Bike ride scenes

I often take the camera out in the saddlebag. These photos are just some that have been taken over the years of being a born again cyclist:

Lovely pictures Mart,
I haven't cycled for years.

That looks lovely Mart. I only got back on my bike when tempted by my grandson and we biked the local bike trails. I'm sure it was good for me. It's strange how the learned ability to ride is never forgotten. You just get back on and without thinking you ride!

I've been on so many good rides with friends and family and here are more photos taken while out. Unfortunately my main co-rider is slowing a little. It's bound to come to us all. I'm not sure we'll actually have the energy to get to some of these scenes in the future:

On the right is a partially knocked down WW II gun emplacement:


It's an effort to get up to this spot but from here, the path in the distance is all downhill. A dangerous but exhilarating zoom down.








Barges on the canal




We gave this gradient the name of  'Heart Attack Hill'. A good old struggle to cycle up.

We saw this tree while out riding a couple of weeks ago. We're pretty sure it has developed this lean only recently or we'd have noticed it before. We ride this route regularly. I'm going to find the location on Google Maps, make a print-out of this and the photo and take it too the canal management office.

If that tree goes over in the next high wind, it'll certainly reach the towpath and get any passing barge or walker if they happen to be in the way:

Beautiful photos Mart. 

Good idea about reporting the tree  :;smile:

Nice pics Mart, I once bought a mountain bike, made in India, it was so heavy I had to get off and push it up any slight inclines so I soon gave it up !

I think if the tree went over on anyone Goldie, they'd end up with a terrible headache. :)

Yes Malcolm, some bikes are heavy. Always worth getting a decent secondhand one to start with. Then you get to ride a decent bike at a fraction of the price. Get a good new one if it looks like you might keep it up. Having said that, I have stayed with a secondhand one that I bought (shown in a photo previously in the thread). A fairly lightweight Claud-Butler.

Maybe not so lightweight by the time it has puncture-proof tyres (heavy things), mudguards and a saddlebag carrying life's essentials though. :)

Mart wrote:

. A fairly lightweight Claud-Butler.

Is he still alive????
 
 I never met the man personally but nearly every cyclist I knew, in the immediate post war years, wanted a bikes made from his metal, or at least carrying his name .
The metal of choice for all the real cyclists was Reynold 531 tubing, and there by hangs another tale.

In the village from which we came a few years ago was a man who was a motor cycle racer. He was not only a very keen racing motorcyclist but he built his own bikes, and often had other riders buying his frames.

One day this chap arrived at my garage/workshop door ( which was not an unusual occurrence) and asked me if I was going out or would I be in all day and able to take care of a delivery of steel tube. I had no plans to go anywhere, so he said he would ring the delivery man and ask him to leave the stuff with me.
He then told me what it was.

He said that the production of Reynolds 531 had ended, and he had managed to buy from the factory all the remaining stock. It was on a wagon heading for his house but he had some important reason or other that compelled him to go out for the rest of the day.

It arrived and was off loaded onto a waterproof polythene sheet and covered with another. Most of the tubes were about 10 feet long and varied in diameter. 1 inch diameter was popular but there were quite a lot that were not.

I had a couple of 3/4" x 8ft. tubes forced on to me several days later when my friend reappeared, with a tractor and trailer, and took the rest away.

He too moved out of the village and into Nidderdale.

Great pictures Mart, that tree does look dodgy...

This display of wildflowers looks pretty good. They have grown on top of a heap of earth. Not sure if they were planted or if they were just seeds present in the soil when it was dumped.

Hello Catgate - The bike only bears the name rather than the original materials. The metal in the one I have is an alloy. It has proved very strong though. The frame has put up with a good pounding over the years I've owned the bike. There are no signs of stress in the metal or joints at all.

Mart wrote:

We saw this tree while out riding a couple of weeks ago. We're pretty sure it has developed this lean only recently or we'd have noticed it before. We ride this route regularly. I'm going to find the location on Google Maps, make a print-out of this and the photo and take it too the canal management office.

If that tree goes over in the next high wind, it'll certainly reach the towpath and get any passing barge or walker if they happen to be in the way:

I think it is just having a rest. It must be terribly tiring being a leaning tree.

We cycled past the same spot on Thursday. No change in the tree's angle.

About 100 yards further on, a team of workers were clearing up a tree that had actually fallen. The trunk had branched in the tree's early life and the two halves could now be termed 'huge'. Over the years, water had been caught in the trunk where the 'V' shape is (was) and caused enough rot to make half of the trunk fall away. It blocked the towpath and canal.

I asked the team about the tree in the photo and they reckon it's OK. They said it has always been like that but the lean was more noticeable now because they had recently cleared a few trees from around it, so making it more visible.

Time will tell I suppose.

With its trunk almost into the water and it's roots certainly in a very watery bit of ground it is very peculiar prognostication.
As for "It's always been like that" I suggest next time you see the man who told you that you have a good look at to see where is mouth is. He is either talking out of the back neck or that other hole about two feet below.