2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[reed scott]

Visited the city of Chester and did some filming riding around the shop, bars and sights.
It was one of the major Roman cities of Britain and still has a roman/medieval wall around it with original turret guard towers, various relics and rather boring looking Roman Ampitheatre.

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On a warm summer afternoon its a magical place for a night out with endless back alleys and Medieval buildings everywhere, a bit posh and mostly very safe to visit.
Christmas is a bit muted because of covid and tbh I wouldnt have normally been able to ride the bike around the due to the crowds , the river front was empty, cold and lockdown emptying the outdoor cafes.
I visited the 13th century gothic Cathederal, which is straight out of Hogwarts, but my stabilised camera doesnt like the dark, so the footage is a bit wobbly.
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Well worth is visit if youre in England, most of the wall is being repaired so I couldnt film it, but you can usually walk atop the whole thing with superb stone spiral stairs built into the arches.
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Its got it share of McDonalds and mobile phone stores, but you really can drift off into a different time, especially in a normal christmas with food stalls and burning torches lining the streets.
The first tune is the new single from half of Oasis ,Liam.
Theres not many places where you can lean your fatbike against an original Roman pillar.
View attachment 73769

Amazing. Fantastic. Gotta go there.

 

[Frank/Delaware]

Visited the city of Chester and did some filming riding around the shop, bars and sights.
It was one of the major Roman cities of Britain and still has a roman/medieval wall around it with original turret guard towers, various relics and rather boring looking Roman Ampitheatre.

View attachment 73767
On a warm summer afternoon its a magical place for a night out with endless back alleys and Medieval buildings everywhere, a bit posh and mostly very safe to visit.
Christmas is a bit muted because of covid and tbh I wouldnt have normally been able to ride the bike around the due to the crowds , the river front was empty, cold and lockdown emptying the outdoor cafes.
I visited the 13th century gothic Cathederal, which is straight out of Hogwarts, but my stabilised camera doesnt like the dark, so the footage is a bit wobbly.
View attachment 73768

Well worth is visit if youre in England, most of the wall is being repaired so I couldnt film it, but you can usually walk atop the whole thing with superb stone spiral stairs built into the arches.
View attachment 73770

Its got it share of McDonalds and mobile phone stores, but you really can drift off into a different time, especially in a normal christmas with food stalls and burning torches lining the streets.
The first tune is the new single from half of Oasis ,Liam.
Theres not many places where you can lean your fatbike against an original Roman pillar.
View attachment 73769

Visited the city of Chester and did some filming riding around the shop, bars and sights.
It was one of the major Roman cities of Britain and still has a roman/medieval wall around it with original turret guard towers, various relics and rather boring looking Roman Ampitheatre.

View attachment 73767
On a warm summer afternoon its a magical place for a night out with endless back alleys and Medieval buildings everywhere, a bit posh and mostly very safe to visit.
Christmas is a bit muted because of covid and tbh I wouldnt have normally been able to ride the bike around the due to the crowds , the river front was empty, cold and lockdown emptying the outdoor cafes.
I visited the 13th century gothic Cathederal, which is straight out of Hogwarts, but my stabilised camera doesnt like the dark, so the footage is a bit wobbly.
View attachment 73768

Well worth is visit if youre in England, most of the wall is being repaired so I couldnt film it, but you can usually walk atop the whole thing with superb stone spiral stairs built into the arches.
View attachment 73770

Its got it share of McDonalds and mobile phone stores, but you really can drift off into a different time, especially in a normal christmas with food stalls and burning torches lining the streets.
The first tune is the new single from half of Oasis ,Liam.
Theres not many places where you can lean your fatbike against an original Roman pillar.
View attachment 73769

My wife and I visited our son and his young family in Chester 15 years ago at Christmas time - thanks for the memories.

 

[RabH]

I managed to make up for my Sunday disappointment today, a lovely 50 mile ride with no rain or ice around! It was such a joy to ride without fear of sliding into a ditch, no more taking chances when there is ice about! Only another 37 miles to reach 6,000 for the year, what a year it has been, very good in some ways and very bad in others! It was an overcast day but that kept the ice at bay, it actually didn't even feel cold despite the thermometer reading 4C! Tomorrow is looking much the same so I hope to complete my 6,000 miles, then the rain will return until Sunday!

 

[FlatSix911]

Another blue-bird day in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

[Readytoride]

@RabH - Your countryside is really beautiful. Thank you for posting your photos.

 

[RabH]

@RabH - Your countryside is really beautiful. Thank you for posting your photos.

Thank you, I love sharing my rides and seeing all the amazing photos and stories posted here!

