2026 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

[DaveMatthews]

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One of my best ever bike rides plus 100 miler number 4 for July, what a month!

I set off just before 6am this morning with a ride out to Aberfoyle and over the Dukes Pass in my planned route, on reaching Aberfoyle I had a change of plan and what a decision that was! I made my way north down the back roads to Croy, stopping at the canal for this early morning photo! The wind was a westerly and pretty calm at 10-15mph but due to increase in strength throughout the day!

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I then turned west towards Twechar and Kirkintilloch where I had this stunning view of the Campsie Hills!

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After passing through Kirkintilloch I turned north towards Torrance and over the back roads to Lennoxtown and then west towards Strathblane! Then it was NW through Dumgoyne and north to Aberfoyle, I was just about to start up the big climb over the Dukes Pass when I decided to head west towards Stronachlachar instead with the intention of riding round the very beautiful Loch Katrine, on the way I passed many lochs, Loch Ard being the first one! I was hoping the wind would still be calm as I passed the lochs but it wasn't to be so I had to settle for choppy water...

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The road to Stronachlachar is just incredible with some pretty rough parts and super smooth parts like this!

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Loch Chon was next!

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Then came Loch Arklet which is surrounded by the mountains of the Trossachs!

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I stopped at Stronachlachar for a much needed break and some snacks and grabbed my first photo of Loch Katrine!

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The rider round Loch Katrine is 13 miles of ups and downs and twists and turns, it really is superb and has stunning views of Loch Katrine all the way round!

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I was glad to turn east as I rounded the loch and had a lovely 25mph tailwind at my back now! The stunning views just kept coming around every turn!

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This descent was amazing!

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Then I had this view of Stronachlachar from the top of the climb!

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Some of the path is very smooth and some is very rough, as the old saying goes you have to take the rough with the smooth!

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I was getting close to the pier at Loch Katrine now, the open water was very choppy even close to the pier! Way in the distance here is the Steamship Sir Walter Scott, I had the privilege of sailing round the loch in her at the end of May in perfect calm conditions!

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The path is very wide here!

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The Lady of the Lake was docked at the pier!

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The road out of the loch is badly in need of repair, they have fixed some of it but some parts are ridiculous! I continued east passing Loch Achray and the Tigh Mor holiday apartments!

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I was now at the eastern side of Loch Achray and stopped for this photo!

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I then passed Loch Venachar but the water was extremely low just like last year, I didn't bother stopping for any photos! At the end of the road I arrived in Kilmahog and headed east into busy Callander where I stopped for lunch, it was time to ride the main A84 for 10 miles! Thankfully with the 25mph tailwind I was flying along, every now and then I pulled in to let the traffic pass and got some nice cheery waves from some of the drivers! I'm sure many were cursing me also...

I was glad to finally leave the main road and turn south on the B8075, a couple of roadies had actually joined the road and were just ahead of me and they also took the road south! I then saw them turn east on a little back road so I decided to follow, I have passed this road many many times and I have been missing out for years as its just amazing! I actually thought it was a farm road...the views are just incredible all the way along it!

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The Ochil Hills!

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The road brought me out near Stirling, I will be using it again for sure! I made my way though the city, it has some very nice cycle paths! I then decided to head up the big climb from Whins of Milton up over the Campsies at the Stirling end, at this point I had covered 97 miles and changed to my final battery! With a full battery at my disposal I thought I would brave the climb into a 25mph headwind...

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I passed Loch Coulter near the top of the climb!

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The main reason I chose this climb was the 4 mile descent down into Denny with the wind at my back all the way down, it was just superb! From Denny I headed for Bonnybridge and passed over the canal just as this little boat was passing, they had a little sausage dog with them and it was loving it! Check the old guy on the right, I was sure he was going to dive in...he didn't!

View attachment 213140From Bonnybridge I headed south on my usual roads with lots of big climbs and arrived home at dinner time absolutely buzzing but totally knackered after a truly incredible day of cycling! This ride will live long in my memory, I was so glad I decided to ride round Loch Katrine! I am now nearing 48000 miles on my amazing bike, just 93 miles to go and a week remaining in July! What a month it has been with 4 big 100 mile rides, 674 miles from just 7 rides which is an average of over 96 miles!

