Alaskan
Well-Known Member
Stanley Park is at its prettiest this time of year.
steve mercier
Well-Known Member
Yeah there was nobody around the higher areas since you cannot drive in the park and pedestrians stay mostly down on the seawall. Cyclists have the roads to themselves and the city has installed a series of chicanes on the downhill to slow those road riding speed demons! It is fun right now.
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Readytoride
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Virginia
@Adventum - so lucky you got to see them! Thank you so much for the picture! We were too far west to see or hear them today during their flyover of DC and parts of Maryland and Virginia But their appearance is wildly popular, emotionally uplifting, and deeply appreciated for their public salute to the front line medical teams on the ground.
Adventum
Active Member
If you accept that the country needs military preparedness, consider the corresponding need for proficiency in using its weapons. As a former fighter pilot (Navy) I assure you that FLYING the planes is necessary for the pilots and support personnel to maintain proficiency and combat readiness.
Formation flying is important in the armamentarium of military piloting skills. Safe competence in such maneuvers requires lots of practice. The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds pass along to other fighter pilots the talents they develop—increasing overall readiness.
I should mention the exquisite motor skills required to fly close to each other in the air. The closer, the more exquisite. Each minor change in distance between wingtips calls for a throttle adjustment to accelerate or decelerate. Then once reaching the desired speed, another throttle adjustment stops the acceleration/deceleration. Finally an adjustment to maintain the new speed. The three-part activity takes place over short distances and in very small time increments. Fortunately, it gets easier with practice.
PDXzap
Well-Known Member
Exactly!
FlatSix911
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Silicon Valley
An afternoon ride in the mountains surrounding the Bay... a few new personal milestones on speed, distance and elevation in under 2 hours. 
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Mulezen
Well-Known Member
As a former plane captain on F-4s & F-8s during Vietnam I thought of the necessity of flight time...I also thought of the long lines at feedbanks and how DJT is gathering froM hither and yon the graduating class of West Point for a dangerous publicity stunt. Maybe HE should have been in one of those jets.
D
Deleted member 18083
Guest
Cattle country …
The answer is simple: we are on the rail trail easement. After the last train returned down the track more than three decades ago, the farmers simply added the rail corridor to their property! And no one took them to task.
Today local government provides us, the trail users, with gates and cattle grids and the farmers ensure that the grass ismown grazed. A win-win solution? Probably so, providing the farmers don't allow any over-endowed bulls onto our trail!
Clarendon, Queensland
If it's cattle country, why have the farmers not bothered to maintain the fence?The answer is simple: we are on the rail trail easement. After the last train returned down the track more than three decades ago, the farmers simply added the rail corridor to their property! And no one took them to task.
Today local government provides us, the trail users, with gates and cattle grids and the farmers ensure that the grass is
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Readytoride
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Virginia
Two Neighbors On Two Vados Went Out For A Ride
In between the incessant rains and promises to ride once it was warm, it wasn't until the other day when I and a neighbor of mine (5 miles down the road and a touch older than moi) were able to make good our promise to ride together after we first met (she on her bike and me on my horse) 4 months ago in January.
Considering this was our first chance to ride together, and I knew she hadn't been out near as much as I had - she said maybe once every 2 weeks - I thought it would be nice just to do a small cruise around the gravel roads for maybe 10 miles. She said she was "timid" regarding paved roads, so I came up with a simple route. Gentle, easy. You know- being polite and considerate. Maybe stop and smell the roses kinda ride. An "old lady" ride. She had stared death in the face from a near fatal fall from her horse foxhunting a few years back which left everything twisted and not quite upright (doctors can only do so much with broken pieces, even after having to put in new parts). Cycling was to help keep her leg strength up for riding her horse because he had a bit of a "pony attitude" she said (read that as "he was a brat and could be a real bugger at times"). And since her accident she didn't have the strength she needed for riding her horse. Cycling was a way to help in that regard, and get back to foxhunting. But she hadn't had a chance to do much biking these past few months because of the rain and other obligations. Plus she'd only ridden around "the block" (8 miles) for her rides and not ventured further.
My thoughts were to take things easy, nice and relaxed. Ride slow and conservative.
