Cycling topic anyone?

[SophiePendragon]

I'm looking for somewhere to post about bicycles and can't find the appropriate topic.

There is a weights topic. An Unexplained topic.

Is there a bikes one?

Just popped in to ask wise MN a gardening question Pancake .

I go with DH once a week for 30-35 miles and the rest is on my own. I would love some company at times (I would go further with company) but I only have the school day because DH works away and I am home alone with DD after school. I work from home and go to lectures one day a week so I think it is actually easier for me just to get on with it on my own.

We are a bit involved with our local CTC - really nice relaxed people who ride for 35-55 miles on a Thursday stopping for tea and scones. Not in the school hols though.

Louise my DP trains to certain heart rates and has improved quite a lot since he started it. He finds it hard to go 'slow' when he sees people overtaking him and he knows he could easily keep up/go faster than them though! Although he is terribly competitive when it comes to cycling so you might not have the same problem

Lavender glad you had a good holiday. We were up in Oban a few weeks ago and were very lucky with the weather. Wanted to go over to Mull but dd wasn't very well DP would love to do a tour of the highlands but I'm so shit at riding my bike so it's never going to happen!

Thanks Felix. Shame your DD was I'll, Tobermory is fab, there is a handmade soap co there, I came away with a subscription to the soap club and bought a tiny (£7 ) bottle of scotch from the distillery. I don't drink really, not spirits at all, wanted to see if I was missing something .... tiny sip proved it was not for me!

I will need to start building up for next year this week I think! The hills are very beautiful ... and brutal, bearing in mind I need salbutamol in Norfolk , although I did grow up in upper Whatrfedale so I hope I have a hidden mutant 'hill' gene.

DP went round the Oban distillery on his birthday and loved it. He's a big whisky fan but I am like you and hate it. Even the posh stuff he has tastes gross to me. Upper Wharfedale isn't far from me - I am near Ilkley surrounded by steep hills

Lucky you Felix - we are planning on moving home, well not to Upper Wharfedale itself but somewhere in North Yorkshire or Cumbria but have got to wait two years (work related wait).

Adding my voice to the call for a cycling topic - between the two of us we've somehow managed to acquire 7 bikes, although two of those are 'pub bikes' living at my mum's house. I'm now 4 months pg and hoping to keep cycling to work as long as possible, so it'd be nice to chat to others who've cycled through pregnancy as well!

Bit quiet on here , sure tech is busy but just in case .... went for a 12 mile ride with DD today, was hoping for 16 which is the distance between one local NT place and the next (return) but the rain started at about 6 miles and I began to worry that she wouldn't make it back so we turned round - shame as I thought cake half way and cake at the end would be good.

We had to carry our bikes over a footpath today - on a cycle route, I was expecting a tiddly little bridge but it was big and steep! Of course I had to carry two bikes, mine nearly ran off in the channel thing on the way down and I found myself sprinting down the stairs - then I remembered that my bike had brakes .

DD is off to an arts workshop late next week and a local CTC group have a ride on Friday - to a good local tea shop (seeing a theme here, cake, food, etc.) so I think I will go on my own - have only been to one thing with this group (with DH) so don't really know anyone - but they all seem lovely. I will just join them for the 15 miles to the tea shop and back rather than the whole day.

Dysraxia means I never learnt to ride a bike, however I long for a tricycle like this... only electric so I don't break a sweat or anything. But without a cycle topic I don't think i'll ever buy one.. need peer pressure from strangers on the internet to click 'buy' really.

I'm still here but am in the midst of a house move so bikes are all packed up!

Did we meet on a gardening thread then lavendersun? Your ctc group sound great, I'm definitely going to look for something like that once we have moved to escape all the boxes for a bit to get out a bit more.

WhyBe I see lots of those bikes in the Netherlands. They are very popular. My mil has one and another friend has one with a cart at the front to take the kids to school. Very cool in my opinion.

