[Closed] New challenge for the new year?

I want to make sure that I get out for a 3+ good rides a week. I've been really slack since it's got dark on an evening. (Plus graduating and getting a job has taken a surprising amount of free time)

I fancy a bike packing trip, but limited free time, I always feel guilty about buggering off and doing my own thing,leaving the Mrs and son. 😕

My challenge- bloody hurt myself less! Should not be hard, I started 2014 with freshly broken ribs, did it again in about April, put my back out in May and that's still not fixed, er more ribs, then something weird to my wrist in October and more back in November. Nothing major but there's been about 1 month of the year that I've not been pissing and moaning about sore somethingorother

I want to do more new trails tbh. I get in a way that there's already so many good trails I know, when I want to go riding I ride an old one again. And that's great, because it means I'm only riding trails I love but I'm missing other trails I'd love.

Serious weight loss. 😐

And try this bikepacking thing your all on about. 🙂

The W.R.T sounds like a good target for the aforementioned.

posting here just so it appears in my post history...

need inspiration for some kind of challenge.

think i didn't even make 500miles in the 500mile/month challenge?

I don't particularly want to do a distance thing - when I did before it ended up being rides on the CX bike on the same loop just to get the distance. Fancy something a bit more "interesting", with hills, using all bikes, and getting to see places I've not seen. Might need to think of some kind of theme (lots of castles here).

and what have you got planned?

To spend a lot less time on forums.

andytherocketeer........nail on the head that mate.
i am gonna try 2 rides a month, 1 on the mtb, and 1 touring with the wife.
But in a area, or a route i have not ever done. which might be a challenge in itself.

Well I've done a few long distance CX'er rides. More the Wessex Ridgeway 150k type things for example and ive stayed overnight in some lovely Farm B&B's.
I honestly CBA with a tent, not something I'd like to carry whilst hacking, much prefer riding upto a really decent B&B, offloading the bike in a secure building and settling down to supper, a shower then bed (not necessarily in that order) getting kit dried out overnight, meeting some folks then sodding off the following day.

I'll be doing more of these..

Everesting!

A different 'adventure' every month..
Doesn't have to be epic, but once a month do something, or go somewhere different.
Bikepacking, touring, wildcamping, and general nooning about on a bike will all be part of it..
I'm 40 in April, and struggling mentally with it, so need to prove I'm still able.

Sort my fitness and waist line out.

More riding, more other exercise and more other healthy living practices.

And I have this hare brained idea of bike packing to work, head out after tea ride for an hour or two, bivvy, ride to work, shower, change get train home later. Mrs gd thinks this is idiocy and I fear she may be right.

I once had a plan to catch every species of fish in the UK using only tackle I could physically carry on my bike and riding to each venue of course. Would probably take a couple of years I reckon.
Not really into fishing at the mo but it's one for the future I reckon 🙂

My other half and I (she cycles daily as her primary form of transport but perhaps wouldn't describe herself as a 'cyclist') are heading over to Northern Spain to cycle from Santander to Biarritz.. We plan to take a couple of weeks, part bikepacking, maybe a couple of nights in more luxurious accommodation along the route..

The plan is to take it easy, enjoy the food and scenery and ideally I may venture off for a day or two to take in a little of the coastal Basque singletrack if time permits as it would be rude not to while we're in the area..

Closer to home I'll be looking at really pinning down some regular riding outside of the usual daily stuff around town and on the school run.. There's a weekly evening ride that I'd like to stick to and I'd also like to get on the train once a week for a day on the moor..

We've also briefly discussed the idea of another cycling trip later in the year somewhere in the UK, and the idea of Dartmoor bivi trips is quite appealing too

I'm 40 in April,

i will swap you for my 50 in may............. 😉

I tried to average over 1000km a month and managed comfortably (mostly road and CX, though).

Would an altitude gain target be worth thinking about?

It's important to have some kind of measurable success criteria for these challenges: i.e spend 1 weekend a month under canvas, climb X00m a month, ride x miles of new trail a month.

Complete the workshop/bike store.
Ride more big mountains. I had a couple of awesome Lakeland trips in 2014. I'd like more in 2015.
Enlarge the local stealth network.

No swapsies Tony, but thinking if heading off on [url= http://www.bike-express.co.uk/ ] this[/url] with Steve later in the year if you fancy a trip away?

duckers - Member
Everesting!

Mentalist.

lots.........been off the bike since MAy with duff knee and assorted prolapsed disc issues so mine are

Finish the Witton if I get in
Dales Ride 300IT
2 week Long cycle over some mountains in Europe Pyrenees fav
start and finish Ritchey frame 29er
ride and train.......that would help
one new route per month

there you go easy,,,,,,,,,,,

Hope to ride in the Lakes & Wales more.

Atleast three 500 miles in a month

Atleast one 100 mile ride

A bike bivvy trip.

If I accomplish the above I'll be very happy.

Everesting

Atleast one 100 mile ride

current thinking at the moment is to start ticking off some of the local signed routes (probably mostly easy terrain), if only to find new places that might be interesting. and if there's a summit nearby, then detour to tick that off too.

and really ought to hop on a train, go somewhere a reasonable distance away, and ride home. maybe with a B+B stop half way.

have just bought a new walkers' map to peruse over christmas, that's printed on plastic paper. there must be something in there worth riding.

