Tell us about your cycle Yesterday.

pelevin

[Still on 40 a day but a lot slimmer and the missus bike hasn't moved out of the kitchen since August but I plan to train her into being a cycling commuter during the spring next year.

Hope you all don't mind me sharing that. Bored, waiting on some one to get ready!

[Edit]
*sigh*

Wrong thread [/QUOTE]

Enjoyed all that but I'll also make the boring comment about now that you've revolutionised your body & its future, now to attack the money-sucking health-wrecking fags. Even apart from the health side, the money alone you'd save you'd quickly be in the range of buying one seriously desirable bike - which you could buy with no sense of guilt whatsoever! Even the opposite.

Mercian Pro

First 50k in a few months thanks to a dodgy hamstring. Out to Howth for a circuit, over to Swords via Broadmeadows and back home via the Airport Road. Wierd new bike path between the Airport roundabout and Dardistown. About 3m wide but forces you to turn left at two junctions at Alsaa and the Airport car park. You then meet a signalised crossing where you have to turn your head through about 270 degrees to see if a car has followed you around. Crazy bit of design. Do road engineers know what the word "momentum" means?

Paranoid Mandroid

90km today which I'm delighted with, slow at ~ 23kph but it was hilly enough.
Celbridge / Glencree for coffee/ Sally's gap / Celbridge
Great day for a cycle.

Amprodude

Went out tonight and did 37km at an average speed of 27.5km. Mainly a hilly course. Speed gone down a bit since the summer but im on the heavier bike for winter and wearing more layers of clothes and bike has few extras that arent there in summer so i take it, that would contribute to that?? If not im getting older and failing miserably I want to get as much mileage into my legs as possible these months.

Unknown Soldier

71km done so far commuting this week. Don't think I have the whole cycling/dressing thing sussed

Is it just a cycling winter jacket over under armour? Or over a cycling top?

The state of my under armour when I take it off. Soaking!

I'm doing it wrong

Amprodude

Did 45km tonight. Freezing night but layered up well so didnt feel any of it. Again did avg speed of 27km/h. Happy i got out there though.

ford2600

Amprodude wrote: »

Did 45km tonight. Freezing night but layered up well so didnt feel any of it. Again did avg speed of 27km/h. Happy i got out there though.

You doing those spins in countryside or suburbs?
Don't worry about speed, be happy your out

MB Lacey

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

71km done so far commuting this week. Don't think I have the whole cycling/dressing thing sussed

Is it just a cycling winter jacket over under armour? Or over a cycling top?

The state of my under armour when I take it off. Soaking!

I'm doing it wrong

I went out for 33k last night, when I got home my base layer was soaking too, it will be - you sweat when you exercise and unlike the summertime, in winter there's no heat to dry off the sweat.
It's also stuck under the layers you're wearing to keep warm.
Being wet with sweat is normal, but the sweat going cold is not good.
So imo your layering should be:
Next to your skin: your base layer (I'm guessing that's your under armour) should be high wicking material, ideally with some merino sportswool in there - definitely not cotton.

Over your base layer: I wore my club top which has a really thin fleecy insulation lining.
Optional over insulation layer: Last night I also wore a really thin gilet
Over base layer/ insulation layer/ optional gilet/ my windproof cycling jacket.

I was cold to start, but 10 minutes in and my layering was good, I was sweating but I was warm.

Hope that helps, you might work out your own system.

Amprodude

ford2600 wrote: »

You doing those spins in countryside or suburbs?
Don't worry about speed, be happy your out

Out on the countryside on dark quiet roads.

ford2600

75km, with a 1000m climbing before breakfast.

This high fat diet is the business

Scrappy600

7km around the trails in slide valley. Puuuure schlomp and full of greasy roots, couldn't even get enough speed for the gap jumps, had 1 nice crash and slid on my ass until I gave a tree a dead trunk with my leg. Or that may have been the other way around I'm cold and having trouble thinking straight.

On a side note, the amount of roadies cycling through Rathcoole and Newcastle this morning as I was on the way back was unreal, never seen so many big groups. Great to see.

freeze4real

Did over 20Km today.