Hi Pancake - yes I think we did . I hope your move goes well.

The CTC group are lovely, lots of retirees and no egos, no competitiveness (have never ever been remotely competitive) and just really relaxed people. I seem to be the youngest person there (47).

I can't see myself going that often - other things get in the way. But after being home alone for a bit I think it will be nice to get out and have lunch with grown ups.

Whybe, there is a woman near me who has one of those, manual, not electric. It always looks so practical, I see her riding through the forest for her shopping once a week.

WhyBe, go for it!! How's that for internet peer pressure?

I have a cargo trike (single wheel at the back, two at the front) for carrying DC and all of their clobber. It's very stable and easy compared to a bike, but I went for lowered gears to help me get up slight inclines hills.

I'm surprised to hear how practical it is actually - yes yes! And so much storage!

I seem to be toying with the idea of buying a new bike, again.

DH thinks I should renovate my current 'classic', but having added it all up the cost of renovating is 2/3 of the cost of a new one (still thinking of a Panorama or a Thorn Club Tour) and I am not sure what I want to do. If I just get a local body shop re-spray job and don't tart up any of the components it would be a handy bike for holidays and camping trips - without worrying about it too much.

I think I will ask the wise souls on Friday what they would do when I join the local bike club thing for the first time on my own and I am slightly worried.

I found a great ride along a path next to a steam railway near me this week, 9 miles long, but you can catch a steam train back so you (or DD) don't have to do the return trip. Hoping to do that on Sunday if the weather is half decent. The steam train return will enthuse DD so hopefully she won't moan too much when we get to 7 miles.

Well, I went on today's ride instead of tomorrow's, managed a respectable (for me) 12mph and didn't embarrass myself (although I arrived a bit early so that I didn't look like I was about to expire before I started).

Lovely people - Pancake you should go for it. I will definitely go again on my own when I need to.

WhyBe, alternatively, have you considered adult cycling lessons?

My son has DCD, and hypermobility and used to have a trike like that but he has learned to ride now. Those trikes are lovely, but they are pretty heavy.

Many cycling instructors, some councils, or Sustrans all offer adult cycling lessons. It is a bit harder for adults to learn but it is amazing how quickly some adults do pick it up! I'm a cycling instructor and so I know many of us have lots of little tricks up our sleeves to make it easier, and I'm sure you could find someone local to help you :)

I know MN has been having a lot to deal with but I wonder when we are going to get our cycling topic?

(Having to post on the thread 'cos with the withdrawal of the app, it's difficult for me to find older threads I've posted on n my phone)

I think we are probably some way down the queue pretty, the other cycling thread is still going too.

Still cycling here, I did another ride on Friday on my own, definitely quicker than I was and able to do 25 miles two days running which is an improvement.

One of the men on my CTC ride was 80, 'coming to the end of his cycling, winding down dear', he said. He did 70 miles on Thursday, 35 to the coffee stop, lunch on the way back and then home!

whybe there is a photo of a woman on a very similar looking trike on one of the CTC pages, I will try to find it.

?

Hi, just hopping on to say yes please, hurry up with the cycling topic!
Mountain biker here, with a hub and 2 boys who also bmx race. At one point between the 4 of us we had 14 bikes !

This is my 8 year old, who has just written his list to Santa, at the top of which is a Santa Cruz downhill bike with clipped in pedals... (He idolises Danny mcaskill), I'm so proud of him - he has the MOST amazing skills on a bike :)

Whybe just a word of caution, don't buy without trying it. I bought a pashley trike once with child seats on the back. I tried to ride it home through central London, and nearly killed me and ds2, who was on the back, as I could not ride it.

I had a trike when I was small and rode a bike for years. My brain no longer does trikes. Seriously. Try one first. you might be fine but if not, it's an expensive mistake.

Afternoon all,

Thanks to everyone for being so very patient.

We're here to announce that the Cycling topic is now officially open.

Race you all there!