How do you spend your free time?

@BlobbyMcBlobface What kind of cycle do you have?

@Musicman I have a hybrid with gravel tyres, I love to ride off road

@BlobbyMcBlobface Excellent! 🙂🙂🙂 Here is mine.

@Musicman Brilliant! Mine's a Trek, similar looking bike though

@BlobbyMcBlobface I like Trek too. Here is one I have been looking at. It's a Trek Verve 3.

@Musicman Mine's the FX3, amazing value for money. That Verve3 looks like a great option for me, I suffer with hip pain and sometimes struggle to get on my bike so a step through would be ideal

@Musicman Here's mine. A Lotus 4000m pro I bought at Sears way back in 91. Still runs like a top.

@BlobbyMcBlobface As I get older my friends say I need the low step. I guess I'm getting old. ☹

@minoltaguy Is it steel? I'd love a steel frame bike, they absorb bumps better and are overall a much better ride

@BlobbyMcBlobface No. It's aluminum.

@BlobbyMcBlobface Aluminum frame. It is suprisingly smooth considering that it doesn't have suspension.

@minoltaguy Do any of you two go bikepacking? I got into it last summer, it's a great way of covering lots of miles and camping but the bags can be expensive.

@BlobbyMcBlobface No I don't. I don't really ride much anymore since the accident in 23.

@BlobbyMcBlobface Do you mean backpacking on a bicycle? No, but I did go backpacking with the Boy Scouts as a kid. I enjoyed it.

@Musicman Yes that's it, it's basically backpacking on a bike, all the gear is attached to the bike in streamlined bags.
I wish I'd joined the scouts as a kid, I missed out on a lot of fun.

@BlobbyMcBlobface I have seen people doing it, but I have never done it myself. Being older my wife and I have a motorhome. We enjoy camping and traveling.

@BlobbyMcBlobface You mean something like this?

@minoltaguy That's it. I have a budget set up for summer, it's a great way to spend a weekend

@BlobbyMcBlobface How far can you go in a weekend?

@BlobbyMcBlobface I've seen people doing that on occasion and wondered what it was like. The farthest I have ridden was 36 miles then I bonked.

@Musicman 150-180 miles if there's not too much climbing but I usually map a route that's around 80-120, I prefer to have plenty of stops rather than race against time to get somewhere

@BlobbyMcBlobface I can understand that. You, your bike, and loaded with camping gear is a lot. That's not the time for speed. Do you ever do organized rides the the Rag Ride?

@Musicman I used to do Sportives when I had a road bike but I found it to be too elitist, I much prefer off road now and tend to stay away from group events. Do you do organised rides?

@BlobbyMcBlobface No, but a few of my friends do. I have one who enjoys "personal challenges". Here are two examples. He took his mountain bike to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and rode the trails down to Washington DC. His goal was to do it in under 24 hours. He went with two other people. One had a flat tire and the other had a wreck. They made it in 26.5 hours. Last summer they took their road bikes out to Venice California and rode to Venice Florida in 30 days. I personally couldn't do any of that.

@Musicman @Musicman I'm not fit enough to do challenges like those now, my hips kill me after a certain amount of riding or walking so it's more of a leisurely pastime now.