein_air_kit_2.jpg)
andre_jute_country_plein_air_kit_2.jpg
Set up to work. The paints in the bag are oil bars, which is pigments (colours) in wax. I don't use a palette with oil bars, just holding the oil bars in my hand and digging out as much as I want with a silicon colour shaper, which saves on cleaning brushes.
(http://www.coolmainpress.com/andrepaintings/kilbrogan_fields_2014/andre_jute_kilbrogan_fields_2014_oil_on_canvas_10x8in_800pxh.jpg)
andre_jute_kilbrogan_fields_2014_oil_on_canvas_10x8in_800pxh.jpg
The painting I made.
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Brilliant great to see what you artists get up to on a spin.My son noel is behing me as we speak painting a rainbow for aib bank some sigh or other ::)
but this morn he done a lovely cycling painting on canvis ,he wont let me take a photo >:( probable he will put it on his facebook page (Art of noel kelly)
thanks Andre you have a great talent.
anto
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A new hill today, on what must've been my longest ride (so far?!) this year:
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/507178022 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/507178022)
I left at about 8:30 AM. I pulled into New Paltz at maybe 4:40 or so. My partner's son is studying electrical engineering there, so she arranged for me to tutor him for a few hours, since I was passing through anyway. So I got a bite to eat first & then we designed some voltage regulator circuits with Zener diodes. Yeah, my bike rides are filled with adventure! I left New Paltz at 8 PM & got home at 10:30. Probably my longest night-time ride ever!
album (http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/cragsmoor%202014)
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/cragsmoor%202014/IMG_2220_zps062c9106.jpg)
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You're facing the wrong way, Jim. The purpose of hills is to speed down them.
What a beatiful road!
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Jim, you've brought me back to one of my favourite parts of the world - upstate NY in full fall foliage. Magnificent. Thanks! (I chuckled when I thought about how sensible you were not to work with Zener diodes on an empty stomach. ;D ;))
The bike looks great as well. My eye for detail noticed your brass bell - is it a Lion bell, perchance? I love mine - the purity of sound makes it distinctive around here.
BTW - What's the sign say behind the bike (facing the other way)? Surely you didn't bring it with you? :)
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Near Corfe Castle, Dorset. Look carefully to see how the road comes up!
John
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That looks like a really brutal hill, John! My new hill yesterday wasn't very difficult. It kept going a good while but it was never very steep. I was certainly down in my #1 gear a lot but it was never a struggle.
That sign in the photo was advertising hot dogs up at the next overlook. Indeed I bought a hot dog from the fellow, and he was nice enough to snap that photo of me that you can see in the album.
The bell on my bike is nothing at all fancy. I think it is anodized aluminum. I got it a long time ago, probably the 1970s but I can't remember precisely. It was in a parts box with other stuff from that era. I think about swapping in a nicer bell, but this one really sounds like a bike bell so that works well. The rail trail coming into New Paltz was really packed, mostly pedestrians but quite a few bikers too. That bell gets used!
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Near Corfe Castle, Dorset. Look carefully to see how the road comes up!
John
looks like a super climb.
silly question but why have you your barbag on the rear. ;)
john tell my whice is your favourate tent, you kinda know what what im after loads room /light.not to expensive.bombproof.
dont mention hilleberg.
anto great photo btw.
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That looks like a really brutal hill, John! My new hill yesterday wasn't very difficult. It kept going a good while but it was never very steep. I was certainly down in my #1 gear a lot but it was never a struggle.
That sign in the photo was advertising hot dogs up at the next overlook. Indeed I bought a hot dog from the fellow, and he was nice enough to snap that photo of me that you can see in the album.
The bell on my bike is nothing at all fancy. I think it is anodized aluminum. I got it a long time ago, probably the 1970s but I can't remember precisely. It was in a parts box with other stuff from that era. I think about swapping in a nicer bell, but this one really sounds like a bike bell so that works well. The rail trail coming into New Paltz was really packed, mostly pedestrians but quite a few bikers too. That bell gets used!
Yes, it hurt a bit.......I was gasping as I took the photograph, and this was before I had some Hospital test results!
If I had known my health predicament I would not have done that hill.
John
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looks like a super climb.
silly question but why have you your barbag on the rear. ;)
john tell my whice is your favourate tent, you kinda know what what im after loads room /light.not to expensive.bombproof.
dont mention hilleberg.
anto great photo btw.
Anto
Bar bag at rear was because I did not like the weight on the bars. Tools etc plus food. It also allows a bag to be carried when the panniers are fitted, something which is difficult with a Carradice saddlebag.
