2025 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

[Jeremy McCreary]

Trying to figure out if I can annotate with pictures placed in the route map

Not aware of a feature like that within RideWithGPS, but you can always go at a screenshot with a suitably powerful photo editor.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have to wonder if anyone has really, seriously, actually been arrested or charged with this.

One way to continue banter is to pretend not to understand the other person's jokes

Not aware of a feature like that within RideWithGPS, but you can always go at a screenshot with a suitably powerful photo editor.

RideWithGPS is not particularly strong with photo annotations. Komoot has its limitation, too. I think Strava is the only major system that allows photo thumbnail tabs on the ride map.

Perhaps you could run both RWGPS and Strava at the same time? (You don't need a subscription for Strava, only an account). Use RWGPS for navigation and recording, Strava for recording only.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

All the OEM suppliers call the mid-motor DriveUnit.

DriveUnit is something that has just broken and is in the process or replacing. Riders use motors (check if not Bosch)

Drive Unit.

Electric kettle.

 

[Chazmo]

Well, I’m curious if the link below works for you folks… I guess this is one way to share a ride and make the details available, but it’s directing you to the ridewithgps website, which I presume some of you won’t want to do. The good news there is that all the pictures are in the scrolling left-side, and the map (right-side) is interactive.

I wonder if it’ll let you view the ride if you don’t have a login there… Let me know.

Bagel Inn + MCRT

Breakfast to Quinapoxet St. entrance to MCRT. To power lines. Back to switchbacks to Mill St. To Manning St. To MCRT entrance again. Follow MC... - 12.2 mi, +542 ft. Bike ride in Holden, MA

ridewithgps.com

For those disinclined to visit ridewithgps, the following is my map (which at least I can take a screenshot of) and some choice pictures from the ride. This is not my whole ride, but it’s the most interesting part.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Well, I’m curious if the link below works for you folks… I guess this is one way to share a ride and make the details available, but it’s directing you to the ridewithgps website, which I presume some of you won’t want to do. The good news there is that all the pictures are in the scrolling left-side, and the map (right-side) is interactive.

I wonder if it’ll let you view the ride if you don’t have a login there… Let me know.

Bagel Inn + MCRT

Breakfast to Quinapoxet St. entrance to MCRT. To power lines. Back to switchbacks to Mill St. To Manning St. To MCRT entrance again. Follow MC... - 12.2 mi, +542 ft. Bike ride in Holden, MA

ridewithgps.com

For those disinclined to visit ridewithgps, the following is my map (which at least I can take a screenshot of) and some choice pictures from the ride. This is not my whole ride, but it’s the most interesting part.

View attachment 192299


View attachment 192300View attachment 192301View attachment 192302View attachment 192303

Beautiful ride! No shortage of ponds around Holden. Will THE Holden Pond please stand up?

I'm a RideWithGPS Premium subscriber. Link above works for me, and I can see the photos. But no photo POIs marked on the map shown, and no layer I can find to make them visible to me.

So screenshots may be your best bet. Too bad RideWithGPS doesn't label the photo POIs — say, with numbers in temporal order. Then you could post the map followed by an image with a caption like, "POI 3: Bridge to Holden Pond."

 

[Chazmo]

Beautiful ride! No shortage of ponds around Holden. Will THE Holden Pond please stand up?

I'm a RideWithGPS Premium subscriber. Link above works for me, and I can see the photos. But no photo POIs marked on the map shown, and no layer I can find to make them visible to me.

So screenshots may be your best bet. Too bad RideWithGPS doesn't label the photo POIs — say, with numbers in temporal order. Then you could post the map followed by an image with a caption like, "POI 3: Bridge to Holden Pond."

Jeremy, thanks! Good tip. I’ll use points of interest next time when I take a picture! An icon for that only seemed to show up toward the end of my ride, but I don’t recall seeing it earlier as I made my stops.

I’m going to take the year with the premium subscription (I’m on a trial period since I installed the s/w yesterday). This seems to be a valuable tool and will help me find stuff to explore even if it’s not meant to export data (other than taking screenshots, that is). Plus, bonus, I can charge my phone as mentioned earlier. That would’ve been a deal-breaker since I need the phone for emergencies otherwise, not just picture taking.

