This weekend I have mostly been...

Zog The Undeniable said:

5) Road bikes really beat you up over that distance!

Mine don't.

Quoted message said:

5) Road bikes really beat you up over that distance!

Can't agree with this generalisation. I'm not questioning your
experience but is it not more to do with the fact that you are not used
to cycling that distance? Also if you have a bike that is built and
setup purely for speed it will be more uncomfortable than if you have
an audax/touring machine setup for long distance.
Oh, well done on the ride, by the way.

Ian

Zog The Undeniable said:

3) There is no nice way around Oxford. I went through the centre.

The unclassified road from Botley to Wytham and Wolvercote avoids the
A34 but follows almost the same route, rejoining the northbound roads
out of the centre near Pear Tree services (A34 / A40).

-adrian

in message <4157281b.0@entanet>, Zog The Undeniable

(') said:

5) Road bikes really beat you up over that distance! I wasn't
exhausted by the end, but all my joints felt as if they'd been taken
apart and reassembled by someone who didn't really know what they were
doing.

Should not happen. What sort of bike/forks/wheels/tyres/saddle? If it's
an aluminium frame with straight seat stays and aluminium forks, they
are reputed to be pretty harsh, but a good frame in any material should
not be harsh.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

See one nuclear war, you've seen them all.

Adrian Godwin said:

The unclassified road from Botley to Wytham and Wolvercote avoids the
A34 but follows almost the same route, rejoining the northbound roads
out of the centre near Pear Tree services (A34 / A40).

Can I get to that without going over the Botley interchange?

Simon Brooke said:

Should not happen. What sort of bike/forks/wheels/tyres/saddle? If it's
an aluminium frame with straight seat stays and aluminium forks, they
are reputed to be pretty harsh, but a good frame in any material should
not be harsh.

531 frame and forks, 20mm tyres (I know, I know), Flite saddle.

Zog The Undeniable said:

Adrian Godwin said:

The unclassified road from Botley to Wytham and Wolvercote avoids the
A34 but follows almost the same route, rejoining the northbound roads
out of the centre near Pear Tree services (A34 / A40).

Can I get to that without going over the Botley interchange?

Depends which way you've come.

If you came from Swindon on the A420, you might have come down the
dual carriageway (exposed and fast traffic, but often empty) in which
case there's a left turn just before the interchange.

If you left the A420 at Cumnor and avoided the dual carriageway by
coming down Cumnor Hill (residential area), then you'd need to both
climb to the interchange and cross it, then either go north on the A34
for 1km (not pleasant, but most of it is sliproad) or, more safely,
sneak back via the A420 access which is a very short distance west of
the roundabout. I think it's also possible to cut across the grass
directly from the roundabout, but it's been landscaped since I lived
there and might be fenced.

However, I agree with another poster that Witney / Woodstock / Bicester
is a better route, avoiding both Oxford and the very unpleasant A34
from Oxford to the M40. You might also try the A421 from Buckingham to
Milton Keynes, leaving it to skirt MK on the south side. Better still,
go across the vale of Aylesbury to Leighton Buzzard, but there's a
lot more navigation to do that way.

-adrian

Adrian Godwin said:

Zog The Undeniable said:

3) There is no nice way around Oxford. I went through the centre.

The unclassified road from Botley to Wytham and Wolvercote avoids the
A34 but follows almost the same route, rejoining the northbound roads
out of the centre near Pear Tree services (A34 / A40).

And you get to go past my old house!

However, getting from Botley to the Wytham Road involves using either a
narrow cycle path (and then croosing a main road) or using the Botley
interchange on the A34. I used to use the latter outside of rush hours
though it did involve starting down the slip road onto the A34 and then
getting off the road using the hatching as a refuge. In the other
direction this silliness can be avoided.

Colin

in message <4158753f.0@entanet>, Zog The Undeniable

(') said:

Simon Brooke said:

Should not happen. What sort of bike/forks/wheels/tyres/saddle? If
it's an aluminium frame with straight seat stays and aluminium forks,
they are reputed to be pretty harsh, but a good frame in any material
should not be harsh.

