[Closed] Do you sometimes feel like 'just going for a potter' on your bike?

All I do is potter atm whilst my wrist heals, peaceful riding without my lungs falling out of my arse is definitely refreshing

I live in the south, 90% of my riding when outdoors is exactly that 🙂

Very often

The feeling usually lasts for a few turns of the pedals until I realise how much faster I can go. Can't help it

It's pretty much all I do.

see also: the Bimble Thread
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-bimble-thread

I quite often like going off in a directions and seeing what I can find, looking for hidden interesting bits of trail.

Just got a hardtail and fitted a bottle holder and flat pedals so I can do exactly this. My full suss is ace but the effort and time required to get ready often make a quick blast impossible with that so I was missing out on bike time.

Reminds me that I must get the pub bike off the wall sometimes...

rarely. not exactly as you describe. i'll probably wear kit & i'll definately strava it; i log [i]EVERYTHING[/i].

I quite like finishing a long week at work - particulary before a week off with a gentle ride across the downs for a pint.

Yep. Sometimes I don't even wear a helmet. 😉

Yup, a nice ride round a chat with mates is good

Yep. Generally down country lanes rather than bridleways (just cos of the location of said pubs) but, yeah.

Oh, and do some work you crayon-touting tosspot 😉

Exactly this.

The only problem is that I have three pubs within quarter of a mile of my house, which means that any bimble will take less than two minutes before reaching a satisfactory conclusion.

Yes, all I have been able to do is potter for the last 5.5 weeks since I smashed myself up racing.

It's been different, I enjoyed it at first, but now i'm literally itching to ride a bike properly...

I'm gonna have a potter round the old colliery with me whippet later.

So northern. Might have a pie for me tea too.

Yep, I never race and never have. I don't do strava, so every ride is a nice bimble around.

To be honest even when i go for a big ride with mates in the peak or lakes i'm not trying to brake any records, I ride a bike cos it's nice.

Most of my riding these days is with my kids any way so i'm not going to be breaking any KOM's!!

Don't mind a nice bimble from time to time - especially on rest week (every 4th week), but t-shirt, shorts and flat pedals are taking things a step too far.

Not to mention that with the current weather conditions if I tried to do anything low intensity wearing only a tshirt i'd be found curled up shivering at the side of the road.

Yep..

I treat every uphill incline as a bimble to be conquered through a combination of patience and scenery. Downhills not so much.

I'm not in a hurry.

All the time since I became a southerner

Single speed - no cleaning just go

All the time!

I maybe get to properly play once a week when I'm at home, the rest of the time we have an abandoned railway line beside us which is good for a quick fix.

Aye, often, so I often do. My car's been sorned since February so the bike has become my only mode of transport. My 'proper' bike hasn't left the garage in all that time because my '91, rigid Kona with rack and panniers is just more practical. Sadly, car comes out of the garage this week...

Until my knee is sorted, if ever, this is all I can do and it beats sitting on the sofa. If you ride somewhere nice, it's good to take in the environment, woods and wildlife etc.

Staying on the Isle Of Wight with work tonight. Pretty sore and got some decent road rash from an off last week but the weather is stunning so I'm going to go and bimble around the lanes, look at the views and find a nice pub for a pint of cider. Maybe two. Bye!

Yep. Inevitably results in me mucking about on the bike to and fro pub.

There is no excuse for a ride of any description not to involve a pub and a gentle pootle home at the very least, it's usually the best part of an already ace* hobby.

*growing up when i did, i always wonder which came first, doctor who's sidekick or the colloquial use of ace to mean very good.

I often intend to do this, then once out on the bike just keep turning away from home, following tracks etc and end up doing an epic (for me).
If I encounter a technical climb, I find it really difficult do anything other than try and clear it at the cost of every ounce of energy.

Ah well.

Nope.

Any pootle around here involves hills and therefore doesn't fit my definition of a pootle.

When I lived on a canal, it's something I did regularly (to the pub, natch).

Sometimes. Sometimes I fell like going for a shred on my bike.

To a casual bystander both are pottering, though.

No Strava

I see you couldn't help yourself 🙂

I'm not sure what using/not using Strava has to do with pootling. I use it and almost always pootle.

All the time. It's what I do best.

In fact, think I might do as binners and go right now. See if I can catch the sunset from the top of the Chilterns.

I find that walking the dogs scratches that pootle-to-the-pub itch.

Most the pubs round where I live are about a mile or more away so they make a nice fulcrum to an hour-long dog walk.

If I go out on the bike it's generally to cover a bit more distance and get a bit more out of breath. Ye cannae whack a nice pub stop, though.

davosaurusrex - Member

Staying on the Isle Of Wight with work tonight. Pretty sore and got some decent road rash from an off last week but the weather is stunning so I'm going to go and bimble around the lanes, look at the views and find a nice pub for a pint of cider. Maybe two. Bye!

