your daily bicycle log

Standard for country lanes. Great when there's nothing around, kind of terrifying when you're riding two abreast round a blind bend and see a car coming towards you.

have really fallen off with cycling almost completely in the last couple of years so basically starting from scratch in terms of fitness. went for quick 5 and 7 mile rides - cycling as fast as i could and doing a straight line route that goes up to the summit of a hill and then down the other side and then back - and i already know I've found my recreation for the rest of the summer. just frustrated at how long i imagine it's going to take me to be able to do any significant distance/climbing

My bike's getting fixed!

And I may have ordered an Equilibrium too.

16.7km with 160m climbing on my slightly janky old single-speed every day for the last 8 days. I'm slowly getting less out of shape but impatient to actually be able to go any sort of distance

really appreciating living in vancouver which in the summer is surely one of the best cities you could be in for cycling

saw some trailforks thing that was showing how much great shit is like RIGHT THERE, so jealous.

Just spent a few days in Copenhagen cycling around. It really is as good as it gets for urban cycling. Great infrastructure and driver awareness of cyclists is incredibly good.

My sit bones are suffering.

Someone from my cycling club has got a cycliq fly6 rear light - video camera combination thing. I'd never heard of them before. He used it on our ride on Sunday. I had no idea it had a camera (and wondered why he had his light on in the middle of the day), but he's uploaded some of the footage and I was so impressed that I've gone out and bought one for myself. The big plus is that you get video of people's faces instead of backs all the time.
https://vimeo.com/225914722
I feature in it quite a bit (green socks, red & white shoes, the only fool with a rucksack on my back*).

*it was a long ride with a lengthy break at a reunion event in the middle so I thought I might need a change of clothes and a pair of trainers

Oops. Fucked up that link. Here it is: https://vimeo.com/225914722

I have one for a while- battery life has been an issue but a fun safe thing! Good call.

I did a sportive in the North York Moors on Sunday - the best part of six hours driving away so a bit of a one-off. I'd never been there before, but the area has a reputation for being full of ridiculously steep climbs. The most infamous one is Rosedale Chimney, which hits 33%. They had four different route lengths - the longest one was 120 miles and went up the Chimney. That gave me THE FEAR so I opted for the 100-mile version instead, which took the 'easy' climb out of the village ('only' 25%!).

It was grim grey day with temperatures nothing like you'd expect for July, but at least it didn't rain. I've never known such a low average speed - it could barely keep it above 14mph. The route repeatedly went down roads that were so steep I felt worried I was going to somersault over my handlebars and then straight back up the other side. I was feeling wasted after about 40 miles, so it was a nightmare keeping it together to finish the whole thing, definitely the most difficult ride I've ever done. I ended up with over 3,000 metres of climbing, which is a record for me in itself, but doesn't even begin to tell the story of how much of that was >10% (in fact over 20% on plenty of occasions).

I've got some fairly rubbish video footage of bits of the worst climb (rubbish because of the lighting and because the handblebar-mounted camera keeps swinging from left to right as I wrestled my bike up the hill) which shows the nightmare scenario: just at the steepest 25% left hand bend about halfway up, a car stalled, rolled backwards a little bit then jammed its brakes on. The rider in front of me had to stop and then I did too. Once the car managed to drive off I had to work out how on earth to get going again. I didn't fancy walking another half a mile or so to the top and certainly didn't want to descend to the beginning again so I had to pull off a go-sideways-clip-in-turn-180-degrees-go-sideways-again-turn-90-degrees-pray-you-can-keep-moving manoeuvre.

https://youtu.be/5n-QVLHkdJo

Work trip to London, been hiring Santander bikes to get from Fulham to King's Cross. Fun! Had an exciting moment as a double-decker and I approached a roundabout at the same time - we both go, right? I think we both go.

Approached it from different directions? I've never really worked out what the law / expectation is there. If someone's already on the roundabout you have to give way to them, but what about when there's a car approaching the roundabout at a higher speed than you're cycling - you get onto the roundabout first, but they have to slam the brakes on to avoid hitting you. Not really sure about that one.

