Ride 20/02/2021

Well now that the snow has gone I can get back out on my bike, last week I was under a foot of snow so no cycling then. Today is a better day but still windy with some rain showers, so I had a tail wind all the way to Clackmannan but a head wind all the way to Ballingry which as usual drained all my energy Thankfully I’m not too far from home at that point so it was a steady pace to home. This of course put my avg speed down to 14 mph and it wasn’t even a hilly ride, anyhow 50 miles knocked out, I’ll see if I can to that again tomorrow.

Ride 07/02/2021

Well it had snowed through the night, that powdery stuff, so I didn’t ride in the morning I waited until after I had lunch to see if things would improve a bit, unfortunately not really. It’s wasn’t raining/snowing like yesterday this was replaced with hail but it was just as windy So for the first 30 miles i was ok since I had a tailwind but the last 20 miles were brutal! I was riding into a strong headwind with hail in my face, a thousand tiny bee stings on my face. The wind was energy sapping and the last 20 miles my avg speed dropped big time. I had managed to maintain over 17 mph for the first 30 miles but this was wind assisted that last 20 miles dropped it to under 15 mph I was also starting to get cold towards the end of the ride so I was very thankful for a hot shower when I got home.

Ride 06/02/2021

Wet, Windy and cold with the occasional snow/sleet chucked in for good measure , not the ideal weather for cycling 30 miles was about as much as I was prepared to do.

Ride 30/01/2021

Didn’t ride yesterday due to atrocious weather but today was slightly better, still freezing but tolerable. Went the usual Sunday run but didn’t go up knockhill as there is still snow on the hills so went down Saline way instead. This skipped out Dollar and 5 miles but that was fine and I went home via Rosyth and skipped out Dunfermline just to make up a bit more mileage. Still some snow and ice in patchy areas on the roads so a caution ride again today, 46 miles clocked up at 15 mph

Ride 24/01/2021

So I didn’t ride yesterday cos its was stupid cold at around -6 or below but today its a bit warmer at -4 so I went for a ride I had to walk out my street to get to the main road since I’m snowed and iced in and it also meant I had to stick to the main roads since everywhere else was impassible. There were some snow and ice patches on the main roads but nothing too scary, I stayed on the bike all the way round I wasn’t going to go far or fast today it’s not really the conditions to do so hence only doing 35 miles at 14 mph and there were some sections where my finger were nipping due to being too cold but thankfully nothing to extreme or long, I hardly broke a sweat out there but kept peddling enough to keep me at least warm. I usually only see this kind of crappy weather in February it seems to be early this year, hope it does’t last to long, I’m only getting to ride once a week now rather than twice

Ride 17/01/2021

So no ride yesterday due to shite weather, cold, wet and windy. Today is a far better affair, cold, wet and not windy I decided to do a normal Sunday bun run but change it up a little, still 50 miles but skipping out the Dollar section and including Dalgety Bay and Cowdenbeath. The start up Knockhill was icy in patches so I had to be cautious there and I went down it very slowly just to be safe but in hind sight I could have just gone down at normal speed the road down was free of ice. I had to deal with some rain but by the time I got down to Kincardine it had stopped and the sun was out Because I’ve not been cycling as much recently due to the bad weather, today was a tough one especially the climb back up to Cowdenbeath I was really starting to go slow. Anyhow I clocked up 52 miles at a avg speed of 15 mph so I’ll live with that.

Ride 10/01/2021

Well its first ride of the year and it would have been sooner had there not been a shit load of snow and ice which finally cleared up enough yesterday to allow me to ride today. On my own for the time being due to the second lock down so I kept the ride short but at a high pace, although 16 mph doesn’t seem much but when you look at the stats the wattage is higher and a big chunk of the ride was up hill There was a nice downhill section where I got up to 36 mph but this was supplemented with a terrifying pothole that I hit at 36 mph that I didn’t see which caused such a large wobble on the bike I thought I was going to fall. After what felt like eternity I finally managed to wrestle the bike back and come to a stop with the 2 inevitable flat tyres I would now have. Shockingly and very confusingly my bike was still in one piece and 2 inflated tyres :-0 I’m not sure why that was, it might be because I pumped the types up before starting the ride but I’ve ridden through and felt less dramatic pot holes which has take out both my tyres, this only happened a few weeks ago when I hit a pot hole hidden in a puddle. I dunno maybe the speed saved me here but the shimmy was damn scary, either way I carried on a little more cautiously, I only had another 5 miles to go thankfully. Fortuitously the bike is going in for its service so we’ll see if anything comes out of that.

Ride 30/12/2020

So my ride for yesterday went out the window when it snowed and then froze last night which is very annoying. So the only thing left to do was get the mountain bike out that I haven’t ridden in like 2 years probably and hope it was still in working order, I only needed to get 6 miles! Anyhow it still worked and I kept the ride short to only do about 10 miles, the weather is clear for now but there was still snow on the roads which is only going to get worst tonight as we have heavy snow storms predicted. Feels weird riding the mountain bike after so long, all the wrong positions I’m in compared to the road bike. Anyway 11 miles clocked up and I break the 4000 miles mark yeah Total millage for 2020 is 4007 miles and no cycling for the next week as I suspect I’m going to be snowed in for a while…

Ride 28/12/2020

So my rides to date have clocked up 3952 miles, so the challenge before the end of the year is to get 4000 miles Today’s ride gets me another 42 miles clocked up which leaves me with 6 to go, I think we can do that easily enough tomorrow For today it’s bloody cold and icy so I wan’t going to go too far or fast as the cycle paths aren’t treated like the roads so I was very caution going along these. The temp didn’t get above freezing and at times my hands were nipping with the cold. I did consider going the 50 mile ride today but it’s very cold and I’m in no rush, I’ve got a couple of days to spare

Ride 25/12/2020

This time last year it was a gorgeous sunny day, cold but very sunny, by todays comparison its freezing and overcast, a typical Christmas day I suppose So this year being frosty in the morning I didn’t start riding until 10:00 just to give a little bit of time to thaw. Decided to do a North South route given the wind, not too windy but enough to give a pretty good wind chill, hence the 4 layers on today. Temps got down to minus 2 but didn’t drop any further thankfully. So through Cowdenbeath and up to Milnathort, along the A91 to Muckhart and South over Knockhill and back home through Dunfermline. 36 miles clocked up at the avg speed of 15 mph back in time for lunch.

Ride 20/12/2020

Me, myself and I part 2. Since no one else had signed up for todays ride I was going alone again but first I had yesterdays damage to fix. My front tyre was flat but given this was the patched tube from yesterday I wasn’t surprised, I did enough to get me home yesterday. So new tube inserted and I decided to go clockwise today as it is a similar weather day as yesterday but higher winds speeds. I would get a wind assist at the start heading to Kirkcaldy a head wind heading back to Dunfermline and a tailwind again for the stretch home. 30 miles clocked up, smaller by 20 miles to a normal Sunday but I was getting quite hungry towards 25 miles so I decided rather than exhausting myself I would get home for lunch time and food

Ride 19/12/2020

Just me, myself and I. No one else turned up today and it’s quite a mild day for Dec and just as well. Unbeknownst to me there was a pot hole in a large puddle I rode through which caused a double puncture >:-( I only had 1 spare inner tube but also my puncture repair kit, so one new tube and one patched up tube later and I was on the way again. I decided to cut the ride short as I don’t like taking chances with iffy tubes so the 40 mile ride became a 30 mile ride.