Did You Ride Today?

[arronking]

Hi Everyone!

I'm currently an undergraduate psychology student at Nottingham Trent University. I am studying transport psyhcology for my third year dissertation and am investigating driver overtaking behaviour, attempting to makr the road a safer place for cyclists.

If you have any free time this evening to take part in the research please use the link below!!!!

https://ntupsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3PeYwy0ltJH3EfY

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Solo 50 miles today. Freaking bee sting inside my mouth 2 seconds after I pulled my mask down.

 

[cobbwheels]

Solo 50 miles today. Freaking bee sting inside my mouth 2 seconds after I pulled my mask down. View attachment 5688

You look perfectly fine! That's why I'm always on the lookout for flying insects. I don't wear glasses and I think getting one of those bugs intersect with your eyes can be dangerous.

I went 70 miles. I did an experiment to grind the whole 6000' climb at low cadence ~60 rpm and under with bigger gears on a 42 lbs loaded bike. I maintained Zone 2 heart rate or just below tempo and I think I may have even gone faster on the climbs. No fatigue, no pain, in fact my legs still feel fresh after the ride. I feel like I've been sold a myth about spinning and I've included spinning in all my training sessions so I don't understand how I end up being better at low cadence, bigger gears.

As I was expecting 85F later in the day on the way back home, I wore my hot summer clothes, crocs shoes, no mask, no socks, no gloves. Didn't expect it will be darn cold up in the mountain at 8am in the morning without the sun and can't feel my feet and hands! Fortunately, it did not become a big problem. Apart from some hand and feet discomfort, I actually liked the cold. It was really amazing as living in the tropics, we rarely see cold weather and it's mostly hot. Hot never gets comfortable even if you're born into it especially while doing cardio, you never get used to hot to really like it while doing cardio unless that cardio activity is swimming!

 

[baghresortranthambore]

hi
It is not my first idea to go out riding at night, especially not on any sort of highway!

thanks

Resort Near Ranthambore National Park

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[Mr. Beanz]

hi
It is not my first idea to go out riding at night, especially not on any sort of highway!

thanks

Resort Near Ranthambore National Park

Bagh Resort Ranthambore provides a resort near Ranthambore National Park at a very reasonable price with excellent services.

campinranthambore.in

There are plenty unskilled cyclists who are better off riding in daylight. Fear itself makes the ride unsafe for those types.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Another solo 20. Well, me and my voluptuous lip after the bee sting on yesterday's ride.

 

[cobbwheels]

There are plenty unskilled cyclists who are better off riding in daylight. Fear itself makes the ride unsafe for those types.

He's a spam poster. I don't like riding in the dark myself. Cars are not my issue although we have busy roads here in Manila, plenty of cars and buses up to the mountains outside the city 24/7. Chaotic traffic conditions at All hours even at 3am in the morning outside the city in the mountains! Tons of workers for call centers, mostly clients in America so lots of people commuting to work at all hours, inc weekends.

My ONLY problem riding in the dark is not able to properly judge road imperfections like the bumps on the roads. We have incredibly bumpy / damaged roads here in Manila from many years of neglect or laughably poor repair work that only make things worse. Roads lights tend to be busted and bike lanes have the worst quality. I have front light but it seems I need two, one on the helmet and another on the fork to correctly judge the road imperfections. So for now, My only way of dealing riding in the dark is riding slowly. I always start my long rides at 4:30 am in the morning. Earlier in the summer. This is to avoid dealing with high temperatures later in the day on a long climb as I need to remain fresh when I get back home to work!

 

[Mr. Beanz]

He's a spam poster. I don't like riding in the dark myself. Cars are not my issue although we have busy roads here in Manila, plenty of cars and buses up to the mountains outside the city 24/7. Chaotic traffic conditions at All hours even at 3am in the morning! Tons of workers for call centers, mostly clients in America so lots of people commuting to work at all hours, inc weekends.

My ONLY problem riding in the dark is not able to properly judge road imperfections like the bumps on the roads. We have incredibly bumpy / damaged roads here in Manila from many years of neglect or laughably poor repair work that only make things worse. Roads lights tend to be busted and bike lanes have the worst quality. I have front light but it seems I need two, one on the helmet and another on the fork to correctly judge the road imperfections. So for now, My only way of dealing riding in the dark is riding slowly. I always start my long rides at 4:30 am in the morning. Earlier in the summer. This is to avoid dealing with high temperatures later in the day on a long climb as I need to remain fresh when I get back home to work!

We have really nice smooth roads with nice bike lanes on many roads. But people I know who claim to have problems riding at night seem to have problems riding the same roads at night. They've had several accidents in broad daylight so it ain't the darkness.