Approaching from different directions at roughly the same speed, and part of the excitement was that it was just a disc of paint, so I wasn't sure how close the bus was going to cut it. (In the event, the kind bus driver - along with dozens of passengers, I guess - yielded to the reckless cyclist.)

https://vimeo.com/228614869

I forgot how little air there is at over 13k feet- some of that hike-a-bike was steepish but very rideable with o2. whole lotto hikin' going on.

Wow. Stunning scenery.

http://jalopnik.com/watch-all-these-people-eat-shit-while-trying-to-cross-a-1797602342

Pretty amazing vid

I tore my calf muscle a couple of weeks ago. I was told at the hospital "no exercise for four weeks" and that it typically takes 6 weeks to recover. I was on crutches for a while and didn't seem to get any better at all for the first 12 days, but now I feel like I'm finally slowly starting to make some progress (though this is still at the slowly-shuffling-around-the-house stage). I'm going to see a physio who specialises in sports injuries next week (although I didn't actually get the injury while doing sport - I had to suddenly sprint with no warm up and now warning) so should get some idea of how long before I can start gently riding a bike again. Anyone got any experience of this?

No, i hope that recovery speeds up for you.

random side q, why does it seem all the fastest middle distance and endurance runners AND riders have like, no calf muscles? with sprinters, it just seems to vary, no real correlation. calf muscles- what are they good for?

i mean, i even have met some midfoot cleat placement types, and...maybe my calves are what has held me back all along. dead weight.

have not given two shits about cycling for more than 20 years, go to taiwan, discover bike sharing, lose my fucking mind, immediately sign up for bike sharing at home, come home, use it, lose my mind all over again, go to a bike shop and make serious enquiries about these

...as this is a bicycle log, for my first cycle since the '90s i did a loop of taipei and panchiao in new taipei city, 40km in total. wasn't sore or even tired afterwards which surprised the hell out of me. utterly exhilarating.

Why folding bikes in particular?

because i have shit-all room for a full size bike at home, and because australians are thiefy bastards and i don't want to risk leaving a bike on the street

i.e. i'm not all-in on a folding bike, just can't see an alternative that would work

Fair enough

not sure if correct thread but

https://stkildacycles.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/image/e9c3970ab036de70892d86c6d221abfe/1/6/1644953830.jpg

bought it

https://stkildacycles.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/image/e9c3970ab036de70892d86c6d221abfe/f/o/ford_by_dahon-02.jpg

If it gets ridden regularly, it THE ONE. Looks totally rad.

Im on an overnight voyage to recce part of this summer’s ride exploit- a one day attempt at 145mi Kokopelli trail between Fruita CO and Moab UT. I think that will take me 18-20 hours if I have no issues. It’ll be summer in the near desert there, so i’ll be starting that at 10p I think, and the dark start is technical enough that i want to pre ride the techy parts in daylight. Sorta dumb, but the ride is to celebrate 3 years of gradual recovery from an accident that caused, and still causes, some big real life problems. It’s- another risk, and if i have to abandon, im ok with that- not ok with injury tho.

Ive rebuilt my train station antique commuter to be my steed, which has been fun to do. I even found some NOS tubeless 26” clearance rims in UK to build up, they are sweet and light.
https://instagram.com/p/BhiyUaHl3yC/

ooh good luck! sounds fantastic

i had an epiphanic breakdown, i've decided this year can't be the year for me to do that ride ;_; . i'll have to find something else fun for this year.

yesterday i did as the people of today like to do (and brag about), and i rode 4 lane highway, 2 lane, dirt road, forest road, fire road, and singletrack, and back to two lane. and there i saw, a rock. and more rocks. and another big-ass rock. and each was def a rock. https://www.relive.cc/view/1525992693 lovely day out tho.

Cool.