Tent? Favourite? Well what a question.Hilleberg!But at a lower cost the Force Ten Nitro Lite 200 takes some beating. It is very light at 1.4 kg and spacious too with room for even a small Irishman.....
All the best,John
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Thanks John i've seen so many tents my head is cabbaged more that ever trying to decide which would be best,im hoping that by next year my healt will be a lot better (back problems)and maybe get more private work,to think 5 years ago i was flat out working those days are well gone.
anyway love to get over to join bikepacker for this festival should be great as long as the weather is good famous last words.
thanks john i'll start saving for that tent, need to sell my own.
anto
http://scottishmountaineer.com/vango-nitro-lite-200-tent-review/
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Thanks John i've seen so many tents my head is cabbaged more that ever trying to decide which would be best,im hoping that by next year my healt will be a lot better (back problems)and maybe get more private work,to think 5 years ago i was flat out working those days are well gone.
anyway love to get over to join bikepacker for this festival should be great as long as the weather is good famous last words.
thanks john i'll start saving for that tent, need to sell my own.
anto
http://scottishmountaineer.com/vango-nitro-lite-200-tent-review/
Anto,
Look at this one.
John
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Force-Ten-Nitro-100-tent-Mountain-marathon-equipment-/311120041271?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_HikingCamping_Tents_JN&hash=item4870331537
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Last Friday, the 24th, was a brilliant sunny late October day, with afternoon temps in the mid-teens. By this time of year, such days are rare jewels, so I decided to take my ti-framed Eclipse ('Shadow', by name) for a canter into the Gatineau hills across the river. Osi, my Raven, was still being tidied up after several airport transitions in our return to Canada, and in any case, I wanted to check adjustment of the rear derailleur of the Eclipse.
My usual ride into the Gatineau takes me to Champlain Lookout, a 3-hour (+/-) there-and-back ride of about 58 kms. The lookout sits atop the Lusk Escarpment, a steep rocky ridge in West Québec running N-S, parallel to the Ottawa River. The scarp is the eastern edge of a fault in the earth’s plates, and the lookout is named for the Champlain Sea, the great inland sea which covered the Great Lakes Basin after the last ice age retreated some 8,000 years ago. (Odd that a French explorer’s name attaches to the sea, since the only folk around in those days were First Nations…) The scarp is only about 300 m high, but on a clear day you have a wonderful view across the farmland below, the big river, and into the rolling hills of the Ottawa Valley on the Ontario side.
My late-October ride came about 2 weeks after the peak of the autumn foliage, so my photos show only an echo of the earlier colours. But then, most of the trees beside the road up to Champlain are deciduous, so the afternoon sun slants through the branches unhindered, and the woods have a wonderful open feel about them. There's a big stopover point for waterfowl on the river just south of the escarpment, so that sometimes, we see and hear the geese flying south on such days; the combined effect can be magical.
There are half-a-dozen photos at the link below, with some brief captions:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kccy3dk0iobkoak/AAAcTOeVTYwklMJ8h75s-1r5a?dl=0
Hard to imagine that in less than two months, we’ll probably be skiing along these roads; and then again, in a little more than five months, the cyclists of spring will be rolling over them again.
My three hours on the Eclipse reminded me of the Raven’s virtues. The lighter bike (just under 30 lbs as you see it, sans pannier) is more responsive, as one would expect, and climbs more easily. But, the Raven is soooo much more comfortable. This is partly because my Brooks saddle is thoroughly broken in after three seasons, while my Spa Cycles Nidd on the Eclipse is still quite stiff, with only about 150 kms on it. But other factors are at work as well. The Raven's rando bars (50 cms at the flared ends) are just two cms wider than those on the Eclipse, but feel much more spacious. The bars are also mounted about 15-20 mm higher than the nose of the saddle, rather than on the same plane, so that I am slightly more upright when riding on the hoods; in turn, the drops are more accessible and comfortable, hence used more frequently. Lastly, the Raven runs wider tires at softer pressures (Marathon Supremes, 26 x 1.6, instead of the 700c x 32 Vittoria Randonneur Pro’s.) The Raven’s V-brakes also make braking much easier—it's not that the centre-pull canti’s on the Eclipse are a problem, they simply require more effort, more often. And then there’s the derailleur. I hadn’t ridden the Eclipse for nearly 3 months, and seemed to be forever searching for the right gear – I’m spoiled by the Rohloff, I think, as I find it much easier to maintain a comfortable cadence on the Raven. And, I still have some fiddling to do to get a secure shift into the lowest gears. (Tout ça change… That job can wait ‘til winter.)