<snort!> Well, THAT didn't happen! We met up on the gravel road midway- 2 miles from her farm (3 from my farm) - chatted, got our route planned, she loved it, we got on our bikes....and she disappeared down the road so fast my jaw dropped. Like...she was GONE in 60 seconds! I had to flip my assist to Ludicrous Mode, and pedal like mad just to catch up with her. She could put the pedal to the metal, and before I knew it we were flying along at the mid 20s (mph) on a paved road. Even one pack of "the lycra boys" on their road bikes out that day - the roads both gravel and paved were outright JAMMED with cyclists who were out to enjoy the gorgeous countryside in our neck of the woods - could not catch up with us. When they did at an intersection, we were praised and admired for our speed. I waved it off as nothing and told them we were riding ebikes, but they said they were still impressed.
Turns out she had quite the cycling background- biking over in Europe, doing several multiday group rides, the Alleghany Gap ride from Pittsburg to Maryland, some multiday horse/bike ride on some island somewhere. I was stunned. I had no idea she had that background. I thought she was a newbie.
Long and short- we had a blast. Went 29 miles together on a fun, exhilarating, FAST romp through the countryside. Didn't have time to take any pictures because they all would have looked like this:
Our bikes (both Vados) were evenly matched, which was a good thing. My LaFree never would have been able to keep up on the flat. Not until it gets jailbroken, which I have yet to do.
We are definitely going to ride together again. She was FUN!!! Since she said she was comfortable riding on the paved roads with me, I have some really lovely rides to share with her ...once the weather is consistently nicer and stops raining!
PS - the 32 miles was my ride start to finish. Neighbor and I did 29 of those miles together.
PPS- our local rural roads were absolutely packed with cyclists that day. We were honestly amazed at the huge numbers - it almost seemed like we got caught in the middle of an organized ride. Easily we passed, or were passed by, over 80 cyclists that morning, and that was only counting the ones on the roads we were biking. Guess many were not going to risk riding the overly used multi-use trail in the more populated eastern part of the county, and opted for the safer, wider, more polite public roads out in the less congested western rural area.
In between the incessant rains and promises to ride once it was warm, it wasn't until the other day when I and a neighbor of mine (5 miles down the road and a touch older than moi) were able to make good our promise to ride together after we first met (she on her bike and me on my horse) 4 months ago in January.
Considering this was our first chance to ride together, and I knew she hadn't been out near as much as I had - she said maybe once every 2 weeks - I thought it would be nice just to do a small cruise around the gravel roads for maybe 10 miles. She said she was "timid" regarding paved roads, so I came up with a simple route. Gentle, easy. You know- being polite and considerate. Maybe stop and smell the roses kinda ride. An "old lady" ride. She had stared death in the face from a near fatal fall from her horse foxhunting a few years back which left everything twisted and not quite upright (doctors can only do so much with broken pieces, even after having to put in new parts). Cycling was to help keep her leg strength up for riding her horse because he had a bit of a "pony attitude" she said (read that as "he was a brat and could be a real bugger at times"). And since her accident she didn't have the strength she needed for riding her horse. Cycling was a way to help in that regard, and get back to foxhunting. But she hadn't had a chance to do much biking these past few months because of the rain and other obligations. Plus she'd only ridden around "the block" (8 miles) for her rides and not ventured further.
My thoughts were to take things easy, nice and relaxed. Ride slow and conservative.
<snort!> Well, THAT didn't happen! We met up on the gravel road midway- 2 miles from her farm (3 from my farm) - chatted, got our route planned, she loved it, we got on our bikes....and she disappeared down the road so fast my jaw dropped. Like...she was GONE in 60 seconds! I had to flip my assist to Ludicrous Mode, and pedal like mad just to catch up with her. She could put the pedal to the metal, and before I knew it we were flying along at the mid 20s (mph) on a paved road. Even one pack of "the lycra boys" on their road bikes out that day - the roads both gravel and paved were outright JAMMED with cyclists who were out to enjoy the gorgeous countryside in our neck of the woods - could not catch up with us. When they did at an intersection, we were praised and admired for our speed. I waved it off as nothing and told them we were riding ebikes, but they said they were still impressed.
