2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Stefan Mikes]

@Stefan Mikes Great effort there Stefan, you make me look tame now

(All went well until the Lovelec's rack broke today).

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Waiting for the bulldozers …

Walloon, east of Ipswich, QLD​

An ever-increasing population has spelled the end of this little community. In a few years a new bypass will link the major inland routes leading to Brisbane…

I wonder what will happen to this pleasant little stretch of gravel called Taylors Road which is about twenty minutes from where we live. Will Taylors Road be treated to an underpass or will it disappear along with the old red shed?

I'd better head west again before it's too late.

Pin marks camera position. Actually, the pin marks my iPhone's location snug in its Quald Lock case on the handlebar.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Just wanted to tell you I'm riding soon to get some pączki in Jaktorów Because of very strong westerly breeze, I'm enhancing my Winter Armour...

Smartphone broken, no photos. Will post the map and stats after I come back

 

[Mulezen]

You look like a burglar

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Riding Out for Cake and Beer

I was waiting for the courier until 1 p.m. The delivery was a practice bass amp, Orange Crush Bass 50. Recently, I call the guy and ask him to just put the delivery in the front of the entrance stairs of my home; due to covid the signature is not required anymore, the purchase prepaid online, physical contact is being discouraged. As I don't think any thief would enter my homestead at daytime to grab any delivery, I might have ridden out earlier but the winds were not encouraging to go out.

However, I got hungry and dreamed about pączki. To eat sweet cake, I need to earn it by riding. And I found my long forgotten balaclava. With the winds exceeding 6 m/s my ears suffer. So I put my Winter Armour including the balaclava (but the medium helmet as the snowboarding one would be too tight) on and rode out on my Vado, the "wind-resistant" e-bike.

I admit, I broke all bike bans on the Hwy 719 for 14 kilometres. I was mentally prepared for a potential argument with the police:

-- Officer, this is not a bike, it is a moped. Are mopeds, scooters or light motorcycles banned here? Should these ride the bike path? Show me the paragraph in the Road Code... (Oh, is it there? Then I gladly pay the ticket) -- I was reasoning in my mind Guess what? No single driver honked at me!

The temperature was not very low. The Sun tried the best to warm the air up. I have even disarmed some of my Winter Armour. The windproof protection remained in place, greatly improved by the balaclava.

Before the ride, I instructed my Vado to use Semi-Sport (50%), Full Sport (70%) and Turbo (100%) modes. I'm so glad I can override the default Eco, Sport and Turbo modes by an Android app! Because the wind was actually very strong. It had a mighty stopping power! Thanks to the Full Sport mode I was in Jaktorów in some half an hour. (Oh, it is indeed Chylice but the Jaktorów train station is just 100 metres from the bakery).

New anti-covid restrictions are in force now: 1 customer in a small shop at a time, wear gloves; I even haven't taken the goggles off and the balaclava pretended to be a mask No pączki again! Yet the shop had freshly baked poppy-seed yeast cake of which I bought all three pieces they had. One of the buns just eaten outside, two more for later.

Since I'm getting a new smartphone only tomorrow, I had no GPS navigation. At times, I was stopping to consult Google Maps on my tablet (which I had in the pannier). Still, I was riding unguided and in fact found myself in some backwoods, where I spotted a Buddhist centre! (There are not many of them in Poland). Let me say the amount of gravel and field roads I rode today was above my liking...

I had strong upwind on the way out, mighty side wind on the direction change (couple of km's), then wonderful powerful downwind on the longer way home! The sunshine was making me happy!

Upon arrival to my Brwinów, I rode to one of the two craft beer stores we enjoy in the neighbourhood. I bought some good beer; it's pity I cannot drink a lot of beer as a diabetic person.

A wonderful day!

I could at last wear a more lightweight helmet, no googles on the return journey, and lightweight gloves.

My lunch (the yeast cake) and two bottles of excellent Polish craft IPAs for the evening. @Browneye, hear, hear!

Ride data recreated manually in Endomondo. The weather data is a crap.

 

[Twin Valley]

Riding Out for Cake and Beer

I was waiting for the courier until 1 p.m. The delivery was a practice bass amp, Orange Crush Bass 50. Recently, I call the guy and ask him to just put the delivery in the front of the entrance stairs of my home; due to covid the signature is not required anymore, the purchase prepaid online, physical contact is being discouraged. As I don't think any thief would enter my homestead at daytime to grab any delivery, I might have ridden out earlier but the winds were not encouraging to go out.

However, I got hungry and dreamed about pączki. To eat sweet cake, I need to earn it by riding. And I found my long forgotten balaclava. With the winds exceeding 6 m/s my ears suffer. So I put my Winter Armour including the balaclava (but the medium helmet as the snowboarding one would be too tight) and rode out on my Vado, the "wind-resistant" e-bike.

