Brian Sharpe

Not today, but last Saturday.........

Beautiful ride along the Rideau River from Ottawa to Merrickville!

MWS

New River Trail

dawes56

Today was sunny, 80F, no humidity... beautiful. My Kona took me around BWI (Baltimore-Washington International Airport) on a MUT. In the early afternoon there were few walkers, and few other riders. I saw an emu, several horses, and a butterfly raced me up a hill ... and won. I had fun.

Pete

bikecrate

In an earlier thread I asked if I should take my hybrid on a country dirt road.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...e-on-this-road

Well I did, and here are the pictures.

Right before I took this photo a local old timer pulled up in his pick up truck and told me I was a brave man if I was going to try and ride my bike on this road. He said it was too rough for his truck.


There were some big pot holes, ruts and mud, but I was able to navigate around most of it.


It wasn’t really too bad and I got to see some nice scenery.

Sixty Fiver

Knocked the dust off my Trek last night so I could ride down to the shop and install new fall /winter tyres and was pleasantly reminded at how nice a ride this bike is when it is running those 700:35 CX Compe tyres... am running all my errands on it today and giving my hard working folders a little break.

bikecrate - It is always nice to be able to ride a bike in places motorists fear to go.

bikecrate

That's the first thing I thought when he told me that.

This is more than I can say for some of the rest of the ride when I got back on pavement, which included cars passing at full speed on two lane roads with limited sighting distance. I also had to steer into the grass one time when a car passing another car from the opposite direction came right at me. A good reminder to always keep your head up even in the country. Still I enjoyed the change of pace from the city.

alexaschwanden

today my hybrid took me on my first 50 mile bike ride!!!! it was long and a bit tiring. i drank three water bottles of water and one breakfast. it took about 4 1/2 hours to complete. now i have 773.9 miles on my bike in 3 months. pretty good huh?

AdelaaR

770 miles in 3 months?
A quick calculation tells me that's more than 8 miles a day ... nice one!
I have about the same mileage now on my bike ... but it took me almost a year.

alexaschwanden

thanks, i am trying to get to a thousand miles before the end of the year. i like racking up miles, it's fun.

jcinnb

Decided to GO GREEN today. Rode to the local bike shop, about a 10 mile round trip. Closed on Monday. But averaged almost 14 in some pretty stiff wind and very "in town" environment.

Dodgensince74

I rode 14 miles today, I took my sisters van to the tranny shop to get fixed so I figured I would take my bike to ride back home on. It was the hardest ride I've had to date, strong head wind all the way home and the first 9 miles had anywhere from 2-4 stop lights every mile(and I got everyone of them red). Since I try to stay at a 15+ mph pace and I also like taking off fast from the lights, I was completely exhuasted by the time I got home, this was not my longest ride but it sure was the hardest for me, I'm still smiling about that.

Triaxtremec

Did a nice 18 mile trip on the local highways today. Great weather this morning til about noon when it really heated up and got rather windy but it was great fun.

Sixty Fiver

That is some decent mileage, especially when it sounds like you are still new to cycling or just getting back into it.

I only have an odometer on one bike and know my folder and I have traveled 1000 km since August 1st and this is not the only bike I ride... with my long 100km commute I was really racking up the mileage in July and August and was riding at least 1500km a month.

Even when I am taking things easy I try and ride at least 20 km a day but used to average nearly 50km / day through the year.

The folder has been the go to bike for distance rides and has done multiple 100km rides, several centuries, and some rides that were in the 120-140km range this summer.

Ride enough and these distances stop being anything but another ride... some folks have suggested I get into randonneuring and start tackling distances of 300 and 600 km (non stop).

AdelaaR

1500 km a month!!
Damn ... your nickname "sixty fiver" may sound pretty old, but 1500km a month is what I do in a year!
That's 50km a day on average ... nice

Sixty Fiver

I will be 45 in a month... you can probably figure out where the 65 comes from but lots of people think it's my age.

When I was training to race I posted yearly mileages of 12 and 16k and then got sidelined by injury and have been working my way back up to a reasonable level of conditioning.

A few years ago I had to start by doing slow laps around the block (on the sidewalk) and worked my way up to doing 30 km a day but could not complete a century ride without a lot of pain during and after.

This year has been good as I seem to have figured out how to ride longer and faster despite spending a lot of my time spinning along with only one leg... this is why I spin like a gerbil on crack as keeping my cadence high is less stressful on my good leg and I gear down instead of standing up as I used to.

Have amazed myself at how far I have ridden this year but need to be in the best shape possible before winter hits as although I will still ride, I will ride less and my mobility will be hampered by snow / ice.

I have another century ride planned for October... committed to doing one a month.

xoxoxoxoLive

I took mine on a 3 hour ride , the sign is a joke ! Average 10 MPH..

qmsdc15

I posted a report of my ride of the fifty states here. With pictures! Check it out.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...50-States-Ride.
Here's one I snapped while passing a police car to catch the lead group on the road. It was not a police escort. This ride was on open city streets with riders responsible to operate correctly. The police cruiser was "sitting in" (bike speak for assuming the speed of the rider ahead of you, as in "drafting") for no real reason except making it safer for the riders while he waited to respond to a call. He passed us soon after I joined the group.

qmsdc15

Or maybe I cut him off. Anyway he was cool about it.

njlonghorn

Months ago, I drew out a route I called "60 miles of torture", with 6500 vertical feet of climbing. Almost 4,000 feet of the climbing is in a 15-mile stretch near the middle.

I finally found the time (and courage) to try it Saturday, and I made it. Not fast. In fact, slow. But I made it up every climb without putting my feet down, so I'll take it.

Next week is the Tour de Pink -- a 3-day, 225-mile charity ride through the hills of Southeast PA and West-Central NJ. If last year is any indication, mine will be one of the only hybrids. I'll try to remember to post an update.

Sixty Fiver

After riding 60 miles on my vintage touring bike and battling the mother of all headwinds on my ride back my Trek made for a nice recovery vehicle and will get to add another 15 miles to my day's riding total.

Sure appreciated that wider gear range as I had to ride another 7 miles south into those nasty headwinds.

acidrock23

I had some freaky winds today too! I could see the trees and was like *gulp* but then looked online and it said "Wind: 7 mph" w/ the high speed about 10 min before at "23 mph"!! I got 14 miles in but it wasn't as much fun as the dead summer air? The temperature was a lot nicer though?

Dodgensince74

I went on a 23+ mile ride this morning and feel great, some day I'll be making some longer rides but first I have build up the legs.

alexaschwanden

i also went on a 23 mile bike ride , but this time i went with some friends of mine and we went through Woodside (district) and part of Menlo park. it was a good ride.

TamaraEden

So finally, after neglecting my bike for a bit, maybe even a couple months, I took her out today. I bought the bike nearly two years ago to ride to work and have barely ridden to work. I did ride often over the summer and stuff.

ANYWAY. So I finally bring the bike downstairs, step out, and DRIZZLE. So today I rode to work for the first time in rain, in a skirt, and with my new panniers which I realized need placement adjustment.

qmsdc15

Congrats on the first bike commute in awhile, Tamara! I hope you didn't get too wet!