Following on from the slightly negative thread.

What stories have you got.

On my first 100 miler which I was doing solo. I did not get my nutrition right, my plan was to ride the first 50 and have lunch at a landmark restaurant (The George at Chollerford if anybody knows it) But I did the first half of the ride really quite quickly and it was way too early for lunch at the George, instead of going across the road to the cafe, I pressed on. I got another 20 miles or so when I completely ran out of energy, lay down for a while then pressed on to a village, managed to get in a cafe and had a good feed, In the Cafe was Joe he was just about to leave, In his late 60’s at a guess, we had a quick chat, he could see I was on my last legs as far as this ride was concerned and he left. When I got out after about 20 minutes, he was waiting for me outside with his immaculate Joe Waugh bike with chrome forks, he insisted on taking a picture and then he proceeded to lead me out over the next ten miles before he had to peel off. I manged my first 100 miler with his help. I will never forgot him even if our meeting was brief.

Holy Autothreadresurection…

But…

Has Nobody else really not met any charters on solo rides ?

or is it just better to write about the Bellends ?

I met a really fit girl at Brechfa once who gave me her spare tube (I’d already used my spare and all 3 puncture repairs).

Tubeless now so don’t need fit blondes to help me out, damn you tubeless

Not solo, on a Sportive I was doing on my own. Met a guy who’d had tweed trousers tailored with a seameless crotch for cycling, with jacket, shirt and cravat. If 100 miles is worth riding, it’s worth doing in style ehhh?

Very strangely I also met a nice chap when I did my first 100 miler the other week. I was sat down mending a puncture (my 2nd of the day grrrr) at the side of a rural road about 75 miles in. He stopped to say hello and we got chatting and I suggested that we ride together for a bit and we did, went our seperate ways after about 5 miles or so. He was older than me and was talking about how it gets harder when you get older, especially in the winter, the cold is harder to take he said and he couldn’t cycle as far in a day. I talked about all the mtbing I do, up snowdon and helvellyn this year, cannock and degla, etc etc. I’ll never forget when we parted he said I was an inspiration and that he was glad we’d met and ‘you’re in my diary now michael’ I’m nothing special just an ordinary guy who likes cycling a lot, lol, but what a nice thing to say.

I always enjoy meeting people who’re just getting into MTBing, maybe wearing tracksuits, riding cheap hardtails too big for them or BSOs but having a wicked time riding stuff that might seem really tame to you or me.

Couple of middle-aged women on Apollo sort of bikes in my local woods spring to mind, laughing their heads off trying to ride across a tiny stream gap.

Met a guy who’d had tweed trousers tailored with a seameless crotch for cycling, with jacket, shirt and cravat. If 100 miles is worth riding, it’s worth doing in style ehhh?

CFH?

I forgot also met this guy, on a solo ride.

Joe Brolly

I would buy seemless crotch tweeds if they were commercially available.

Too many to mention !?

You’ve obv not been on enough solo rides or have just found your social side?

You’ve obv not been on enough solo rides or have just found your social side?

Solo rides certainly seem to make meeting people a lot more likely but I don’t remember most of them, but some stick in the mind.

You’ve obv not been on enough solo rides or have just found your social side?

This **** site.

Someone tries to start a positive thread and still some miserable **** has to come and try to belittle him.

I think I feel a flounce coming on.

Chakaping..Just assume It’s a cry for help from Brack, as he has no friends to ride with.

It is difficult to get a positive thread going 😀

I was out having a solo gnar-fest in the less frequented bits of the Forest of Dean.

I met a stallion of a man and we got chatting and he asked how I knew about the trails in the area I was in. I told him about a great mountain bike company who did me a great guided ride, nice bloke, great value etc. turned out he was the owner of the company who then took a detour from his own route to show me some new stuff; made a good day even better!

When I was little I was warned about “Stranger Danger”, now I quite look forward to which strange men I might meet in the woods!

In the last week I met a beginner roadie who, after admiring my bike then asked me if it would be more comfortable if he waxed his balls.

A few days later I met an older chap on a vintage Claud butler who claimed to have invented the hollowtech 2 design, only he made the mistake of telling his mate who then stole his idea.

Odd bunch them cyclists!

I did my first 100 whilst I was living in New York. Had a puncture part way through and got the tyre up enough to carry on. 20 miles down the road met a group loading bikes into their car and borrowed a pump from them.

The conversation went something like this:

Them “Where you come from?”

Me: “New York” – about 45 miles away at that point

“Where’s your car?”

“London”

“London England?’

“Yes”

“So you riding back to Manhattan?”

“Yes”

“You’ll need some more food then”

He went round his group, who’d finished their ride and held a whip round of energy bars for me!

A couple of years ago, I did a solo ride / packraft up the NW of Scotland from Morar to Cape Wrath.

It was crazy hot, 30 degrees, and I was heading to go up the Belach Na Ba, when hunger and thirst got to me and I made a stop in Plockton.

I headed for the local shop for ice cream and coke. A blind chap runs the shop. I made a comment about he’ll be selling a lot of ice cream that day. I went outside to sit on a table provided, and stuff my face. Sometime later, his assistant nephew came out and had a wee chat with me asking what I was doing. I told him about my ride. Then the shopkeeper came out and had a blather. Turns out he was a keen cyclist himself, on a tandem. I told him my route, and he had a feel of my bike. He asked if I needed water, and I said sure, so he filled up my bladder, and came back out with a chocolate bar for me and gave me it.