Top three beer gardens for bimblers from out of town on a sunny summer's evening:

Blacksmith's Arms, Calbourne Road
Dairyman's Daughter, Arreton
The Woodvale, Gurnard

Honourable mentions to the Sun Inn, Hulverstone and the Wight Mouse, Chale, but they're a bit further away.

I don't potter, I pootle.

Frequently just like getting out and have a wander about. I like exploring and I like doing miles. Not for the sake of the miles, but because I keep thinking I can go a bit further and see what's down there or over there. And usually it's a mission of trying to get from A to B and back with as much off road as possible and possible discover some fun stuff. But it's not about hurtling down some gnar. Just a pootle.

I never even change gear when I go riding.....

Well that was all rather lovely. 10 miles through our desolate post-industrial wasteland

[img] [/img]

Then obeying the usual rule: all rides finish at the brewery 😀

[img] [/img]

Probably most of my rides now a days are a bimble, poodle, wee potter about..

Stevet1 - Member
I quite often like going off in a directions and seeing what I can find, looking for hidden interesting bits of trail

I do this loads. Especially on my fatbike for some reason.

Pottering is all I really ever feel like doing on a bicycle.

I'm definitely pootling more recently. Combination of bad fitness and time restraints. A nice pootle down the Middlewood way rather than getting my gear together and heading to Macc Forest. Strangely, the Stache is good for pootling as well as riding like a possessed mad man.

Fatbike lends its self to pootling imo. I like riding round the endless paths where I live, as I used to do as a school kid. Pumping the bike on the drop kerbs and seeing how far I can go without peddling 😀

I tried to potter last night but with 500metres of climbing in 20km, it's difficult to potter up hills when I just want to be at the top, so had a potter through a farmyard and cause the cows some amusement

Went for a nice pootle last weekend, just along some old railway lines. Quite nice to switch brain off, admire the scenery and not worry about line choices or traffic.

Often...no helmet, no backpack, just me and the bike. Very liberating

I pootle up the Downs Link from Worthing along the coast road on my crosser every now and then. The Red Lion in Shoreham is always a welcome pub stop for a nice pint of Harveys!!
Im sure Kinesis invented my crosslight pro 6 f[img] http://\\hyperspace7\UserDocuments\Malcolm.Hales\My Pictures\2016-06-15 R291714 BOX[/img]or very this.......

Tried again last night. Nope

Strava is in bits

Nearly all my ridings is pootling. I still often use Strava (if its over a few miles), not because I'm gnarr but because it records my mileage and sticks it on my heatmap, helps me remember where I went and then I can add bits of take bits off

I don't really do this. Round here it's all town or the same hills I ride in normally.

I pootle about to and from work and trains and things though. Even though it's a faff I actually quite enjoy being liberated from my car and using bike/train.Utilitarian cycling is a different side of things and quite enjoyable, cathartic even somehow.

I'm rather new to this pedaling uphill lark. I've ridden our self built local downhilly tracks flat out for all the years we've been building them. But doing miles around trail centres and moorland tracks on a lightweight bike is a very different thing for me and although I will attack a nice descent it's never a record attempt scenario.

I quite often go on flower sniffing rides with my wife, and love to pootle around with my grandson, but for myself I always choose fast woodland blasts or gnar-fests. The idea of stopping at a pub never appeals to me because I hate the idea of riding under the influence. Did it once when I was young, got drunk and had a very scarey ride back home. Never mixed alcohol and bikes since

I'm mostly into tech and difficult and laughing out loud but yeah, absolutely. Getting my fatbike's really been a good thing for that, for me, for ages I've had gnar bikes that really aren't ideal for bimbling, but nothing ambles like a fatbike. I didn't really know I missed that

There's pottering, there's bimbleing, and there's pootleing.

Those are my 3 riding styles.

Yesterday was pottering around Torridon with an Australian Thursoite enjoying the scenery.

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I've been trying to ride almost every day lately, so maybe 2 or 3 rides a week are proper mtb rides, the rest of the days I cruise down to the water somewhere to add in some miles, spin the legs if they're tired and just generally help get some sun and keep me sane. I do strava every one though to track how much riding i'm doing.

When it all gets a bit noisy - I often feel like doing a reggie perrin and disappearing on the bike .

There's a really nice rural pub that's a nice 45 minutes on riverside singletrack from me, now and then I enjoy a saunter up there, couple of ales and home.

A couple of beers always gives me a bit if an energy kick mind, I always end up hammering some nice bits of trail on the way home!.