2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

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I decided to blast the sand dune paths by my house, I expected a week of rain to have hardened the sand, but it was like riding on pillows, bikes not really set up for soft sand at all, 2.5 front, 3.0 rear.
Its more skiing than riding, certainly a great work out and if you pick an overcast day you get them to yourself.
There must be 50miles of trails and you always have a clear view for pedestrians, so its safe to gun it a bit as long as you slow down for some of the tight corners obscured by trees.
Ive lived here 20 years and still find a new path everytime, these trails are far from the car parks and have no specific right of way or restrictions.
Certainly I dont feel I'm doing any serious damage, my tracks will be gone the next day due to the sea winds.
The winter is the best time to ride as the sand hardens and you get the entire 15m beach alone ,except for some hardy dog walkers.
Its complete brain overload trying to stay upright and also contributed to the phase wire issue in the photo I posted.

You go near one of Englands top golf courses ..Royal Birkdale, with its glorious Art Deco clubhouse, and I have watched Tiger Woods playing from the top of a sand dune.

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As usual I made a quick vid, dont want to batter you with vids, but its here if you dont mind some dance music :)

 
Copenhagen Pre-Breakfast Ride

A leisure day. We were in Elsinore (the town of Hamlet) and went to Sweden yesterday. The night ended with live music in a bar down our street and a lot of booze 😊 There also was fire alarm in our hotel (I guess it became too hot heheh) 😃This morning (when Brix was still asleep), I took a Lime e-scooter and rode to see whether the Amalienborg Royal Palace was still there 🤔 I can ride the Lime, there is mostly asphalt on excellent bike paths in CPH (some cobblestone, too) but it was a little bit too much of adrenalin to my liking.

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From Rådhuspladsen to Amalienborg. See average speed, important thing (explained later).

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In Sankt Annæ Plads. I decided I wouldn't come back with the Lime. Downloaded Donkey Republic app to my smartphone. The app told me I could rent a trad or an electric bike. No use for an e-bike for 2.5 km...


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Rented a mechanical Donkey named Ivory that waited behind the statue of King Christian X.

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What a fun! 3 gears, adjustable seatpost, comfy handlebars, classical city bike. I was navigating from the top of my head as I have known the Central Copenhagen quite well. And, bear in mind, Copenhagen is made for cycling!


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A Donkey needs to be returned to a "drop off zone". The app will tell you where the nearest zone is. (Lime can be left almost anywhere but not at the Royal Palace of course) 😊

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With the Ivory from Amalienborg back to the hotel. The average speed was almost identical with the one of e-scooter.


A lot of fun!
 

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After 3 days of incessant rain I finally managed to get out again, it was a bit windy but dry! I had a lovely 10 miles with the strong wind behind me, that sure was fun! :D No photos today, I just wanted to ride my bike and have no distractions! I have now covered 11,005 miles on this wonderful bike, it really has changed my life for the better! Because of the heavy rain the past few days the back roads were saturated so I had to use the main roads which were ok thankfully, I managed to pick the right time just after all the schools were in!;)

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Copenhagen Pre-Breakfast Ride

A leisure day. We were in Elsinore (the town of Hamlet) and went to Sweden yesterday. The night ended with live music in a bar down our street and a lot of booze 😊 There also was fire alarm in our hotel (I guess it became too hot heheh) 😃This morning (when Brix was still asleep), I took a Lime e-scooter and rode to see whether the Amalienborg Royal Palace was still there 🤔 I can ride the Lime, there is mostly asphalt on excellent bike paths in CPH (some cobblestone, too) but it was a little bit too much of adrenalin to my liking.

View attachment 63715
View attachment 63716
From Rådhuspladsen to Amalienborg. See average speed, important thing (explained later).

View attachment 63710
In Sankt Annæ Plads. I decided I wouldn't come back with the Lime. Downloaded Donkey Republic app to my smartphone. The app told me I could rent a trad or an electric bike. No use for an e-bike for 2.5 km...


View attachment 63711
Rented a mechanical Donkey named Ivory that waited behind the statue of King Christian X.

View attachment 63712
What a fun! 3 gears, adjustable seatpost, comfy handlebars, classical city bike. I was navigating from the top of my head as I have known the Central Copenhagen quite well. And, bear in mind, Copenhagen is made for cycling!


View attachment 63714
A Donkey needs to be returned to a "drop off zone". The app will tell you where the nearest zone is. (Lime can be left almost anywhere but not at the Royal Palace of course) 😊

View attachment 63717
View attachment 63718
With the Ivory from Amalienborg back to the hotel. The average speed was almost identical with the one of e-scooter.


