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Let's be boring and talk bicycles!

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helli said:
So did I until I found Zwift.
Now I can cycle up the hills of Innsbruck or race through the streets of London or do a workout through Japanese villages. It keeps me more entertained than just mindless spinning.
There is even a diabetes meet up on Saturday afternoons. I joined a few hundred of them from around the world on a group ride one Diabetes Week.
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Morning @helli. Do you have the name of the diabetes Saturday group please? Would be great to get involved. I’ve added T1D to my name on Zwift as I’ve seen others do the same who now follow me.
 
JonathanGi said:
Out on the bike this morning and not on the turbo. Used my incredibly old, steel, 67.5 fixed. I am that old school. Only reason I went was because it wasn't windy and it wasn't raining. A little 25 mile loop.
Running this evening.
Favourite bikes anybody?
The tandem for me!
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Hi @JonathanGi - great thread! Cycled since I was 12, Stockport to Holyhead on a fully laden bike aged 14 for a week’s camping, London - Paris - Dieppe for 3 weeks aged 16 and a bit of racing here and there. Today, it’s a mixture of Zwift and outside rides on a gravel bike, hybrid or Specialized Roubaix (2014). For holidays, we’ve got a parent - child tandem that we use with my daughter who has special needs. My favourite bike is the one that’s right for the conditions - you can never have too many bikes! N+1. 🙂
 
The_Bowlii said:
Hi @JonathanGi - great thread! Cycled since I was 12, Stockport to Holyhead on a fully laden bike aged 14 for a week’s camping, London - Paris - Dieppe for 3 weeks aged 16 and a bit of racing here and there. Today, it’s a mixture of Zwift and outside rides on a gravel bike, hybrid or Specialized Roubaix (2014). For holidays, we’ve got a parent - child tandem that we use with my daughter who has special needs. My favourite bike is the one that’s right for the conditions - you can never have too many bikes! N+1. 🙂
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Our tandem went through several phases - sidecar, Burley lite child trailer, kiddie cranks. Thankfully it's now reverted to it's original use. I don't think we could persuade the children now to accompany us but they are aged 40, 38 and 34!
 
AHhh bikes. One of my favourite bikes... which I called 'Weena' after the original film actress in the Time Machine...

1200px-Kawasaki_Z750_Four.jpg

Mine had a huge white faring and paniers. Ahhh... memories.

What? Not that sort of bike in this thread? Whoops, sorry.
 
Gwynn said:
AHhh bikes. One of my favourite bikes... which I called 'Weena' after the original film actress in the Time Machine...

View attachment 29380

Mine had a huge white faring and paniers. Ahhh... memories.

What? Not that sort of bike in this thread? Whoops, sorry.
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That was when bikes were bikes, had 1 Kawasaki which is 600R.

Your bike above reminds me of another bike I had which was Suzuki GS850, it was shaft driven rather than chain, loved it as it was so smooth to ride.

MikeyBikey said:
Sadly I haven't got a photo of mine but hope photos went into storage when others cleared my house post amputation!

View attachment 29381
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Nice looking bike, what year was that made?
 
Carlos said:
I find static cycling really boring, can't really take it for more than half an hour or so. The thing I most enjoy is taking new lanes I haven't been before and finding beautiful hidden sights.
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Agreed, exploring is the interesting thing ideally mixed with warmth and sunshine, though I can manage to sit on the turbo and watch a TV series or a movie (no interest in Zwift I'm afraid), which I'd otherwise not have time for (or rather I could think of something better/more useful to do), though I've not done very well this winter and haven't ridden much even indoors.

Carlos said:
There seem to be quite a few of us cycling aficionados in here. I imagine we live all over the country, so the logistics might be tricky, but it would be nice to organise a group ride at some point.
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Sounds good 🙂
 
Rob Oldfield said:
<snip> and the other is sort of an experiment put together by local bike shop - a mountain bike frame but with wide tyres and road gear. Makes it pretty much bullet proof.
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I made one of these at the end of lockdown, I rode it then, but not much last summer as it was quite wet so the offroad stuff wasn't all that appealing.

It's currently attached to my trainer, but once the weather improves I'm going to turn the stem upside down for a bit of rise (rather than it having the same position as my gravel bike) and give it another go on the bumpy stuff. The one downside is that the frame doesn't have all that much room, so long days are more awkward with add-on bags everywhere for the emergency snacks!
 