Turns out she had quite the cycling background- biking over in Europe, doing several multiday group rides, the Alleghany Gap ride from Pittsburg to Maryland, some multiday horse/bike ride on some island somewhere. I was stunned. I had no idea she had that background. I thought she was a newbie.
Long and short- we had a blast. Went 29 miles together on a fun, exhilarating, FAST romp through the countryside. Didn't have time to take any pictures because they all would have looked like this:
Our bikes (both Vados) were evenly matched, which was a good thing. My LaFree never would have been able to keep up on the flat. Not until it gets jailbroken, which I have yet to do.
We are definitely going to ride together again. She was FUN!!! Since she said she was comfortable riding on the paved roads with me, I have some really lovely rides to share with her ...once the weather is consistently nicer and stops raining!
PS - the 32 miles was my ride start to finish. Neighbor and I did 29 of those miles together.
PPS- our local rural roads were absolutely packed with cyclists that day. We were honestly amazed at the huge numbers - it almost seemed like we got caught in the middle of an organized ride. Easily we passed, or were passed by, over 80 cyclists that morning, and that was only counting the ones on the roads we were biking. Guess many were not going to risk riding the overly used multi-use trail in the more populated eastern part of the county, and opted for the safer, wider, more polite public roads out in the less congested western rural area.
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RabH
Well-Known Member
@Readytoride You might struggle to keep up with your neighbour on paved roads! 80 riders, I'm lucky if I see 8 on my rides!
80 riders, I'm lucky if I see 8 on my rides!
Readytoride
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Virginia
@RabH
It was *highly unusual* to see all those bikes. My neighbor and I kept asking each other "where did all these people come from???" It was if the entire suburbia population of Loudoun County emptied all its cyclists right onto our roads. Not kidding when I say it looked like an organized ride. We were amazed at how many elected to use the gravel roads (which, right now, are exquisite! Perfect for bikes) as opposed to those taking the one and only paved road out here closest to the mountain.
It was nice to see everyone out, get and give smiles and waves and especially nice to witness a group being exceptionally considerate of three of our neighbors out hacking their horses on one gravel road. A group of about 7 bikes, with 4 more bringing up the rear behind my neighbor and myself, all immediately stopped dead, foot on the ground, to make sure the horses were OK with the bikes.
I gotta say I was VERY HAPPY to see such consideration. So were our neighbors (all 5 of us stopped to talk after the cyclists rode on). The 3 ladies were exceptionally thrilled with the cyclists, especially the one lady whose horse does NOT trust things with 2 wheels and pedals. So it left a very good impression, which is important for cyclists to be viewed as good "neighbors", not as jerks from "the east part of the county" who are "clueless" when it comes to horses.
Today I saw exactly 1 rider. The winds are especially nasty right now, really gusting hard, not agreeable for cycling.
PS - on the paved roads I could hold my own with my neighbor, and often was faster because I have no problem using Turbo while she seems to try to stay in Eco. (She has a 3.0 with less battery capacity than my 4.0) Was amazed at how strong she was, considering the extent her injuries crippled her. Watching her move right along on her bike made me do a fist pump and grin with a happy "YES!" because it will make us better partners for rides. Neither of us will have to dumb down for the other.
I'll have to encourage her to relax and sightsee on the gravel roads, tho. She doesn't know about stopping for pictures....yet!
Ride stats for today. Winds began gusting at 6am from the west, growing in intensity as the morning moved on. Projected speeds this afternoon 30-40mph gusts. So it was a short 13 mile ride on the tree protected gravel roads with the LaFree. Head down when facing west, stopped to chat with two neighbors enroute. While riding hit one deep little pothole while not looking- it launched my drink bottle out of the saddle bag holders and into the air like a bottle rocket on steriods, and unseated the battery just enough to shut down the bike. One good smack reseated the battery while a short walk back down the road retrieved the bottle. The LaFree waited patiently while I got everything back in order, turned the electronics back on, then we were good to go.
