Official P&b Cycling Thread

[RiG]

24 minutes ago, Ginaro said:

Yeah, once the lamp posts are moved to the middle of the road that'll probably be the "best" section of Leith Walk. People should be criticising the other bits where the pavement is too narrow (seen pics of cafes putting out tables and chairs to narrow it further!), junctions are shared, sharply angled turns to go around bins, and tram tracks right next to the cycle track so you can't even jump off and safely use the road instead. Plus the slabs will probably be broken by the time it opens with vans and lorries parking on them...

Aye the bit either just before or after Pilrig Street (if you are heading "down" Leith Walk) is ludicrous. The pavement itself was narrow enough before trying to squeeze a cycle path in there.

The designs for the stretch at Elm Row (page 13) invites so much unnecessary conflict. It's staggering that it has taken until now for CEC to accept that maybe the designs aren't quite right and that they will need to revisit some of them to see what can be done to improve them.

[velo army]

Any of you fowk toured/carried loads on a gravel bike before?

I'm replacing my bike and, while I'm probably going to just build the same bike (Thorn Sherpa, stolen back in January) I'm tempted by the Ribble steel gravel bike. 

[Caledonian1]

Surprised at the lack of activity on this thread after the recent good weather.

 

Went out on my bike three times last week....didn exactly go far and quite happy to shove in a twenty or so miler between other things.  However, without really pushing it in, although still not easing off, I managed to get a couple of route PBs  and quite a few strava segment PBs.  I was a ctually quite surprised as it normally takes me a while to get going - cant even say wind assisted either as there was pretty much no wind.

I can only put this down to my three months of 5 or 6 rides a week on Zwift - I tend to only do races and 30 min sessions where I at least push it in for a fair bit.  Whilst I improved my wattage on zwift I barely lost any weight (maybe more down to diet) I expected this to have an adverse effect on  real hills yet those were some of my segment PBs - just felt pretty strong

Hope that this has given me the early season lift I needed to keep things going and perhaps enter an event later in the summer - used to do a lot of 100 milers, AUDAX, Marmotte etc but not got the patience fo the long rides anymore.....a bit of been there done all that. However, I could see me being tempted to do a cross country ride from Applecross to Aberdeen / Stonehaven some day (think about 185 miles) Would give me something to train for - and lose weight so that it was easier.

 

[well fan for life]

Just a bump for this thread to point out that Etape Loch Ness is a class event. Great organisation, a beautiful route and one absolute horror climb. 

4 hours 44 minutes for me this time around. Half an hour quicker than my previous best (granted I done zero training and went on the piss at a wedding 24 hours beforehand last time).

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Just a bump for this thread to point out that Etape Loch Ness is a class event. Great organisation, a beautiful route and one absolute horror climb. 
4 hours 44 minutes for me this time around. Half an hour quicker than my previous best (granted I done zero training and went on the piss at a wedding 24 hours beforehand last time).

Well done, I did it as well and managed to knoch 5 mins off my last time in 2019 to 3:39 which was pretty pleasing, despite a shambles of start. Up at 4am, I got to the car park to realise I'd left my water bottles in the fridge at our cottage 12 miles away, I'd also thought it would be a bit warmer than it actually was, so did it in short sleeves and no leg warmers. Suffice to say I finished fucking frozen and pretty dehydrated.

Cracker of an event and my 4th one. It's brilliantly organised and well worth the entry fee. The Fort Augustus climb is a total dick though [emoji23]

[well fan for life]

8 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

Well done, I did it as well and managed to knoch 5 mins off my last time in 2019 to 3:39 which was pretty pleasing, despite a shambles of start. Up at 4am, I got to the car park to realise I'd left my water bottles in the fridge at our cottage 12 miles away, I'd also thought it would be a bit warmer than it actually was, so did it in short sleeves and no leg warmers. Suffice to say I finished fucking frozen and pretty dehydrated.

Cracker of an event and my 4th one. It's brilliantly organised and well worth the entry fee. The Fort Augustus climb is a total dick though

I was pretty well organised. Somehow fluked an Airbnb that someone cancelled that was a 2 minute cycle to the start/finish. I definitely learned from that last time that I more or less need to eat/drink constantly on the whole way round or I fall to bits after the second hour. 

Went for shorts, no overshoes but had baselayer, windproof gilet, jersey and a soft-shell jacket on so I was sound. Again I learned that I massively overheat on long climbs last time so I took the long sleeves off and went short sleeves only at the feed stop before the climb. On the next couple of miles I had a load of people saying to me they thought I was mental/that I must be freezing etc. Genuinely thought I'd gauged it perfectly in the end. 

And another shout out to Harry Gow's Dream Rings. Truly something that makes that godforsaken climb worth doing. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

I was pretty well organised. Somehow fluked an Airbnb that someone cancelled that was a 2 minute cycle to the start/finish. I definitely learned from that last time that I more or less need to eat/drink constantly on the whole way round or I fall to bits after the second hour. 
Went for shorts, no overshoes but had baselayer, windproof gilet, jersey and a soft-shell jacket on so I was sound. Again I learned that I massively overheat on long climbs last time so I took the long sleeves off and went short sleeves only at the feed stop before the climb. On the next couple of miles I had a load of people saying to me they thought I was mental/that I must be freezing etc. Genuinely thought I'd gauged it perfectly in the end. [emoji1787]
And another shout out to Harry Gow's Dream Rings. Truly something that makes that godforsaken climb worth doing. 

