Today's Ride

[CassidyAce]

A little gentle pottering around as my Achilles tendon is still not fully recovered. The strength is back but the flexibility is not. Riding with a CAM boot on is possible as long as there is something on the other foot to even things up. Although the physiotherapist does not recommend it, he does accept it, and I've been riding with the boot on for a few weeks now without mishap or any setback to the recovery—but no more than a couple of miles or fifteen minutes at a time. Anyway, the weather was beautiful this weekend: 22°C, sunny, with a light breeze. And it felt good to be riding, even if it was just a couple of very short rides.

The site of the old Abbot's Mill:




One hundred years ago, the site looked like this—Abbot's Mill is the large, pale, wooden-framed building :


And ninety years ago, on October 17th 1933, it burned down, never to be rebuilt:

 

[rwm1962]

Part red part blue trails at hamsterley today.

Fell off as well bashed my knee open

Some mild muddage
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Localish to me.

A little gentle pottering around as my Achilles tendon is still not fully recovered. The strength is back but the flexibility is not. Riding with a CAM boot on is possible as long as there is something on the other foot to even things up.

Nice one. Had several months in one in recent years. I used my time off to do some builds & would take them for test rides wearing my boot.

 

[al-onestare]

Some cracking weather the past couple of days; we've earnt some this year that's for sure.

Saturday afternoon jaunt on the Hot because of a slight Syncros malfunction on Ryder

A "roasting" 15 degrees, 16 if you squinted hard enough. A glorious ride with the trails in almost perfect condition.

This morning, about as good as it gets. Between 10 and 15 degree, really notable differences, almost zero breeze: SW 2-3 mph. Clear skies with the odd patch of high cloud. It took 22 miles before a vehicle passed me.

Lights on.

Lights off (for the money shot - they went straight back on afterwards!)

 

[benjabbi]

This weather is just too good to waste, It's bound to turn for the worse sooner rather than later. Did Saturdays route in reverse and it was glorious!

 

[Frankenorange]

Hovering in the low 20's in the south west of england. Gotta wait in for a courier but looks set to be nice for some hours yet

 

[nic0]

still summer...

 

[benjabbi]

Just the 9 miles to work so far today. My mission is to ride all my bikes consecutively, some of them have been a bit neglected recently. Nice day for it again.

 

[benjabbi]

Back out again, Klein this time, still lovely out!

 

[moonlite]

A sunny afternoon tempted me away from my desk for a gentle mooch around local back roads on the '98 Explosif. I'd pushed quite hard on a run last night so focus was on just turning the old legs over and airing out the lungs.

It was breezy but lovely to be out. One thing that's developing rapidly on our dirt roads during this dry spring is that traffic tends to hammer stretches of the gravel into a series of sharp corrugations. If you can't steer a line through them, these can batter you and your bike quite severely, shaking your fillings loose and rapidly sapping your momentum -- not to mention your will to live. Local MBT'ers tell tales of critical bolts shaking themselves loose entirely.

Suspension doesn't help much and large or small wheels don't seem to make much difference. A friend who lives at the end of a long stretch of dirt road has virtually given up riding because the corrugations have reached such an extreme state that negotiating them is a huge disincentive.

Anyway, today's low-stress pootle meant the corrugations didn't get me down -- at least it's dry and warm!

 

[KayOs]

A sunny afternoon tempted me away from my desk for a gentle mooch around local back roads on the '98 Explosif. I'd pushed quite hard on a run last night so focus was on just turning the old legs over and airing out the lungs.

It was breezy but lovely to be out. One thing that's developing rapidly on our dirt roads during this dry spring is that traffic tends to hammer stretches of the gravel into a series of sharp corrugations. If you can't steer a line through them, these can batter you and your bike quite severely, shaking your fillings loose and rapidly sapping your momentum -- not to mention your will to live. Local MBT'ers tell tales of critical bolts shaking themselves loose entirely.

Suspension doesn't help much and large or small wheels don't seem to make much difference. A friend who lives at the end of a long stretch of dirt road has virtually given up riding because the corrugations have reached such an extreme state that negotiating them is a huge disincentive.

Anyway, today's low-stress pootle meant the corrugations didn't get me down -- at least it's dry and warm!


View attachment 786312

Where I lived as a kid there a wide stretches of old "tank roads" especially near the old inner german border. They are made of large concrete slabs and the joints between them kill your bike, your wrists and your will to ride a bike even after 10 minutes....
In addition, the border road follows exactly the course of the border (regardless of the terrain) because there used to be patrols there, which means that the climbs can be very steep, which often makes it impossible to ride up and when riding down the shaking is even worse.