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Off on Monday for a couple of weeks wild camping™ in the Highlands, should be great fun.
Been pretty wet and windy down here SE coast, nowhere near as bad as elsewhere in the country, but enough to make the daily commutes a drag. Trying to fight off a (possible/undiagnosed/why bother see the doctor) chest infection, and rigid commute mtb out of action, so taken the burlier hardtail, lots of head/cross winds on way to work, it all just made the week harder work than I felt it should be! It was 5C earlier in the week, felt colder, and today, I'm outside cleaning the commuter ready for working on it with just a t-shirt on my top half. Might be shit riding by most standards, but at least the chalk in the area and openness of the tracks means they don't take too long to drain off, and the amount of rain has actually caused quite a bit of erosion making them more fun if I put the effort in.
I'd been considering it for a while, then at the start of the month a good deal came up so I went for it... I bought an E-bike.
I average 6000 miles a year, about half of which is commuting. 32 mile round trip, eastwards in the morning, then a chore of a ride home, usually into a headwind, but anything over 16 mph I generally sack it off. I aim for at least twice a week.
Since getting the E-bike I've rode nearly everyday, barely using the battery on the way in as the wind is so strong, then instead of shaking my fist at the sky I've been sticking two fingers up and powering through it on the way home with a smile on my face, often taking the hilly route as its now no slower and I get two cracking descents on the way. Its also the most inappropriate commuter, full suspension with 2.8 tyres, yet its no slower then my dedicated commuter and much more fun, as well as feeling safer.
I'm coming up to 500 miles for the month now, I'd have barely cracked 100 on my analogue bikes in this weather.
Well we went out. It was better than expected. We had very low expectations though 😉 Our favourite pub on the river was completely flooded out. No flood insurance (as in they can’t get any) so they’re working really hard to get it back open.
On the upside we still had a good time sliding about, and all that Turbo work appears to have done me some good.
Superb mdavids, that's a result. 👌🏻
Wouldn't mind an ebike myself for powering through the local slop.
Happy to mainly do gym/running instead though. Will be out on the MTB tomorrow though, expecting the worst in terms of trail conditions obvs.
Well, this morning was actually better than forecast - even saw the sun! Got a good ride in, before it started raining for the rest of the day...
Dunno if this will help or make matters worse, but it may be of interest for anyone missing dusty trails...
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/photo-epic-days-3-and-4-andes-pacifico-2020.html
I love it so much that I have been out in it all day, everyday this week!...............Actually I'm fekin sick of it! Only been out cos as a postie I have to do it. When not at work, I am not leaving the house unless it's to go to the pub. I get in and out of my van over a hundred times a day and it's really tiring fighting with the van door every time. It's either trying to rip your arm off or trying to smack you in the face. Lost the best part of an hour today on diversions around flooded roads.
“was like being little again and getting a massive shove from your dad.”
👍
I went out for a ride , 20 very quick miles north and 20 slow,sweary miles back. bastid wind.
The current weather can sod right off. Wall to wall gales and rain. I usually love this time of year, bit of slop, bit of frosty crunch under wheels late at night, the odd dry sunny day to give a taste of spring round the corner. I'm not riding to prove a point about endurance or survival I'm trying to have a bit of fun between the more mundane bits of daily life.
The wind here has mellowed a little, but it’s up, so tomorrow’s commute is going to be hilarious again. It has meant that the rain has rolled through quite quickly though, so less of a problem for commuting.
But... It is, no shit, perfect skydiving sky right now and I am missing the skies a lot. Apart from the likely -20 C at altitude of course will a 200kph wind chill...
I've started driving to the shop.
It's only half an hours walk there and back but I've had enough.
Never thought that I'd be one of 'those' people.
Rain blew through. Thinking of a 15 mile road bimble on the lanes, but my route appears to involve amber flood alerts, which is fine - last week it was under a foot of water as the "brook" got ideas above it's station.
I knew the cafe that my cycle club were riding to, it's only a couple of miles from mine. I had considered riding to their meeting point 15 miles away, riding with them to the cafe then cutting off home but typically, it was rainy and windy this morning. So I ran to the cafe.
Nice couple of miles running along the off-road (more of a river) track, met them at the cafe. They were all soaked and cold so I was glad I'd missed the riding part of the day!
That's how bad the weather is - it's made me go running!
16 degrees on the cars outside temperature gauge just now.
16 degrees, dry, sunny, 40mph winds. 🤣
I'm going running instead of riding this arvo myself, even though the sun's peeping out here now.
Probably for the best as I'm training for a half-marathon anyway.
