Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II

Eamonnator

I took out the frankenbike this morning, to smell the flowers and take in the views. Beautiful day.
During my cycle today:
I crossed the Dublin-Belfast railway line 4 times, 2XUnder, 2XOver.
I crossed the Drogheda-Navan railway line twice, 1Xunder, 1Xover.
I crossed the M1 4 times, 1Under, 3XOver.
I crossed the Boyne 4 times.
I went under and over The Bridge of Peace.

And I didn't repeat any section of road.

CianRyan

Had a very brief spin today, cycled up to my old job at lunch time to buy a few bits to service my OH's car tomorrow, left without spending a cent. Delighted. :cool:

Literally 5km as it's 2.5k from my house.

Downed tools at 3pm. Shorts and sunscreen made quite a change from base layers, gloves and overshoes. Beautiful afternoon and even warm in the sun. Felt like summer and the roads were bone dry. 45k at 29kph with 600 up. Can feel the work over the winter paying off. Pleasure to be out.

Mercian Pro

Glad I opted for the shorts but also my ancient Nalini jacket this afternoon for lovely quiet circuits and loops in the Park (where else?). Enjoyed the loops along the southern side so much I did them a second time in reverse. Was sorry to have to leave a bit early to get to Kish before 5 to buy some tasty sea bass for dinner.

https://strava.app.link/l3Fy6GZlLeb

Unknown Soldier

I pushed the boat out and changed my winter cycling gear by using fingerless gloves, instead of my winter ones. You lot using shorts and summer tops, fair play, it's grand in direct sunlight but... :eek:

Cleaned up a couple of bikes last weekend, and cleaning the cogs, chain etc makes such a difference. Decided to start hitting the "bumps" around me locally to help grow the climbing legs again.

Forgot how tough a 13% grade can be.

Still, I can feel the legs coming back, which is nice.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4976504572/overview

Agent Smyth

Seven days on the trot for me this week, 423Km @27.6Kph with 4504 Mt's of up and my first 3 cups of the year

Wildly Boaring

Eamonnator wrote: »

I took out the frankenbike this morning, to smell the flowers and take in the views. Beautiful day.
During my cycle today:
I crossed the Dublin-Belfast railway line 4 times, 2XUnder, 2XOver.
I crossed the Drogheda-Navan railway line twice, 1Xunder, 1Xover.
I crossed the M1 4 times, 1Under, 3XOver.
I crossed the Boyne 4 times.
I went under and over The Bridge of Peace.

And I didn't repeat any section of road.

Did 75k in my 5k yesterday.
Crossed that Dublin belfast train line 7 times!!

Just in from an hour in the sun. Short sleeves and shorts.
Did I have one of our drogheda contingent with me from scotch hall up to bryanstown??

magicbastarder

bautiful afternoon out there; first fly of the year swallowed.

Eamonnator

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

Did 75k in my 5k yesterday.
Crossed that Dublin belfast train line 7 times!!

Just in from an hour in the sun. Short sleeves and shorts.
Did I have one of our drogheda contingent with me from scotch hall up to bryanstown??

Not guilty. Went out this morning, 2 hours.

Unknown Soldier

Unknown Soldier wrote: »

I pushed the boat out and changed my winter cycling gear by using fingerless gloves, instead of my winter ones. <snip>

The above is not true, sorry. I forgot that I swapped out my 2015 red Galibier Mistral jacket for my lovely Autumnal Pearl Izumi Elite Thermal Ltd Jersey! For this morning spin, we also removed the BBB Heavy Duty winter shoe covers too :eek: :pac:

Handy enough out, can really feel the legs coming back. Once I get going, they feel like a couple of Texan oil rigs, just pumping away. Still have a fiar bit to go though.

A nice 36km and I used two Mobius Cameras on the helmet for the first time too!
Yet to assess the worthiness!

https://www.strava.com/activities/4982733575

wheelo01

Lovely day for it, shorts, fingerless gloves, no overshoes and mistral jacket for me today, it was plenty warm out, but there was (yet again) a sneaky breeze out today.
I felt really zapped afterwards but glad I got out.
My usual spin to tallaght, terenure, cut centre followed by two laps of the park today.
42 km at just under 26 kph.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vWqBnpMrrQq

Pinch Flat

Did five laps of the Phoenix park. 52km in total at 27.5kph. Finished with a climb up somerton lane which I felt fresh on. I've struggled getting back on the bike (used to commute daily), but this was the first day I felt I could do more. Intention is to built to 100km in the coming weeks.

smacl

Heat_Wave wrote: »

Is this bad? I always cycle long distance (60k plus at a time) without ever changing the gear on the front (it’s always on the big ring). I do try to keep the gears on the small ring at the back though to prevent cross chaining. I thought you only need to change it to the small ring when going up steep hills?

With the 5k thing on, I'm in the hills a fair bit. I pick low gears because I'm neither light, nor particularly fit, nor as young as I once was. I also had an inguenal hernia a few years back that is still prone to flare up a bit even though it was operated on. Spinning easy gears at a higher cadence tends to minimise this where grinding big gears has the opposite effect. You'll see often see people who've had knee issues in the past take a similar tack.

On longer cycles I tend to aim for consistent effort at a reasonable cadence and let the gradient, wind and how I'm feeling dictate the gear and speed on that basis.

27k with 473m of up over lunch for me today. Did an ab challenge with my eldest as a warm up beforehand which did not make the old hernia happy at all. Will be doing one or the other in future.

Type 17

Heat_Wave wrote: »

Is this bad? I always cycle long distance (60k plus at a time) without ever changing the gear on the front (it’s always on the big ring). I do try to keep the gears on the small ring at the back though to prevent cross chaining. I thought you only need to change it to the small ring when going up steep hills?