I needed 37 miles today to reach 6,000 for the year but I ended up doing another 50 miler as our weather looks like its going downhill until next Tuesday now! It was almost identical weather to yesterday so no rain or ice around and just light winds again which made for a very enjoyable 50 miles! I even had some dry roads today which is very unusual for this time of year here, that was a bonus! Yesterday my bike was absolutely flthy when I got home, today it just needed a wipe down! It will of course be getting some tlc while its sitting idle until Tuesday!

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Big congrats on 6000! I guess that means you’re gonna need 8 next year.

I’m struggling to reach 4000 over here, a little weather challenged at the moment. We’ll see.

 

[JeffC57]

Yesterday was nice so I hauled my Vado SL to the Rock Island rail trail in western Missouri. It was a pleasant ride, but frankly it's kind of dead out there this time of year.

 

[RabH]

Big congrats on 6000! I guess that means you’re gonna need 8 next year.

I’m struggling to reach 4000 over here, a little weather challenged at the moment. We’ll see.

Thanks Dave, I didn't quite make 4000 last year but I can assure you I won't be doing 8000 next year! We are at the mercy of the weather at this time of year, I hope you get lucky!

 

[FlatSix911]

Thank you, I love sharing my rides and seeing all the amazing photos and stories posted here!

I needed 37 miles today to reach 6,000 for the year but I ended up doing another 50 miler as our weather looks like its going downhill until next Tuesday now! It was almost identical weather to yesterday so no rain or ice around and just light winds again which made for a very enjoyable 50 miles! I even had some dry roads today which is very unusual for this time of year here, that was a bonus! Yesterday my bike was absolutely flthy when I got home, today it just needed a wipe down! It will of course be getting some tlc while its sitting idle until Tuesday!

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Congratulations on taking the road well traveled!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Let It Snow...

I started with a broom to clean my home entry stairs from fresh snowfall (first one this Winter). That would be no fun to collapse there with an e-bike... (I struggle with the thought to place my e-bikes in the basement to get off home over a ramp... But the basement storage would require removing the battery each time).

A pretext for the ride was necessary. Ah. I might ride out to the vet to buy cat food for Tygra Done!

It was slippery. For instance, a car could not get over a railway crossing, the car wheels spinning at standstill. Oh. My Monster with 2.6" off-road tyres made of soft rubber compound had no trouble whatsoever! Yes, I rode very slowly in ECO mode (as my driving experience tells me high wheel torque equals to imminent tyre slippage); and I was cornering cautiously. Honestly, my winter boots were more apt to slip then the tyres!

Now, I consider significant deflation of the tubeless Monster tyres for even better Winter traction

At a nice (and lit) bike path in a local park.

Bike infrastructure in Podkowa Leśna. WKD commuter train in the background.

Notice very low average speed.


Dedicated to @Art Deco

 

[Art Deco]

Ok. Reading thru the "Will you ride in snow ?" thread then this post has convinced me that studded tyres, snowmobile suits, and such aren't really needed (except in Canada and farther north, maybe) and I really don't need to just leave the bike in the garage all winter. It actually looks like something I will try if we really get snow. But I won't look forward to it, nor will I try my usual very hilly routes.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I'm slightly afraid to ride out on my Vado on Electrak tyres though, Art. Trance E+ with 2.6" tyres does fine. I might think to replace Vado tyres with real winter ones.

 

[Art Deco]

Not a chance that the stock Como tires(slick and soft) would work, but my lbs stocks snow treads and off roads.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Gauge to nineteenth-century forward thinking …

Rail line to Port of Brisbane​

There's a simple explanation: in the early 1860s the new Queensland colony had more important projects to spend money on, like a ballroom in Government House.

In December 1861 Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria went into perpetual mourning (she died forty years later!) and, not too surprisingly, balls in the Queen's honour were not considered appropriate. The unused ballroom and the narrow gauge* (1067 mm) railway remain. The standard gauge line (1435 mm), less used judging by the rust, runs south from the Port of Brisbane to New South Wales.

* 'Narrow gauge' by mainline standards; not narrow gauge in the tradition of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway or the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe. (I travelled on both long before they became tourist attractions.)

 

[RandallS]

Getting caught up as when we have nice weather here, we need to use it, and I rarely post my rides from my tablet - I prefer using my PC.
As we've got winter back, with a bunch of snow, I am sitting in my office rather than on my saddle, so here are some updates.

Last Friday, I rode out to the Northwest part of the city. I had no particular route planned when I set off, but did want to keep to pathways for a change.
As I was riding mostly deserted pathways, I was listening to an Audiobook: Fallen Glass by Adrian McKinty.
When I was on the side roads - lights front and rear, and earbuds OUT.

