Wildwood 

Paint is only original once. Beside it's already too sexy (creamsicle orange) for its' rider.

Me and the old codger have become friends. We both move at the 'speed of statue'.

MCHunt

42-23 on 6% for 6 miles 2200 a bit stout for my old retired racing legs!

Drillium Dude 

That's what I'm talking about! Nice

DD

MCHunt

It's not what I'm talking about! I don't mind the climbing, or towing a 23+ lb bike up the hill, but it would been nice to have something like 42-28! All of my other bikes have compacts and wide range cassettes.

noobinsf 

Fixed it.

Spaghetti Legs 

After a couple of weeks of frenzied effort to get in shape for and ride Eroica, I cut myself some slack and went out on the briftered plastic bike. At one point I’m grinding up a 14% gradient, thinking “dang this feels like Eroica” and look down to see I still have 2 cogs in reserve.



This little stretch always makes me feel like I’m in Italy.

Last time up here, the spring blossoms were out. Now it’s full on apple growing.

cooperryder

botty kayer, I enjoy your posts and the photos around London.

Do you have a side gig as a tour guide around London? Ha! You would be good at it.

It's a nice mini virtual tour of various areas of London many of us have never seen.

The artwork on the buildings is impressive.

Thanks for taking the time and effort to share with the BF Classic group.

The Dallas/ Ft Worth area has some interesting art, statutes and murals but nothing to compare with London.

AJI125 

Got to see the Daniels Park buffalo this morning for 22mi and 1400' (Edit: on the Fuji in it's "golden" 50th year). I remembered that I don't love this route on school days on the return... lots of dropoff traffic at the middle schools and high schools I have to ride by, but nothing terrible and mostly rolled right by in the bike lane. Fun out and back route as it's mostly uphill on the way there and a lot of shorter fast descents on the way back. Amazing views of the mountains from Longs Peak down to Pikes Peak and everything in between, hard at least for me to capture in a picture (especially while riding).


The bluff is Wildcat Mountain (not much of a mountain) but has some nesting golden eagles

Barn at Daniels Park

Buffalo and calf (may need to zoom in)

Buffalo closer to the fence than I've ever seen them

Pikes Peak in the distance - running the Ascent in September - a half marathon up to the summit of Pikes Peak, why the heck I signed up - been asking myself that for a while now

Bye bye buffalo

DQRider 

I rode to work today.

I know that sounds rather mundane, certainly unremarkable, except it wasn't. Like the subject line says, for me, it was like waking from a coma.



Minnesota winter does that to me. My life shrinks drastically, my soul goes into hibernation, and I shut down all non-essential functions.



You might notice that my photos here lack their usual sharpness. I've just recovered from Covid, and it has left me a bit shaky. Try as I might, I just can't hold the camera as still as I used to. I didn't get the vax, and I didn't go near a hospital. I just fought it out bare-knuckles at home. I hope this isn't a permanent condition. But at last Spring is here, and Life begins anew.
*
*
*

Ballenxj

When I saw the Bike I thought it might be you albeit missing your signature water bottle.
Wishing you a full and fast recovery. It's been said that having covid is the best immunity you can get.

AJI125 

Always nice to get back on the bike after a hiatus! Hope you continue to improve and make a full recovery.

jimmuller 

It's good to see that some of you are getting out. DQRider I hope you get back to your full self real soon.

My riding has been sharply curtailed since I'm not commuting to work regularly. But I did squeeze in some time to ride yesterday and today, 13.32 miles and avg speed 12.5mph yesterday, 19.77 miles and avg speed 13.4mph today. The steed of choice was the PF10.

Just to prove it happened:

non-fixie 

I got mrs non-fixie a new saddle for her new bike, so it needed a test ride. I took ten miles, but the bike is now officially certified for use by its new owner.



While we were at it I took the opportunity to test a new-to-me saddle for my Robust. The Brooks Swift I had on it looked great but was a bit narrow. An Idéale 90 "selon Rebour" I picked up at a swap meet a few weeks ago proved to be an improvement.



One of our favorite paths, along the Amstel-Drecht canal:



The crowd was appreciative of our bikes:



Bike parking at a local festival. The first guests were arriving when I took this picture, but this will be full later tonight:

zukahn1 

Very nice weather today got a bit of work done on the already completed clunker challenge bike the lowly Stone Grinder. Doug through my parts pins and found a couple nice old school Sugino chain rings and nice steel granny for a nice half step with a granny setup works nice but I will need find a slightly shorter BB to get it just right. Took a short test ride over to town too do some work at the book garage.

botty kayer

Thanks very much cooperryder , haha no I'm not tour guide too, just a curious guy on a bike constantly exploring. I've lived here nearly 30 years but still come across new to me things regularly. Happy to share my findings as this thread is a great virtual tour of places all over the world, and I always enjoy reading through here to see other peoples bikes, and the great scenery and vastly varying weather that's cycled through on our cycling escapades. As a result the sun is always shining somewhere in this thread even if it isn't always shining outside my window.

