"Winchester" area ride – Saturday 8th May. May/may not include bluebells!

Thanks CG just waiting to find out how long before they can fix me, looking like my summer riding's shot though! Enjoy the ride and put the route up if possible so I can do it in the winter/next year! 😥

Everyone is welcome and looking forward to meeting new faces. 🙂

leftyboy – hang in there! Can do a gpx if that's any good?

Hi CG a gpx would be great my email's in my profile.

Spoke to the Doc this morning and it's now confirmed I'm not going to be riding/running until Christmas at the earliest!

leftyboy – how frustrating is that! Are you able to take any exercise?

Will e-mail a gpx after Saturday. 🙂

Just a little bumpity bump for the evening STW'ers. 😀

Weather forecast looks a bit iffy. Any undercover picnic spots?

Since when have weather forecasts been accurate rusty?

Well, I must confess to having eaten my picnic lunch in a bus shelter before now! We may find a barn, or a pub, or a wood. 😉

You still coming aren't you?

I think i will be in the Mulletus wagon.

Can't believe I missed this one. Only in Pompey so makes perfect sense to come see you all

Taff – not far at all! It will be a great day out. 🙂

gutted!

Been called back to work saturday, particularily gutting as it's for only the morning and you lot will all by riding around me.

It'd be great if you could send the route to me after the ride so i can at least add a route to my current shorter ones.

Lummox

Will there cake and tea stop?

Can't have ride without cake and tea stop!

DAMIT!!!!

After last weekend, where is all this weekend rain coming from? Going to give it a pass as the thought of listening to my drivetrain and brake pads slowly die for the second weekend in a row is about as appealing as ripping my own testicles off, and thats before I have to play hunt the fault in the midget after its Collin MacRae impersenation last weekend through Swinley.

Don't worry about weather. On the chalk it just makes for a good face mask, no sand or grit, so your gears will be fine. Nothing like the grinding paste found in the surrey hills or swinley…..some people pay a fortune to have their faces covered in this stuff!!!

HI CG

Sadly no exercise, I've been having issues with balance and it's looking like I'll need some fairly nasty sounding surgery to correct. Assuming that the scan I'm having on Monday shows that the mass causing the problems is operable. so far it doesn't look 'sinister' (Docs words) but as it's growing and pushing on something that is causing my inner ear to misbehave it needs removing.

Not allowed to do anything on my own – in case I have a blackout – and nothing that involves any 'significant' movement of my head so biking, running and swimming are out.

want to do this route but what time is the ride predicted to finish? is it a loop with a bail out option? as i'm not sure i'm up for an all dayer, injured, not fit, hungover, rain etc, not sure i'll even get out of bed as going out shortly, but will check back in the morning

At a guess I would say between 2.15 and 3.15pm. Depending on.-
Numbers ,punctures, sandwiches, mechanicals, late arrivals, rain , mud , fog ,mist ,mizzle, wrong tyres , wrong bikes, wrong turns , too much talking, too much alcohol the night before , too many photo opportunities, too little sleep, too many layers, etc.

Lummox – that's bad luck!

AndyRT – sorry, no cake stop BUT we can do much much better than that 😆 Wait and see!

spoon – according to the BBC forecast, we will actually miss the rain as our route takes us southwards from Alresford. 🙂

leftyboy – gosh, that does sound pretty miserable. Hope you get sorted and back on the bike in the not too distant future.

dobo – you're pretty swift on a bike! Will be bringing printed route map, chances are you will know the trails anyway, so if you need to bail out, you can. But you will miss out the fun at the end!

stm – are we allowed to tick more than one? 😉

Everyone – don't forget a couple of pounds for the charity donation.

Don't forget your picnic either!

Have fun all, wish I could make it 🙁

Sorry you won't be there Rich but have a terrific weekend anyway. Do you know if leeson is coming? Not sure if I have offended him. 😯

Can I bring my singlespeed? It's got wonky daft handlebars…

Niche bikes welcome! Are the handlebars on back to front or something?

Yay! Some people would say so.. "looks like they've been in an accident" they say…

Cool 8) My forks are on back to front, really ought to get them sorted. 🙄

Hi! I'm an idiot! Forgot to mention this to the boss! So can't make it!

Have a good ride folks. I just know the end will be the best bit though 😉

Dez – sorry to hear that. And of course you are missing out on the best bit. 😉

Only just realised its tomorrow, had Sunday in mind for some reason and had other plans for tomorrow. Sorry. Will pay more attention in the future

Hi c_g, thanks for the invite but sadly can't do tomorrow. Would be interested to see the route afterwards though, to see what kind of places you ride. Have a good one.

ok got a bit tipst with the gf last night and didnt get up, then my landlady says shes coming round to cut my bushes and something about peagrit? wtf, anyway i missed it, but would love to see a gps track of it later with full report of course.

now i hope i dont curse your ride but it aint rained here yet 🙂

A big thank you to Elaine and Rob. Another STW ride and another great day.
Good to see some new faces too and I hope everyone got home safely.
Will get some photos posted tomorrow when I have a bit more time.

Second that, a big thanks to all involved in sorting this out.

Yup, huge thanks to Elaine and Rob. It's not every ride that ends in a brewery visit (although I think you're on to something Rob!) Very enjoyable ride, it was really good to chat to so many new people. I won't have time to get all the pics sorted tonight, but here's a taster…

Backwards Bombers!!! (not one of us, I hasten to add!)

mmmm…beeeeeer

Cheers Elaine and Rob, really good ride.

Nice pictures there pedalhead – and I knew it was a GT, not a felt..

gutted! Thats all i can say, still at least winchester didn't burn down today, although i don't think that they needed a fire station to prevent that.

Well, what a day! Weather forecast promised dry conditions, which we had, but accompanied by the odd bit of drizzle and icy northerly wind 😯

Good to meet new faces and hope you didn't find the Forum Ride too daunting!

I promised a special end to the proceedings and we were not disappointed. 8)

A very big thank you to singletrackmind for his hospitality and help with guiding/sweeping, accompanied by mulletus so thanks to him also.

Have sent a gpx to those who requested it. If you haven't received it let me know, e-mail in profile.

Am pleased to report that £52 has been donated online to Help For Heroes charity so thanks for your contributions.

I brought 2 other riders, missed the right car park and we set off in pursuit at 10:40 only to meet another riding club. Micheldever woods had a bluebell carpet akin to the one I saw in dartmoor last spring. Smurfs in a field of Bly tak andall that. Sorry not to have made it. Looking forward to the next meet in the not too distant future?

More pics from yesterday






Full set here[/url]

Cool My forks are on back to front, really ought to get them sorted.

See. You were so tempting fate there!
How much did we belittle that guy? "Hey mate, your forks are on back-to-front! May we take a photo?"

Thanks all; Elaine and Rob especially.
BTW Rob.. When am I going to be able to buy that cider? That was yummy stuff.

that route looks great, thanks for the GPS, will have to try this one