I admit, I broke all bike bans on the Hwy 719 for 14 kilometres. I was mentally prepared for a potential argument with the police:

-- Officer, this is not a bike, it is a moped. Are mopeds, scooters or light motorcycles banned here? Should these ride the bike path? Show me the paragraph in the Road Code... (Oh, is it there? Then I gladly pay the ticket) -- I was reasoning in my mind Guess what? No single driver honked at me!

The temperature was not very low. The Sun tried the best to warm the air up. I have even disarmed some of my Winter Armour. The windproof protection remained in place, greatly improved by the balaclava.

Before the ride, I instructed my Vado to use Semi-Sport (50%), Full Sport (70%) and Turbo (100%) modes. I'm so glad I can override the default Eco, Sport and Turbo modes by an Android app! Because the wind was actually very strong. It had a mighty stopping power! Thanks to the Full Sport mode I was in Jaktorów in some half an hour. (Oh, it is indeed Chylice but the Jaktorów train station is just 100 metres from the bakery).

New anti-covid restrictions are in force now: 1 customer in a small shop at a time, wear gloves; I even haven't taken the goggles off and the balaclava pretended to be a mask No pączki again! Yet the shop had freshly baked poppy-seed yeast cake of which I bought all three pieces they had. One of the buns just eaten outside, two more for later.

Since I'm getting a new smartphone only tomorrow, I had no GPS navigation. At times, I was stopping to consult Google Maps on my tablet (which I had in the pannier). Still, I was riding unguided and in fact found myself in some backwoods, where I spotted a Buddhist centre! (There are not many of them in Poland). Let me say the amount of gravel and field roads I rode today was above my liking...

I had strong upwind on the way out, mighty side wind on the direction change (couple of km's), then wonderful powerful downwind on the longer way home! The sunshine was making me happy!

Upon arrival to my Brwinów, I rode to one of the two craft beer stores we enjoy in the neighbourhood. I bought some good beer; it's pity I cannot drink a lot of beer as a diabetic person.

A wonderful day!

View attachment 48793
I could at last wear a more lightweight helmet, no googles on the return journey, and lightweight gloves.

View attachment 48794
My lunch (the yeast cake) and two bottles of excellent Polish craft IPAs for the evening. @Browneye, hear, hear!

View attachment 48795
Ride data recreated manually in Endomondo. The weather data is a crap.

never have cake and beer looked so good, Stefan, and you "earned" it - today we are at minus 13 with windchill of minus 23, ok for winter but April 1st?

 

[Deleted member 18083]

A pond by the roadside …

Walloon, SE Queensland​

Just a few months ago the land was like this (and it probably will be again in six months)…

The houses and farm buildings on the left (post #628) have been there for generations, whilst the small holdings on the right are new, probably the vanguard of urban sprawl, in this case country lifestyle plots from which most hobby 'farmers' will commute to regular jobs in Ipswich or Brisbane. (Photo locations marked with X are about 1 km apart; red line is GPS record of ride.)

The pond next to the road just caught my attention as I rode past.

 

[PaD]

In case you’ve been wondering - I’m still an ebiker.
Winter has never been bicycle season for me but this winter has been unusually mild. I haven’t ridden many days as mild still means temperatures below 5°C and that is cold for riding in my book and I also don’t want to hit black ice.
Did some shorter rides earlier this year but then I paused for a month until last week when we had tempertures around 9-13°C for a few days.
Pics from Wednesday last week

Next is my lunchstop yesterday. Just a 20km ride around town as I had to be home in time for food delivery. I try to follow the recommendations concerning social distancing.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I've been longing for you, @PaD!

 

[John Daly]

Late March views from ebiking the drumlins of Hull MA (pix Boston Light and Nantasket beach from Allerton Hill on the top, Cohasset coast from Strawberry Hill below); cold, windy but exhilarating riding up these hills with pedal assist!




United States Geologic Survey Topographic maps (from 1948) showing position and direction of each photo.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

The old trestle bridge …

Brisbane Valley RT, near Toogoolawah​

Flimsy? I think so, but I'm glad that this example was not dismantled in the name of safety.

This wasn't a long ride but I was reassuring to have an extra battery in the pannier alongside a few meagre lunch rations.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Lately it seems like you need to be towing a spare bike along behind you! Nice to see things settling in a bit. Great photos as usual.

 

[BigBiscuit]

Late March views from ebiking the drumlins of Hull MA (pix Boston Light and Nantasket beach from Allerton Hill on the top, Cohasset coast from Strawberry Hill below); cold, windy but exhilarating riding up these hills with pedal assist!
View attachment 48852

Even before I read your post, I knew where these pics were taken. I've fished those islands around Boston Lighthouse for many years. Those pics definitely weren't from today. Rockland here. Hi neighbor.

 

[John Daly]

Even before I read your post, I knew where these pics were taken. I've fished those islands around Boston Lighthouse for many years. Those pics definitely weren't from today. Rockland here. Hi neighbor.

Hi Big Biscuit and welcome! Indeed those pics were from my ride on Sunday March 22, a beautiful bright blue day. Indeed NOT today. Current wave heights off the light are now 13.5 feet. (check it here at NOAA's Boston Buoy #4413 ) . I just added a "map mirror" of the pics showing where I took each from and the direction. I used cool USGS topo maps from 1948, which are nicely colored and illustrated. Enjoy and might see you biking those hills!