I'm still off the bike with a torn calf. I was told 12 weeks for recovery (by the physio), not quite halfway there yet.

damn man, that sounds painful. hope that the next 6 seem to pass quickly with good results.

right now I'm tryna decide if I want to commit to the enchanted circle century in September

I''ve never done more than 70-odd miles, and definitely not at altitude and with 3000ft of climbing

supposed to be a great event tho

(xp) Not in the same league as what happened to you, but very frustrating. Never mind cycling, I couldn't work or drive for a month. Still not able to walk far or fast enough to take my daughter to school / walk the dog. Not sure when I'll eventually be allowed to tentatively start cycling again - I think in about a month - but it'll take a while to build the fitness back up again. I'm supposed to be doing a 500-mile tour at the start of August, might have to cancel the whole thing.

nbs, that sounds legit miserable afaict. take it easy, reschedule if you need to.

gbx that tour looks cool. i was reading the description and i couldn't for the life of me figure out how their description matched their profile, then looked at https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1774642 which seems more accurate? i figure if you train for any event sorta reasonably, even then the last 20% is a bit of bluffing anyway, you'll make it. (otoh it's hard to fake something you just haven't prepped for-- aka hunt3r's half ironman experience).

yeah that description/profile thing had my scratching my head -- i think the profile is from a previous edition that started in taos?

i'm feeling slightly optimistic about being able to manage it (before having done any prep at all) after climbing up the north side of the sandia crest a couple weeks ago. vermont doesn't really have any long, tall, and steady climbs, so it was my first time ever doing a sustained hour plus of climbing. really liking these relatively gentle Western gradients vs the double-digit walls of new england

i know. switchbacks weren't wired into berkshire/green/white brains, so you ended up with hunt3r struggling up 18% in a 6 spd 39/23. enjoy these long lazy switches...

I'm doing this on Saturday for the second time.

http://nuemtb.com/series/cohutta-100-ultra-endurance-mountainbike-race

This will confirm my idiocy to many on ILX.

That is a lot of track (and vert)! Have fun and be safe.

Thanks. It was actually fun in 2016--well, relatively fun. There aren't many ugly grade climbs, but you do feel like you're climbing all day long. It took me right under 10 hours to finish and I think the climb was like 13,000 feet. The biggest problem (other than suffering) is the incredible, solitary boredom.

Anyone here done Leadville? I think that's gonna be my last gasp of this stupid endurance crap.

lol I feel like I am finally at a point in life (almost done with medical training, late 30s, no kids) where actually getting into this endurance crap is just what I'm after

like I really want to do the almanzo 100 next year, and maybe the pony express (which hunt3r had suggested to me )

No i didnt do leadville- shoulda done it before you had to qualify and crap, but i was doing regular racing and leadville had some great riders, but was still mostly weirdos. Now even the weirdos go 5 w/kg for hours so....

I dated someone who much later got dq’d and charged (!) for breakin some rules in Leadville tho (post hunt3r).

Also dandydonweiner i feel like i been aware of your ilx existence foreverrrrr, this board needs fatmantises, if you doing rides like that, you def in, we can be sending a consolation prize.

Someday im still ready to generate a fatmantis souvie...

lol I've been on ILX since 2002? A very long time.

I should have done Leadville in 2016 when I had the base built up and no injury issues (kinda). Saturday I will be riding to complete the damn thing instead of improving. But hell, I'm pushing 50 and I already feel like a freak amongst my friends. I want to ride the cobbles in Belgium someday too.

This summer was supposed to be the year I finally go to Le Tour and ride a mountain stage but my family keeps getting in the way. Am super jealous of everyone here who can still prioritize big rides like that.

you sound balanced to me, man. cray conservo tho, you need counseling.

obv jk, now i start selling you on the awesomeness of doing kokopelli as a one day 145 mi, 15k vert attack 2019. It was to be my great thing for 2018 but i’ve been forced to push it back til next year.

that's a lot of crotch pain but sounds like something I would plan on trying haha

i'd consider it with a year of prep but man that looks tough

how many miles a week would you want to be doing to prep for that?