Back In the early 1960s Triumph had the best engine for it's power to weight ratio but the bike's handling was quite poor. The McCandless brothers offered their superb frame design to Triumph but were turned down, prejudice against the Irish seems to have been a factor. So the design was taken on by Norton. The 500cc Manx Norton engine was used in formula four racing cars as it was light, powerful and very reliable. The problem was that Norton wouldn't sell you the engine, you had to buy the clubman racer and take the engine out. This left lots of Norton rolling chassis which were ideal for sorting out the crappy handling of your speedy but uncontrollable Triumph.
 
A friend of mine had a Norton Dominator. I couldn't even pull the clutch lever in!! A real mans bike! As expected it dripped oil everywhere. Not for me!

Norton_Dominator_650SS_(1968)_(8882446566).jpg

Me I had 2 bikes, a Kawasaki 650 followed by a Kawasaki 750. Both had very light clutches. It was even easily possible to change gear without using the clutch. They were clean, quiet, fast, exciting.

And my very first bike? A Honda 175. A slug of a beast but it got me through my bike test. (What a farce that was).
 
Carlos said:
There seem to be quite a few of us cycling aficionados in here. I imagine we live all over the country, so the logistics might be tricky, but it would be nice to organise a group ride at some point.
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Shall we actually try to organise something? I see Diabetes week is 12th-18th of June (that weekend isn't great for me, but I could probably arrange childcare as there's plenty of notice).

There are some particularly fetching socks in the org.uk shop, shame there are no caps or gilets (I'm not sold on the choice between a rather baggy jersey and one that's only available in XS!)

I guess the next question is to determine who might be available (and on other dates too, no need to limit to just diabetes week), where they are located, and then decide whether a group meetup or a number of group meetups would work for people.

I was wondering if I could find a FoC website that allowed one to stick pins in a map, but alas I can't find anything aside from Google Maps Collaborative Lists (which seems a little involved). I thought it might be useful to have people pop (pin) in their rough location so it can be seen on a map (if anyone knows of anything please chip in) to work out roughly where people are located (which might also be useful for non-cycling meetups too!)

P.S. Perhaps this is something that could come directly from the forum as I see we have a location field in our profiles....
 
SimonP said:
Shall we actually try to organise something? I see Diabetes week is 12th-18th of June (that weekend isn't great for me, but I could probably arrange childcare as there's plenty of notice).

There are some particularly fetching socks in the org.uk shop, shame there are no caps or gilets (I'm not sold on the choice between a rather baggy jersey and one that's only available in XS!)

I guess the next question is to determine who might be available (and on other dates too, no need to limit to just diabetes week), where they are located, and then decide whether a group meetup or a number of group meetups would work for people.

I was wondering if I could find a FoC website that allowed one to stick pins in a map, but alas I can't find anything aside from Google Maps Collaborative Lists (which seems a little involved). I thought it might be useful to have people pop (pin) in their rough location so it can be seen on a map (if anyone knows of anything please chip in) to work out roughly where people are located (which might also be useful for non-cycling meetups too!)

P.S. Perhaps this is something that could come directly from the forum as I see we have a location field in our profiles....
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I'm in Worcester, so Cotswolds, Forest of Dean, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire are within easy reach for me. The Mendips and Chilterns are a bit further out but doable. Climbing Cheddar Gorge could be a possibility.

I'm flexible for dates at the moment, but I think having the meet coincide with Diabetes week is a good idea.
 
Alternatively, we could look at joining a Sportive as a group.

There's the Cotswolds Sportive in May, starting at Cheltenham Race Course:

UK Velo - UK Cycling - Road cycling - Cotswolds Sportive

UK Velo, Home of Cycling events around the UK, designed for all types of cyclist, Relaxed, welcoming and inclusive.
ukvelo.co.uk

I did the 100k route last year, and will possibly do it this year again. The route takes in a lot of South Worcestershire, so not too hilly.

And the Mendips classic in July, which will probably be more taxing on the legs

www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk

The Mendips Classic Cycling Event

The Mendips Classic Cycling Event pick up parts of UKCE rides in times gone by, including the infamous climb up Cheddar Gorge - a firm favourite amongst our riders.
www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk
 
I quite fancy the look of the Cotswolds one (as I've never ridden up there, plus chilled out sounds nice), but I was planning to ride to London and around the middle (it's RideLondon that weekend) while it's closed to traffic that weekend.

I could probably be persuaded by peer pressure to ride to (or at the very least around) the Cotswolds instead tho.

Equally if people fancy the Mendips I'd be game.

I live near Frome in Somerset, I think my profile says Bath (where I work), I should probably update that!
 
My husband had a Kawasaki Z1000, shaft drive.
I only ever rode on the back, but - on my - that was some bike. Only beaten for beefy good looks by the 1300.
I had a Z250Ltd - the 'chopper' version with a dipped seat so I could get both feet on the ground and the long handlebars gave me leverage.
 
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