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Phenomenal mate!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I set off just before 6am this morning with a ride out to Aberfoyle and over the Dukes Pass in my planned route, on reaching Aberfoyle I had a change of plan and what a decision that was!

Gorgeous route! How many miles did this change of plans add to the ride?

One of the beauties of ebiking: If you have the time and battery, the marginal cost of tacking on another 5-10 miles is pretty small. But since your rides tend to be 4-5 times longer than mine, that's like adding 25-50 mi to you.

 

[Chargeride]

I did 10 miles, OK it was straight up, I just cant imagine the time in the saddle..


The day started with a military? private jet flying flat out over us at like 300ft

The Welsh village of Llandrillo, this is taken right next to the van in the car park

The first gate of the bridleway out of the village

The first mile was very steep, but beautiful

Just five minutes in and the bikes have taken us all this far from the village

It got steeper and slightly rocky

No class three US mopeds

My second soaking of my sweater, it was only 22C ,but really stinking hot.

There should have been a path to Dans right, seems it is long gone, we had to cross country to the other bridleway

The path soon faded and the only way out was straight up through thick gorse, walk mode saved me, I walked all the way backdown to Dan and had to
tell him he has to keep his finger on the walkmode button

The path then went ludicrously steep, but the Levo powered up.
This level requires technique as much as power

I got a little light headed here, Dan was close to collapse!
Im sporting a splendid bowl cut at the moment, its along story.

Huge climb to the view point, Dan wasnt sure if he could make it so I left him to rest more

Very dramatic path and scenery

I returned after this shot and was going to lend him my bike, but it turned out he was in the red because his Auxillery battery was providing the power
and when he disconnected it his main battery was 100%
This is Cadair Berwyn

Of course its a hiking path so they make them near the edge for the views

5 mile descent, but requires maximum concentration

The bike wanted to do 45mph, but the chance of a fall at that speed was 90%, you just cannot read the terrain fast enough

It turned into a gorgeous winding farmers track

Lots of loose rock and dust, we crashed over it

Lllandrillo is just from another time

The carpark was free and the toilet block had showers, beautiful place.
We are both beaten up, Dan has twisted his knee, his neck and his shoulder, he fell off 18 times, started counting after 6.
Me..zero...OK once while stopped.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

This is Cadair Berwyn

You have earned my deepest respect, Charge! You are an MTBer by heart, and what you are doing is truly impressive! (I cannot wait to see your video about the trip!)

I've watched a video about the collapse of Raleigh Cycle Company. When Specialized Stumpjumper was out, the Raleigh board had a meeting. The executives asked: "Who would need a mountain bike in England?" and that was the first nail in the company's coffin. The guys forgot about Wales and Scotland; England is hilly enough as well!

 

[stompandgo]

@RabH , 8 hours in the saddle is remarkable. How many batteries were you carrying and how many did you use?

@Chargeride , just looking at those photos gives me the heebie jeebies. Outstanding riding.

 

[Chargeride]

You have earned my deepest respect, Charge! You are an MTBer by heart, and what you are doing is truly impressive! (I cannot wait to see your video about the trip!)

I've watched a video about the collapse of Raleigh Cycle Company. When Specialized Stumpjumper was out, the Raleigh board had a meeting. The executives asked: "Who would need a mountain bike in England?" and that was the first nail in the company's coffin. The guys forgot about Wales and Scotland; England is hilly enough as well!

Or two old men using ebikes to regain our youth

 

[JGcycle]

A pic from the turn around point of this morning's calm and relaxing 24km ride:

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Or two old men using ebikes to regain our youth

Same here, but with rides like that last one, I think you're regaining a lot more youth than I am.

 

[RabH]

A hundred and fleakin 30 miles.

Whats that, 10 thousand crank turns?

Probably not far off...

Phenomenal mate!

Cheers Dave!

Gorgeous route! How many miles did this change of plans add to the ride?