Fancy doing this

http://www.selfsupporteduk.net/routes/Lakeland200.html

Would be a 3 dayer for me I reckon

Everesting

actually quite like the idea of a Mark Weir-esque ascent/feet climbed

A) learn to ski.
B) do some foreign bikepacking
C) do more packrafting
D) pay a couple of visits down to Lakes and Peaks
E) try to find more "undiscovered " tracks in Scotland

I approve of A above.

think mine might be... locate every nearby beer garden that's bike friendly, and "earn" a beer at each.

1. 2 x Foreign Bike trips (one booked, cant decide the second)
2. Start riding more mountains, climbing needs to improve
3. Do an official race or two
3. Enjoy riding even more

A mate has recently moved to Cyprus (paphos) so I was planning to fly over with the Tripster and visit him for a couple of weeks in late April, also get in a good few days touring/exploring when I'm over there but upon looking at my large wall map I decided I'd love to be able to cycle back home from Cyprus bike packing/camping as cheaply as possible (€10 max per day expenses) following the med coastline as close as possible via Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia/Herzegovinia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, France and back to UK. Not a route that HAS to be done that way for definite so if I particuarly enjoy an area I'd like to think I'd be able to hang about/explore/change plans as/when I desire. IE : Leave Cyprus - head to Turkey (spent 6 months touring on a scooter here years ago) and start pedalling to wherever the bike takes me.

After further investigation the temps in late May,June,July,August along the Med and throughout those areas may not be conducive to cycling 100km/day but I'll be doing something for sure........just trying to work out logistics at the moment. Got rent/bills to cover here (I'm sure they're manageable) and medical issues to realistically plan for but I'm researching those at the moment so fingers crossed.

1) Lose weight
2) Give up fags
3) Get a bike skills course
4) Ride more trails (Skye and the lakes)
5) Find some riding buddies (the solo thing is getting a bit lonely after 10 years lol)

I still want to give the wessex way over 2 days a Nash...didn't manage it this year, though did get a few long rides in...
Also will be doing my first 12hr solo race.

I think I'd like to organise a few more rides for people on here - the brighton-london-brighton ride was great fun, and would like to see if we can get more numbers again this year!

DrP

I've got eversting, lejog and sd way on my list.

Everything is an interesting one, worked out it would take me 22 hours on my local hill!

Get up earlier and commute by bike more often.

Move house to somewhere a little bit more bike friendly

I think it is an interesting one. You don't want to set targets that diminish fun at the expense of ticking boxes. Everesting seems dull to me but trying to cram in as much hill climbing as possible in one ride could be fun if you use different hills. Again, same with distance, my high milage months are normally road biased - fun some times but not always.

I have some rides I'd like to do.

100mile Sandstone way in a day
Mary Towneley Loop
C2C CX in a day
C2c2c on the road
Edinburgh to Newcastle
London to Newcastle

I'll try and fit these in around family, racing, weather and work.

I think I'm going to set myself a challenge of riding each of my bikes every month and also doing one "new" ride each month as well.

- Learn to wheelie
- Learn to manual
- Learn to ride a switchback properly!

after the worse ever 12 months of crashes and illness I'm looking froward to getting back on a bike by February....

Hoping to do some more 'adventure touring' this year, weekends in the Islands, Argyll etc

Ride 100km in a day, do the transcambrian way (this should tick the 100km and then some), ride 3.5k metres elevation in a day. Build some rad trails.

I tried to set a bit of a mileage goal this year but got bored of the fact that I chose the road/commute bike all the time and neglected the mountain bike completely. I missed out on a long summer of dry dusty trails. I won't be making the same mistake next year.

I just need an idea now. My time is limited, I'm a student paramedic with a 2 year old child, but I want to ride my mountain bike more.

1.No more excuses.

2.No more wimping out when it rains.

3.Discover more of the trails on my doorstep - The Quantocks.

4.Try to ride with other people more

I'll get some kind of plan in place over the next week after looking for ideas on this thread.

coast-to-coast in a day

i was gonna try bikepacking, love to ride in new area's but cant get excited about kipping out in the wild. so i was thinking of some kind of touring/offroad challenges.

This but add pubs in the evenings for sleeping, eating and drinking. Win Win.

Get one of these:
[img] [/img]
I have to steer but MsTPT would like to be at the front.

Not exactly bike related challenges but i'm hoping to do a course a month in things that hold an interest for me or where I would like to have more knowledge. so far for Jan-Mar I have booked

Bread making course
Fishmonger course
Digital photography

lining up for the rest of the year
wild meat butchery
mushroom & Fungus ID
Woodturning
Bushcraft survival
And any others that pop up throughout the year

oh, and to get out on my bike more, that in itself seems a challenge at the moment

addition to mine is test a fat bike

Looks like I'm finally going to crack 5000 miles this year - 81 to go - so next year I need to work on quality rather than quantity as my commuting is likely to be reduced one way or another.

Planning on one 100 plus mile ride a month, one of which will hopefully be my first 300k audax. And maybe I will finally get down to 12 stone.