 

[BigBiscuit]

Hi Big Biscuit and welcome! Indeed those pics were from my ride on Sunday March 22, a beautiful bright blue day. Indeed NOT today. Current wave heights off the light are now 13.5 feet. (check it here at NOAA's Boston Buoy #4413 ) . I just added a "map mirror" of the pics showing where I took each from and the direction. I used cool USGS topo maps from 1948, which are nicely colored and illustrated. Enjoy and might see you biking those hills!

I was just making a statement regarding the poor weather pattern we've been into this past week. It's a beautiful area to ride. Especially along the coast through Cohasset and Hingham.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Brightening up bicycle commuters' days …

Bicentennial Bikeway, Milton, Brisbane​

Evolution by Matt Stewart (2016) — Vibrant street art on motorway pillars beside Brisbane's Bicentennial Bikeway. The river is on our right and the city centre is obscured by the trees.

Cyclists have a choice: keep straight on and follow the left bank of the river through the city or take the ramp (just visible beyond the middle pillar) that leads to the Go Between Bridge and the right bank of the river…

Brisbane River, flowing from west to east.​

 

[Beardystarstuff]

A couple days ago I set out on a ride of my usual loop of around 40 miles. It’s a ride that traverses a mix of blacktop and gravel through two counties, both of which are currently doing a lot of spring maintenance on the gravel roads. It’s been an adventure with portions of the road changing between each ride. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not. On several sections it seems that they road crew had a goal of plowing up the road to plant crops. I’m still not at all clear I understand what it is they are doing aside from stirring up the dirt, mud and gravel. That said, it certainly makes for an interesting ride! I generally enjoy the road when it’s mostly dirt or has just a thin layer of gravel as it provides for a quiet, smooth ride. These days I seem to be getting everything but that!

The night before my ride I’d been scoping out a possible variation of my usual loop which would extend the ride about 7 miles, but I hadn’t planned on actually doing it. Then I got to the 4 way gravel intersection and instead of my usual right turn I had the thought that maybe I’d just go straight. I could just turn around if I didn’t enjoy the extended route.

The first half mile was very nice. As was the second half mile. I kept going. It was a really beautiful ride. Then, at about 2.5 miles in on this new loop I came upon a house from which were running 2 very loud, angry sounding dogs. They were on the road and coming towards me. No time to outrun them going forward and not even time to turn around. A pit bull and a large black dog, a breed I couldn’t pinpoint. And a third, a very loud chihuahua. The two large dogs were acting somewhat aggressive as they came very close. I felt the nose of one on my leg. I had spray that at that moment I wish I’d hand in my hand. The owner was on the porch and yelling at the dogs to come back and my hesitation at using the spray was that they were listening to her, not sure what to do. I’d been bitten my a dog just 3 months ago on my lower left leg exactly where I was being sniffed. I somehow remained calm and tried to sound forceful rather than scarred as I commanded the dogs down, down then a louder more energetic NO, NO when I felt contact on my leg. They responded to the owner (sort of) barking but backing up from me and semi-retreating to the yard only to come toward me again. I got off the bike and pushed forward slow and steady as they retreated to the yard and then towards me again. Then back. I kept moving forward cautiously but steadily . I 100 feet then 200 feet. The were in the yard barking at me but not moving at me. I rounded the corner and got back on the bike then pedaled on. Scary.

It had been such a fantastic couple of miles! A few minutes later I came to my turn south and moments later another house with barking but a fence. First two, then three, then four dogs, maybe more but luckily, all behind a fence. Medium size and with a similar temperament, similar barking. More in the field just beyond the house. I kept on and increased my pace. All the dogs seemed contained and on down the road I went. The remaining five miles of the extended loop consisted of a beautiful ride on three miles of curvy gravel on gentle hills surrounded by green fields with roaming cattle and several stream crossings. Then the grand finale was two miles of curvy downhill on pavement, an exhilarating and very fast roller coaster ride!

All in all, the extended loop was very nice though definitely tainted as I kept replaying the dog encounter in my mind, thankful that I escaped unharmed but wondering how I might have handled it differently. I can’t say that I’ll take the route again because I’m not at all certain that I would come away unscathed should I encounter the dogs again especially if the owner is not there to call them back.

I’d thought I might get in my first 50 mile ride but fell just short at 45.8. Another day!

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Love the picture of your escorts. Nice looking road!

 

[terb]

I know, wrong bike!!

 

[John Daly]

The three day Nor'easter lashing the Massachusetts coast faded away this morning leaving sun, blue sky and surf. I took this ride along Jerusalem Road in Cohasset .
.

Looking back north to Boston in the upper picture and south to Minot's Light and Cohasset in the lower as the map arrows indicate.

Here's a higher elevation of where this is situated, south of Boston and well above Cape Cod (green arrow).