Did You Ride Today?

Hopefully we can keep this going as a continuing thread. Post your mileage, stories, or whatever has to do with your ride for the day!

Thursday evening ride. Gina doesn't seem too happy about going out in the dark but heck, l want to ride! I was worried it would be cold and dark but 66 average temp. Actually pretty nice! 15 local miles around the hood. 1100 ft elevation gain and max speed of 32 MPH on the downhill. Sounds scary in the dark but the lights are brighter in reality than they look in the video so no need to be scared. Going up is a 3, 4 and 5% grade of 3 miles in length. I did it 2 and a half times so I get about 6 miles of gentle climbing on this ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cVzdPMf9zA

Few stills from the video:

Hmm, my big nose is the only thing that caught some light! :lol:



.................and the cycling gods said, "let there be cycling lights!".



32 MPH down into the darkness!

 

Ahhh! Crossing the 405 Overpass by moonlight!

As much as I enjoy riding after dark, I try to be finished riding by about 1/2-hour after sunset. It sucks, cutting the outside training time down in Winter, but I live in the sticks and no amount of lighting can compensate for the local dangers here. When I lived in The Big City© I was the king of the night and had lots of fun getting those dark miles in.

Yesterday it was almost the same temperature here in Ohio...62° and overcast. My afternoon ride only lasted 14 miles, so almost the same length as your ride. Climbing was somewhere in the 400'-500' range and the only real descent on that course was 38 MPH.

The wind was still cooking along pretty good here at 16-17 MPH steady and gust after gust going up to 37 MPH. That was down from the day before when it was 23 to 29 MPH with gusts up to 49 MPH! That wind really makes you work hard! If those gusts catch you right they can just kill your speed off.

 

Hello!
It is not my first idea to go out riding at night, especially not on any sort of highway! I always try to be cautious thus I usually finish my riding before sunset.
Today I have not gone for a ride outside, but rather stayed indoors and rode my home bike in the warmth of my room.
I wish I went outside, but I am in a really bad mood today and the weather is not helping, being too gloomy. Therefore, I decided i would just take advantage of the home workout bike that I can place anywhere in my room and enjoy all the benefits it can give me.

 

The thing about the time change is that it has cut down on the pressure trying to get home and ride before it gets dark. A bit more relaxing now knowing that it's going to be dark no matter what! :lol:

 

Biked into work at 06:30 this morning - 19 miles at 22 degrees with a 10mph cross/headwind. Felt great.

 

I didn't get chance to go for a ride today as other things came up unfortunately and by the time I had some free time it was a little too late. I did give the bike a little rub down however and put some air in the tyres, so not a total waste of the day.

 

Quote by Maydog:
"19 miles at 22 degrees with a 10mph cross/headwind."

...and this, my friends, is what we call a Hard Man Of The North.

"Felt great."

...and THAT!!! is why!

Just 12 miles this afternoon as the sun set quickly in the West. The air temp was 36° when I started out, but oddly enough it warmed up (er...yeah. warmed...) to almost 40° by the time I finished. No shoe covers. No balaclava. Yet.

There's cold rain and the chance of snow in the weekend forecast. I have the Emonda shitmaNO dusted off and ready for Winter abuse. The base layers are folded on the drafting table in the bike room. The heavy gloves and thermal tights are at the ready.

C'mon El Nino!

 

Quote by Mr. B.:
"The thing about the time change is that it has cut down on the pressure trying to get home and ride before it gets dark. A bit more relaxing now knowing that it's going to be dark no matter what!"


I hear that.

Some days it's a mad rush to get out of the office or back from a meeting in time to change and get a leg over. I keep tail lights on the bikes despite their fugliness, but I don't like pushing my luck too far if I can avoid it. There's a few local routes I can do in fair safety out here in the countryside, but nothing beats the safety of well lit urban neighborhoods IMO. I remember doing great training in industrial parks with near perfect pavement and great overhead lighting. The security guards thought we were nuts when it was near freezing or below, but they kept an eye out for us...probably took bets on which one of us would biff it first.

 

Yes I did, and I am so happy that I did. I wasn't able to ride in the last couple of weeks due to some medical issues and those have been cleared for few days now, but I wasn't able to find time do ride. Wasn't keeping time or anything since a friend called me for a leisurely ride around town. It was really great to be on my bike again.

 

Was able to get in a short ride this morning. Nothing too much, just a casual ride around the back roads.

I can safely say that winter has set in for the UK. It was bloody freezing this morning, and going into the icy gusts of wind felt like I was in some surreal alternate reality where snow does not exist but sub-zero temperatures do, if that makes sense. I knew I should have trusted my gut and taken my coat instead of just the hoodie.

 

40 miles. The air temp was 50°. Only 1550' of climbing.

On the way back from getting groceries this morning the wife and I saw a detached 2-car garage on fire. Flames were coming out the open man door and the open garage door. A sport-ute was parked about 10' in front of the garage and threatened by the growing fire. There was a bunch of peope standing around so no point in stopping at that time. A Deputy Sheriff was only 1/4-mile away as we passed him headed to the fire.