It was *highly unusual* to see all those bikes. My neighbor and I kept asking each other "where did all these people come from???" It was if the entire suburbia population of Loudoun County emptied all its cyclists right onto our roads. Not kidding when I say it looked like an organized ride. We were amazed at how many elected to use the gravel roads (which, right now, are exquisite! Perfect for bikes) as opposed to those taking the one and only paved road out here closest to the mountain.
It was nice to see everyone out, get and give smiles and waves and especially nice to witness a group being exceptionally considerate of three of our neighbors out hacking their horses on one gravel road. A group of about 7 bikes, with 4 more bringing up the rear behind my neighbor and myself, all immediately stopped dead, foot on the ground, to make sure the horses were OK with the bikes.
I gotta say I was VERY HAPPY to see such consideration. So were our neighbors (all 5 of us stopped to talk after the cyclists rode on). The 3 ladies were exceptionally thrilled with the cyclists, especially the one lady whose horse does NOT trust things with 2 wheels and pedals. So it left a very good impression, which is important for cyclists to be viewed as good "neighbors", not as jerks from "the east part of the county" who are "clueless" when it comes to horses.
Today I saw exactly 1 rider. The winds are especially nasty right now, really gusting hard, not agreeable for cycling.
PS - on the paved roads I could hold my own with my neighbor, and often was faster because I have no problem using Turbo while she seems to try to stay in Eco. (She has a 3.0 with less battery capacity than my 4.0) Was amazed at how strong she was, considering the extent her injuries crippled her. Watching her move right along on her bike made me do a fist pump and grin with a happy "YES!" because it will make us better partners for rides. Neither of us will have to dumb down for the other.
I'll have to encourage her to relax and sightsee on the gravel roads, tho. She doesn't know about stopping for pictures....yet!
Ride stats for today. Winds began gusting at 6am from the west, growing in intensity as the morning moved on. Projected speeds this afternoon 30-40mph gusts. So it was a short 13 mile ride on the tree protected gravel roads with the LaFree. Head down when facing west, stopped to chat with two neighbors enroute. While riding hit one deep little pothole while not looking- it launched my drink bottle out of the saddle bag holders and into the air like a bottle rocket on steriods, and unseated the battery just enough to shut down the bike. One good smack reseated the battery while a short walk back down the road retrieved the bottle. The LaFree waited patiently while I got everything back in order, turned the electronics back on, then we were good to go.
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Stefan Mikes
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, Poland
Readytoride
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Virginia
Very happy with it, Stefan. 
Hope to get it out again tomorrow...if it doesn't rain. Will have it out on Thursday when I ride with my neighbor again.
Hope to get it out again tomorrow...if it doesn't rain. Will have it out on Thursday when I ride with my neighbor again.
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RabH
Well-Known Member
Yes you will indeed, we need pictures!
Its always good to see people being considerate where horses are involved!
Saratoga Dave
Well-Known Member
<< one and only paved road out here closest to the mountain>>
Boy, you do live in a great place for cycling! Sounds and looks amazing from your entries.
Boy, you do live in a great place for cycling! Sounds and looks amazing from your entries.
Readytoride
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Virginia
If you look at this link on the the website for Bicycles and Coffee: https://bicyclesandcoffee.com/maps) and plug in "Bloomfield" it will show you all the gravel roads surrounding our farm. We are dead center between Rt.50 and Rt.7. Some gravel roads are connected by small bit of paved roads here and there where there used to be schools (all long gone decades ago) or where there were town centers. These bits of pavement are sweet moments of relative smoothness.
Rt.719 is paved with wide open vistas and a joy to ride. Snickerville Turnpike is also pavement - fun, entertaining, and very pretty. Rt.611 where it is paved is very dangerous
, and there isn't enough money in the world to get me to set even one wheel on that road except to cross it. But that's all. Rt 611 gravel is lovely.
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Readytoride
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Virginia
Pictures from today:
The thunderstorms from last night dumped a half inch of rain, hence the rivers of water running down the sides of the gravel roads.
Softly rolling roads heading due East with the wind at my back.
The Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. Virginia's blues and greens of Spring.
The thunderstorms from last night dumped a half inch of rain, hence the rivers of water running down the sides of the gravel roads.
Softly rolling roads heading due East with the wind at my back.
The Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. Virginia's blues and greens of Spring.
Similar threads
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