One of the beauties of ebiking: If you have the time and battery, the marginal cost of tacking on another 5-10 miles is pretty small. But since your rides tend to be 4-5 times longer than mine, that's like adding 25-50 mi to you.

Probably around 20 miles but it was worth it for the ride round Loch Katrine!

@RabH , 8 hours in the saddle is remarkable. How many batteries were you carrying and how many did you use?

@Chargeride , just looking at those photos gives me the heebie jeebies. Outstanding riding.

Always 3 batteries for long rides like that and I didn't have a lot left at the end of the ride, although I did have fun in level 3 assist up the steep parts when I could have got up on level 2... That ride was 2 hours less in the saddle than my 165 mile ride last month so way easier!

@Chargeride That was one epic climb mate, just wow!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Or two old men using ebikes to regain our youth

As I said, I cannot wait to see the video! It would be better than EMTBN as you guys didn't use a whole crew to help you en route! Also, the Isle of Rum video should be splendid!

 

[edobici_forza]

A short 1 hour ride to o get over to Woodside, I took a different route ...lots of traffic, but most of it has a dedicated bike lane. I saw a Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi prototype.
17.29 mi, Elev Gain: 988 ft, Time: 1h 0m. A small backyard vineyard in lux Woodside...

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The Friendship Pond

When my friend Jerzy was alive, we found our Friendship Square, which was equidistant (20 km) from our homes. Now, I've known Tommy for over 2 years now and we've become close friends. So we have designated another equidistant meeting point (14 km): The Friendship Pond in Raszyn.

There are many nice ponds in Raszyn (SSW of Warsaw and SW of Warsaw Chopin Airport). The ponds of Raszyn was the scene of Battle of Raszyn (1809) in which Polish Napoleonic forces fought the Austrian (and the Poles lost the battle). Fancy those narrow causeways and soldiers killed by the artillery fire there!

The new meeting point. I rode with the tailwind and the ride took me 40 minutes while it was 42 minutes for Tommy. My friend was to Sudovia twice this year and he completed the Sudovia Gravel Ride 100 on his second attempt. I decorated him with my own Finisher medal!

On the other hand, my friend hasn't forgotten of my birthday! He had pedalled to the distant village of Łoś to buy me a bottle of Łoś (The Elk) Vodka, which you can only buy in a single store in Poland!

I didn't want to waste the day. I decided we should pedal to Powsin through the Kabaty Forest.

We rode up Specialized Warsaw, where Tommy got a proper cycling helmet. It was a beautiful (discontinued) Airnet helmet at a discounted price. My impression of the current Specialized was not the best. The brand stopped making really nice e-bikes... Newer Vados looked like city bikes. Vado SL 2 (alloy) felt terribly heavy compared to my Vado SL 1. Yes, I might still buy a discontinued Tero if I needed that...

'You seem to have forgotten visiting us for a while?' the lady owner of META Bar remarked.

It became hot. The heat, headwind and loneliness made the ride back difficult.

My neighbourhood is located in the air corridors of the WAW/EPWA airport. I am now very much fond of the aviation. See the Emirates flight EK180 from WAW to Dubai scheduled at 15:10 CET. It was a Boeing 777-300 ER. Even if the aeroplane was climbing, I still could get a good photo of that huge machine in Pruszków!

A nice 40 mi ride on Vado SL

 

[Chargeride]

Tommy sounds very English, is that a nickname?
Is the Specialized love affair on the rocks?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Tommy sounds very English, is that a nickname?

Yes, Tomasz/Tomek prefers being Tommy (he can speak English). His last name of Mazurek means "a Mazovian" or "a Masur", very Polish.

We even have a cake by that name!

Is the Specialized love affair on the rocks?

As I said, I don't like the direction taken by the brand. Levos are good. Creo 2 is good. Apart, the e-bikes have become unattractive. The helmets are ugly or prohibitively expensive. I'm not impressed with the new TLR tyres either, I'm lucky as my both Specialized e-bikes are nice, good, and still refusing to break

 

[McApple]

DW and I are currently on Isle des Coudres, a small island in the St. Lawrence River, about 125km East of Quebec City; the island is only reachable by ferry, which is free. With beautiful views of the river, the hills along the mainland, and a 25km, relative flat road circling the island, it has become very popular with cyclists.

