2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[PaD]

Brix says "What doesn't kill me, will make me stronger" Thank you Rab for your kind words!
She wrote to e-bike hater on Facebook: "The e-bike doesn't ride you. You ride e-bike. It is not it rides you from point A to B. You, unfortunately, need to pedal. Yet to each their own" ❤

Good!
Take it easy and don’t ride at unneeded speeds if Brix is new to e-bikes.

 

[Mistyscot]

Waldringfield ,longest ride so far

 

[ElRojo]

More wired weather and small thunder!

 

[Chargeride]

Spent today checking the weather, whats going on?
Rain for the next two weeks.

Luckily they are nearly always completely wrong after 2 days.
If the same people are doing the climate change calculations I expect we will be in an ice age by 2025.
Might get a two hour ride in tomorrow.

 

[Mulezen]

Nice weather this morning...72 degrees F...I was riding Dover road...thought I knew what was on it, then saw through the weeds these old ruins. The cows I include because, they're cows...ever since Gary Larson I've been hooked which is why I now have a few.

 

[AleksR]

Exploring Lublin and Beyond (feat. Dick Jagger)

That's gonna be a totally photo-overloaded post, sorry!

I met a guy nicknamed Dick Jagger (36 now) as a drummer for the original Polish punk-rock band ZWŁOKI 8 years ago. Our friendship has been building slowly; meanwhile Piotr left his hometown of Wrocław (Breslau) for Lublin in East Poland for personal reasons. Jagger got very interested in my e-bike escapades (which I report on FB), and he expressed great eagerness to ride together. The day has come: I have been preparing for the trip to Lublin (that included taking the Trance and the Vado with my station-wagon and considering the weather conditions) for a week. At 10:00 on Saturday, I met Jagger in the Old Town of Lublin, where he lives in a beautiful loft in an ancient town-house.

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Meet Jagger. Mr. Dick Jagger.

Lublin! The city that is never mentioned as a major tourist attraction of Poland. How wrongly! In the 15th-16th c. the Renaissance city was at the top of its importance and power. Here, King Casimir IV Jagiellon issued an edict giving freedom to Jews. Here, Poland and Lithuania created their Commonwealth in 1569, forming a European superpower state. Here, Prussia paid the Second Homage to the Kingdom of Poland in the same year. The city was saved from destruction in 1944 by a rapid action of the Soviet Army, preserving the city's beauty. Here, Soviet Union created the Communist Poland in 1944, too. The city that was in decline even 20 years ago is gorgeous now.

Many of you might have heard the name of "Lublin" because it was very important Jewish city before WWII. The author Isaac Bashevis Singer published his "The Magician of Lublin" novel in 1960, and that won him the Nobel Prize. A movie based on the novel (with the title song performed by Kate Bush) was released in 1979.

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However, we rode down the Lubartowska St. to see the Lublin Land at our journey start. A friend has told me the same place was a grim, dirty and dangerous location just 20 years ago. Now, there are flowers everywhere.

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At the border of Lublin and Łęczna counties. Jagger, as an early Millenial is in love with the modern technology so he caught on the idea of e-bike instantly. As a relatively young drummer, he is strong. He rode (on the average) half of the whole distance in the Off mode with the Eco mode for ascents, against headwind, and to ride faster.

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Jagger and me in the park of Zawieprzyce, 22 km from the trip start. "Zawieprzyce" means "a place beyond the River Wieprz". The name of the river Wieprz means "Hog"

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Our Eastern province (voivodship) of Lublin borders with Belarus and Ukraine. The Land of Lublin is mostly a farming country, although the chemical and aerospace industry can also be found there.

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Polish farmland is only rarely fenced, so we could eat delicious redcurrant straight from the plant at road-side.

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Jagger was an excellent ride companion, and he is a humorous person! Here, attempting to do the wheelie next to the redcurrant plantation

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The Land of Lublin is rich with cereals (there's even famous "Lublin Flour"!)....

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...hops, and tobacco. The soil is fertile there. A hops plantation can be seen in the picture. The "Lubelski", "Marynka", "Sybilla" etc. hops varieties contribute to the taste of Polish lager beers (nine hops varieties are grown in the Land of Lublin).

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A family of storks was very interested with us (Any prosperous Polish village has to sport a stork nest).

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We were able to find an excellent Polish restaurant "Oleńka" in the county-town of Łęczna. The soup called "chłodnik" or the "cold soup" was just delicious! I could describe the food served at Oleńka as "true Eastern Polish home-made countryside meals served with a city elegance". Oh my! That was really good!

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A horse on the Hog (meadow).

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-- "Your Trance is a lot of a bike!" -- mentioned Jagger upon first seeing the e-bike. It doesn't look as big in the picture here, does it. Here, we felt powerful after the lunch. Jagger put the POWER mode on and disappeared at the distance. He hit 51.5 km/h on the flat and also hit the speed limiter Oh no! I switched to the Turbo mode on my Vado, applied the cadence of 110 rpm and went into the hot pursuit. I hit the limiter at 47.4 km/h

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The harvest has just begun. (Do you call the machine "a combine harvester" in English? If so, the Polish name for it is "kombajn").

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The youngest airport in Europe: The Lublin Airport (LUZ) in Świdnik. I didn't know it existed before I saw it!

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I was stunned with the beauty of Lublin...

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Just remove the cars, road-signs and the antenna, and you are back in the Jewish Lublin...

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Lublin! The city unknown to the tourist crowds!

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The European Centre for Meetings and Culture. You can even find an excellent craft-beer pub there, Browar Zakładowy. And the vista point at the roof.

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Jagger was testing climbing and handling capabilities of Trance E+ there. For your information, the Vado 5.0 could climb to the half of the incline there only.