Love the ride up to the lookout, and--who knows?--we might have a few more opportunities before the snows come.
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Jim, Andre, Hoodie, what great photos! Just going back into some of the threads after my two-month exploration of the fleshpots of Europe (!!?? -- well, all right, the cafés and bistros.) Jim, I've got to organize a ride around the Catskills, to introduce my Raven to your Nomad. Some serious hills there, for sure.
Cheers, all.
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Lovely photos and weather, John; the Fall leaves are gorgeous in your photos. So glad you had sun and what appear to be clear skies.
Really glad Osi the Raven is working so well for you and you still have Shadow the Eclipse as a fallback option; not much better than that!
All the best,
Dan.
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Something ineffably Canadian about those photographs, John. I don't quite know what (I'm no botanist!), but one looks at them and one doesn't think "New Hampshire". Super roads, too. I should hope you weren't hooliganing along at 60kph just because it is permitted and you're on your light bike, perish the thought!
Your remarks about becoming accustomed to the Rohloff rings a bell here; I haven't ridden another bike for several years now.
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hooliganing along at 60kph
Thanks, Andre and Dan. The roads in the park to the lookout (there's a federal park in the Gatineau) are pretty quiet on a weekday afternoon, though they can get very crowded during fall weekends.
I let the Raven roll down the hills at whatever speed it chooses. I don't have a computer to clock the speed, but it's not uncommon that I get passed by a trick plastic bike at the top of the downhill, and find the gap doesn't widen during the descent.
Your observation about the "Canadianness" of the landscape is thoughtful, Andre. New England has more rolling hills-with-deciduous-forest than we do in these parts. The deciduous trees you see are maple, birch, some beech and, on the slopes of the escarpment, scrubby red oak. Except for the red oak, most of the trees are secondary growth -- by the end of the 19th century, the original conifer forest had been pretty much logged off. The northern slopes of the hills are better watered, with less sun, and hence have more conifers (also secondary growth). The entire area has smaller hills than New England, in large part because of the effects of glaciation -- the Champlain Lookout, 10,000-plus years ago, was under a mile of ice. Part of the difference too is that New England is more cultivated -- on the Canadian Shield, there are pockets of land good enough for farming, but nothing extensive. (There used to be a handful of farms along the ridges of the Gatineau hills -- hardscrabble and unrewarding terrain.) A friend has a place in the Madawaska hills, about 150 kms NW of Ottawa, a homestead settled by the family of his great-grandfather & great-uncle about 1870. The farm comprises about 1300 acres, of which 75 can be cultivated.
The landscape makes for great cycling (and canoeing, snowshoeing, hiking and X-country skiing), with light traffic on the back country roads. Not so many bistros though...
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Not so many bistros though...
Keeps the baristas from getting uppity.
Will Durant applies a later Roman saying to Aristotle: "Asking the right question is half the solution." Actually, that's nonsense. If you don't know enough to ask the right question, it is far more useful to ask the right person. So the Jute Corollary is, "It dinna matter what you know, as long as you know the main man who knows." I almost wish, John, that I were writing a novel set in Canada so I can put your expertise in it. There's a kind of poetry in listing the trees.
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Thanks for your kind words, Andre :-)
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a ride around the Catskills
Any time you like! It'd be the finest excuse for a ride!
My big dream these days is to ride from here, through the western Adirondacks, up into your country, then who knows? Up to James Bay? Real adventure is not so far!
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Jim, following your lead -- you're most welcome here!
On riding to James Bay: It can be done, but... There's a journal on crazyguy by a fellow in Michigan, Bill St Onge, who rode (in 2013, I think it was) from Michigan south of Sault Ste Marie through Ontario & into W Québec, north to James Bay, east across to the Labrador Highway to the Atlantic Coast, then south and west across the north shore of the St Lawrence, then back up the Ottawa River Valley and eventually to the Soo. His father's family had emigrated from the Gaspé Peninsula in SE Québec to Detroit in the late 19th century, I think it was, so he visited the Gaspé en route home. The whole trek took about 6 months, as you might guess -- he left home in late spring & returned again in early November, enduring a cold and sometimes snowy ride across central Ontario on the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 17 in Ontario). The TCH is a dangerous and intimidating place for bicycles even in the summer.
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Yeah I have read a fair amount of Bill St Onge's journal (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/8865). Very inspiring! It's the Trans-Taiga road that looks most daunting to me!
One of my ideas had been to ride around the Great Lakes. I talked to a guy who lives sometimes in the Catskills and sometimes in upper peninsula Michigan - a really serious rider, a couple time PBP etc. He'd ridden up over the north side of Lake Superior, on that part of the TCH. He said: not worth the trouble!
