Rides 2014 -- add yours

[Andre Jute]

When it comes to carbon fibre and rough roads, I remember that Prudence is one of the seven cardinal virtues.

[FrogPrince]

'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

[jags]

som nice cycling done that day ,great photos 

[FrogPrince]

Todays 'Post Floods Ride' to Moorland and Muchelney on the Somerset Levels
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/38197064_ptDfJf

[jags]

Great photos frogprince.
one day i'll buy meself a good camera.


jags.

[JimK]

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:

[jags]

jim is that 11 miles down hill.

[JimK]

Here is the route to shopping:

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!

[Andre Jute]

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!

[jags]

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 

[Andre Jute]

mind you haven't said that tis a great wee country for cycling 

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.

[rualexander]

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.

[Andre Jute]

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.

[Donerol]

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  .

[rualexander]

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  .

Ettrickbridge.