Second day in a row of single speeding for me this morning. The wind is definitely the worst bit. Made sure it was in my face on the way out so the return journey was a hoot. Sun even came out for about 1 minute which was a treat.
Properly tired now after grinding through thick mud for 8hrs in two days.
Bluebell leaves are up now. It needs to dry up soon. Night rides on tacky trails through the bluebell woods are one of my favourite things ever.
I've fully had enough of the wind. I've been working on a tower block for 6 months and I think the cranes been winded off at least once a day for the last 3 month, in the last 2 weeks its worked for a day and will probably be out till Friday this week
It's the relentlessly high winds that are such a downer. One weekend you can handle, but we've had three consecutively and next weekend is forecast for more of the same. There's no end in sight.
I've been doing a lot of running through the woods and along the riverbank where it's sheltered, but it's not enough. I need a solid 6/7hrs on the bike. I just know that the first doable weekend that comes along, I'm going to bite off more than I can chew just out of sheer desperation.
Sincere sympathies to those for whom the consequences are more than just the pursuit of leisure. Flooded homes awful.
Feel for you guys. In Queensland, as long as you can manage the heat and humidity (85% humidity +20c at 5.30am at the moment), there's really only a few weeks a year when it's just too damned wet.
Well, after getting out for a run in yesterday's relatively balmy climes we are now snowed in! 😂😂😂
I'm another in the 'generally stoical, but this is starting to get on my tits' camp.
And the attrition rate of clothes, shoes and componentry is something to behold.
Meh, weather is 'challenging' but i'm getting some commuting miles in where I can. plus the dogo's are getting a lot of walks/runs in. They have to go out so we make the most of it!
I'm drawing the line at local off-road riding though, jeez the trails I ride are a mess! I know spring is on her way and the plants and trees should start sucking some of the moisture up soon but I<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> dread to think how long it will take for the trails to dry out enough.</span>
Actually feeling moderately fulfilled on the weather front..... After much cogitation I stuck with the weekend plan for coniston.
Sat in the car for an hour extra waiting for rain to subside then did a 50km loop from Blawith over Parkamoor, through grizedale then round to coniston. Up walna scar road and then down some ridge back to the road. The bit up walna scar was epic. Huge winds roaring off the Old Man. Could barely push the bike at times. Got dark just at the summit and was all looking a little bit spicy. Thankfully it stayed just the right side of spicy.... But great to have a proper adventure again of the type you can't really take the kids/family on
It's not so much the state of the trails that is getting to me, its the fact there's no sign of any let up. Next two weeks forecast has maybe 3 days without rain, and the others are mix of light rain, heavy rain, sleet and hail. FFS.
Was hoping to do my first commute of the year to work tomorrow but forecast suggests it's not a great idea, and I need to take a lot of extra stuff in with me as I've been off this week. Looking at the work diary, tomorrow is probably the only day it could have happened. And the weekend looks like more stormy weather as well.
Been trying to be "glass half full" about this, not like my house has actually flooded or anything, but it's really pissing me right off now. Riding is how I deal with my anxiety and depression, and it's not helping at all.
Heavy snow here in County Durham this morning. Absolute chaos on the roads.
Right well its getting serious in our household. My wife is away the whole coming weekend and I need to entertain a 2.5 and 4.5year old who have already had the best part of a month indoors (yes we do welly walks etc... but only an hour or so until they are soaked, cold and grumpy).
Somehow I need to survive another weekend of terrible weather, this time alone with them....
Having been teetering on the brink for a while, the recent weather has probably pushed me to being a roadie long-term. Dry day = dry ride.
None of my mtb mates are interested in going out and the pita of muddy kit and maintaining the mtb just means I have no enthusiasm for it.
In previous winters we’ve had spells of lovely crisp, dry trails but this winter has just been sh1t.
Try working in rope access. 2 weeks and counting of struggling to get any work done due to the wind, with jobs piling up because of the damage it’s causing to buildings.
Cant really enjoy the forced down time that much either as the weather is so awful.
Got up early on Sunday to sneak a ride in. Didn't get to the end of the drive - seized jockey wheel, probably due to it being submerged on the last ride. Hopefully mech isn't bent, luck there was a thread on where to get Eagle replacement jockey wheels.
It must be bad, nobody bothered to start a "weekend pictures" thread this week 😮
I got fed up of letting the weather dictate my ride so this week, rather than hide in the forest again, I did a loop from home and up a local hill. Winds of 20 gusting to 40 mph nearly had me in the ditch a few times, but it was sunny and I'm not dead, so all is good.
