Some bikes, people, components and habits need to be cast into Room 101. Mark is judge, jury and executioner.
I once went out with a friend and his mate who obviously thought he was ride leader. Half way round I asked my friend where the cafe stop was. Rather shamefaced he told me Pete doesn’t do cafe stops. The end of a friendship!
I once went on a ‘social ride’ that went past 3 pubs and a very nice ice cream shop. None were stopped at. Didn’t go again.
Is it tragic that I remember that article originally and the last point (mid-ride cafe stops) triggered a bit of controversy.
They're literally why I ride.
A couple of years ago I went out with a mate on a route he'd planned which he assured me was about 50 miles, with a cafe stop. What he actually meant was 50 miles TO the cafe stop.
That was a serious test of friendship, that one.
I'm not a fan of stopping mid ride unless it's a reasonably short leg home. Don't want a load of food making me bloated and beer kills my legs.
Especially in winter - just get really cold (usually fingers) and the rest is miserable.
The ride has to end at a pub though
I'm not a fan of stopping mid ride unless it's a reasonably short leg home. Don't want a load of food making me bloated and beer kills my legs.
Especially in winter - just get really cold (usually fingers) and the rest is miserable.
The ride has to end at a pub though
I think that's an MTB Vs roadie thing though.
Possibly because a lot of MTBing is contained to a small area, doing laps of the same woods/hillside for an hour or three. There's nowhere to go for a coffee except the car park you arrived at. Even if that's not every ride, the mentality spills over into the others.
Roadies on the other hand, even in mid-winter a normal ride is 2 hours to a cafe and 2 back again. And routes are almost always devised to go somewhere with a purpose (the cafe), it's unusual to do a loop, it's generally an out and back on slightly different roads
Eve evening rides, the roadie club posts up the ride as "to the .......... pub" even if that's only 20min back into town afterwards, the MTB'ers go for a "ride around ...... hill/wood/area" then go to the pub after.
I think the mid-ride stop depends on the ride. It can be a destination in itself. I used to do a ride to the Mortal Man in Troutbeck and then back to Ambleside. Having a pub lunch and a pint absolutely made the the ride but there was no driving involved and the return leg didn't involve too much climbing.
If a ride is long enough to warrant food (and more than a single water bottle in these packless times!) then its nice to have a defined point for this ideally that occurs midway through the ride and roughly at lunch time; and always good to contribute to the economy of the local area by spending a few quid.
Can also see the appeal of a regular, local ride whether on road or off, using a pub stop (at about 60-80% distance) to force a variety of routes by changing the pub.
It's when the "ride" turns into a "cafe or pub social" that tangentially involves a small amount of low effort bike riding, that I get a bit bored or annoyed.
Amateurs all of you. On a 30-40 mile loop I can do a pub, café, pub, cafe and finally a pub. In fact I think there's a new cafe before the first pub which I need to try. I mean I don't normally do all of them but have the option.
Wonder why I'm such a tubby git 😄