+++ Rides 2022 +++ Add yours here +++

[Andre Jute]

Yesterday was the beginning of the cyclist's summer, but it was also April Fool's Day, so we'll start our glorious summer of 2022 today, 2nd of April.

Looking backwards for the last time.
North Road handlebar, Magura Rim Hydraulic brake handle, Rohloff Rotary Control, Brooks edge-on leather grip held together by short bicycle spokes fixed at the aluminum ends (no, really!), Zefal mirror.

This is the thread to add rides, photographs, comments on other cyclists' rides. A long tour with multiple posts is probably best collected in its own thread, as is multiple rides around a common concept (I have in mind one regular poster's superb manipulated art photographs), but other rides collected in one thread are easier to find when collected here.

In Ireland the mask mandate is gone, and with it the steamed-up spectacles and sunglasses that kept me from cycling almost permanently during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

I intend to make up for the lost days and rides and miles. What about you?

As Winston Churchill never said, "We shall ride onto the sunlit uplands."

[energyman]

I now know what Graupel snow feels like after getting shot blasted yesterday lunch time as I cycled down the fen to my favourite Fish & Chip stop.
The noise as it pounded my helmet was extraordinary !  Then the sun came out and all was well with the world.
F & C were nice too.  Better still was the following wind on the way home.

[John Saxby]

Andre, I'll raise yer greenery and streamery -- stand by for dispatches from 'Straya. (Teasers attached below.)  I've also learned that Ian's 5B2F Bakehouse is just a couple of kms from our son's place in Southport. Review(s) of sausage roll(s) to follow too.

[Matt2matt2002]

I'm off to 'Merica next month.
Hope to ride my son's bike there
Stay toooned folks.

Best

Matt

[Andre Jute]

Gentlemen now abed in England, rolled over and put the nightlight on, and shouted, “More! More!”

[UKTony]

Gentlemen now abed in England, rolled over and put the nightlight on, and shouted, “More! More!”

Welcome to Wales!
Tuesday 30 mile total rururban ride up and back down a Welsh valley. The National Cycle Network paths followed - 49 and 492 - are traffic free for almost the entire route.
So, took  the Nomad by car over the River Severn Bridge from England into Wales to park up at Cwmbran for a ride north via section of  Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal towpath and dismantled Pontypool/Blaenavon railway path to the Welsh National Mining Museum at Forgeside, Blaenavon otherwise known as Pwll Mawr (Big Pit). The route rises from 40m AOD at Cwmbran to 400m AOD at the Museum site but over a distance of 15 miles a gentle climb  apart from short acute rises adjacent to canal locks. The Rohloff is ideal for the quick gear changes needed to negotiate these short sharp rises and the impediments one encounters on multi use paths - pedestrians, dogs and gates.
Much of the section of the canal here between Cwmbran and Pontypool  is still left unrestored and inaccessible to boaters as a result of infilling by later road etc development. The transition from the canal path to the dismtld railway path at Pontypool the cycle path passes through some urban landscape.
Hope the pics tell the story.
They’re traditional Welsh cakes and yes, I know, two 😳 but they are often sold in pairs 🙂 and that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
The pithead winding gear at the museum functions with original lift cages to allow visitor parties to go on underground tours.

[UKTony]

and another 4 pics

[John Saxby]

Lovely, Tony!

[Andre Jute]

Tony, I don't know about going underground on machinery probably installed before the big war, but the presence of water is always soothing.

Matt, John, I like your teasers. Hollywood will snap you up!

[PH]

Looks a nice ride Tony, but no photos including the bike  I think mine would be upset if it didn't appear in a few
Whenever I think of Wales I think of hills, I know that doesn't have to be the case, I just can't resist the scenery.  I might look that route up next time I'm that way.

[UKTony]

Whoops! Here’s one with the bike. I took quite a few photos - I’ve discovered that my wife’s 15 year old sub £100 camera has a useful low resolution setting below 512KB so was snapping away merrily so I had a good selection for easily transferred to iPad for this Post. For the last photo of the mine I chose the one which clearly showed the Ukrainian flag on top of the pithead gear.
On this occasion I simply did the there and back by the same route option. For me, 2 hours up and hour and a quarter back (mostly downhill as you’d expect) but there are a couple of options to make for  a circular route for a slightly longer  and even more interesting ride. It’s a fair weather ride unless you’re prepared for the Welsh mist descending on the mountain .
I anticipate that the latter might feature in my itinerary a bit later in the year and will try to remember to share one of those alternative return legs back  from the Museum site.
If you do find your way to this neck of the woods let me know.

