Riding alone most of the time, do you?

[Mamil]

I ride alone most of the time - probably 95% - both mtb on the Tygerberg trails and tokai and road around the peninsula - I have a mate I occasionally ride with but he gets grumpy cos he's not really fit enough. I also belong to a group that organises large rides and I sometimes join them - I enjoy that too but I really enjoy riding alone - being with my thoughts, I love being in the middle of nowhere by myself.

As for the dangers - well I have the Garmin tracking function and my cell phone is an el cheapo and my bikes are all insured and I am certainly not giving up my pleasures out of anxiety about the dangers - I'm avoiding the mountain at the moment for obvious reasons although I agree with the counter argument that we should keep showing up in public spaces and not allow criminals to dominate these beautiful spots. 

I also have an ICE bracelet and I have a pepper spray velcro'd to my top tube and I've practiced being able to whip it off, arm it and spray while riding so ....

You pays your money and you takes your chances

[Bike Dewing]

2 minutes ago, Mamil said:

I ride alone most of the time - probably 95% - both mtb on the Tygerberg trails and tokai and road around the peninsula - I have a mate I occasionally ride with but he gets grumpy cos he's not really fit enough. I also belong to a group that organises large rides and I sometimes join them - I enjoy that too but I really enjoy riding alone - being with my thoughts, I love being in the middle of nowhere by myself.

As for the dangers - well I have the Garmin tracking function and my cell phone is an el cheapo and my bikes are all insured and I am certainly not giving up my pleasures out of anxiety about the dangers - I'm avoiding the mountain at the moment for obvious reasons although I agree with the counter argument that we should keep showing up in public spaces and not allow criminals to dominate these beautiful spots. 

I also have an ICE bracelet and I have a pepper spray velcro'd to my top tube and I've practiced being able to whip it off, arm it and spray while riding so ....

You pays your money and you takes your chances

Have you actually sprayed it.? Are you sure you not going to get yourself with any back spray while riding.?! 😳🤣

[Squier]

I mostly ride alone too. I love riding in a group but fitting riding in between the kids' activities means that I need to ride at different times than the usual Saturday mornings. I run Garmin Live Track and hope for the best... It is what it is. 

[Johan A Marais]

Ride alone, 99% of the time.  Have with me an Evac24 GPS SOS button that I can activate and talk over.  Pretty neat and of use if you get separated from your phone.  If I activate my wife gets a message and can phone me on the device, and a 24-hour response centre makes contact and sent out to my GPS coordinates the required response team.  Pretty cool...

[Mamil]

7 minutes ago, Michael Dewing said:

Have you actually sprayed it.? Are you sure you not going to get yourself with any back spray while riding.?! 😳🤣

I'm not sure what it would do in a strong headwind - but the jet is pretty forceful and doesn't come back at me riding at about 12 kmph or so.

[Bike Dewing]

1 minute ago, Mamil said:

I'm not sure what it would do in a strong headwind - but the jet is pretty forceful and doesn't come back at me riding at about 12 kmph or so.

Yeah they normally a nice strong stream rather than a spray.🤘🏻🤣🤣 . I just thought it would be a nasty but kind of funny surprise if you had to use it one day, which I truly hope never happens, and got a face full of it..😳 

[Eddy Gordo]

1 hour ago, Sepia said:

I only ride alone.  Always have.  I also think I am crazy but I cannot tolerate idle chatter and the "race" a social ride eventually turns out to be.

Same here. I am no race snake either. Groups generally get fed up with my slow pace and ride away from me. I cant be bothered. There are a few that do tolerate my pace also, but I also find alot of the times people are buys and dont have the time as often.

[Dirt Tracker]

Always ride alone. Never tooled up. Never had any issues despite needing a bike upgrade and having been paying insurance for many years and would give my bike to the first person who even looked like they might want to take it. Nuts. Never let fear or paranoia be my driving force. 

I do play well with others. Just don't have time to wait about while people get their lives together and pitch. 

[wolver]

Alone 99% of the time, no mates🤷‍♂️

This thread would be interesting as a poll.

