Doohickie

Yeah, beer was involved in my group ride...

jbchybridrider 

Went out for a couple hours and rode a track I've known about but never ridden before. It follows our little para river and go's into the Adelaide hills all dirt and alot of single track.
Had a ball getting my hybrid muddy for the first time and realized even more how versatile my bike is, passing roadbike riders one day and MTB riding the next.
I think I'll look at more aggressive cyclocross tires and do more trail riding in the future with a bit of camping.

AlphaDogg

I LOVE your bike. It needs a thorough wipedown. Maybe you should look into a set of fenders?

giantcfr1

Home sick alert. ( ; . ; )

Even dirty, it's still my pick for "best looking" bike on BF

edit: my cannondale read this, and is *****ty with me. I have to change that to second best looking bike on BF. lol

jbchybridrider 

I was thinking being muddy improved its looks. With all the fun in the mud I had I'll do it again.

mjwithtwins

I actually had time to snap a picture of my bike on my ride today because I ended up with a flat. Stupid me forgot to put the levers and tube back in my saddle bag so I had to way for my husband to ride home and get the car. This is where I waited. Luckily we were only about 3 miles from home.

qmsdc15

Most of this ride happened yesterday, the very last bit was today.

C&O Canal towpath to Dickerson, then the Sugarloaf Challenge Loop to Point of Rocks, then the towpath out to Brunswick and the South Mountain Loop, then back to Georgetown on the towpath. 195 miles, half on unpaved surface. Hybrid day tour. Day and part of the night actually.

First rest stop. Jack's Boat House, under Key Bridge in Georgetown. I packed a lunch but this ride was no picnic. I had to rearrange the load. As soon as I hit the rough stuff, my lock fell off. I'm thinking of replacing my trunk bag.



Three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, three turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, five chocolate chip cookies, one Granny Smith apple.


Boats and flags


Widewater, The most scenic part of the canal that I've found, mile 13.


The other end of the Widewater section.


Rocks above Great Falls.



Great Falls Tavern Lock.

tom d

Did a family ride for 10 miles on the Bike trail in Lincoln RI. Nice day

lopek77

Pere Marquette Rails-to-Trails Trial. 117 miles with my much older friend, and she was just recently infected with cycling bug Easy ride with a lot of stops along the way.
First part from Midland, MI to Clare, MI was the nicest, with a lot of rest stops, free air, water fountains, shelters....14 feet wide paved trail was one of the best maintained trails I have ever seen. Second part from Farewell, MI to Evert, MI was also pretty nice, but not so "fancy" as the first one.
One of the several tunnels
Our "Hotel" ( Isabella County Park Recreational
6320 East Herrick Road, Clare, MI 48617-9184
(989) 386-2010 ‎
isabellacounty.org )
Midland, MI Tridge ( bridge with 3 ends )

vsanthos

Not sure if my bike is exactly a hybrid buy I consider and ride it as so. I have a Specialized Rockhopper from the 90s with street tires on it.

Today I rode on the Ohio Towpath with my father and nephew to downtown Akron for the National Hamburger Festival. It was an amazing ride!

The Chemist

My Giant took me on my first ever century today - 165km in 9 hours (6.5 hours actual riding time). Had a great time, but the last 50km was really emotionally/physically draining.

I much prefer metric centuries - full centuries are just a little bit too much IMO.

qmsdc15

lopek, nice ride! It took you a long time to catch your friend! Did you do 117 miles in one day?

Chemist, Congrats! We all say that after our first century. You'll be back. The emotional/physical challenge is why.

lopek77

I can do 100 or more miles a day, especially on rails to trails, but my friend was not in a great shape and she is almost 60, so we took it easy with 70 miles first day and 47 next day. Our overall average moving speed was around 10.8 mph, on heavy hybrids - both of them Specialized Crosstrail 2010 and 2011

qmsdc15

That's awesome. Great ride! I've only managed a little over 11mph average speed on the long rides I've done on my "true hybrid", Cannondale H300. On my "flat bar road bike" I average over 12mph! Haha. Both have 700x28c tires.

qmsdc15

The tiny piece of road kill stuck to my front derailleur makes my Cannondale look sick!

British racing green with sparkles


New pedals!


Sand (and sinew)?

giantcfr1

So your husband didn't have levers on him? (blame him)

giantcfr1

You realize you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. The local tourist office should be paying you for your beautiful "promotional" photos.

giantcfr1

@ lopek.....
Wonderful time was obviously had. Did your car get "toad" away. I love that sign.

giantcfr1

for the muddy bikes.

lopek77

I 275 trail Michigan - Mountain bike will be a better choice for this one... last several miles is in VERY BAD SHAPE... I will give it overall 2 out of 5...

I did 109.1 miles yesterday in little over 9 hours, including fixing flat tire and crawling through some parts of the trail ( Looking like wetlands without water, couldn't see any asphalt... )
My goal was to get to Crosswinds Marsh County Park Awesome place! https://michigantrailmaps.com/Wayne/C...indsIntro.html

BTW...bicycles are not permitted there... Dogs and horses are... I'm pretty sure my bike is cleaner, it hasn't pooped since I bought it

qmsdc15

Great ride, Larry. Congrats on the new personal distance record!

Are you sure you'd rather ride an MTB for 109 miles, even if there are some rough spots?

You could probably buy a mountain bike that's lighter than your hybrid, but I'm guessing it would cost several thousand dollars. Generally speaking MTBs are heavy. I suspect you don't like rough trails and you wouldn't like them a whole lot more on a hardtail with wide knobbies than you do on your hybrid. Especially on a ride that long.

The ride looks, sounds like it''s made for a hybrid like yours, with it's suspension fork. Instead of lamenting that it would have been better on a mountain bike, think about how much worse it would have been on a road bike.

lopek77

I love to ride on my hardtail mtb, but lately I enjoy riding long distances on my hybrid, which Is much more fun. You right...road bike on other hand is limited to good quality roads, which make it no fun to me.
About the weight.... my mtb and hybrid weights about the same... which makes my mtb very light ( its not ) or my hybrid very heavy ( its not ) :-) With additional rack, trunk, frame bag, lights, suspension seat post and all water and food I'm taking with me on my hybrid rides, I'm adding easily 10 lbs, for a total weight of about 40 - 45 lbs... Weight is not that important to me. Fun and doing miles is all that counts.

Mmj12345

Took a 41.3 mile ride this morning through several suburbs West of Chicago. For anyone familiar with the area I hit a bit of the Illinois Prairie Path (Aurora branch), Fox River Trail, and the Great Western Path.

I only got into cycling about a month ago when I bought a 2011 Trek Kaitai, so this ride was by far the longest I have taken thus far. My legs held up great, I felt like I could go 10+ more miles when I got home. My hands are what failed first, got real tingly even with the Ergon GC3's so I think I need to get some gloves!

I get so jealous of all you guys who live in more "scenic" areas to ride in!

Along the Fox River in Batavia:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

My Ride Summary (Runkeeper app is awesome)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Talldog

Without a doubt this is the best thread on the whole forum ...

Talldog

Looks good to me. You are actually fortunate to have such a nice bike path.

Gloves (good ones though) will help a whole lot, and if you don't have some already, padded cycling shorts make a world of difference.