2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Sierratim]

That is a really nice looking Tandem... with 2 people providing power, do you see increased range?

I get jealous of tandems when we're on our mechs; twice the power but not twice the rolling resistance and about the same wind resistance. My wife is reluctant to give it a try...

 

[fooferdoggie]

That is a really nice looking Tandem... with 2 people providing power, do you see increased range?

I think it does but it's hard to tell till we get smoother. but comparing it to my speed version might not really work since this is the non speed version and it has fatter tires. but my wife is not used to cycling so it will be awhile foe she can really work . but we were in tour mode and doing 19 on the flats so thats pretty good.

 

[RabH]

@Stefan Mikes You can now call your new steed a proper mountain bike! Looking forward to your story!

As per the forecast it rained all day yesterday and it was supposed to stop around 4am this morning, I woke around 7am and it was still raining...looked at the forecast once again and it was showing a 10% chance of rain from around 8am until around midday! Looking at the sky it didn't look very promising so I wasn't very optimistic about going out and not getting soaked but thankfully the sky started to look a bit more promising so I decided to take a chance and go for it just after 9am!

There was quite a strong westerly breeze which did a good job of drying the roads, well they were just damp mostly so I headed east with the strong breeze behind me and I knew I had made the right decision! When I got to the point where it was time to head back I had a good look at the sky again and it looked rather dark to the north so as it was looking better to the south the decision was made!

Last week I used a road which I don't use much at all which for the most part climbs from west to east and as I approached a junction in the road I remembered it would be mostly downhill heading back to the west, this gave me a lovely downhill ride into the wind which was most welcome, to the south I had some lovely views like this!

I used to hate these wind turbines but they have become part of the landscape! As you can see the sky was a little threatening but it was my lucky day as I didn't actually encounter any rain at all which was a bonus! I just got back home after 34 very enjoyable miles and gave my bike a quick wipe down and got it inside just before the rain finally arrived! I never thought I would have such a great day when I woke this morning but sometimes things just fall into place!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

My First True MTB Ride Ever

-- You don't want to ride to see Cracow in the morning -- decided Banshee -- You've never ridden our hills. When we set off for the afternoon ride, you'd be already tired -- she concluded. She was right. Another fact to make me even more easily convinced to resign from the morning ride was the Giant charger, which I believed might have been broken (it was not). Since the battery was full in 98%, I thought I should not take any risks that might ruin my hilly ride with her and Kalon.

After Banshee completed online exams of her university students on Sunday, we all three rode out immediately. The plan was to make 50 km (30 mi) with 810 m (2660 ft) elevation gain. My Trance E+ 2 Pro a.k.a. The Monster was a new steed for me and I actually didn't know what the range might be. Various analyses convinced me that if I rode in the Eco mode, I would complete the trip still on the battery.

The route plan. Some interesting part is the Ojców National Park. It is a Jurassic area with limestone rock formations, castles, caves and whatnot. We had no time for sightseeing any castle! Besides, Kraków is located southwards of the Start/Finish point (my friends still live inside the city's limits).

Since the first part of the route led through a trail/single track in one of many natural parks of Cracow. I was learning riding downhill.

-- You're cheating, you're aware of that, sir? -- a young road cyclist asked me when we waited in line to walk our bikes downhill. It was a nasty technical segment and Kalon was the only person of many to risk his life riding it, other people were walking with their bikes there -- Who I'm cheating, exactly? You? -- would be the best reply. I had enough time to explain the young man the benefits of e-biking, though.

"Furthermore, I regard the Polish Mail must be dissolved!" The anti-covid balaclava causes the prescription glasses mist over when not riding.

The best thing I discovered about my Trance was you actually could pedal it with the power off! No resistance whatsoever, I would only not pedal uphill and/or upwind unassisted. Then we met our first significant climb.

That was so easy! I downshifted then increased the assistance to Normal (level 3) and then I could wait for Kalon and Banshee on the top of the hill

About two weeks ago I spotted Kalon and Banshee's ride stats for a similar route. I wrote: "That doesn't look very complicated..." to which Kalon replied:
-- With all due respect, you would not make it and you're unprepared to ride together with us!
That "with all due respect" was a challenge for me The week later the couple drove to me to pick up my old bike (a gift to Kalon), and another week after I was ready to ride with them in their own territory!