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Jagger was also testing the full-suspension in Ogród Saski (The Saxon Garden). It is not the Saxon Garden of Warsaw!

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Krakowskie Przedmieście (The Cracow Suburb) in Lublin. It is not the Cracow Suburb of Warsaw!
Lublin is a university city. There is the Marie Curie University and the Catholic University of Lublin as well as several smaller private universities in the city. That makes the city young and fashionable.

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Brama Krakowska (The Cracow Gate) of Lublin. It is not the Cracow Gate of Ojców, Lesser Poland!

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The (Renaissance) Main Square of Lublin. You actually needed a 15 mm ultra-wide-angle lens there to cover the square in it's entirety. My lens wide-end was at 24 mm, unluckily.

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The Magician of Lublin.

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"Święty Spokój" (Peace of Mind), a bookstore and vinyl record store combined with a cafe. Just like in America.

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The Lublin Castle.

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45 miles in Lublin and beyond. The stats have been updated from the Vado's display.

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Within Poland. It takes 2 hours drive from my place to Lublin over the excellent S17 freeway. It will be 1.5 h when the new Southern Warsaw Beltway has been finished.

Poland is now the most successful Slavic country and should be a beacon of hope for 300 million Slavs most of whom are still yoked by antiquated governments. Can't wait to visit Poland.

 

[Sifu Ben]

I like to ride at night. A lot less cars. Peaceful.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

The new fence …

Brisbane Valley Rail Trail
Wanora, Queensland​

Keeping us apart: cattle on one side, cyclists, horses and walkers on the other…

And just remember that fencing contractors don't always pick up every snipped-off bit of barbed wire!

 

[Chargeride]

This is the ebmx build.
Dont hold your breath

 

[RabH]

A foggy ride this morning so no photos this time but still a very enjoyable ride despite the lack of visibility! I was almost home when I spotted a roadie up ahead, I could see him looking back and slowing down! As I caught up with him we got chatting, he loved my bike and said his brother was looking for an e bike and could I recommend it! Needless to say he will be telling his brother how good my bike looks and how awesome it is!

I will add some more photos from Sunday's ride, I'm still on a high from it so the photos will remind me how awesome it really was!

 

[fooferdoggie]

it was 92 in portland so we went down the river to wade. felt so good. there is a great bike path in a small valley that is so much cooler then the rest of the city. no people around so no worries about a mask.

 

[Art Deco]

Sifu

I like to ride at night. A lot less cars. Peaceful.
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So did you make or buy the light rope vest @Sifu Ben ? It's very cool.

 

[Art Deco]

A foggy ride this morning so no photos this time but still a very enjoyable ride despite the lack of visibility! I was almost home when I spotted a roadie up ahead, I could see him looking back and slowing down! As I caught up with him we got chatting, he loved my bike and said his brother was looking for an e bike and could I recommend it! Needless to say he will be telling his brother how good my bike looks and how awesome it is!

I will add some more photos from Sunday's ride, I'm still on a high from it so the photos will remind me how awesome it really was!

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You ride some really lonesome roads . Don't think I ever saw another vechicle in your pics. Compare with London traffic.

 

[Art Deco]

it was 92 in portland so we went down the river to wade. felt so good. there is a great bike path in a small valley that is so much cooler then the rest of the city. no people around so no worries about a mask.

Are you two getting the cadence matching figured out Ok ? I think that would take an entire season.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Are you two getting the cadence matching figured out Ok ? I think that would take an entire season.

right now my wife is 2rpms slower then me. if I could find a 46t chain ring they would match. but since we are never in sync it does not really matter. though being locked together would be easier we have made it work.

 

[RabH]

You ride some really lonesome roads . Don't think I ever saw another vechicle in your pics. Compare with London traffic.

Yes I'm very lucky to enjoy quiet roads, its all about picking the right roads though as we do have some very busy roads which need to be avoided at all costs! Certainly nothing like London though!

 

[Twin Valley]

Speaking of quiet roads, today's ride took me to an almost ghostly area - suddenly about 17 miles into my early morning ride (that started at 14 degrees C and ended 3 hours later at 35 degrees C) in the middle of miles and miles of wheat fields I arrived at the abandoned WW II RCAF Areodome. 6 large and impressive looking hangars including the one pictured below are an almost forgotten reminder of this Flying Instructor School operated under the British Commonwealth with trainees from Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Graduates including my Uncle Arthur Pettifor then joined the Royal Air Force Bomber Command in England. Unfortunately, like so many before him Uncle Art's Lancaster Bomber was shot down on the last mission from north Yorkshire to Germany as the war ended in 1945. A second and less noteworthy reason for my trek, was that one of the hangars was missing as it had been moved many years earlier to the small town of Nanton to be recycled as a public school - this "school" became my first posting as a young, new school teacher in the late seventies - my memories of this building were the massive windows that allowed inspiring views of the early morning sunrise reflecting off the large grain elevators that are also disappearing from the landscape in most small rural towns in southern Alberta.

 

[Cowlitz]

Going in the morning, while the temps are in the high 80s and hit 90 something when I got home. Now it is 103.

I wanted to ride 20 miles and ended up riding 25 miles.

The start is down in the valley where there is sagebrush and then I ended up in the pines.
Here is where I turned around. Just before here, I suddenly felt HOT. I made lots of water sipping stops.

 

[Sifu Ben]

Sifu

So did you make or buy the light rope vest @Sifu Ben ? It's very cool.

You can buy from Nox Gear. The vest is the Tracer 360. Has all kinds of lighting modes. There is also a vest for the doggie. I got jealous of my dog because the wife bought her the vest. So I had to get one. https://www.noxgear.com

 

[Art Deco]

Thanks