I use 2 lights at night. One on helmet and one on the handle bars. I've found a light that works just as good as my $100 lights for $35. Rock Bros on ebay if anyone ever needs a good budget light. ;-)

Also use 2 red rear blinkies. One on the seatpost and one on rear of my helmet.

 

[cobbwheels]

We have really nice smooth roads with nice bike lanes on many roads. But people I know who claim to have problems riding at night seem to have problems riding the same roads at night. They've had several accidents in broad daylight so it ain't the darkness.

I use 2 lights at night. One on helmet and one on the handle bars. I've found a light that works just as good as my $100 lights for $35. Rock Bros on ebay if anyone ever needs a good budget light. ;-)

Also use 2 red rear blinkies. One on the seatpost and one on rear of my helmet.

That's unusual especially with the pictures of the roads you've shared. They're probably hitting the sandy patches or leaving the edge of the road.

I got my blinkies for $1 each and still working well for over a year now and after getting fully submerged in water! My main light is only $4. It's not bright but the brightness wasn't the issue but the shadows it casted on the road surface was totally different than in daylight. When I mount the light on my helmet, craters and bumps did not cast shadows and they looked flat, to my horror! If I mount the light on the fork or handlebar, it makes way too much shadows, and even small depressions looked like giant potholes due to the shadows! I may get another $5 light.

But not sure it will solve my dilemma I did an experiment with a two light setup using the blinkies and the main light. The shadows made by the road imperfections varied as I approached them. They initially looked deep and then becoming flat due to changing shadows. though it did improved the situation. I remember the rally cars racing in gravel roads at night would have their fog lights, head lamps, and finally lights on the roof all turned on! It would seem I also would need to train myself to judge how bad the bumps are.

A few of my stuff are Rock Bros but all of them under the $20 price mark! Really good stuff esp their clothing articles are just as good as more expensive brands!

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

Got in a 2 plus hour group with 5 others on a MTB ride local mountain. Just 1400' total elevation gain on 2 loops but very punchy climbs . All single track , some technical , rocky sections

The rest my group on e bikes, myself being the only one riding "natural" so got aseries of" Italian pit stops" At least I have the downhills to catch up a bit. Calm and 65 degrees wonderful day.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Solo 35 to the base of the mountains. One of those days but glad I rode.


Couple of weeks ago, last ride, shifting was out of synch. Inspection showing a slightly frayed cable for the rear derailleur.

Stopped by the shop picking up a new cable. Rain and work no chance to install during the week. Rain yesterday but Stopped for today so I rode.

Got up a few minutes early to replace cable.

Smooth as butter shifting on the ride with the new cable and some cleaning.

$3 fix awesome

 

[cobbwheels]

Nice ride! The last time we have very few cars on the road and no smog was the peak of Covid lockdowns! But now, we have traffic jams and and smog all day of the week!

Yesterday, I rode 44 miles on a city loop dozens of laps maintaining Zone 2 on a heavy commuter bike. It was a very uneventful ride except for the loud squeaking that comes and goes and it comes and goes for no apparent reason, I have given up trying to solve the mystery.

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

Looked to be a break in weather Friday afternoon so had to go out and spin on the road bike. The only ridable road that leads out of town took a hit with the weather. A nice brisk climb along the ridge , and some decent downhill pleasure on the strait parts between the gravel laden turns on this out and back . Quite cool ,and a bit overcast.

Seemed like just one or two cars passed my either direction in the hour I was out .
That made the ride quite nice.

The road had fallen apart a few times over the last 2 decades. May be like that a while.

 

[cobbwheels]

Today I did 80 miles morning ride with almost 6,000' of climbing on an empty stomach (no breakfast) and did not bring any food nor money!

I brought four 550 mL bottles with salted water. The salted water would have been enough except, riding with zero calories force me to drink more often even though it was cold up in the mountains the first 3 hrs (<75F) of the ride. And I love the taste of salted water. To me, it tasted like milk and perhaps, feeling the hunger mid ride, forced me to drink more than necessary and also because I'm peeing nearly twice an hour!

I was doing great until I ran out of water at 57 miles with 4,500' climbing already accomplished and 1,500' remaining.. I started losing power after that and my entire body is starting to feel weak, including my heart. I struggled the rest of the way home and there's a strong headwind to make things even harder. Fortunately, my legs did not bonk, nor cramped during the ride. I did experience cramping but only 4 hours after I got home and sufficiently refueled, rehydrated, and rested.