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A circuit of most of the Great Lakes would be a good ride indeed, Jim.
Like your acquaintance, I'd recommend skipping north of Superior, unless/until the gummint of Ontario invests in making the TCH safe for cyclists. (Don't hold your breath: I maintain a correspondence with my local Member of Provincial Parliament on the subject; he agrees that there's work to be done, which is at least a start, if some way short of actual action.) (Though it's better than a reply asking, "Why?") I did the north-of-Superior ride in the summer of 2013, the homeward leg of my ride across North America & back on my old-but-still-sound BMW airhead. I rode the north shore of Superior partly to check it out for a future cycling tour, partly to revisit a road last travelled more than 40 years earlier.
Wellll, even on a fast, comfortable touring motorcycle I didn't especially enjoy the ride: the scenery was magnificent, both beautiful and humbling (though I learned that yes, there can be one too many black spruce trees). But the truck traffic was a constant bother & threat, and the road simply does not have enough, or wide enough, paved shoulders for safe--never mind enjoyable--cycling. People do cycle this route--see some of the threads on crazyguy--but it's not for me.
But, the four other lakes would make for a great circuit. A friend here in Ottawa who grew up in Thunder Bay (at the lakehead) has done a splendid photo-essay on the lakes and their shorelines. Look for Sweet Seas, by Mark Schacter, published a couple of years ago. ("Les mers douces" was what the French explorers and voyageurs called the lakes before industrialization rendered them rather less so...)
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One of my much tamer projects: http://interdependentscience.blogspot.com/2014/10/adventure.html
Just riding around to a bunch of local farm stands etc. Gets me out riding, though!
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Adventure and discovery can be in your own backyard -- nice route, Jim!
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The Polar Vortex is on its way, but hasn't quite got here, so I seized the day!
I sure am slow! 53 miles - elapsed time 8.5 hours, riding time 6 hours! I rode to Castle Point in Lake Minnewaska State Park. That's about a 2000 foot climb from the bottom, so it's a bit of an excuse! There is a delightful network of carriage roads through that park and some connected private park land. A few steep parks where rear traction and keeping the front wheel on the ground were dicey.
I feel very lucky to have such beautiful riding just out my door!
album (http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/Castle%20Point%202014)
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/Castle%20Point%202014/IMG_2262_zps16369f12.jpg)
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Gorgeous, Jim.
The nice thing about touring is a person can choose one's own pace and go as near or far as desired.
There's no bad rides!
All the best,
Dan.
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Great shot, Jim!
Once again, you're stoking my nostalgia for your great and beautiful corner of the world. Well done, and thanks!
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Man that is CLASS like a scene from a movie.
touring bikes were made for terraine like that.
cheers
jags.
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Great picture Jim, did you take a dip?
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Great picture Jim, did you take a dip?
I'm looking forward to seeing the same fabulous shot in the summer, with wood nymphs splashing Jim.
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Beautiful cycling Jim. Nowt wrong with riding slowly either - you get to see more !
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I slept away all the daylight hours today, but the sun shone. But I missed nothing. My wife reports that at 10am the footbridge still had ice on the walking surface and on the steel rails. The footbridge crosses a river in the middle of town, so there's quite a bit of heat. That means that the lanes on the exposed hills, where I normally ride, have black on ice on them, and the major roads out of town are even more dangerous because they're all in shade with unmelted ice and drivers even more short-tempered than usual, and more likely to be caught out by overpowered cars and their own incompetence. It's a time for cyclists in the northern hemisphere to be extra-careful.
After looking for one of my own photographs of the footbridge and of course failing to find it on my computer, I resorted to the net and found a photo, only to discover it was -- wait for it -- mine. Here it is, from an article called "Procrastination 101" (http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/archives/2148):
(http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/footbridge_weir_bandon_cocork_autumn_125k.jpg)
More photos at "Procrastination 101" (http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/archives/2148)
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Some decent weather, an opportunity to get out!
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/596369338 (http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/596369338)
http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/2014%20Metacahonts (http://s140.photobucket.com/user/kukulaj/library/Nomad/2014%20Metacahonts)
(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r6/kukulaj/Nomad/2014%20Metacahonts/IMG_2299_zps4bcc3a49.jpg)
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Envy you there, Jim -- but yesterday in West Québec beside the river I at least had a good 2-hour hike in the woods after our first substantial snowfall. My two friends had snowshoes, I just followed in their trail. No bikes anywhere to be seen ...