Today's Ride

Guinessisgoodforyou said:

I have never camped

Click to expand...

The right weather and the right place and it can be a wonderful experience. Bad weather and a bad place it can be bloody awful. When we lived in the New Forest we decided to have a camping weekend, in the New Forest. Just a few miles from home, for a change of scenery.
We arrived on site , which was just a field at the back of some cottages, and we were the only people. For some reason the next couple who turned up pitched right by us and not as far away as possible, which is more normal.
Anyway.....i woke ip in the morning and MrsFO wasn't there and the car had gone, too. I got on the phone and she said she would be on site in a bit and had gone home, just after midnight, because the snoring coming out of our neighbours tent was unbearable, for her. I can get a good snore on so it must've been bad!
There was another time when we woke up in the morning and our tent was kind of flopping over us. Some c*nt had decided to use our tent pegs and it had got so busy over the night that i couldn't suss who had nicked them. This is a problem with busy campsites along with noise.
You can have some beautiful moments though, even in busy places. We were between houses and had to camp for a whole summer, many years ago. On one site there was a friendly fox and my first time meeting it was opening the door of the tent and there it was just sitting there having a scratch. We both startled each other and it took off one way and i fell back into the food stash. On another night it walked along beside me , on my way back from the shower block, which was pretty cool.

well...today's ride...was last night

No photos

You wouldn't want them

18k into town for drink and dinner with close friends. Bit late. Pushing hard. On Cotic RoadRat.
Quite fast into blind corner on the cyclepath and whilst I didn't expect the person to be walking on that bit of isolated cyclepath it was easy to go around them. And onto the accumulated gravel at the side of the curve. At that point I knew I was going down. Yep. Big one.
Oh well.
Doesn't happen very often.
Quite a bit of blood.
Quite a lot of dented ego.

Nice evening though
And lovely ride back in the dark.
Quite fast actually.

2manyoranges said:

well...today's ride...was last night

No photos

You wouldn't want them

18k into town for drink and dinner with close friends. Bit late. Pushing hard. On Cotic RoadRat.
Quite fast into blind corner on the cyclepath and whilst I didn't expect the person to be walking on that bit of isolated cyclepath it was easy to go around them. And onto the accumulated gravel at the side of the curve. At that point I knew I was going down. Yep. Big one.
Oh well.
Doesn't happen very often.
Quite a bit of blood.
Quite a lot of dented ego.

Nice evening though
And lovely ride back in the dark.
Quite fast actually.

Click to expand...

Are you ok. Of course most importantly is the bike ok?

A bit of local gravel with the old boys done. A healthy mixture of tire sizes (26", 650B and 29") and drivetrains (3x8, 2x11 and 1x12), flat bars, drop bars, rigid forks, V-Brakes and hydro-discs all enjoying the warm evening, with 45km and 1000+ m alt in about 2,5hrs.

This morning's ride. Wild horses couldn't make me go camping again.


Only kidding, there was a lot to like. I woke up before the lazy bloody larks, but it was beautiful. I may even go camping again, but not before I increase my monthly direct debit to Shelter.

It's a cracking blackberry season down here.

Anyway, fairly still 4-5 SW breeze, mild a tad humid 17 degrees. Extensive grey cloud but not quite as thick as yesterday.



Legs still feel good, pretty pooped now which is good considering I've got a day of manual labour with NT clearing out an orchard

wynne said:

This morning's ride. Wild horses couldn't make me go camping again.
View attachment 990392

Only kidding, there was a lot to like. I woke up before the lazy bloody larks, but it was beautiful. I may even go camping again, but not before I increase my monthly direct debit to Shelter.
View attachment 990393View attachment 990394View attachment 990395View attachment 990396View attachment 990397

Click to expand...

It does look rather idyllic. Shelter is an excellent charity.

Guinessisgoodforyou said:

I have never camped I agree with all your reasons Does Fiona not do camping?

Click to expand...

In fairness, there was a lot to like about last night's mini adventure. There's a great sense of freedom in being able to carry everything you need to be able to sleep (relatively) comfortably outdoors.

Fiona hates camping, though about once every five years she says "let's go camping" and i say "you hate camping". Then we go camping. At about 2.30am she digs me in the ribs to inform me that she hasn't slept a wink and that she hates camping. On the current count we're about two years away from our next trip.

wynne said:

In fairness, there was a lot to like about last night's mini adventure. There's a great sense of freedom in being able to carry everything you need to be able to sleep (relatively) comfortably outdoors.

Fiona hates camping, though about once every five years she says "let's go camping" and i say "you hate camping". Then we go camping. At about 2.30am she digs me in the ribs to inform me that she hasn't slept a wink and that she hates camping. On the current count we're about two years away from our next trip.

Click to expand...

With the immortal words "Are you awake?"
I am now

Guinessisgoodforyou said:

Are you ok. Of course most importantly is the bike ok?

Click to expand...

Bike...twisted bars and scratched end of Tech3 lever - war wound. Quick correct with allen key and only the scratched lever is evidence...and the gouges in my knee. And elbow. And battered hand.

A couple of years ago I noted that the Grom (now 20) has retained the childhood ability to fall. Back from university for the Summer, he was on the slackline in the garden this week and was falling off repeatedly (each time, I could hear the thump from inside the house). Having climbed and cycled and skied for ages, at 67 I've consciously tried to retain enough flexibility and relaxation to fall well. Knee pads are still helpful when fast in singletrack, and I do use a full face when pushing things off road after mashing myself up quite badly a decade ago.