Took the bike out from tesco mulgannon to sinnotstown lane, then all the way to rathspeck to murrintown.

Then connected using R733 back to mulga non road.

bambergbike

Got my layers right and enjoyed my two 40 km cycles yesterday. 40 km mid-morning in decent conditions – not exactly sunny, but good visibility, nice views, and nice clear roads. Then a short hill run organized by a local athletics club in the afternoon (lots of muck and snow, mulled wine at the top of the hill, hot showers and a good spread down in the clubhouse afterwards, cakes as prizes instead of the usual beer.) I thought the sort of tough, sporty people who run up hills in December wouldn’t be at all surprised at someone arriving by bike – the same club that organized the run also does a hill time trial for cyclists in the summer, and there were lots of triathlete participants – but nobody else came by bike, and the organizers made a special announcement that I had, and that I was going to cycle home.

I had to, after that, so I threw on a generous selection of socks, tights, tops, gloves, arm warmers and hats and ventured out into the night with my new fancy-dan CREE thingy and a few more items in reserve in my panniers (rain jacket, overshoes, hand warmers in case I had to fix a puncture and so on.) I was warm enough on the downhill sections and not toooo toasty warm on the uphill sections, although I did have to wipe fogged-up glasses a few times when I got close to overheating. I also had to stop and wipe plain wet glasses a few times: it was raining when I set off, and the wind let the rain sneak under my helmet visor and under the peak of my cap. Then the rain changed to snow and the wind blowing it into my face stayed the same: I swallowed a few snowflakes. Then I passed the turn for the route I had taken in the morning, and decided not to take it. I didn’t feel up to going back up the hills I had enjoyed flying down in the morning, and I remembered – correctly – that the alternative hill was a shorter one, even though it would make the overall route slightly longer. I didn’t remember that my alternative hill was steeper, but then there was a helpful sign saying 16% to remind me. As I was going up that, the snow started to stick, the road turned white, and my winter tyres started to come in handy. Then it got very foggy (actual fog, not just glassses fog - I took off my glasses to check). By then I was on a nice, flat road along the top of the plateau, and the blizzard was easing off. There weren’t many cars around, and they were all driving to the conditions, so I could take up as much space on the road as I wanted. I didn’t have to worry about being able to tell the difference between the white road and the white verge; I just stayed well away from anything that might be the verge. I came out on to a proper road that had been salted and was wet and slushy, but not white. I took that one down off the plateau, via a series of hairpin bends that I took slowly, wriggling my toes to keep warm. The weather was mild once I was down off the hills, and the cycle tracks through the fields were usable. I turned my light up to the high-power setting and enjoyed being able to use the tracks without having to slow down to follow their random twists and turns. Then a final cross-town dash, and I was home after 43 km and multiple climate zones.

This is my first winter with studded tyres, a powerful(ish) front light and a fleece buff, and I’m already considering going back to places I swore I would never go near again on a bike in winter (too cold/dark/hilly) and doing some long-ish rides ("long" in the meaning that the actual ride takes longer than pulling on all winter layers and peeling them off again afterwards.) I still have two Achilles' heels, though, and it only took one to scupper Achilles: I need better brakes for slushy descents, and glasses that don't fog up.

Unknown Soldier

bambergbike wrote: »

I need better brakes for slushy descents, and glasses that don't fog up.

You could try anti fog spray. The stuff people use in Airsoft or for motorbike helmets.

Examples (Not sure how good it is)

http://www.airsofteire.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&category_id=8&product_id=258&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seakodive-Anti-Fog-Solution/dp/B000S5MZC8/ref=sr_1_13?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1386514176&sr=1-13&keywords=anti+fog

Scrappy600

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

You could try anti fog spray. The stuff people use in Airsoft or for motorbike helmets.

