An extremely leisurely average around 6 mph for 2 1/2 hours today. Despite the sunshine the Chill-factor made the going quite bitter with the wind and because of the recent cold rain. Spent a good 10 minutes as tree detective with the fallen tree as was a completely flukey trajectory on its way down .
I too have not had my usual hours this week, rubbish weather, was pondering this afternoon but when i got home from work it were blowing, cold and pissing down. Spent the afternoon fitting new tyres to my old spark listening to the wind,rain and hail. Weekend forecast is rubbish up here, might be a couple of sessions on the turbo, head can only cope with an hour max on that thing but it keeps me spinning.
What a couple of weeks - the plan through January is 100 miles a week, then Feb is 125 miles a week, march is 150 inc at least one plantation ride etc etc. So, the last week of Jan I only had three days to get my mileage in (as we were heading off island) so 33 miles a day done.. this week we were away monday and I don't want to cycle at the weekend - so again, 32 miles a day but this time four days in a row... To say I was knackered yesterday on the "out leg" would be an understatement - very slow and just figured it was being tired / tired legs / being on a diet etc etc ... Nearly turned back a few times thinking I could head out today but stuck with the plan - then finally I got to the turn around point and found I'd been cycling into a 17mph headwind... FFS - pretty much flew home...
i've only gone and bought an E-bike.. full details to follow after pick-up. It's an "Oxygen" 250W/36V from 2018, secondhand and a bit of a gamble. EDIT unfortunately it’s not plain sailing yet, as a renege attempted, but mitigating circumstances. I’m at sellers address in Slough, yuck, remember why I hate Slough now.
You can see on the left of the 2nd picture where a drainage pipe has been ripped out of the ground! The place is littered with remains of tow ropes and winching eyes. It would seem that part of the challenge is to get stuck, then get out. The road is that buggered now that the local council have put "road closed" signs either end, but these are just moved to the side.
Unfortunately that’s 4x4’s for you, did a little green laning a couple of years ago on enduros, it seems they love getting stuck and ripping the fck out of the lane. There’s a lot of damage caused by their escapades but there’s not a lot that can be done to stop them short of turning that into a bridleway.
It's that fucked there are tracks in the surrounding fields where enduro bikes are riding to avoid the carnage, which sadly makes the whole situation worse. Rant over!
Hopefully farmers use it which will maybe keep the council on their toes. Certain trails in Cannock Chase look like that once the forestry commission decide to harvest the trees.
I had a good ride last night and tonight - I'm nearly getting the entire off road part of my loop in without needing my lights. I seem to have managed to train some riders to cover their lights when there is a cyclist coming the other way which is ace - I always do it but tonight three riders heading the other way did it - makes a huge difference !