[Matt2matt2002]

First long ride of the year yesterday to blow the winter cobwebs away, although the temperature rarely went above 6 degrees.

From home in Inverurie across the soft rolling hills of Aberdeenshire to the coastal fishing village, Collieston. Or rather, former fishing village as now almost totally holiday homes.

Tarmac all the way; drivers courteous, no rain or threat, temps around 6 degrees and with the wind chill factor – sandwiches – or ‘pieces’ as we call them here – were eaten with gloves on. Wind of 10 – 15 mph on my right cheek going and variable on return journey.

Raven had been cleaned and brakes adjusted so no issues to report. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a bit boring? Always starts first time and ticks over with no rattles or squeaks. But then I give myself a good slap and realise I have the perfect bike for my needs. The odd loaded tour and a great run around. (38 x 17, 23 Kg, 1.50 Schwalbe Marathon Supremes fitted October 2020 – 6,000 miles 9,800 Km  - plenty of tread left, Chainglider & today a cheapie rear rack bag for lunch. Coffee in a flask)

Off to a bad start direction wise. I’ve done this route many times before but my head was full of property sale junk. They say selling a house is as stressful as a divorce. I guess I’d choose the sale over the divorce – but there can’t be much in it. Between estate agents. buyer and solicitors – my head was spinning. So it was I took the wrong road out of Inverurie, adding a few miles to the trip.
I reminded myself that all things must pass and took in the scenery.

Lambing is just starting and they always put a smile on my face. Soon the property woes were forgotten and all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the ride.

I stopped off a couple of times to check on several geocaches I own – and even picked up a couple of new ones. I enjoy setting them now – rather than collecting them. It’s always nice to hear when folks find one and pass comment.

No need to rush the ride, so after a 0930 kick-off, I arrived at the Kirk (church) overlooking Collieston harbour for noon. Slains Kirk contains some very old graves, one of which is Robert Kennedy’s. He died 19th October 1798, cut down with a cutlass wielded by an excise man searching for smugglers. He was just 38, born 16 years before USA independence.

After setting a cache it was down to the harbour for lunch while I watched the rough waves breaking over the wall and a couple of hardy families searching the sandy beach with the tide well out. Gloves on while I ate and after a hot coffee it was back on the bike for a slightly more direct route home.

Daffodils road side brightened up an overcast afternoon

Stats today: 49 miles; 11 mph av; 27 mph max & 4hr 24 min ride time.

[Andre Jute]

Those are grand photos, Matt, especially the one over the thermos flask: the essential tool of cycling at 6 degrees before the wind chill is taken into account.

[PH]

Lovely report and pics Matt, sounds like the cobwebs were properly blown away, hope the property woes diminish.

[tyreon]

You are all positive fellows on this forum,and you all seem upbeat. I wish I was as it appears you all are. This is no critcism but only a comment upon my own 'failing'(s). As the years roll by and as my body weakens my stress levels in planning to tour(abroad)increases. Maybe its not the riding(tho the distances have been cut),but the preparation for what could go wrong increases. I think its all the palaver in arriving there,and arriving 'there' safely with bike intact and terrain covered. In my younger days I could do the longer distances and 'sleep' anywheres. Not so theseadays,and I'm more concerned about finding accommodation and not finding myself ill.

I'm off to Aranjuez soon. Spain. I have to get to my local airport with bike,get to Reus then get the train onto my destination. Simples,many might think. But altho I have done many journeys as like this one before,'officialdom' and rules and regs can make any journey(well,for me)stressful. There's always been lots of no's,or impossibles it seems. Yes,I have overcome them. But the added years have added added fears,and tho once there and cycling thereabouts is heaven,it seems I dont think I can take the stress much more.

Spain isnt the back of the beyond. But myself and my wife never know where we are to stay and have to adopt our routes according to terrain,weather,costs and the like. It adds flexibility and adventure,but at the cost of ease.

Now,I sometimes wonder why I do it...until I am doing it...and it all goes well!

Anyways,I hope to be travelling the unfettered and little car backroads of Spain within a couple of weeks. Toledo,Avila,Segovia. At present my main fear is that the railway clerks will try to send my on the fast train to near Aranjuez. Yes,I will be able to board the train with my folder(despite other clerks saying I cannot. I then have to demonstrate how the bike folds)But then I fear they might help me with train transfer times will have me running hither and thither across platform times to meet other trains I cannot meet due to my restricted arthritic condition. Por favor ayudarme la lento tran. No queiro las tran rapido. Estoy arthritico and viejo. Or something like that.

Wottacarryon,eh!