Even the dogs are rebelling, I had to drag our two around the walk this afternoon until I turned for home when they were 100ft in front.
Today's fun was patching a shed roof in the wind and rain.
I got so fed up with the wind at the weekend I made a video about it.
Having had my face ripped off by hail and wind the day before, and a forecast for sun and a light breeze on Sunday, I thought I'd finally lucked out. But then it blew a gale. And then it snowed. AAAAAAAAGH.
I've spent almost every day this month grinding into headwinds and pissing rain and it's really wearing thing. It feels like Strathpuffer training, except that's been and gone.
Another weekend, another Storm. Yet more howling wind,rain, sleet its ****ing pish,..February what **** of a month, I'm absolutely sick to the back teeth of it.
Been out a fair bit. Yesterday had all weathers on one hour. Very muddy and cold - under-dressed.
Shakedry jacket is helping but has to be wet enough to justify it.
Having to be creative with riding opportunities. Luckily I got ill early Feb so that meant some R&R.
To be honest generally the weather has been annoying but it has made me expect it so it's not been that much of a problem for me.
I only ride off-road and some tracks are better than others. You have to go for those.
Got a good cleaning routine, still takes time but that's important to your sanity.
Forests and regular tracks are the worst I ever seen them. I'm sure spring will suck things up.
It's around the corner now.
Last winter was so much more reasonable!
Pretty much been out riding every weekend since Christmas
The weather is a pain but id rather ride in crap weather than be sat indoors
Does help that i live pretty much as far south as you can get unless i jump on the Hovercraft to the I.O.W so our weather is normally no where near as bad as the rest of the UK
Rogate downhill, QECP blue trail, Longmoor army camp/Liss forest are all nearby and Surrey hills is an hour away, all are ridable all year round due to them being quite sandy or man made hard pack trails
Dont bother cleaning my kit after every ride any more, not until its really bad, the bike may get a 2 min hose off if its really bad
Even when the weather's so bad that i cant take my son to the park for a bike ride i chuck the car out of the garage and we have a play on his bike and my bmx in there or chuck the bikes in the car and head to an empty/closed under cover car park, grew up riding the bmx in these places in bad weather, great for practising wheelies, even better if its a closed multi story and there are a few of you, racing from top to bottom and back up is great fun and a good workout
Used to commute 100 miles a week, 48 weeks a year for 6 years on the road bike so have been out in all weathers so it doesn't bother me anymore
I try not to let anything get in the way of me going for a ride, only caveat is that if any family thing that comes up and there is no way to get a ride to fit around that family thing
its certainly the worst ive ever seen it. ive stopped riding most of my usual places in and around kent and the surrey hills as all the traffic is just wrecking them. its not exactly spectacular riding but Bedgebury of all places has ended up being probably the most ridable of all. just shows all the work they have put into it as 10 years ago it would have been miserable.
in order to maintain sanity ive invested in a Zwift setup which so far im enjoying. oh and a gravel bike is on the way as i came to the conclusion that while the trails are horrendous the fireroads are generally fine so at least ill be outside riding.
been an expensive winter, ive had to replace two sets of OEM wheels as they simply couldnt keep the mud out. 3 BB's, although to be fair they were press fit so to be expected, and a headset. oh and the Zwift and gravel bike!
It's been grim around Afan, trails were like streams yesterday, so much water coming off the hills. Wind is the killer. Shorty front and rear helps.
It’s been grim around Afan, trails were like streams yesterday,
The cycle path down by the Rhyslyn car park was knee deep in water yesterday.
Having finally risen from bed at the ridiculously late time for me of ~1015, I'm trying to work out if I'm simply SAD woolly in the head tired, or still Manflu19 tired like I've been since Weds.
Unbelievably, it's not raining in East Southampton for a recent change and actually looks quite nice outside, albeit there is a gentler breeze than the last few days making the "feels like" temp approx +4C.
Getting crazy ideas about a gentle ride outside! 😮
Short beginners club ride today, first club ride since crashing back in June, last few months weather related rather than injury related.
Blowing a hoolie, but bright sunshine, roads drying out, though still run off from the fields.
Shame we had to take the hilly option, the flat river roads are still under water
It’s been grim around Afan, trails were like streams yesterday,
The cycle path down by the Rhyslyn car park was knee deep in water yesterday.
And here I am in Lancs thinking about an old-school South Wales trail centre weekend just to get access to some firm trails.
Back to the drawing board then.
So much standing water near me, a lot of the trails just aren't worth it. But the weekend has brought a good chunk of sun alongside the snow and rain, so I'm getting by.
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