[The Ouzo]

6 minutes ago, wolver said:

This thread would be interesting as a poll.

its interesting as a greek too  

[lechatnoir]

I ride alone, not because of where I am, but the schedule (or lack thereof) I keep. Perhaps this speaks to my lack of accountability towards my fitness and diet (ok, it definitely does), but as Eddy said above, my pace is low and I get irritable knowing others are probably waiting for me. I just rather ride alone.

I use Garmin tracking, I have an ICE ID on my wrist and helmet and when there are cars about, my Varia does some heavy lifting for me.

[NotSoBigBen]

1 hour ago, Michael Dewing said:

I’ve never been able to get the garmin live tracking to work..🤷🏼‍♂️

As I said mine works most of the time ... I have found it does depend on the firmware on the phone and device being up to date as well as the Connect App 

This might seem a bit 'nuts' but I always carried my phone in my middle cycling jersey pocket, the device is on my stem, I find it more reliable since I've moved it to the side pocket go figure

I do wear an ICE bracelet, 2 of my falls quite some time ago it was damn helpful!

Edited December 6, 2023 by NotSoBigBen

[Bike Dewing]

13 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

As I said mine works most of the time ... I have found it does depend on the firmware on the phone and device being up to date as well as the Connect App 

This might seem a bit 'nuts' but I always carried my phone in my middle cycling jersey pocket, the device is on my stem, I find it more reliable since I've moved it to the side pocket go figure

I do wear an ICE bracelet, 2 of my falls quite some time ago it was damn helpful!

Is it natural to just put your phone in the middle pocket.? Cos speaking of nuts I feel like if it’s in the left or right pockets it can be grabbed off me easier..🤣🤣🤣🤣 

I have an ice bracelet on my plate carrier(body armor).. I should think about using it while cycling🤔.. *edit “the ice bracelet, not the plate carrier” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

But also what happens happens man 🤷🏼‍♂️I live in a way that I know there is evil and horrendous things out there and I’ll prepare for it as best I can,  but I’m not going to live in complete paralyzing fear of it.. 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Michael Dewing

[love2fly]

99.999 % solo on Road and MTB in the Cradle. Once in the weekend the 2 weekend rides. Worst mishap was getting taken out by a car - luckily insurance replaced frameset and just broken ribs...🙂

[ChrisF]

Few weeks back the wife and I were driving out towards Philladelphia.  I showed her the STRING of "lone cyclists" out on the road.  Riding alone, but certainly not alone.

 

Between work and family my schedule is eratic at best.  So 99% of my rides are alone.

 

With Maritz now a teenager, his schedule is filling up fast, and sadly we spend less time together on the trails.

 

Now once @KB280DT finishes unpacking and gets back on his bike, it would be nice to have a couple of 2-man rides again.  JA, tyd dat ons weer gaan trap ou maat 

 

 

Road I go out alone.  Every so often another rider would ask to take my slip into the wind  (ebikes seems popular when there is a head wind).  Typically we will ride together 5 to 10km.  

 

 

MTB I ride the Tygerberg trails "alone".  Again, you are never truly alone on these trails.  I have tried some of Stellenbosch trails after work, also alone.  NOT nice being on new trails, especially when you cant see any other riders.  Couple of missing trail markers and getting lost really did not help.  Longer rides of Hermanus trails I will only do with a friend  (need to get out there again, must check if these trails have been fixed).

 

 

So maybe I only do 94% of my rides alone ..... 

 

 

Phone .... old cheapy.  And the bikes are insured.

 

 

As a diabetic I once had an issue where Philladelphia had its cables stolen.  All restaurants were closed, and I could not get anything to eat .... I had a decent sugar low by the time I reached Durbanville.  Since then I always have at least 2 extra energy bars.

[Jewbacca]

I often ride Tokai and the Green belts alone and very occasionally alone on the road.

I do however run almost exclusively alone. Be it on the road or up the mountain, the  only person I ever run with is @ridr when he visits Cape Town.

I take my dog and we do what we do. I too am well aware of the dangers,  but I have a few  processes I have in place when I see others I don't  like the look of that I feel would give me a good heads  up.

I dislike trail running in groups. Too much chatting, waiting and inevitably photos and all sorts  of faffing. 

I generally dislike groups for anything. More than 5 or 6 people and a switch gets flipped,  mob mode engaged and some sense of mob mode entitlement/zero accountability kicks in. 

Me  included. 

I find it best to not put myself in that situation