 

[Chazmo]

As Chazmo and Stefan have mentioned it is 'not usual' for smartphones to be charged from our ebikes' batteries. Here is one of the rare exceptions…

View attachment 192284


Bosch Kiox computer/display connecting smartphone to ebike's batteries:

• Charging symbol (lightning bolt at top right of iPhone).
• Mobile phone's charge level (alongside ebike's battery levels) on Bosch Kiox computer/display unit.
• Different leads connecting Kiox (ancient deprecated USB port) and iPhone (USB-C). Jumble of wires conveniently out of view!

After taking this photo I rode for about an hour and, as usual, recorded the event with the Ride with GPS app (map display on). Despite the obvious drain from running a GPS app, the iPhone's charge level rose from 61% to 85%.

Don't expect similar phone-charging from too many other ebike computer/displays (including Bosch).

Thanks for reading.
— VBR

By the way, VBR, holy moly!!! How many years have you been using this? And, that begs the question of how many years weren’t you… ~3700 active hours on the bike. That’s 154 days of actual saddle time! Not to mention ~130Kkm… My goodness!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Jeremy, thanks! Good tip. I’ll use points of interest next time when I take a picture! An icon for that only seemed to show up toward the end of my ride, but I don’t recall seeing it earlier as I made my stops.

Sorry, I was calling the little photo icons in your screenshot POIs. Maybe that's not what the app means by POI.

Still finding things RideWithGPS is good for. Example: To see a free topo map for any purpose, open the route planner and view the interactive map on the optional USGS topo base.

In that capacity, RideWithGPS beomes a supplement to Google Maps. In addition to accurate elevation contours, the USGS topos often show point elevations and place names for landscape features that I've found nowhere else.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Friends,
It has been decided: A South Mazovia Easter Tour

• Good Friday: Railway to Łaskarzew. On the wheels to Puławy (a beautiful city on the Vistula, Land of Lublin). Stay at a hotel.
• Holy Saturday: On the wheels to Kozienice (on the Vistula, Mazovia), the birthplace of King Sigismund I The Old Stay at a guesthouse for 2 nights
• Easter: Exploring Kozienicka Wilderness (gravel ride). "Sire, what has happened to that goat you shot at?" -- King: "Goat? Nothing. I missed" Kozie-nic means "Goat-Nothing"
• Easter Monday: On the wheels home through River Pilica (wooden gangways) and Warka (the hometown of Casimir Pulaski, the Father of American Cavalry; although he was born in Warsaw)

The forecast is: Summerlike dry weather with bearable wind The only issue is getting food for Easter and the following Monday. Provisions bought earlier and service stations are the only options! Taking my Vado 6.0 with a spare battery (just in case). I intend to be taking photos

Wish me luck

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

On the wheels to Kozienice (on the Vistula, Mazovia), the birthplace of King Sigismund I The Old

You'd think a king could get a better title for himself.

Enjoy your tour. Looking forward to the report!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Enjoy your tour. Looking forward to the report!

It all started wrong with the trains Now, instead pedalling for 60 km, I will need to make 108 The spare battery "just in case", see?

 

[Chargeride]

Boris Johnson’s cycling vision stutters as number of bike journeys fail to rise

Figures released by the Department for Transport show the average number of bicycle journeys per person has remained stable since a peak in 2020

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Chazmo]

Boris Johnson’s cycling vision stutters as number of bike journeys fail to rise

Figures released by the Department for Transport show the average number of bicycle journeys per person has remained stable since a peak in 2020

www.independent.co.uk

Not that I’m in the UK, but I’ve been unleashed for many years.

How do they collect that data anyway? I actually wonder if bike riding is up in the US. Here in Massachusetts there has been a much greater awareness of bike travel in recent years, and there are certainly many more bikeways and bike lanes than there used to be. I would actually think that since COVID, on average, many fewer people have to travel to get to their workplace, which I would think encourages local biking.