We started our ride around 0800, and it took us about an hour to go around the island. On our ride, we met better than 2 cyclists for every car, and we'll over half of the bicycles we're ebikes. I did another circuit of the island this afternoon, and while the traffic-level had increased, the ratio of bikes to cars and ebikes to analog bikes remained more or less the same. I didn’t keep track, but I doubt that I met more than 5 vehicles per kilometer on my afternoon ride, and less than half that in the morning.

Tomorrow we're off to Rimouski, a town further down-river on the Southern shore; it is supposed to have some great bike trails along the river.

 

[Chazmo]

I did 10 miles, OK it was straight up, I just cant imagine the time in the saddle..


The day started with a military? private jet flying flat out over us at like 300ft
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The Welsh village of Llandrillo, this is taken right next to the van in the car park
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The first gate of the bridleway out of the village
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The first mile was very steep, but beautiful
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Just five minutes in and the bikes have taken us all this far from the village
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It got steeper and slightly rocky
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No class three US mopeds
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My second soaking of my sweater, it was only 22C ,but really stinking hot.
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There should have been a path to Dans right, seems it is long gone, we had to cross country to the other bridleway
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The path soon faded and the only way out was straight up through thick gorse, walk mode saved me, I walked all the way backdown to Dan and had to
tell him he has to keep his finger on the walkmode button
View attachment 213152

The path then went ludicrously steep, but the Levo powered up.
This level requires technique as much as power
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I got a little light headed here, Dan was close to collapse!
Im sporting a splendid bowl cut at the moment, its along story.
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Huge climb to the view point, Dan wasnt sure if he could make it so I left him to rest more
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Very dramatic path and scenery
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I returned after this shot and was going to lend him my bike, but it turned out he was in the red because his Auxillery battery was providing the power
and when he disconnected it his main battery was 100%
This is Cadair Berwyn
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Of course its a hiking path so they make them near the edge for the views
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5 mile descent, but requires maximum concentration
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The bike wanted to do 45mph, but the chance of a fall at that speed was 90%, you just cannot read the terrain fast enough
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It turned into a gorgeous winding farmers track
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Lots of loose rock and dust, we crashed over it
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Lllandrillo is just from another time
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The carpark was free and the toilet block had showers, beautiful place.
We are both beaten up, Dan has twisted his knee, his neck and his shoulder, he fell off 18 times, started counting after 6.
Me..zero...OK once while stopped.

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That was quite a challenge, Charge. Nice!

 

[McApple]

We're currently waiting at the terminal, waiting on the ferry which will take us to the South shore of the Saint Lawrence.

For those thinking of touring the North Shore coastal highway, be aware that many of the slopes along the rugged coastline are in the 12%-18% range.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

We're currently waiting at the terminal, waiting on the ferry which will take us to the South shore of the Saint Lawrence.

For those thinking of touring the North Shore coastal highway, be aware that many of the slopes along the rugged coastline are in the 12%-18% range.

Sounds like a beautiful trip to places I know nothing about! We'd love to see some photos. You probably know about the file size limit (under 2 MB).

 

[McApple]

Sounds like a beautiful trip to places I know nothing about! We'd love to see some photos. You probably know about the file size limit (under 2 MB).

I'm a Luddite who can barely use my phone, and am consistently defeated by motel television instructions.

I am now starting to take pics with my phone, the next step(s) will be trying to figure out how to post them.

We literally live in the woods, and most of my biking is on rural back roads and rail trails through the woods and farmland. The cycling that we have done this trip has opened my eyes to the number of ebikes being used in metropolitan and tourist areas. Easily half of the riders are on ebikes.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I am now starting to take pics with my phone, the next step(s) will be trying to figure out how to post them.

We can help with that if you like. Details will vary by phone, but basically you'll be (1) taking the photo, (2) reducing a copy to under 2.0 MB (megabyte) file size, and (3) uploading that copy into your post. None of this is hard, but it takes a little know-how.

What's your phone make and model? If a recent Samsung Android phone, I can help.