The General Chat Thread (2025)

SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Yep. 25m each way and hard labour at the other end. I would only do it 3 or 4 times a week maximum because we usually went out at the weekend to do 125km it so on a Sunday and I'd meet up with a friend once a month for a longer ride. He was training me for a 160km (100mile) bike ride.

I was averaging 1,500km per month right up until my previously unknown sponal birth defect failed on me and left me in my right leg paralysed overnight. I've struggled with my fitness ever since.
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Wow, your obviously healthy! I get your Xena pic! 👍
 
Barriehie said:
I don't see how peeps live there. Couldn't do it. I picked a route only had me on I75 for 23 miles and no problem getting there. That pic was on the way back and that was only 9 miles long... 🤢
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Yeah, I timed it so I would hit it during the evening so it would be less traffic. HA! I am sure it was better than rush hour but it was still pretty awful.

The last time before that was in the late 1980s when I was living in Florida and I had my mom with me on our way to vacation in Lake Lure, NC. I remember telling her, "OK mom, fasten your seatbelt and clench your bum because this might get a little scary. Please, no screaming or trying to micromanage my driving for the next 30 minutes!" You know how it is, you have to drive 85 miles an hour to not get run over...
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Yeah, I timed it so I would hit it during the evening so it would be less traffic. HA! I am sure it was better than rush hour but it was still pretty awful.

The last time before that was in the late 1980s when I was living in Florida and I had my mom with me on our way to vacation in Lake Lure, NC. I remember telling her, "OK mom, fasten your seatbelt and clench your bum because this might get a little scary. Please, no screaming or trying to micromanage my driving for the next 30 minutes!" You know how it is, you have to drive 85 miles an hour to not get run over...
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Right!!!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
They do studded bike tyres you know. I used to use them to commute in the UK in ice and snow on my 79km round commute. It was great fun. :D
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Oh yeah - I bike commuted year-round here in Canada for 13 years!

I never actually used studs - I was worried about the rolling resistance on dry pavement (which is what I usually found myself riding on). I just went with thick, knobby tires, and kept them slightly under-inflated so there was more tire in contact with the pavement.

Now I miss bike commuting! (My current workplace is in a different city so I take the train).
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Oh yeah, SandwichShortOfAPicnic: large American cities to avoid riding in on a motorcycle? Most of them.
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So I’ve been told 😂
I won’t repeat what I’ve been told about American roads or driving, I think it’s likely offensive but the city you get warned not to ride into most often by people who have done much world travel is Paris!
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
So I’ve been told 😂
I won’t repeat what I’ve been told about American roads or driving, I think it’s likely offensive but the city you get warned not to ride into most often by people who have done much world travel is Paris!
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Yep.

And one of the easiest that we've done that we initially feared the most, was Athens (and it was the last weekend before Christmas). No problems.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Yep.

And one of the easiest that we've done that we initially feared the most, was Athens (and it was the last weekend before Christmas). No problems.
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I think Kathmandu is the worse place I’ve ridden, but it was also a thrill not knowing if you’d come out of it alive 😂
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
I think Kathmandu is the worse place I’ve ridden, but it was also a thrill not knowing if you’d come out of it alive 😂
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Lol.

The roads in Athens are so chaotic that throwing 2 touring bikes side by side taking up the space of a car never bothered anyone. We just had to pick up the courage to join in the chaos. And let life get on around us.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
. We just had to pick up the courage to join in the chaos. And let life get on around us.
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Hmm that sounds like Kathmandu, but maybe the potholes (aka small road lakes) added a little extra frisson. I stupidly road into one assuming there was some sort of road still under it and halfway through realised I was unlikely to ever come out 😂
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Hmm that sounds like Kathmandu, but maybe the potholes (aka small road lakes) added a little extra frisson. I stupidly road into one assuming there was some sort of road still under it and halfway through realised I was unlikely to ever come out 😂
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I've done sort of that 4 wheeling across a field and had to get a tractor to pull the truck out... pita
 
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