Here's the route for Friday:

Most of the ride was through newer areas of town. I followed a pathway system known as the Nose Creek pathway. It follows a creek that runs beside a 36 hole golf course and continues out towards a lot of new development in the NW part of Calgary. Back when I was still working in the telecom industry, a lot of those developments were under my guidance - and most, if not all, are fibre fed. It was interesting to see the evolution of the subdivisions as they've been finished.

Here I am riding the ridge above the Golf course. I was riding from right to left on the top of the Strava capture.
It's a decent climb and is a lot more fun going the other way. Great long swooping downhills!


As I continued NW up into Sage Hill, I ran into a few dead ends, and also saw plenty of interesting paths to come back to in the spring (or when my shoulder feels better). AS usual, I get the tip of my glove into a photo or two when using my smartphone.



At one of the many benched rest areas along the paths, someone had setup a free "library". I'm seeing more and more of these as I cycle around the city.



There are many stormwater containment ponds to ride around on the pathway system. In the warmer months there'd be a number of waterfowl to watch.



It was a beautiful day for a ride, and as usual, I tend to keep riding and don't stop to take pictures as often as I should.
Next Post: Sunday for my longest ride in 40+ years...

 

[reed scott]

Next time you're by that way could you take a close up of that sign that 'bans' things. Curious minds want to know.

Also, can't help but note the mansions across the pond. Wonder how and where they got their millions.

 

[reed scott]

Gauge to nineteenth-century forward thinking …

View attachment 73864

Rail line to Port of Brisbane​

There's a simple explanation: in the early 1860s the new Queensland colony had more important projects to spend money on, like a ballroom in Government House.

In December 1861 Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria went into perpetual mourning (she died forty years later!) and, not too surprisingly, balls in the Queen's honour were not considered appropriate. The unused ballroom and the narrow gauge* railway remain. The standard gauge line, less used judging by the rust, runs south from the Port of Brisbane to New South Wales.

* 'Narrow gauge' (1067 mm) by mainline standards; not narrow gauge in the tradition of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway or the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe. (I travelled on both long before they became tourist attractions.)

Now I am quite curious. How on earth could something as heavy and unwieldy as a freight train proceed upon such a narrow 'foundation'?

 

[RandallS]

My longest ride since I was 16 years old (and maybe the longest ever???).

This past Sunday I rode to south Calgary to assist a friend with her wi-fi setup.
I live near the northern edge of Calgary, and she lives near the southern edge, but there's a great north-south pathway system, including some beautiful parts along the Bow River.

The route and details:

The forecast was for some windy weather later in the day, so I took my goggles too, but ended not needing them (although the wind was starting to freshen about halfway home).



The first stretch was all fairly boring stuff - pathways along a major highway, and I rode quite a while with no assist. It was flat with perhaps a slight downhill, so I took advantage.
As I hit the section that ran beside the Bow River, there were a flock of geese enjoying some firm footing ON the river by the railway bridge just west of an area called the Harvie Passage - a canoe and kayak friendly area of the Bow river.



As I continued southwards, there were lots of people walking and riding on the pathways, but others were using the river for more traditional pursuits:






I won't bore with the urban riding, I kept to bike paths and side streets to get to my friends place which was a few kilometres from the river. Did my work (a little Access Point tuning) and had a nice visit with lunch.
I also charged my bike for about an hour or so, although I probably didn't need to. I'd used 34% for the trip south.

Heading home, I took a slightly different route back to the Bow River Pathway system, and proceeded North. By now it's early afternoon, and the pathways, as expected, were very, very busy. Rang my bell a zillion times and the odd person even noticed.



Followed the pathway along the river and took a hydration break by the Harvie Passage, but then took a slightly different route home, as I've ridden the main N-S pathway many, many times on my old bike.



All in all, a really enjoyable ride. I got to ride fairly quickly on the trip south, but it was slow on the way home due to pathway congestion as it was a pretty nice day.
I had wrapped my battery with my neoprene scrap, but really didn't need it - and didn't need the goggles, my vest and probably the charger either.

 

[RandallS]

Next time you're by that way could you take a close up of that sign that 'bans' things. Curious minds want to know.

Also, can't help but note the mansions across the pond. Wonder how and where they got their millions.

Here's the sign, and those "mansions" in the area called Royal Oak, are likely cheaper than what you might think.
As to where they got their money, in Calgary, the easiest bet is Oil and Gas. Not always true, but it's the economic engine that runs this place.
Or at least it used to...