2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Chargeride]

I rode up to our local TV transmitter tower on top of a hill and did a few tracks...got some video of a cute little village in the hills, a gorgeous and dodgy waterfall walk and some scary cows, went twice and the second time got in the van in my socks , drove there and found I'd left one boot in the house.
So had to do the ride in a pair of rappers white trainers/sneakers that I'd bought for fancy dress as we call it.
At least you cant miss me pedaling.

The tower is around 1500ft and you can get within 30ft of it and its just high enough to make you a bit queasy when you look up, mix in the weird howling noise from the cables and the cloud movement making it look like its falling over.
I wouldnt climb that thing for 10 thousand pounds.

Editing it now for my very niche channel...rappers on ebikes....

Two great days though in the hills, nothing fell off, well the controller did actually, but I taped it back on.
Oh and the front brake caught fire and I was just about to lift the bike over a fence to use a 'no cycling' track as a quick short cut and a motorcycle cop went past.
On a dirt track in the middle of nowhere!
Got back to the van both times, muddy, hungry and tired, its just so sweet to make it with battery left, throw the bike in the back and drive to KFC and stuff my face.
Happy days.

 

[RabH]

Well much to my astonishment I was wrong about returning to work, strange decision but it is what it is...the upside is more cycling so onwards and upwards! The last few days have been very windy and my legs were still tired from Sundays ride so I had a rest for a few days, it was so good to get back in the saddle today in ideal cycling conditions!

The highland cows were back in the local field again and these two were very inquisitve, the others were too busy feeding on the long grass!

Lots of little Shetland ponies in the field today, the young one was enjoying a rest!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

A Low-Speed Workout

There's going to be a group ride with "acoustic" cyclists this Saturday in Warsaw, so I took Brix on a ride in the neighbourhood to get her used more to her Vado and to properly set up assistance levels. She rode in 25/25 Specialized assistance, and I rode in Giant 75% ECO. Surprisingly (or not!), we both had the same 15% battery use in both e-bikes after 20 km, meaning that safe battery range might be some 75 miles (with avg speed 18.7 km/h). That's the slow riding benefit we -- e-bikers -- are so apt to forget. Brix made a funny thing at the end of the ride: while I sped up to 33 km/h on the Trance still in weakened ECO mode, she just went in 50/50 Sport assistance and overtook me on the last half a kilometre What a fun for her!

In Opypy, a village where Brix used to live for a while in her childhood as she and her brethren were moving with their Dad, a bricklayer. P.S. We both were to a hair-stylist in the morning, so I let Brix not to wear the helmet

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Hey Buck, where is that? Along the Ausable someplace maybe?

 

[Buckdubay]

Hey Buck, where is that? Along the Ausable someplace maybe?

Yes it is from the AuSable Chasm Bridge. It is on one of the loops I often ride.

 

[Chargeride]

A Low-Speed Workout

There's going to be a group ride with "acoustic" cyclists this Saturday in Warsaw, so I took Brix on a ride in the neighbourhood to get her used more to her Vado and to properly set up assistance levels. She rode in 25/25 Specialized assistance, and I rode in Giant 75% ECO. Surprisingly (or not!), we both had the same 15% battery use in both e-bikes after 20 km, meaning that safe battery range might be some 75 miles (with avg speed 18.7 km/h). That's the slow riding benefit we -- e-bikers -- are so apt to forget. Brix made a funny thing at the end of the ride: while I sped up to 33 km/h on the Trance still in weakened ECO mode, she just went in 50/50 Sport assistance and overtook me on the last half a kilometre What a fun for her!

View attachment 65012
In Opypy, a village where Brix used to live for a while in her childhood as she and her brethren were moving with their Dad, a bricklayer. P.S. We both were to a hair-stylist in the morning, so I let Brix not to wear the helmet

Is that o..pie.pie..or opyupyp as most brits would try to say.
Im not going with the brix..bricklayer

 

[Chargeride]

Its funny how videoing the pookery out of everything has changed my rides, because all my friends are still working, I'm having to ride alone a lot and its not a problem...only child and all, I'm totally at ease in my own company.

Its slowed me down to appreciate all the little things and Im probably teaching you how to cook eggs considering the photography on here...but instead of blasting through I'm going back over old tracks and seeing them from a more 'artistic' angle.
I stick them on the channel mainly to see them complete...share a lot via facebook and whatsapp with friends.
I guess Im trying to remind them I'm still alive.
I might upgrade to actual narration...but its a bit too personal if you see what I mean.
Anyway...if you have a spare 10 mins and dont feel obliged to like I'd be happy with ' this bits boring'.