I won't be doing this kind of ride again. Peeing so often and not able to replenish your water bottles proved to be a horrendous problem. I didn't feel the hunger at all. I think the salted water kept me feeling satiated quite well. But the situation have magnified my sense of smell for food and I can smell food from miles away and the smells made me feel hungry! If only I could replenish my bottles for free, I could have only brought 1 bottle of water and powdered salt.

On a positive note, I did my personal best on the 4,500' which is surprising given the no-fuel situation and I tried to do the climb at reduced perceived effort to account for no-fuel ride. I've done this climb many times so I know how to pace it based on perceive effort. So achieving PB here given the uniquely unfavorable situation is most surprising.

I've done unfueled, empty stomach rides before but only to up to 50 miles so this is the longest so far. I'll probably limit these un-fueled rides at 50 miles and in city loops only few miles away from home so if anything feels wrong I can head back home quickly. Fueled rides doesn't seem to make me stronger and riding unfueled is major time and money saver also if you'll be drinking only salted water.

 

[cobbwheels]

Did short 20 miles today with 2000' of climbing. I should be resting today from yesterday's almost-bonk ride but felt like my legs have sufficiently recovered and I even made personal best in the 2000' of climbing just keeping the effort at leisurely Zone 2. I think losing 4 lbs of body weight (settled down to 115 lbs post-recovery weight) is a factor for making that personal best on that climb.

 

[amystivens]

15 miles yesterday. What a great day!

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

Just a short jaunt yesterday on the hybrid too few miles to mention .Needed to spin and loosen up my legs. With all the rain and cold I been indoor on treadmill and weights , got the DOMS . Also feeling seriously deprived of ride time . Can't wait for Spring weather and better roads. So much gravel on the hwy yesterday from all the snowfall and flooded sections. For this reason the hybrid with semi slick 38c is my best all round bike right now. No MTB for a while trails are so greasy, too many downed trees.

 

[cobbwheels]

I went for a long 55 mile ride today to test my newly purchased $4 called 'Ventilator Shenanigan' extra wide and cushy comfort saddle. I'm utterly surprised to find the features are no gimmicks. It was 90F, humid, and I'm sweating and the thing kept my shenanigans dry. And for the very first time, there's absolutely no soreness (not even chaffing) down there and I'm only wearing board shorts, no cream, w/e. The thing soaked the bumps in the road like a champ as well. Feels like riding on a sofa. I went for the alien mothership-looking saddle because of our cheese-grater quality roads. Traditional road saddles just couldn't cut it even with padded shorts and cream. Pedaling effort also got a tiny bit easier and I wasn't expect it due to the saddle's 'slow', very casual appearance.

However, the saddle may not feel right to heavier riders. There's thick foam used and it's relatively soft (product page said uses 'memory foam' but I'm sure that is true). I imagine if I'm heavier (I'm 115 lbs atm), my family jewels would bottom out on the saddle's plastic base. Search keyword: 'comfort saddle' Kinda looks futuristic. Make it a billion times bigger, and people would run for their lives when they see it.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Solo 30 miles. New Cable last ride but cleaned and lubed the drive train so it's smooth. New beanie on ebay, $3. Black Bibs shorts, nice $55 and much better than the more expensive PI I bought couple years back. New gloves ebay, $14. Better than PI ****. Second pair and well worth it to me. New titanium gel Terry Fly, don't ask the price. Been putting this one off for a few years but finally broke down. Funny, MIL said the relief cut out in the center of the seat so I could fart and the air would go through propelling me faster. Powered by last night's ravioli.



Haven't been able to ride much with the rain but I've been gathering things getting ready.



Of course, more 1 Mile Wonders today. I caught and passed 2 guys and 2 girls today. After I passed, the 2 guys came blazing by. One even going so far as to stand on the pedals. Ok, whatever, pretty impressive.

So I keep my pace knowing. A real vet who knows these idiots and their games. Kept my pace, watched them for about a mile, they faded even after taking turns sucking wheel.

I roll back up on them at my same pace. They look dead tired, I roll by shaking my head.

of course the idiots are going to hop on my wheel. I roll for about a minute before I plan to say something to them about being one mile wonders. But we hit a little underpass and on the upside they fall right off before I had a chance to tell them how impressed I was.

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

I went out MTBing with a group of 3 seniors at a winery . One guy was 73 and did pretty good on the single track riding conventional hardtail bike. Conditions were poor , quite a few sloppy creek crossings ect wet feet. Did not get in the training I expected but will make up for when conditions improve.

But was fun as hell, some downhill bursts with a few small jumps and cow pie hopping by the creek . Not much milage of trail was open so we did a rideable loop twice. Worth the bike and clothing clean-up afterward. Made a new friend to ride with that lives close.