He was such a sweet guy, and it was really such a sweet moment sitting outside there in the baking heat, looking over the water. Plockton is quite picturesque anyway.

Looking over the water, it was flat calm, and I asked him how far it would be to boat round into Applecross. The cool water looked much more inviting than the Belach, which I could see white camper vans climbing up from my vantage point. I know the Belach would be exposed, and I’d likely be pushing up it with all my gear. I was actually quite worried about it. So I opted for the packraft crossing instead.

That was an epic 5 hour paddle unto itself, the biggest crossing I have done.

It was a big day all in.

That whole trip, I met so may people, all of them interesting, friendly, funny, good characters. I’ll have to do a full writeup at some point.

I rode from Edinburgh to Cork (Ireland) via the ferry at Stranrar/Belfast in 2004.

50 miles out of Belfast in the wilds, 4pm on a Saturday my rear rim exploded- the brakes had worn through the rim.

A bloke came past on a posh road bike, I flagged him down and asked about local bike shops.

He rode home, got his car, came back and drove me to a bike shop about 20 min drive away.

Not only that, but he found my bike computer in his car later that week and took it to the shop as they were going to post some bits back to scotland for me.

Proper stranger, no reason to go so far out of his way other than being a decent bloke.

It makes me stop and help everyone I see in a spot of bother at the side of the trail. Best fix has got to be bodging a seat on with zip ties and gaffa tape for some blokes at Cannock, followed by a bolt out of my mudguard to sort a ti inbread that had lost a bolt from its dropouts.

It makes me wonder about the people who ride past me when I’m fixing my bits without a word.

When I meet someones who acts like a bellend, I remember that some (most) people are flat out ace 🙂

I’ve met quite a few nice people, nothing special or extra-ordinary , just very nice people.

What is bizarre is the number of people I’ve met while riding solo locally who claim to have been the person who started Bad Brains MBC.
I’ll take it as a compliment, but I do find it very strange.

Yes, I’ve met quite a few over the years. Some really interesting too. Always enjoy hearing about the local history from a local person and often I’ll have a few questions for them!

Being a lone female means that some give me a wide berth. 😀

Oh yeah and +1 for tweed cycling pants

Righog where were you coming from and going to with a middle stop at the George ?

nonk – Member
Righog where were you coming from and going to with a middle stop at the George ?

Bowness on Solway to Druridge Bay

I’ve met some fascinating folks on my rides. I bumped into a multi millionaire on a solo quest to do all the famous climbs in the Doomites 3years ago. I rode up behind him, said Hi, rode on and he caught me up and we chatted for about an hour before I cracked off. Whilst sat at the top of the Stelvio he caught up and we rode together all the way down and chased along the valley floor in the pissing down rain. We bumped into each other the following day and cracked 200ks off in the lower slopes.
He ran an arms dealing company and made his money by selling stuff to the Arabs..
His names Mike, Hello Mike 😉

CFH?

No, he had a helmet, but other than that the splitting image!

Did you think the George would let you in after 50 miles? 😉

I’d have been in the cafe opposite.

I met some lovely folk training for the Paris Brest Paris once. I was feeling quite pleased with my 70mile day while they were well on with a couple of hundred . . .

Did you think the George would let you in after 50 miles?

I was the only one there ! They were happy enough for me to be there, but they wanted me to wait an hour before food, It had a large part of my plan to eat there on the ride, I felt really good and decided to press on…Big Mistake !

Really need to go there again soon ( maybe check the meal times with them first though)

The nicest people i meet seem to be walkers. Usally a couple half way up or near the top of a climb in the peak district. Open gates for you a cheeky “rather you than me” comment.
Once met a local old boy when exploring around blue stone, 15 mins later got all the local history about the knights way.

Also like meeting the beginners. Always tell them its my job to get round them ,not them get out of the way.

I met a slightly tipsy looking walker atop a remote Dartmoor tor.. He was keen to share the mystery of an almost completely eroded inscription that he had discovered on one of the hundreds of non-descript granite boulders strewn about the area..

I peered at the rock for a long time but couldn’t see anything there.. I declined the offer of a drink from his hip-flask (an unusual design, worryingly crafted from a recycled toilet cleaner bottle)

Anyway, he told me about his ambitious ideas for a revolutionary new design of e-bike motor, and said he was willing to invest the capital to fund the building of a prototype if I knew of any suitable engineers to help him invent it..

He was also collecting some sort of mouse species for research purposes..

I peered at the rock for a long time but couldn’t see anything there.. I declined the offer of a drink from his hip-flask (an unusual design, worryingly crafted from a recycled toilet cleaner bottle)

just 😀 oh and 😯

Just rolled up at the pub I was stopping in after 109 miles on the first day of my Cheshire Cycleway tour recently and got collared by a chap who spent a good 10 minutes passionately telling me about his 5 mile commute to work before I’d even got off the bike. I’ll talk bikes with anyone for hours, but I was shattered and more than ready for a pint and some proper food. Went to look for him later on to apologise that i didn’t give him as much time as I’d have normally liked to!

I ride solo to get away from people (miserable git) but undoubtably it’s a great way to meet some cracking characters.