The parks were full of people. You don't need to wear a face mask in National Parks. Here, we're waiting for our casseroles in the Ojców National Park.

"He has eaten, he'd take a nap"

Kalon having his casserole. That's the Polish staple fast-food, and Cracow is famous of their casseroles. If you are in Cracow, go to Plac Nowy in Kazimierz (the former Jewish quarter) to have a casserole! The long line to one of the windows of a roundhouse there consists only of English speakers who want to try that delicacy!

Rock formations in the Ojców National Park.

The slit between the rocks is called the Gate of Cracow.

We three properly eating chocolate bars

And then it started raining. Soaked and cold, we were furiously pedalling up a long incline leading to the town of Skała (Rock). Needless to say, I was first there. The sun shone as soon as we reached Skała and we dried up pretty fast. The upwind pestering us the whole outbound way suddenly stopped blowing at all.

The remaining 25 km consisted of steep climbs and descents only. I was using the Normal/3 assistance uphill and no assistance downhill. I learned the proper use of the dropper post as well: on downhill ride I was dropping the saddle, moving my derriere above the rear wheel and lowering my position. I was also using brakes (with modulation) to not exceed 47 km/h (29 mph). Kalon was (w)reckless: he reached 65 km/h (40 mph) on one of descents only having V-brakes!

There was a funny incident near to the end of our ride. There is an 18% gradient street in Bibice; the locals don't ride their bikes uphill there. I noticed my friends stopped their bikes and Kalon loudly shouted he would not ride up (he meant he would walk the bike up instead). I didn't even slow down. Fast downshift to 2nd gear, Power/5 assistance and I rode the street up. My friends were listening the comments from the locals:

-- Some bike hero? Eh... see him... The bastard made it!


Unluckily, Kalon turned out to be a traitor and told them it was an e-bike. Pity. That would be a legend there.

The ride stats.

The Trance is a fantastic e-bike! I love it! I returned with 26% battery.

 

[RabH]

My First True MTB Ride Ever


The Trance is a fantastic e-bike! I love it! I returned with 26% battery.

Great read Stefan, I'm glad you love your Trance! The syncdrive pro just laughs at hills, it has so much pulling power!

 

[Sierratim]

My First True MTB Ride Ever

-- You don't want to ride to see Cracow in the morning -- decided Banshee -- You've never ridden our hills. When we set off for the afternoon ride, you'd be already tired -- she concluded. She was right. Another fact to make me even more easily convinced to resign from the morning ride was the Giant charger, which I believed might have been broken (it was not). Since the battery was full in 98%, I thought I should not take any risks that might ruin my hilly ride with her and Kalon.

After Banshee completed online exams of her university students on Sunday, we all three rode out immediately. The plan was to make 50 km (30 mi) with 810 m (2660 ft) elevation gain. My Trance E+ 2 Pro a.k.a. The Monster was a new steed for me and I actually didn't know what the range might be. Various analyses convinced me that if I rode in the Eco mode, I would complete the trip still on the battery.

View attachment 52714
The route plan. Some interesting part is the Ojców National Park. It is a Jurassic area with limestone rock formations, castles, caves and whatnot. We had no time for sightseeing any castle! Besides, Kraków is located southwards of the Start/Finish point (my friends still live inside the city's limits).

View attachment 52713
Since the first part of the route led through a trail/single track in one of many natural parks of Cracow. I was learning riding downhill.

-- You're cheating, you're aware of that, sir? -- a young road cyclist asked me when we waited in line to walk our bikes downhill. It was a nasty technical segment and Kalon was the only person of many to risk his life riding it, other people were walking with their bikes there -- Who I'm cheating, exactly? You? -- would be the best reply. I had enough time to explain the young man the benefits of e-biking, though.
View attachment 52736
"Furthermore, I regard the Polish Mail must be dissolved!" The anti-covid balaclava causes the prescription glasses to mist over when not riding.

The best thing I discovered about my Trance was you actually could pedal it with the power off! No resistance whatsoever, I would only not pedal uphill and/or upwind unassisted. Then we met our first significant climb.