A lot of fun!
Ive noticed that the music is copyright highlighted in my vids and always totally blocked in one country on Earth.
Denmark.
I checked and it applies to every video.
Strange.
Edit...I searched it.
Youtube and Denmark have fallen out
 
A ride to the big city of Riverside, WA which is another one of those boom towns from the 1800s that is now quite small. It consists of an antique shop, a small grocery gas station, a good sized western store, and a soon to be opened restaurant. That's what the banner on the front says--OPENING SOON.

Here is a history of the place.
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I rode out, into the suburbs of Riverside until the road became gravel and turned into a privately owned road. Since folks like cow pictures, here are some black angus bulls who were relaxing. There were a couple on the hill. One of the hillside bulls was lying down and his buddy was throwing dust on both of them. My zoom was not sufficient to get a picture of that action.
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Meanwhile, back in downtown Riverside, there was a Studebaker. I think.
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The store.
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At 28 miles, my bum needed a time out so these two were waiting to pose for pictures. The spotted one is an Appaloosa which was favored by the Nez Perce tribe and bred by them. In fact, I was under the impression that they developed the breed, but there is a documentary on line somewhere that I watched where a woman tracks down the breed to one of the 'Stans near Mongolia and takes DNA samples from a horse showing the Appaloosa characteristics, and finds them to be related to the American horses. The one here looks to be a yearling or at least a young 'un.
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Four miles later, I was home.
 
Rode the go-to route around the Seaplane Base again today, but finally managed to hit high tide!

The harbor that looked like this last time:
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Looked like this today:
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The slough that looked like this:
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Looked like this:
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And, since I had Map My Ride running as a back up, the Giant app worked and saved my ride!

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Giant said I went 11.8 miles, MMR said 11.27. Not sure which is more accurate - I guess I need to run a THIRD app to triangulate!

Another glorious summer day on the Rock!
 

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QUOTE="Cowlitz, post: 323674, member: 19514"]
A ride to the big city of Riverside, WA which is another one of those boom towns from the 1800s that is now quite small. It consists of an antique shop, a small grocery gas station, a good sized western store, and a soon to be opened restaurant. That's what the banner on the front says--OPENING SOON.


Meanwhile, back in downtown Riverside, there was a Studebaker. I think.
View attachment 63759


[/QUOTE]
Yup! Definitely a 1951 Stude! The mouse nose is iconic. When I was a kid I used to see a lot of these on the street.
 
A Copenhagen Pre-Lunch Ride 😃

Just rented a Donkey (name of Mulan) and rode westwards, through quarters of Vesterbro and Frederiksberg. Before I reached the Zoo, I had to ride up a steep hill with that mechanical, three-gear city bike. I made it!
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Somewhere in Vesterbro.
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100% Rye Bread Motor 😃

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A bandit :)

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Just after the climb.

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I think that was a Romanian wedding.

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12.9 km with average speed of 14 km/h.
 
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My better half and I rode a portion of the Banks-Vernonia trail. Oregon's first rail to trail, according to Wikipedia the line was abandoned in 1973.

This trip was also the inaugural for the Kuat NV Base 2.0 which performed it's duties well.
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We encountered this at both ends of the trestle.
BVswarm.jpg but no swarm was to bee seen. This time of year in the PNW has ripe blackberries all over the place and on our return to the southern trailhead I emptied my Gatorade water bottle and we did some harvesting...BVberries.jpg... which lead to a rather delicious breakfast the next couple of mornings.... BVbreakfast.jpg

The trestle from above...
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The trestle from below...
BVtrestle2.jpg
 
View attachment 63820

My better half and I rode a portion of the Banks-Vernonia trail. Oregon's first rail to trail, according to Wikipedia the line was abandoned in 1973.

This trip was also the inaugural for the Kuat NV Base 2.0 which performed it's duties well.
View attachment 63821

We encountered this at both ends of the trestle.
View attachment 63822 but no swarm was to bee seen. This time of year in the PNW has ripe blackberries all over the place and on our return to the southern trailhead I emptied my Gatorade water bottle and we did some harvesting...View attachment 63823... which lead to a rather delicious breakfast the next couple of mornings.... View attachment 63824

The trestle from above...
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The trestle from below...
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Beautiful photos!
 
Denmark, The Cycling Country

As you know, Danes are the cycling nation. Basic city bike (of the Dutch type) is the norm although any type of bike can be seen there.
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This photo is quite iconic. Electric scooters (for rental) are very popular in Copenhagen.

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A bike parking lot in the small town of Elsinore (Helsingør).

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Bike traffic density meter in Elsinore. 216 cyclist have passed the sign on that day, and at least 100,000 is the accumulated yearly figure.

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The bike path system is just enormous. Bike lanes (or, more often dedicated bike paths) are one-way. If you ride in the opposite direction, you will ride with the traffic.