 

[Mulezen]

Yeah...looking for pictures to post on old loops has me ‘seeing’ the landscape anew. Even riding routes in the other direction has yielded new sights. If I hadn’t put so much into my Trek I’d get a mirror-less camera

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Riding at the water's edge …

Redland Bay, Queensland​

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I might upgrade to actual narration...but its a bit too personal if you see what I mean.

Yes, you might and that would be good if you're ready to spend even more time on your videos!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

It's never too early to leave home …

.​

Pine Mountain, Ipswich, AU​

 

[Chargeride]

It's never too early to leave home …

.​

View attachment 65078

Pine Mountain, Ipswich, AU​

Is that edited or quality camera?
Just gorgeous

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Boardwalks …

Moreton Bay Cycleway, Redland Bay​

This soon-to-be-clattery elevated boardwalk across a mangrove-choked creek was crossed soon after I started my ride up to the old lighthouse (photo coming) at Cleveland Point.

I like these old-style bridges but unfortunately they don't last. This one is probably ten years old and already a dozen planks have been replaced. No need to complain: it'll see me through my ebiking days!

Here's a wider boardwalk through a melaleuca and casuarina wetland an hour or so up the trail (at 20 km on map above)…

And this year's addition (also at 20 km on map)…

During the 1980s a large area of Moreton Bay's southern wetlands were converted into canal estates (west of 35 km on map). Sob.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Self-repairing Puncture, Wedding Photography, No Kiełbasa!

No group ride on Saturday. It seems all people who wanted to ride had had good parties on Friday night, and the only person to ride with me was my trustworthy brother Jacek. Jacek was riding my Lovelec e-bike for quite a while (and I missed the Czech bike) so I let him ride my Trance while I enjoyed riding on my "regular e-bike" We got into trouble soon. Just after riding 1.6 km from Jacek's place, I discovered the battery had not been charged fully. Going back, replacing the battery. Then we reached the Młociny Park to discover I had a flat in the rear tyre! Jacek re-inflated the tyre, we rode some more kilometres more to discover we needed to re-inflate the tyre again.

-- That's annoying! -- I said -- It's the Schwalbe Marathon E-Plus tyre, something indestructible! No sign of a puncture on the tyre. The inner tube is Micheling Protek Max: guaranteed to re-seal itself. What gets?
-- Well, if it were a regular inner tube, you couldn't ride at all... The tube is losing pressure but quite slowly...
-- Jacek, we need a bike store. Anything opened today?
-- What do you need, exactly?
-- A new inner tube.
-- Well, Decathlon is just some kilometres away... But worse, we need two 18 mm wrenches since that's the hub-drive wheel... Castorama market is on our way to Decathlon. Let me inflate the tube with as much as 5 bars and let's ride fast!

Guess what? The Michelin Protex Max inner tube (with its sealant) really re-sealed itself on our way to Castorama! Yes, we bought the wrenches and a spare inner tube. I can bet the Michelin felt scared and did its advertised work... (Jacek told me the high inflation pressure might be the reason the sealant worked as advertised).

At the Gdański Bridge, the most beautiful of Warsaw Vistula Bridges. That's the favourite location for wedding photography!

We brothers at the Gdański Bridge. It was a great pleasure for me to ride the Lovelec again. In all honesty, that might be my single e-bike, especially with the Rock Shox Paragon air suspension fork we added to it. Silent motor, a bike feeling as it were a traditional one, great on battery use, giving a lot of workout when needed and fast when necessary!

What made me surprised and irritated was... You see, one thing you are almost guaranteed to get for eating in Poland is Kiełbasa. Something wrong happened to the Vistula Boulevards, though. There are many drink bars there. Regarding food, you can get hamburgers, vegan hamburgers, pizza, Tex-Mex but no Kiełbasa! Damn hipsters and their bars... We had to eat regular cheeseburgers instead and we had a mid-ride beer as well... (Something I normally disapprove!)

Interesting thing I could see was a CECH.BIKE booth at the Vistula Boulevards: They were renting and selling Riese & Muller cargo e-bikes!