And its not a competition, London has lots of stuff but there's way more stuff that isn't here. I've never been to Dallas / Ft Worth, so post some of those points of interest as I guarantee they'll be as new to me as my postings are to you

nlerner

Modern tech today but the engine is C&V:

northbend 

^ I like the Snakey bar tape Neal. It looks great on that bike.

botty kayer

At the time of writing this thread was at the end of page 752, so I hope that by the time I've uploaded some pics and waffled on a bit, I'll have bumped us onto page 753, and so the most appropriate C&V bike for the day had to be this one....

I ride up the swanky Kings Road, pic here at number 430 which has an interesting history as fashions designer Vivienne Westwood's iconic London boutique, which you can read more about here: https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-b...orlds-end-shop It provided the inspiration and the clothes for the punk movement. At the time the shop was called 'Sex' all 4 members of the soon to be formed Sex Pistols shopped here. The bands bassist Glen Matlock worked there as a sales assistant on Saturday's, and other shop regulars were Chrissy Hynde of the Pretenders, Adam Ant and Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

I then ride on past one of my favourite buildings on Fulham Road, the original Art Deco Michelin House, not the home of the tyre giant now as these days its multi-use with cafes, shops and offices.

I then pass the central London landmark of the Post Office Tower, or BT Tower as its now known. It was the tallest building in London until 1980, but as an example of the continuous building here, it is now only ranked 19th tallest in the city. Like the CN Tower in Toronto it had a restaurant at the top that rotated slowly giving great views of the city. However public access was short lived, as on Halloween in 1971 a bomb exploded in the roof of the toilets in the rotating restaurant. Luckily it was at 4.30 am so it was not open and there were no fatalities, but cars and buildings in the blast radius were damaged. Two groups claimed responsibility for the attack, the IRA was one, and the other was the 'Angry Brigade', a far left anarchist group which sounds like they're from a Monty Python sketch. Following the bombing the restaurant was closed for security reasons so we were all robbed of the great views as a result. The building was closed to public completely in 1981 and we've been locked out ever since, but its visible from most parts of central London so its often in my eyeline, and I still want to go up to the top to enjoy the views.

I cycled past the 'Allies' bronzes in Mayfair, of Winston Churchill sharing a bench and a chat with Franklin D Roosevelt.

Everyone was basking in the Sunday sun today......

I then head back southwards, stopping off at some impressive brickwork, first at neo-Byzantine Westminster Cathedral, which is the largest Catholic Church in the country.

Another impressive piece of brickwork is just across the river from the above, the old offices of Royal Doulton, makers of ceramics used in pipes, toilets and home accessories. Only these offices remain of what was once a huge pottery covering 2 acres that has now been totally redeveloped, but the building that remains is incredibly ornate.

Final photo opportunity along Albert Embankment, and the boat seating is to signify the location as the site of White Hart Docks, where there was a dock/slipway into the river from the 1400-1500's and was the one later used by Royal Doulton.

And I thought that was going to be the end of my post, but then I saw this and a new ending was written.....

non-fixie 

The weather forecast said "cool and sunny", which implied an excellent riding day.

And it was. We did 65k, in the heart of our country: the region around the city of Utrecht. It is a beautiful area, especially in springtime.





A lot of fortresses in the area. They are part of the "Hollandse Waterlinie", a defense system which was active from the early 1800's to WWII. The concept was based on inundating a large area with two feet of water. Too shallow for boats, too deep for horses and artillery. When we needed it, it didn't work, as the Germans used planes and parachutes. Oh well.



Couldn't resist an artsy pic:



Riding along the river Vecht into Utrecht is a nice experience. This is where the well-off built their houses:



In the city of Utrecht. Coming through!

botty kayer

Bah humbug, utterly foiled as its still page 752, denied!

leftthread

"Gee, the car seems to be pulling to one side…"



Yeah, someone probably just dumped it there.

curbtender

For some reason it pulls to the left.

oneclick 

Bibendum is the name of the Michelin mascot.

oneclick 

Test ride for the new-build Torpado; a few tweaks, no issues. A stiff breeze today, so I chose the target destination with a view to a tailwind on the way back.

bironi

Looks like some ornate lugs there.