2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

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Thanks. Considering it's a full thickness tear, i am doing really well.
No surgery and it actually looks like i will have a reasonably functional golf swing too.
Pretty amazing, but i will take what I can get.
Having had a fully torn shoulder w/surgery w/complications, all I can suggest is don’t rush back and overdo. Best of luck with your recovery/physical therapy.
 
Preparing for tomorrow's "Half-Of-KPN-Circumference Group Ride". Thanks to excellent weather forecast for Saturday, I had been planning a metric century. Too many unknown variables though. I would be riding with "Recumbent Joanna" (who has excellent personal records, such as imperial century + 4500 ft elevation gain on a day trip) but I have never been riding together with Joanna. "Recumbent Marta" will also join but I have no idea how good she is. Therefore, the metric century route was shortened to "almost 40 miles" ;)

The shortened route will enable me to travel light, no spare battery, just a backpack. Taking Vado because I can tune it to match the performance of my ride companions.

Now, a funny story. As I swapped Lovelec (untuneable) for Vado, I inspected the tyre pressure to find out the rear wheel was strangely underinflated. Floor pump, pumping, pumping... KABOOM! The inner tube exploded! I think the tube was already damaged. Now, in panic, I produced some old tube from my storage and replaced tube and the tyre. I was so frustrated that the work went extremely fast (as for me) :D Wish me luck... no more surprises please! (Good I can always take Trance instead in case of more surprises - Johnny Watts tyres are adequate for roads).

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Roads only.
Thanks to the internets, I had a peek at that park, reminds me of our Delamere forest.
But seriously does it have moose?
 
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Has been quite some time since I last posted on this forum. Dreadfully hot spring and summer weather meant the bikes stayed home for months at a time while we stayed closeted with the AC. The few forays out were short around-the-block trips as the heat and humidity allowed. Nothing exciting to write about, and already well photographed from prior posts.

Today the weather had thrown off the suffocating cloak of wilting heat and panting humidity for a breath of fresh cool dry air. Perfect riding weather. My ebike neighbor and and I got together at 10am to watch 18 carriages (mostly 4-in-hands) go off from a neighboring estate. We were joined by 9 cyclists who had paused in their ride to spectate as well. Much cheering and clapping on our part for each exquisite turnout was rewarded with tipped top hats from the gentlemen on the carriages and smiles and returned waves from the impeccably dressed coaching passengers. It was quite the exciting, unexpected treat for the cyclists who, one and all, had whipped out their cell phones to record the entorage of stunningly beautiful teams and pairs put to gleaming antique carriages dating back to well over a century when they were first put behind a team of horses. What a different world it was back then.

As the last of the carriages embarked on their 5 mile drive down the road and through neighboring estates, and the cycling group, phones now tucked securely away, followed at a sedate pace until they had the road to themselves again, my neighbor and I returned to my farm where she dropped me off to head home to grab her Vado and meet me back at my place for our planned ride.

We took off on our Vados, riding a 21 mile loop down into the next county and back - a loop that will be the route used for an ebike group club ride this October from my farm. Ride With GPS and my Garmin recorded the route for me so that I could uploaded it for the club participants to preview. I didn't take time to stop for photos because we were having too much fun talking and zipping along the roads, so here is a photo or two snatched from a prior ride on the same route:
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It was a beautiful ride, and exceptionally fun with lots of smooth paved rolling road just perfect for blasting down with the wind in your face and hands clenching the handbars tightly, trying not to touch the brakes until the descents became too fast for one's nerves. Then up the next rolling slope to blast down the other side. We were like two kids on holiday!

Along the border of one large estate a terrific rain and wind storm last month had produced several wind sheers, one uprooting vunerable old oak trees and snapping other trees in half like matchsticks. The resulting carnage of now dead wood was still littering the landscape like the aftermath of a battle, but we noticed among the broken foliage the chipper trucks, vehicles and staff of the tree companies hard at work picking up the debris and returning the estate to its pristine condition. It was just a small area, and once we were past the sad remains of so many fallen trees, the landscape shrugged off the carnage, left the woods behind, and once again opened up to proudly present an endless vista of spectacular natural beauty. The charm of the views had been aided and abetted by the hardworking staff of the resident estates who had claimed the lands as far as the eye could see, grooming pastures, fields, woodlands, stone walls and fencing for the entire route home.

My neighbor and I whole heartedly agreed that this route was our favorite paved road ride. Bar none.

It is nice to be back in the saddle again.

I hope to be writing more as the rides begin again in the cooler pre-autumn days of September.
Great post, but you may want to cross post it in the 2021 rides thread. Welcome back. 😄
 
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