Of course, in Massachusetts, a bike is not practical transportation year-round. I don’t see a tremendous change at all in the number of riders.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

It's gonna be a 70 miler... I'm spent! The river seen here is the Wieprz (Hog!) some 19 km to the Puławy hotel. It is Summer warm!

70 miles I didn't expect!

As soon as I checked in the hotel, a violent thunderstorm erupted, and I mean "violent". Half of not a small city is on blackdown! I'm so lucky, dry in a cosy hotel that is still powered!

P.S. I am in Land of Lublin now. (Not Mazovia).

 

[JGcycle]

A few pics from today's 20km ride:

 

[Stefan Mikes]

A follow up:
The beautiful city of Puławy has been badly hit by the thunderstorm. Broken trees, flooding (the biggest hypermarket had to be evacuated), powerdowns...

The only people living at the hotel are Turkish contract workers for the chemical plant. They have a separate menu in their own tongue!

I met an old friend (we always do here). He helped me planning a picturesque route from Puławy to Kozienice along the Vistula.

I should have planned the trip differently: spend Good Friday and Holy Saturday in Kozienice and the Easter in Puławy. The hotel restaurant is open on Easter here!

Unlike a big city restaurant (small portions, high price) you can get a big portion at a lower price in a small industrial city located in the farming area!

The laugh of the last night on my social media. "Riding e-bike made me slim and taller!"

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Snake bitten

Let me tell you the whole story within a few days. Enough to say the yesterday disaster created some phenomena. When I was riding in a Kazimierz Dolny street, I rode in mud so deep it sucked me in as it were a bog! Fortunately, I still could use my mobile phone.

Called 112. Firefighters came in to rescue me from the dire situation...

They washed the e-bike as well as my hands, shoes and legs.

A Polish tradition called Lany Poniedziałek (Spray Monday) requires people pour water onto one another on Easter Monday. I had it already done on Holy Saturday!

The main battery stopped working* because of water ingress. The spare one works OK. Again, I'm lucky

45 km left to my next destination, Kozienice in South Mazovia.
––––
*) The battery came back to life after several hours I'm now just 10 km to my destination.

 

[Base]

Although in France (Savoie) had a meter of snow and in the East there was a down pour we have almost summer conditions this weekend.

After household tasks I did a quick round tour of almost 30 km in 1:15-ish. Quiet in the forest and really nice weather to ride.

Ran into a dead end (calculated) and a war time monument.

We do see that nature is struggling and needs a few big showers.... Hope that next week we could some rain.

 

[Chargeride]

Snake bitten

Let me tell you the whole story within a few days. Enough to say is the yesterday disaster created some phenomena. When I was riding in a Kazimierz Dolny street, I rode in mud so deep it sucked me in as it were a bog! Fortunately, I still could use my mobile phone.

View attachment 192328
View attachment 192329
Called 112. Firefighters came in to rescue me from the dire situation...

View attachment 192330
They washed the e-bike as well as my hands, shoes and legs.

A Polish tradition called Lany Poniedziałek (Spray Monday) requires people pour water onto one another on Easter Monday. I had it already done on Holy Saturday!

The main battery stopped working* because of water ingress. The spare one works OK. Again, I'm lucky

45 km left to my next destination, Kozienice in South Mazovia.
––––
*) The battery came back to life after several hours I'm now just 10 km to my destination.

I'm laughing, I can't stop picturing Stefan spinning the cranks, while the firefighters onlook with their hands on hips.
' I havf tried every gear'.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I'm laughing, I can't stop picturing Stefan spinning the cranks, while the firefighters onlook with their hands on hips.
' I havf tried every gear'.

No no Chris. I was sucked in. Meaning my shoes acted as anchors (deep inside the mud and totally covered) and the e-bike was similarly stuck. I could not move myself at all! I found a way to get out from the mud while still preserving my shoes (which cost me a pair of socks). The firefighters (as they arrived) were glad they wouldn't need to risk losing their own rubber boots. They helped me become cleaner in a good mood and friendly.