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The Danish are in love with cargo bikes. The large ones are electrified with huge Direct Drive motors. Here, cargo bike manufacture in Freetown Christiania.

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Funny to think about it but the Danes seem to be somewhat behind countries such as Germany in e-cycling. That is strange because there is a big number of electric, hybrid, and fuel-cell cars in Denmark. If anyone rides a non-cargo e-bike in Copenhagen, that would be the rack-battery, front-hub motor one. I could only spot two Stromer; and a single Cannondale with mid-drive motor and integrated battery there. I think short distance and flattish terrain make it hard to find the niche for recreational e-bikes in Denmark.
The Mate (in the picture) is a strange exception: I could see several of them.
 

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I had a truly epic ride today in perfect cycling conditions, very little wind for a change! It was only 4C at first but it warmed up nicely and reached a lovely 16C, just perfect for me! It has been almost a year since I last cycled over our iconic Forth Road Bridge, today was so different from the last time as there was very little wind and it was a real joy to cycle over the bridge! When its windy it can be scary depending on the wind direction, last year it was very scary and I was glad when the crossing was over!

Lots of cyclists out today enjoying the calm conditions, after a horrendous week of weather it was such a lovely change! When I got home I noticed I have covered 699 miles this month, luckily there is a day left to pass 700 and the weather looks promising tomorrow!

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This was just a fluke catching the gull in full flight soaring above the 130 year old Forth Rail Bridge!

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The road bridge pictured here will be 56 years old on September 4th!

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The old road bridge was replaced 3 years ago today by the Queensferry Crossing below at a cost of £1.35 billion, sadly the new bridge has motorway (freeway) status so no cycles allowed! The new bridge has only been closed once since it was built, due to large lumps of ice and snow dropping on to vehicles on the carriageway, thankfully nobody was hurt! The old bridge was closed to high vehicles many times due to high winds resulting in a 35 mile detour, the new bridge has side screens which divert the wind away from the vehicles!

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The hill with the masts in the distance overlooks Knockhill Racing Circuit which is hosting a round of the British Touring Car championships today, I would have been there today but no spectators are allowed due to Covid19! :( I'm still hopeful of seeing some racing before the season ends in October, I have been attending every year since 1979!

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View attachment 63820

My better half and I rode a portion of the Banks-Vernonia trail. Oregon's first rail to trail, according to Wikipedia the line was abandoned in 1973.

This trip was also the inaugural for the Kuat NV Base 2.0 which performed it's duties well.
View attachment 63821

We encountered this at both ends of the trestle.
View attachment 63822 but no swarm was to bee seen. This time of year in the PNW has ripe blackberries all over the place and on our return to the southern trailhead I emptied my Gatorade water bottle and we did some harvesting...View attachment 63823... which lead to a rather delicious breakfast the next couple of mornings.... View attachment 63824

The trestle from above...
View attachment 63827

The trestle from below...
View attachment 63829
I like that a lot.
 
I had a truly epic ride today in perfect cycling conditions, very little wind for a change! It was only 4C at first but it warmed up nicely and reached a lovely 16C, just perfect for me! It has been almost a year since I last cycled over our iconic Forth Road Bridge, today was so different from the last time as there was very little wind and it was a real joy to cycle over the bridge! When its windy it can be scary depending on the wind direction, last year it was very scary and I was glad when the crossing was over!

Lots of cyclists out today enjoying the calm conditions, after a horrendous week of weather it was such a lovely change! When I got home I noticed I have covered 699 miles this month, luckily there is a day left to pass 700 and the weather looks promising tomorrow!

View attachment 63886

This was just a fluke catching the gull in full flight soaring above the 130 year old Forth Rail Bridge!

View attachment 63887

The road bridge pictured here will be 56 years old on September 4th!

View attachment 63889

The old road bridge was replaced 3 years ago today by the Queensferry Crossing below at a cost of £1.35 billion, sadly the new bridge has motorway (freeway) status so no cycles allowed! The new bridge has only been closed once since it was built, due to large lumps of ice and snow dropping on to vehicles on the carriageway, thankfully nobody was hurt! The old bridge was closed to high vehicles many times due to high winds resulting in a 35 mile detour, the new bridge has side screens which divert the wind away from the vehicles!

View attachment 63890

The hill with the masts in the distance overlooks Knockhill Racing Circuit which is hosting a round of the British Touring Car championships today, I would have been there today but no spectators are allowed due to Covid19! :( I'm still hopeful of seeing some racing before the season ends in October, I have been attending every year since 1979!

View attachment 63894
That seems to be main design thesedays..we have had two bridges built just like that in the last five years.
 
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