In the old days (before compact 34/50 chainsets were a thing), most road bikes had 42/52 chainsets, and then people did change between the front rings a lot more. However, the 34/50 compact sizing is actually intended to allow reasonably fit riders to stay on the big ring for all level(ish) terrain.

When I first got a road bike, I felt that the 50 was a bit big (I wasn't fit enough), and I did a bit more cross-chaining on the bigger sprockets than I would have liked - now I'm fitter, I can maintain decent cadences on the big ring and the centre few sprockets of the cassette, and only drop to the small ring on decent hills (eg: Howth, Cruagh), but not on stiff drags like N11 up to Leopardstown Cross.

CianRyan

I sometimes fantasize about compact gearing, I must be one of the few remaining on traditional cranks.
I just refuse to change until I can afford a new bike so I feel strong after my purchase. :pac:

Ronaldinho

Went up to Howth at the weekend. Seemed to be loose road surface coming down into Howth on Thormanby Rd.
Anyone else notice it?

Nigzcurran

Pinch Flat wrote: »

Did five laps of the Phoenix park. 52km in total at 27.5kph. Finished with a climb up somerton lane which I felt fresh on. I've struggled getting back on the bike (used to commute daily), but this was the first day I felt I could do more. Intention is to built to 100km in the coming weeks.

Very nice, would you be planning on doing the 100km in one go or stop for a break?

Pinch Flat

Nigzcurran wrote: »

Very nice, would you be planning on doing the 100km in one go or stop for a break?

This time last year I would have cycled 100km without stopping no bother - this time I'm not sure. I'm feeling fresh enough after hitting 60km so will give it a lash and see if I can do it without stopping.

smacl

Leisurely mooch around the local woods over lunch including Tibradden, Cruagh and Masseys. 21k with 589m of up to complete my March strava climbing and cycling challenges. Blowy enough out there so glad to get a bit of shelter in the trees.

wheelo01

Cycled to and from work today a couple of hours apart, the difference couldn't have been more night and day.
The wind on the way home was horrendous, with severe gusting, thankfully work is only 6.5 km away(or so)

rushfan

As above, I took the scenic route to work Mon night, 33km as opposed to the direct route which is 9.5km, came home using the exact same outbound route, I reckon it was about 6c, so was glad to get home when I did. Strangely, it always feel quite invigorating after a night shift which does'nt make it easy to go back to bed.

Seth Brundle

rushfan wrote: »

As above, I took the scenic route to work Mon night, 33km as opposed to the direct route which is 9.5km, came home using the exact same outbound route, I reckon it was about 6c, so was glad to get home when I did. Strangely, it always feel quite invigorating after a night shift which does'nt make it easy to go back to bed.

Obviously it was a vigorous spin - Does exercising at night affect sleep?

Nigzcurran

Not sure if there is a general cycling thread for newbie questions but am I mad to be planning a long cycle on a hybrid style bike?

Seth Brundle

How long is "long" (distance & time)?

Nigzcurran

Seth Brundle wrote: »

How long is "long" (distance & time)?

300kms spread over 2 days!

Type 17

Nigzcurran wrote: »

300kms spread over 2 days!

(apart from the fact that we're all supposed to be staying with 5km of home - are you living in Ireland?)

What's been your longest ride recently?

What's been your longest ride on the hybrid?

smacl

Nigzcurran wrote: »

Not sure if there is a general cycling thread for newbie questions but am I mad to be planning a long cycle on a hybrid style bike?

I've done the Wicklow 200 on a hybrid many moons ago. Slower than a road bike but doable. I certainly wouldn't go back to a flat bar for long distances as I find the different hand positions on drops are good for avoiding fatigue. Drops are also great to help you get out of the wind a bit and be a bit lower on the bike descending. Decent bar ends can help but are not the same. 300k over two days is a lot of cycling, so you want to be as comfortable as possible on the bike. If you're cycling as part of a group, you'll also be working a bit harder to keep the same pace.

magicbastarder

smacl wrote: »

If you're cycling as part of a group, you'll also be working a bit harder to keep the same pace.

i think i know what you mean here, but this could be misunderstood.

to maintain a specific pace is easier in a group than it is solo.

however, if you're in a group, you may struggle to maintain the pace you want, if they're going faster than is comfortable for you.

Large bottle small glass

Nigzcurran wrote: »

300kms spread over 2 days!

In or about 2010, when I wasn't doing a lot of cycling I did a 3 day tour around West Cork which was over 300km. It was grand, the hybrid had advantages as regards pannier mounts and pretty sturdy build.

You won't be the quickest but so what. Get up early take your time and enjoy. End to end cycles add something that's missing from our usual loops no matter how long

Put a bit of thought into route so you enjoy it as much as possible. Komoot, ridewithgps.com, cycle.travel, are good places to start. Top tip don't think like a motorist when it comes to route

Careful though it's a slippery old slope, there no end to long distance!

Nigzcurran

Cheers folks it’s planned for around 8 weeks time so hopefully restrictions will be lifted by then. I’m only after starting back at cycling so only doing 10kms at the moment but plan on stepping it up by at least 5kms a week which would have me able to do 50km easily enough I hope! Just 2 of us going and both on hybrids but he has years of general cycling experience so he’ll be leading the way. We are hoping to leave around 5am and thinking of trying to do it in 50km stages with a rest after each one and maybe get as close to 200kms done on the first day. Not sure how practical that all sounds but I’m hoping you guys can give me some pointers and dos and donts