Examples (Not sure how good it is)

http://www.airsofteire.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&category_id=8&product_id=258&Itemid=26&vmcchk=1&Itemid=26

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seakodive-Anti-Fog-Solution/dp/B000S5MZC8/ref=sr_1_13?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1386514176&sr=1-13&keywords=anti+fog

Small drop of neat washing up liquid, no water and keep buffing with a cloth until it's gone works very well too

The tax man

85k in the desert outside Dubai.
Almost pan flat with only 180m climbing.
Some parts of the track go on for as far as the eye can see which I didn't like. Give me twisty Irish roads any day.

Darkglasses

What's the temperature like there now, Tax man?

The tax man

It's still high 20s to low 30s.
Right now it's 25c.

Pain in the ass having to get up so early, so as to get your spin in before it gets too hot. 5.30am start this morning.

Amprodude

I got out today and did a 165km spin of pain. I passed through the county bounds(Cork-Kerry Border). It wasnt a good idea tackling that after having 100km on your legs but i tackled it. It isnt a high climb but a desperate drag and for some reason i struggled up it but other than that i enjoyed my spin and the day.

Amprodude

The tax man wrote: »

It's still high 20s to low 30s.
Right now it's 25c.

Pain in the ass having to get up so early, so as to get your spin in before it gets too hot. 5.30am start this morning.

Lovely pictures by you Tax man.

Outsidethebox

35k. White route in Ballyhoura. Lovely, puncture aside.

Lawr

Good cycle both today, http://tpks.ws/tEex, and yesterday, http://tpks.ws/n7y1. I hesitate to engage hills that get upwards of 16 to 20% when it is wet, but I figured that there was a bit of a trick to it. I read somewhere that you had to adopt a steady cadence--no mashing, nothing that would cause the wheel to slip and spin without gripping. I suppose if I waited for the hills to be dry, I'd hardly ever get a chance to climb them. I feel a lot more confident after this weekend's workouts that I needn't wait for perfect conditions to train on these hills.

Mint Sauce

First post on this thread, had planned to take a break from all training, running and cycling till the new year, but then heard about this.

A Santa Spin. 100 of us, most dressed as Santa, 40km around Lough Gill in Sligo/Leitrim, with a regroup/refreshments half way round in Drumohaire, and final regroup on the outskirts of Sligo Town, for a mass finish through the town its self.

DD Mikasa

Usual Howth spin, about 33k. Managed to hit the tarmac in Howth taking the right off the promenade/harbour heading up towards church. Twas a nice smack. Got some road rash and all that but main thing was the dent in the helmet - makes you aware just how important they are yet some folk refuse to wear them. Wheels just went from under me in a split second and I didnt have time to get hands under me or anything. A very innocuous spill can end up ugly without a helmet.

biomed32

55Km cycle today
Maynooth - Mullagh - Summerhill - Rathmoylan - Cloncurry - Newtown - Maynooth

sirpsycho

Short but nice 30km-odd cycle yesterday
Stamullen -> Julianstown -> Duleek -> Bellewstown (great views) -> Greenanstown -> Stamullen

Scrappy600

14.4k round stage 1 and stage 5 of djouce gravity enduro trails. Bloody phone screwed up my strava time on stage 5, would have been almost a minute and a half quicker than my pr. bugger. Strangest thing i've yet encountered while cycling was a woman walking a goat on a lead with two dogs also on leads.

Outsidethebox

Scrappy600 wrote: »

Strangest thing i've yet encountered while cycling was a woman walking a goat on a lead with two dogs also on leads.

Are you kidding? I hope you didnt ram into them.

(Sorry!)

Scrappy600

Outsidethebox wrote: »

Are you kidding? I hope you didnt ram into them.

(Sorry!)

Ewe just made a baaaaaaad joke

Sarz91

First spin back on the road since crashing. Was going nowhere fast. What's the story with pedestrians looking at you and then casually strolling into the cycle track? Happened 3 or 4 times today. It was the reason for my crash a few weeks ago. Maybe I've just noticed it more since. It's infuriating. I mean I don't think Id care as much if they didn't look. The fact that they see and then continue to walk in front of you anyway is what gets to me. I was tempted to hit them a slap. I'm not generally this easily irritated just something about it really gets to me.