With my username you can perhaps predict my answer! I've not got speedos on any of my bikes so don't know how slow I go. Slow enough to not want to join in CTC group rides, but I've found another couple of cycling groups which take a different attitude to riding. It takes me all day to do 55 miles on tour (camping, so well laden) but I also stop a lot to look round places and visit cafes... I must agree that it is nice that over the last couple of years I've got a fair bit fitter so get up more hills, faster. But I'm just not interested in audaxes, etc. Horses for courses!
“My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.” ― Peter Golkin
I must say, I'm very encouraged by the answers on this thread. So different from the attitudes I used to encounter on a couple of Other Places (which I've alluded to often enough, but perhaps no need to name them)! There, it was all about "me me me!" and overhauling some poor 'pleb' on a supermarket MTB to prove to the world that a 'proper' cyclist i.e. 'one of us' - means a fast cyclist!
Keep it up folks - at whatever is the 'right' pace for you. I shall be doing likewise!
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity. Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments... --- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
"The Slow Riders" sounds to me like an amateur band name that could be used by a group of middle aged people (of which I am one) who get together to play covers.
Sometimes it feels I'm the only slow one. I bomb along on tour at about 10mph, stopping for this & that & being overtaken by all. So I think us slow ones are out there but never see each other as we are all going at a pace where we never catch each other.
A long time ago I used to care about speeds and distances. Now I just like going out for a spin on any bike and get as much pleasure from a short trip to the shops on a folding bike as a day ride on a road bike. The unique experience of being able to cruise along while being part of the surroundings (rather than detached from them as you are in a car) and being able to stop anywhere on a whim is what makes cycling special for me. I do have a simple cycle computer on my touring bike, but if it fails it won't be replaced. What other riders do in terms of speed and distance has no relevance at all unless we're on a trip together. I think it is the difference between viewing cycling as a sport or as a versatile and enjoyable means of transport and a leisure pastime.
Kenn wrote:A long time ago I used to care about speeds and distances. Now I just like going out for a spin on any bike and get as much pleasure from a short trip to the shops on a folding bike as a day ride on a road bike. The unique experience of being able to cruise along while being part of the surroundings (rather than detached from them as you are in a car) and being able to stop anywhere on a whim is what makes cycling special for me. I do have a simple cycle computer on my touring bike, but if it fails it won't be replaced. What other riders do in terms of speed and distance has no relevance at all unless we're on a trip together. I think it is the difference between viewing cycling as a sport or as a versatile and enjoyable means of transport and a leisure pastime.
I've been using short rides outside and inside to build up my fitness levels, but that's only because I want to go for long rides outside and be able to ride distance and climb hills and yet still be well within my own abilities. Come to realise that riding a bike and physical exertion can and often do go together, but they don't have to.