On our return route, we had to find a detour because of the "Czajka" sewage-treatment plant disaster. Several days ago, a pipe transporting Warsaw sewage under River Vistula broke again. Meaning, all the sh** flowing into the river. It's a big scandal here because that happened for the second time. While temporary pipes are being laid, the area is sealed by the police and it is not easy to find a detour to get onto the Marie Curie Bridge.

Nice 50 miles. It was warmer than shown.

 

[Chargeride]

And I was looking forward to a picture of the sxxt pipe.

 

[Chargeride]

Sorry to go offtopic again, but forget that last embn posting.
They have excelled themselves with this utterly epic 4 day emtb trip across the Welsh mountains.
The camerawork..the scenery..two middle aged men living the dream.
Ive done a bit of this on bike and on foot, but just leave 30mins spare to soak up what we can dream of.

 

[reed scott]

Holy Cow!!! Those guys are TOUGH. Amazing adventure. Great testimony for the bikes as well. I really had no idea Britain ( OK Wales ) had that much rugged country. Just fantastic.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Cleveland Point Lighthouse …

It says ‘public toilets’ before the image appears. What were you looking for up there?

The Old Lighthouse
Cleveland Point, Moreton Bay​

The 'lighthouse' at Cleveland Point was a navigational beacon rather than a robust stone or concrete lighthouse to guide ocean-going ships. It was primarily intended to guide fishing vessels and the small paddle steamers that served farming communities.

In mid-1865 (end of American Civil War) its hexagonal wooden structure was considered extraordinarily modern; certainly it was compared with the previous oil lamp hanging from a post!

In 1975, by chance the year that Jen and I moved north to Queensland, the old light was decommissioned and moved a hundred metres or so to its present more convenient location… as noted above by Jay.

• Major Cycle Routes
• Minor Cycle Routes
• Mountain Bike Tracks

 

[reed scott]

Sorry to go offtopic again, but forget that last embn posting.
They have excelled themselves with this utterly epic 4 day emtb trip across the Welsh mountains.
The camerawork..the scenery..two middle aged men living the dream.
Ive done a bit of this on bike and on foot, but just leave 30mins spare to soak up what we can dream of.

I wish I could give you more likes for posting this .... even though it would have shown up in my you tube feed when I looked. These guys are great. I hope they are making a profit off all the good work they do. Neither of these guys are spring chickens yet they accomplished this 4 day epic. And no broken bones!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Wolumen, Horses (Vado Ride)

As I lent Jacek my Trance E+, I hadn't brought him a charger. Looking for a pretext for a Sunday longer ride, I offered my brother I would bring him Trance-related stuff to the Warsaw Wolumen market. Wolumen (located in my original home neighbourhood) was established in 1970s as a flea market. Later, you could buy stolen goods there, electronics, computer programs, and now it is a major market in organic food, although electronics is still on sale. (Jacek has been selling electronics for many years on every Sunday there). Nothing to show in pictures really. Yet it was a good workout for me, especially as almost the entire distance from my place to Wolumen can be taken by bike paths nowadays!

Bemowo is a residential quarter of Warsaw that took the space of a former military airfield. Boring, huge, airy.

A notable place next to the Automobilklub Polski in Bemowo: Warsaw Motorcycle Bazaar. If one wants to sell or buy a used motorbike, that's the place to go. (The main part of the market is located in the grounds of a current sports airfield (you can see an airplane in the pic).

Boring, boring, boring route but the pleasure could be taken from riding bike paths fast. Cold wind was spoiling the pleasure a little.

Over 90% of the route led through bike paths.

Ride data. I rode the whole way in Specialized Mission Control/Smart Control mode. That's a great invention! Unsure whether you can achieve your trip on a single battery? Activate the Smart Control, tell the app you want to ride for 60 km with 20% battery left at the end and just enjoy the pedalling! Your speed will depend on how strong you can pedal (I hate riding in the city though; the junction lights make the ride slow...)

Since my gf leaves on Tuesday, we went (or, drove) out for a good Polish dinner to a restaurant located in large stables in Kanie in the afternoon. The name of the stable is "Pa Ta Taj" (read: pah-tah-tay - the sound of horse hoofs in gallop).

Surprisingly, very few neighbourhood restaurants serve Polish food. Here, pork Polish style with buckwheat groats and shortly fermented cucumber.

The little equestrian girl asked me to help her carry a saddle to the storage room.

Brix with a mare named Akcja.

Beautiful mares.

My e-cycling adventure began in August last year. I was so disabled at that time I couldn't rise my left leg as shown now! Viva e-bikes!