531 frame and forks, 20mm tyres (I know, I know), Flite saddle.

OK, that baffles me. I ride 20mm tyres too, and the roads around here
are not renowned for the perfection of their surface. My new carbon
bike is probably as compliant as a 531 but my old steel bike (501
tubing) is not. I haven't ridden a Flite saddle, I've always used
Brooks, but I wouldn't have thought that would make that much
difference. I know you said you felt beaten up all over, but do you
have a feeling of where most of this 'beating up' was coming from?

And is your saddle high enough?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; I'll have a proper rant later, when I get the time.

Simon Brooke <[email hidden]> wrote:

: OK, that baffles me. I ride 20mm tyres too, and the roads around here

Why 20mm? Nearly all road racers these days use 23mm tyres. They can
be pumped to the same pressure as a 20mm tyre, but give better
handling and lower rolling resistance.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

in message <[email hidden]>, Arthur Clune

(') said:

Simon Brooke <[email hidden]> wrote:

: OK, that baffles me. I ride 20mm tyres too, and the roads around
: here

Why 20mm? Nearly all road racers these days use 23mm tyres. They can
be pumped to the same pressure as a 20mm tyre, but give better
handling and lower rolling resistance.

Tradition!

No, seriously, I ride 20mm because I always have, and if it ain't broke
I see no need to fix it. I mean, I'm quite prepared to believe that
20mm offers no real benefit over 23mm, but they also don't have much
downside. I don't have any problems with rough ride or feeling beaten
up at the end of the day, and the only thing I get punctures from is
bl**dy hedge trimmings.

They're what I'm used to and I like them. Also, you can get them in and
out of the brakes without having to mess around with release catches.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; Human history becomes more and more a race between
;; education and catastrophe.
H.G. Wells, "The Outline of History"

Adrian Godwin said:

If you left the A420 at Cumnor and avoided the dual carriageway by
coming down Cumnor Hill (residential area), then you'd need to both
climb to the interchange and cross it, then either go north on the A34
for 1km (not pleasant, but most of it is sliproad) or, more safely,
sneak back via the A420 access which is a very short distance west of
the roundabout. I think it's also possible to cut across the grass
directly from the roundabout, but it's been landscaped since I lived
there and might be fenced.

I was avoiding A roads all the way (apart from the first couple of miles
of the murderous A420 - one of the few roads I go out of my way to
avoid - out of Swindon as it was 7.30 and deserted). I went through
Cumnor and down the hill as there seemed to be no alternative - looks
like there isn't, apart from going back onto the A420. Looks like they
forgot about cyclists when they built the dual carriageway.

Going into Oxford was OK, but leaving again towards Kidlington was
horrible. There's a really crappy shared-use cycle path which looked
far too dangerous with all the driveways and side roads, so I used the
road. Drivers didn't give me much room, probably because they thought I
should be on the path.

Incidentally, I saw a cyclist who appeared to have been knocked off in
Steeple Claydon - somewhere near Bicester. He already had about 6
people with him and I saw a couple of police cars screaming in the
opposite direction as I left the village. He looked a bit pale but no
blood that I could see.

Simon Brooke said:

OK, that baffles me. I ride 20mm tyres too, and the roads around here
are not renowned for the perfection of their surface. My new carbon
bike is probably as compliant as a 531 but my old steel bike (501
tubing) is not. I haven't ridden a Flite saddle, I've always used
Brooks, but I wouldn't have thought that would make that much
difference. I know you said you felt beaten up all over, but do you
have a feeling of where most of this 'beating up' was coming from?

And is your saddle high enough?

My saddle is as high as I dare - 30" and I'm 5'11". My back and neck
were taking the worst pounding, and the road surface was probably the
biggest factor. The touring bike isn't quite as bad - but it won't go
in the back of the car for the return journey!