View attachment 52735
That was so easy! I downshifted then increased the assistance to Normal (level 3) and then I could wait for Kalon and Banshee on the top of the hill

About two weeks ago I spotted Kalon and Banshee's ride stats from a similar route. I wrote: "That doesn't look very complicated..." to which Kalon replied:
-- With all due respect, you would not make it and you're unprepared to ride together with us!
That "with all due respect" was a challenge for me The week later the couple drove to me to pick up my old bike (a gift to Kalon), and another week after I was ready to ride with them in their own territory!

View attachment 52738
The parks were full of people. You don't need to wear a face mask in National Parks. Here, we're waiting for our casseroles in the Ojców National Park.

View attachment 52739
"He has eaten, he'd take a nap"

View attachment 52741
Kalon having his casserole. That's the Polish staple fast-food, and Cracow is famous of their casseroles. If you are in Cracow, go to Plac Nowy in Kazimierz (the former Jewish quarter) to have a casserole! The long line to one of the windows of a roundhouse there consists only of English speakers who want to try that delicacy!

View attachment 52742
Rock formations in the Ojców National Park.

View attachment 52743
The slit between the rocks is called the Gate of Cracow.

View attachment 52744
We three properly eating chocolate bars

View attachment 52745
And then it started raining. Soaked and cold, we were furiously pedalling up a long incline leading to the town of Skała (Rock). Needless to say, I was first there. The sun shone as soon as we reached Skała and we dried up pretty fast. The upwind pestering us the whole outbound way suddenly stopped blowing at all.

View attachment 52746
The remaining 25 km consisted of steep climbs and descents only. I was using the Normal/3 assistance uphill and no assistance downhill. I learned the proper use of the dropper post as well: on downhill ride I was dropping the saddle, moving my derriere above the rear wheel and lowering my position. I was also using brakes (with modulation) to not exceed 47 km/h (29 mph). Kalon was reckless: he reached 65 km/h (40 mph) on one of descents only having V-brakes!

There was a funny incident near to the end of our ride. There is an 18% grade street in Bibice; the locals don't ride their bikes uphill there. I noticed my friends stopped their bikes and Kalon loudly shouted he would not ride up (he meant he would walk the bike up instead). I didn't even slow down. Fast downshift to 2nd gear, Power/5 assistance and I rode the street up. My friends were listening the comments from the locals:

-- A bike hero? Eh... see him... The bastard made it!


Unluckily, Kalon turned out to be a traitor and told them it was an e-bike. Pity. That would be a legend there.


View attachment 52748
The ride stats.

The Trance is a fantastic e-bike! I love it! I returned with 26% battery.

Stefan, congratulations! You even have the look of a MTBer; fording a creek while standing, napping in the grass near you steed. The only thing missing is the post-ride beer...

Ride on.

 

[PDXzap]

North, across the Columbia river and about 60 miles (96 km) away... 40 years ago today this prominent in the Pacific Northwest in the state of Washington erupted.

At 8:32a.m. Pacific time, volcanologist David Johnston made a radio call, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" He was camped on a ridge 6 miles (10 km) to the north studying the volcanic activity when a magnitude 5.1 earthquake occurred, signaling the beginning of the eruption, he was never heard from or seen again.

The eruption of Mt. Saint Helens sent an estimated 540 million tons of ash up to 80,000 feet into the air spreading over 11 states and 2 Canadian provinces. At the time I lived 977 miles (1572 km) east-southeast of the volcano and cleaned a good amount of ash from my vehicle a day or two later.


The picture above and the next pictures were taken in an area south of Portland known as Skyland... some incredible views and real estate.

 

[jabberwocky]

The SO wanted to come along and see some of the stuff I've been riding, so I stuck her on the Revolt and rode my Motobecane. Very nice 22 mile loop out of Philmont. She enjoyed blowing me away on the hills. As much as I love the Revolt, it was nice to experience true suffering again. Going up some of those steep Loudoun hills is more painful without the electric pixies helping.

She also water tested the Revolt on the Jeb Stuart crossing. I got there first and as I'm taking my shoes off, she charges down the hill, yells "it looks doable!" and proceeds into 3 feet of water at full speed. Lets just say the bike works fine after it dried out, and fortunately it was at the end of the ride so she didn't have to ride sans motor for very long.

Best part of the bike group photo is the cow peeing in the background. I'm with the right woman, because after we placed the bikes, she yelled "the cow is peeing, take the picture!"

