Nantucket bike ride/Where's Brian Walden now?

[hirez]

There's probably something terribly chocolate-box-cover about cyclists covered with a dusting of hoar-frost. Not if you're the pillock in question, mind. Then it's just a bit bleedin' parky.

It's probably also a bit of a warning if you're standing under the gym shower waiting for your extremities to warm up.

(I need a cycling icon, but that rotter Sulston's already bagged all the Kraftwerk ones.)

Memo to self: dismount before that final pitch down to the Frome after Frenchay Common. There's a spring under the road which has been cheerfully seeping through the (rough, off-camber) tarmac lo these past several months and this morning on the way up it was a sheet of ice. Doing it downhill in the dark will mean headbutting a parked Volvo at the very least.

Still, all good fun.

Comments

[quercus.livejournal.com]

You cycle down the windy narrow bit past the Common? You have some sort of deathwish?! That's bad enough for traffic not giving you room in Summer and I'd hate to think about it on ice.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Not the road that goes past the village hall, but the one that you take if you were going to the White Lion. Pearce's Hill. There's a footpath over the Frome and then you're at the bottom corner of Oldbury Park.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

There's always the cover from Aerodynamik.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

So there is.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I was wondering how it went. Some of the cars on the road still have frosty windows.

[sinibar.livejournal.com]

Cycling short distances in the cold isn't too bad if you have some form of extremity covering. A big pair of gloves and a wooly hat do me.

Cycling long distances in the cold is a pain because after a while you warm up and all the warm stuff you're wearing suddenly turns boil-in-the-bag. So you have to choose whether you want your discomfort to be hot or cold, or try to find a happy medium.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

This is why I have a pile of technical clothing. I should probably think about some (wind|water)proof socks, though.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Go to Squaddy-U-Like and get a pair of the lurid green Goretex boot liners in stupidly big, then cut cleat holes in the bottom and wear them on the outside of your shoes. Or else I've got some double-sided pink-n-black wetsuitty stuff (the thing wrapped around my suspension fork) and you could sew some.

Waterproof socks are horrible because your shoes still get soggy and wet and it catches up with you in the end, it just takes longer.

[sinibar.livejournal.com]

A decent pair of Gore-Tex socks should cost about £20, but be warned they wear out faster than you might think.

[silentq.livejournal.com]

I always seem to get stuck in the following pattern when I bike home on cold nights: fine for the first mile, still holding onto heat from inside, then my fingers are freezing (even in expensive lobster claw gloves) for two miles, then they slowly warm up and I'm mostly fine for the last two miles. I'm considering tracking down or making hand covers that mount on the handlebars over the brakes and shifters, that's about all I haven't tried to keep my fingers warm.
The temperatures change here so fast that I've often been fine one day with my regular kit, and then the next, I'm sweating to death halfway to work, then the next I'm freezing. Half the time I'm too stubborn to stop and adjust zippers on my jacket, but that's my own fault. :)
My toes have been fine down to -28C windchill with good hiking socks + waterproof thinsulate lined winter boots that are rated down to -20F (Salomon Evo's that I picked up after remembering that you had a pair of Salomon hiking boots). cris rides clipless, he still gets chilly toes with hiking socks + fleece socks + neoprene shoe covers.
I got a pair of gortex socks for xmas, but haven't needed them yet, I'm saving them for spring when I go back to running shoes.
(sorry, I tend to ramble on when it comes to keeping warm while biking in winter :) )

[maluse.livejournal.com]

Goretex gaiters from the local camping shop seem to work well for me, they keep the worst of the road crud off my trousers and the worst of the wet road splashes out of my boots without making my legs sweaty.

[eljaydaly.livejournal.com]

I bet you were cute, all frozen solid like that!

And I learned a new word today, too. 'Parky'. Brrrr!

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you didn't hear that last October (parky). :)

They are predicting snow for tomorrow-hurrah!

[hirez.livejournal.com]

It was dead warm on that there island.

[eljaydaly.livejournal.com]

Meh. It wasn't really all that cold at VP. Except for on the actual ferry. That was cold as hell!

No snow here yet. :( Just.. you know. Single-digit freezingness.

Build a snowman!

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I was explaining to people in our local butcher shop how cold -30F really is. Unless someone from the UK has been to Arctic regions, or parts of the US and Russia, they really have no concept of just how cold that is.

If we get a few inches, I may go out back and try to make a snowman. If nothing else, I may scare the ferrets by dipping their toes in snow!

[hazeii.livejournal.com]

For the fahrenheitically-challenged, that's about -35C.

Always reminds me about how people think 'extreme' is anything they're not used to. 'Tis awfully embararassing when the UK uses "a bit colder than usual" (or "a bit warmer than usual") to grind to a halt because of the 'unusual' weather (people who have lived outside a temperate climate are entirely justified in taking the piss).

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I try not to take the piss, but sometimes it's hard not to. ;)

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

>> Doing it downhill in the dark will mean headbutting a parked Volvo at the very least.

But I'm sure it's very safe. Bein' a Volvo and all.

[red-mel.livejournal.com]

Do you want me to knit you a will warmer. A nice red cod peice. i'm sure you would look spiffing in it.XX

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Thank you, but I'm sure people are quite traumatised enough at the thought of the JH-R in cycling togs.