I rode back up that direction and while someone saved the vehicle by moving it away from the burning garage, the garage was a total loss. Nothing was left except for a few sticks of charred wood. The fire had spread up a grade and cooked a couple of pine trees and scrub brush.

The structure was all wood construction and I don't think any fire department could have saved anything. By the time we spotted the smoke column from 2 miles away to the time we got eyes on it...it was a goner.

 

Well, I wasn't able to ride recently due to a family situation - that is over - alas a close relative passed away after a lengthy illness - woukd like to get back to it - but not tonight - 14.5 inches of snow since 7 am - but should all melt by midweek

 

41 miles on the tandem today with Gina (16.5 average). Wow it was windy! At times we were pushing hard and only able to hold 13 MPH!

The wind was so hard it was blowing Gina's head to the side! :lol:



Pushing hard and going nowhere Fast! :angry:

 

There are a few people still riding here in MN. Some of my Strava friends are still putting in decent rides.

Yesterday was in the low to mid 20's and sunny. Donning blaze orange kit, I took my new fat bike for a ride out in the woods on hiking trails, fire and dirt roads through a wildlife management area that I live close to but have never explored. One section had more or less impassable roads with huge muddy ruts leaving me alone for miles in ever direction for about an hour. The roads pass through wetlands, with a sprinkling of wooded sections - there was nothing but me, fallen leaves and frozen ponds and rice fields.

The next section was nice with dirt roads in good condition. I did have to share this with the ocassional hunting party - the hunting must have been bad though, for I hear no shooting and most of the wildlife was hunkered down due to the cold.

Not my fastest ride, just under 3 hours for 30 miles - but that was not the point. My only regret is that somehow my video camera failed to record any of it.

 

This weekend has been quite the productive one.

I was up very early this morning, and just as the sun was causing the horizon to be tinted with an orange-blue colour signifying it was about to put in an appearance, I decided to head out for a ride. I had all the lights on and headed on the back roads and through a small trail to the sea wall that looks across to a small island over the water. I ended up sitting there for a while taking in the view, watching the sun rise and having a little think about the things in life.

I was there for about an hour before I saddled back up and took the journey home. Like yesterday it was bloody freezing and the temperature was reading as -2 degrees. I was out for about 2 hours I totalled. I enjoyed the ride greatly and the session at the sea wall, but I have to admit I was glad to get back in the warm and have a cup of tea to warm up a bit!

 

Well another 41 miles today. Very windy again. A bud and I started out doing an easy ride. Well as easy as you can go in a big head wind. At one point we were doing 13 and Mike couldn't hold my wheel. When we stopped to turn around he said he felt like puking ha ha! So we held a nice pace to the coast but then ran into Greg. Once he showed up, I knew our average would increase on the final 12 mile return ha ha! :lol:

Ended up having a pace line of about 7 or 8 guys at one point.

Mike after the puking feeling went away.



Greg



Tony, a regular on the trail riding his single speed



This is what us poor California folk have to deal with in the cold months (Late November).

 

Quote by MBB:
"14.5 inches of snow since 7 am"

Holy crap! I haven't had time to check the weekend reports, but the East of Cleveland 'Lake Effect Snow Belt' area was supposed to get 2" to 6" Saturday night/Sunday morning.

We did not get anything more than a few very light snow flurries.

Sunday was somewhat cold. It was 32° and I thought a flat sprint up one of the Rails-To-Trails paths would be something different from the usual training routes and possibly the last opportunity to get a bike path ride in before the season completely goes to shit. I also figured it would be close to deserted due to the cold...it was. Three runners and a couple walking their dog was all I saw in the 20 miles I was on the trail.

The Little Beaver Creek Greenway, an outstanding trail any time of the year.

http://www.bicycletrail.com/Greenway.htm


The trail is 10 miles from Lisbon to Leetonia. I rode into Leetonia and through town, then out to the abandoned Cherry Creek Coke ovens. At the turn of the century coal was mined in the area and burned into coke to be used in the steel mills. The hundreds of old coke ovens are slowly being restored into a park/tourist attraction. And houses and roads in Leetonia still regularly fall into the collapsing coal mines under the town. The water-filled trough between the ovens is about 12' deep. At the bottom is a railroad track. When the ovens were running open top coal cars were backed into the trench and filled from the hot ovens by workers with shovels.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNcK-ewCwQg[/media]




History of the Cherry Valley Coke Ovens: http://www.leetonia.org/cokeovens.asp

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPAbMy4scqg[/media]

I followed the new trail extension up to Washingtonville before turning around and heading back. The fast, flat run was good for 32 miles of fun.

 

Yes...I ride this fast!

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLQH3HN-z04[/media]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmePuYZf-gE[/media]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUxutlIf1w[/media]

 

Holy Star Spangled Banner, Batman! Them's some biggun's!

 

Terrible photography. I can't even see what kind of bike she is on.