Cycling UK Forum

If there’s any risk if ice, I ride on the turbo using Zwift. I can manage an hour, which is enough to keep you ticking over.

If I didn’t ride outside when it was windy, then I’d hardly ride at all in winter. Unless it strong gale force, I’ll still ride. I don’t ride in the rain these days, as I’m retired and can pick and choose when I go out, usually dodging between the bands of rain that come over the country. Again if it’s torrential rain all day, I’ll go on Zwift.

TrevA wrote: ↑19 Jan 2023, 7:40pm If there’s any risk if ice, I ride on the turbo using Zwift. I can manage an hour, which is enough to keep you ticking over.

If I didn’t ride outside when it was windy, then I’d hardly ride at all in winter. Unless it strong gale force, I’ll still ride. I don’t ride in the rain these days, as I’m retired and can pick and choose when I go out, usually dodging between the bands of rain that come over the country. Again if it’s torrential rain all day, I’ll go on Zwift.

Omit references to Zwift and pretty much could be me! Must be a Notts CTC thing!
Got caught in brief snow 2 days ago, yesterday just cold, frosty and very occasional icy patch.

I ride outside all year round with the exception of when its snowing, icy, or raining heavily. When it's the latter I do half an hour on a Peloton as any longer than that would drive me insane

Many cyclists choose to take a break from riding during the winter months, as the colder temperatures and shorter days can make training less enjoyable and increase the risk of injury. However, some cyclists, such as yourself, choose to continue riding all year round. It is important to listen to your body and determine what works best for you. If you find that taking a break sets you back, then it may be best to continue riding, but make sure to adjust your training and listen to your body to avoid injury.

I vary riding throughout the year as I like other stuff, hiking, swimming, kayaking and go in phases. But very cautious in winter (Scotland) moreso after I came off last winter on black ice, was +5c, on a brief shady stretch and luckily!? only got bruised and a head bang (thanks helmet) so nothing serious, but could easily have been. Just not a pleasure when worried. Do some gym cycling (not my favourite) for exercise. If it's nice weather and fair above 0 I'm out, otherwise do other things, though I'm generally a bit less active in winter anyway. So much else to do, love books etc. And yes getting back fitness is a bind, but there you go, but for me its fitness but also mental health and the pleasure of being outdoors and scenery.

Am alone in being 'Turbo-phobic'? I cycle to enjoy the countryside, the freedom and the sheer joy of being able to cover silly distances fueled by just a single piece of Christmas cake. Fitness is just a spin-off benefit, I can't imagine sitting in a garage pedaling nowhere - but each to their own

One winter of prolonged ice led me to buy a recumbent trike, icy roads are now just an excuse to enjoy winter sun and power slides .

Stradageek wrote: ↑25 Jan 2023, 10:20am Am alone in being 'Turbo-phobic'? I cycle to enjoy the countryside, the freedom and the sheer joy of being able to cover silly distances fueled by just a single piece of Christmas cake. Fitness is just a spin-off benefit, I can't imagine sitting in a garage pedaling nowhere - but each to their own

One winter of prolonged ice led me to buy a recumbent trike, icy roads are now just an excuse to enjoy winter sun and power slides .

For me, my extreme copd demands that the "fitness" is rather more than a spin-off benefit! If I miss even a week of min 10 miles a day then I can feel my breathlessness worsen.

So if weather makes proper cycling ill-advised or if other demands on my time then the turbo it is, garage doors wide open, sheltered but "outdoors". And I count the stationary miles so that I can measure the decline in my physical ability over months/years as I head towards the cliff edge of non-independent living.

djnotts wrote: ↑25 Jan 2023, 3:29pm

Stradageek wrote: ↑25 Jan 2023, 10:20am Am alone in being 'Turbo-phobic'? I cycle to enjoy the countryside, the freedom and the sheer joy of being able to cover silly distances fueled by just a single piece of Christmas cake. Fitness is just a spin-off benefit, I can't imagine sitting in a garage pedaling nowhere - but each to their own

One winter of prolonged ice led me to buy a recumbent trike, icy roads are now just an excuse to enjoy winter sun and power slides .

