To See Jerzy
With the recent
winter weather, I need to find a good pretext to make a really long ride. On Friday evening, I looked at my very old route plans: Just surprise my friend
@Jerzy Bańkowski and pay him a visit at home. The last time I attempted such a ride, my old buddy was out riding himself, we didn't meet at that time, and my trip ended up with a 75-miler
On Saturday morning, I got prepared. Put on my Winter Armour #2 (the one with leather hiking boots and heated socks) and rode out with my freshly 100% maintained Vado, taking the Hwy 719 first. While I was riding through Pruszków, some pedestrian tried to shout me to use the bike path! I got terribly irritated (I am not allowed to use bike paths with the S-Pedelec) and went into some unpleasant verbal argument with the guy
While in Warsaw, I had to use many bike paths anyway: If I rode any of the inner city arteries, no driver would have understood...
After having ridden twenty-some km, I took a stop at Mokotów Fields, which is a large park; in early aviation history, the Fields hosted the first Warsaw's airfield. I gave Jerzy a phone call and indeed, it was too cold for him to ride out: 1 C, perceived temperature of -2 C (low 30s F), wind. Soon, I discovered my gloves had been too thin. Replaced them with the "turtle" style ones from the pannier.
One of many murals under the Siekierkowski Bridge flyover. This one is for the 50th anniversary of the University Club for Cycling Tourism.
I let Jerzy (and my gf) track my ride online via Strava Beacon. The feature works perfectly, is precise and updates the rider's position and the route already completed every 30 seconds or so. Jerzy was actually waiting for me at his gate!
No pictures as neither of us had had a shave for a week
During the stay at Jerzy's, I replaced the Vado 604 Wh battery. The 40.8 km ride has left 43% of the first battery; I was riding downwind in 35% Eco mode.
Another Siekierkowski Bridge mural.
Boredom. Dreary weather, cold adverse wind on the way back. I had to increase the assistance to 50% Sport mode to keep at least some decent speed (and the speed was only 24 km/h or 15 mph).
Jerzy had a lot of fun with watching my ride on Strava Beacon. As a die-hard traditional cyclist making many thousand of kilometres a year, he knows all the paths and streets. He was commenting my endeavours live on Facebook. Like: "You have crossed a lawn! Bad boy!"
Ferrari Warszawa, near to the Warsaw Chopin Airport Cargo Terminal. I could see potential buyers at that Saturday afternoon.
A single thing made me miserable: I should have replaced the Vado pedals with the spiked ones. The soles of my boots tended to slip on the current pedals a little. I was finishing my ride at night (I came home at 5 p.m). And - the battery! Although the internal battery temperature was as high as +13 C, the headwind made me return home (45 km) with only 6% left at that spare! What a difference compared to the outbound ride!
(I'm afraid I could have caught cold. No ride today!)
Detailed ride map. Note that the ride to Jerzy could be completed via the Gassy Ferry (if it were operating) or the new Southern Bridge (were it completed). The Southern Bridge construction is even slower than the Giant Ride Control 2 development!
The ride metrics, Strava and BLEvo combined. You can see estimated battery consumption (148%; I would say it was 151%), my own performance, weather conditions, etc.
evgrieve.com