 

[Chancelucky2]

These are from a couple recent rides. Maple View Farms is a local dairy farm that sells ice cream from its country store. You normally hang out in the store, order your ice cream, then sit on the porch in a big rocking chair to enjoy the view. Post Covid, it's drive up service only and an impromptu parking lot has replaced the rocking chairs; it's not exactly the same experience. Once you get out of Carrboro, NC though, it's still a very scenic ride. The other ride was on my conventional bike and was on the Neuse River Trail which may be one of the better bike trails in the Southeast: roughly 32 uninterrupted miles, follows the river, a bunch of different views. I have to drive my bike to the trail head in Raleigh. I hadn't used my bike rack in some time, so I was a little nervous about putting my e-bike on it. When I first got an e-bike almost 2 years ago, I didn't ride my conventional bikes much at all. I started mixing them in more during social distancing, since I was left to do the same routes over and over. To be honest, I got a little afraid that I couldn't do hills on a conventional bike any longer. After I realized that I was still fine doing all the pedalling, I've come to appreciate e-bike, road bike, mtb as simply different flavors of the hobby. The e-bike lets me keep up with pretty much anyone I ride with and I can be far more adventurous about where I go and which route I take. There's a kind of intimacy with a road bike where it feels like every bit of effort and every movement feeds back through the bike itself. The mountain bike has this pick up truck kind of feel.

 

[Sierratim]

North, across the Columbia river and about 60 miles (96 km) away... 40 years ago today this prominent in the Pacific Northwest in the state of Washington erupted.

View attachment 52751

At 8:32a.m. Pacific time, volcanologist David Johnston made a radio call, "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" He was camped on a ridge 6 miles (10 km) to the north studying the volcanic activity when a magnitude 5.1 earthquake occurred, signaling the beginning of the eruption, he was never heard from or seen again.

The eruption of Mt. Saint Helens sent an estimated 540 million tons of ash up to 80,000 feet into the air spreading over 11 states and 2 Canadian provinces. At the time I lived 977 miles (1572 km) east-southeast of the volcano and cleaned a good amount of ash from my vehicle a day or two later.


The picture above and the next pictures were taken in an area south of Portland known as Skyland... some incredible views and real estate.

View attachment 52752

View attachment 52753

My wife was a geologist at the USGS at this time and knew Dave Johnson. She was saddened by his untimely death. Our now (as of today) 40 year old son was born the morning of the eruption. We did a bike and boat trip to Idaho, Washington and Oregon last Summer and were able to visit the eruption site. Still very other world like.

 

[StmbtDave]

Stefan, your friends don't wear helmets? I had the impression helmets were required. Congratulations on your first mountain bike adventure.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Stefan, your friends don't wear helmets? I had the impression helmets were required. Congratulations on your first mountain bike adventure.

Thank you! No, helmets are not required on a regular bike, and "Class 1" ebike is a bike, too. Helmets are required to be worn by minors; and on S-Pedelecs.

 

[steve mercier]

My wife was a geologist at the USGS at this time and knew Dave Johnson. She was saddened by his untimely death. Our now (as of today) 40 year old son was born the morning of the eruption. We did a bike and boat trip to Idaho, Washington and Oregon last Summer and were able to visit the eruption site. Still very other world like.

So you had two eruptions that day...or at least your wife did. (-:

 

[steve mercier]

Both times that I wore a mask ,goggles and gloves into the supermarket I had a person freak out on me...hollering " Get away from me!" . The second time I had enough of that nonsense ( they both wore no protection of their own and I suppose they thought I had Covid since I wore the full outfit ) and when I suggested they see a shrink they told me to F--- Off (-:

 

[steve mercier]

These are wacky times.

 

[steve mercier]

One of nature's great social distancers making a rare daylight appearance.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Hey Steve, nice bags set up on that gizmo!

 

[steve mercier]

When this bike hits 20,000 km I will pass it down to my son. I know I will miss this reliable old chum.

 

[Sierratim]

When this bike hits 20,000 km I will pass it down to my son. I know I will miss this reliable old chum. View attachment 52783

Or do what I do, wait for that old reliable piece of gear to fall apart and then give it my sons...

 

[Stefan Mikes]

That's how Polish do social distancing?

The Swiss walk around with a laser ruler.

Cannot help it, sir. Interestingly, the rate of contagion in the Lesser Poland voivoidship is surprisingly low.