For me, my extreme copd demands that the "fitness" is rather more than a spin-off benefit! If I miss even a week of min 10 miles a day then I can feel my breathlessness worsen.

So if weather makes proper cycling ill-advised or if other demands on my time then the turbo it is, garage doors wide open, sheltered but "outdoors". And I count the stationary miles so that I can measure the decline in my physical ability over months/years as I head towards the cliff edge of non-independent living.

My sympathies djnotts, I'm only having to deal with age related fitness degradation and have adopted an 'ostrich' approach by removing all means of measuring performance from all of my bikes. I admire your determination

Stradageek wrote: ↑26 Jan 2023, 8:41am I'm only having to deal with age related fitness degradation and have adopted an 'ostrich' approach by removing all means of measuring performance from all of my bikes. I admire your determination

Ha ha - best not to know all sorts of things really.

Is it being a foolish ostrich with a buried head to seek a condition wherein ignorance is bliss? Personally I think there are many cases for making an effort to achieve a state of not-knowing. Whilst, "The truth will set you free" might work in many circumstances, it's equally likely to not just bind you tight but to bring about your degradation or demise.

There's thousand examples of helpful & hurtful truths and their knowing.

Reading mass media might install some sort of knowing (not necessarily of the truth) that will depress a human to the point of ill health or even suicide, as will knowing what all sorts of poison dwarves are saying about you on anti-social media. On the other hand, knowing how you're actually being used, abused and manipulated by an organisation supposedly acting to help you (the current UK Parliament, for example) might enable you to break free of their power (by voting to take it away, in the case of the corrupt gang of spivs currently infesting Parliament).

In cycling, the explosion of data devices giving you endless information, to the far end of that phurt you gave when climbing a hill very hard, can utterly ruin the pleasures of a bike ride. Such data might be useful and beneficial for racing cyclists or those with various medical conditions wanting their cycling effort as a proxy for measuring their health .... but for many it dims the nicer cycling experiences with a thick overlayer of spurious information of no real use at all apart from satisfying an unhealthy obsessive-compulsive lust for a feedstock.

Sometimes the sneering critic of a bicycle data gizmo on the handlebar will put the rider off cycling altogether. "I'll never be good enough", they cry, casting the expensive bike into the depths of a shed. They fail to ask: Good enough for what/who and in what manner of "good"? Too much GCN and/or cycling magazine "knowledge" defining the mythical god-like "good cyclist" who must be but one notch below Geraint but have all his gear and some more on top.

Cugel, ranting on & on.

I use only a mileometer, honest!

I see this topic made it into the “Cycle” magazine this month, with the Dr offering the advice that your fitness will start to decrease from week 2 of not riding your bike, but ultimately to do whatever feels right for you. I’m still riding and have done 475 miles so far in January, despite the sometimes awful weather.

TrevA wrote: ↑31 Jan 2023, 4:41pm the Dr offering the advice I’m still riding and have done 475 miles so far in January

And I've done 7.4 January miles, having been off the bike for a full quarter by Sunday. Timing of broken bones couldn't have been better, though took quite some resolution not do my 28.5 mile evening spin yesterday.. @ 50, forget life, fantastic the knee turns normally. Priorities

Enforced break since November due to the weather. ( rain, frost, high winds.)
Retired so only a fair weather rider although will venture out on short rides if windy & dry.
Can't stand the turbo for more than 5 minutes
Been doing a bit of Pilatus and Tia Che, for the first time, using YouTube and seems to have helped.

A reasonable 29 miles, with some quite brutal headwinds, today got me to 477.5 miles for January. That'll do for me!

djnotts wrote: ↑31 Jan 2023, 7:29pm A reasonable 29 miles, with some quite brutal headwinds, today got me to 477.5 miles for January. That'll do for me!

I've probably done my most miles ever in January this year, 779.1km. I think we're pretty much exactly neck and neck, but haven't checked!

Almost all mine was commuting.