I'm the opposite in terms of nutrition. I can usually do a 50 miler on a bottle of water and a couple of gels. I never feel especially hungry until i get home and have a shower, after which I want to eat the entire house [emoji23]

The dream rings at the end were glorious, but almost impossible to eat in civilised fashion [emoji23]

[well fan for life]

5 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

The dream rings at the end were glorious, but almost impossible to eat in civilised fashion

I must have looked like some sort of rabid animal trying to consume it at breakneck speed. Hoovered that and a sausage roll in about 35 seconds.

[Bold Rover]

Thoroughly enjoyed it too. 4hr36min which was much less than I anticipated, being an old, fat guy. Echo the remarks about the dream rings!

[well fan for life]

Very much enjoyed the lad with his full DJ set up after the descent as well. Picked up the mood a fair bit. 

Was thinking about going for Caledonia as well next year which I've heard some good things about.

[The_Craig]

Anyone doing the Ride to the Sun this year? Has any P&Bers done it before? 

https://www.ridetothesun.co.uk/

I'm thinking about doing it as it sounds like a cracking event. I'm just waiting on my riding buddy letting me know if he's free that weekend. 

[Leith Green]

Did the route of the Tour of the Borders earlier today.

One of the climbs was an utter b*****d. Subsequently discovered it's known as the "wall of Talla" - well named......... horrible.

Some great scenery tho

[Archie McSquackle]

I've signed up for Tour of the Borders, the shorter Challenge option. Already heard horror stories about Talla. [emoji848]

[Benjamin_Nevis]

10 hours ago, The_Craig said:

Anyone doing the Ride to the Sun this year? Has any P&Bers done it before? 

https://www.ridetothesun.co.uk/

I'm thinking about doing it as it sounds like a cracking event. I'm just waiting on my riding buddy letting me know if he's free that weekend. 

Yeah I did it in 2019. My mates in Carlisle persuaded me to ride it both ways. f**k ever doing that again 

It's a tremendous event though and as centuries go, is pretty straightforward. Just don't forget gloves and leg/arm warmers. Descending the Devil's beeftub in the middle of the night, even in June, can be a chilly affair. There's a few of us doing it this year, just the one way though. 

[Leith Green]

8 hours ago, Archie McSquackle said:

I've signed up for Tour of the Borders, the shorter Challenge option. Already heard horror stories about Talla.

Took a snip off the profile from Garmin connect - have a guess which bit is the Talla Wall 

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I did 44 miles today on my MTB between Aviemore and Inverness. Its by far the longest I've ever cycled without stopping. I reckon the first 39 miles went fine, but my legs completely gave up on a short climb just before Culloden battlefield. The last 5 miles into the town were utterly brutal. I'll definitely be using a hybrid or road bike if I ever attempt that again. 

[Benjamin_Nevis]

4 minutes ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

I did 44 miles today on my MTB between Aviemore and Inverness. Its by far the longest I've ever cycled without stopping. I reckon the first 39 miles went fine, but my legs completely gave up on a short climb just before Culloden battlefield. The last 5 miles into the town were utterly brutal. I'll definitely be using a hybrid or road bike if I ever attempt that again. 

Was that the bit just after Clava Cairns? 

I remember walking that route a while back for a charity event. We left Culloden, took the road your were probably in to reach Tomatin. We got the Aviemore on the second day - assuming you did the same route in reverse, that's a fair amount of climbing

I was out today, standard fare of suffering a brutal headwind west for 22 miles then belting home with a glorious tailwind. 

[Futureboy]

On 22/03/2022 at 13:23, velo army said:

Any of you fowk toured/carried loads on a gravel bike before?

I'm replacing my bike and, while I'm probably going to just build the same bike (Thorn Sherpa, stolen back in January) I'm tempted by the Ribble steel gravel bike. 

Old post, but yeah I have. Mostly for a max of three days. I use a mix of Alpkit and Apidura packs and Salsa Anything cages on the forks rather than panniers. Other than a bit off wobble from the saddle pack if poorly packed it's fine. I'm either carrying a Laser Comp tent or a tarp. 

Stands up to off-road no bother. 

 

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

15 minutes ago, Day of the Lords said:

Was that the bit just after Clava Cairns? 

I remember walking that route a while back for a charity event. We left Culloden, took the road your were probably in to reach Tomatin. We got the Aviemore on the second day - assuming you did the same route in reverse, that's a fair amount of climbing

I was out today, standard fare of suffering a brutal headwind west for 22 miles then belting home with a glorious tailwind. 

That's exactly the climb. I stay on that side of Inverness, so it's one I've managed plenty of times before on short local rides (usually immediately followed up with a pitstop at the Keppoch Inn).

The climbing didn't feel too bad until then. There was quite a tough one just past Cartridge, but I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the top of the Slochd without feeling too exhausted.

[velo army]

1 minute ago, Futureboy said:

Old post, but yeah I have. Mostly for a max of three days. I use a mix of Alpkit and Apidura packs and Salsa Anything cages on the forks rather than panniers. Other than a bit off wobble from the saddle pack if poorly packed it's fine. I'm either carrying a Laser Comp tent or a tarp. 

Stands up to off-road no bother. 

 

Thanks for that. I'm just going to go ahead and buy the same bike I got stolen which was a Thorn Sherpa. I'm feeling the desire to go some proper long touring again.