2023 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

[Chargeride]

windnoise protectors for helmet straps, I had to do that on a Europe wide motorbike ride, wrapped socks around the goggle straps.
Saved my ears

 

[Stefan Mikes]

What does this shop sell?

Just expensive souvenirs

I just turned the tv on and accidently left it to run into Eastenders, the most depressing soap opera in the world and the bbcs flagship, London based show.

If you want to know the real London , watch an episode.

Interesting... I admit I have always been visiting London for pleasure. (Just back at home now).

 

[Mr. Coffee]

About as cold as rain can get and still be rain:

 

[Art Deco]

Stefan, you look Polish when you are home but you look British when in England. I’d love to go tour the Belfast, I’ve read a lot of WW2 history, the Belfast had a long and storied career.

In London everone looks much alike to me. Part of that was it didn't matter what you look like really most people dress in shades of black and grey in London, all seem to walking briskly towards something ... maybe a train, a tube, a bus, certainly something..

IDK what the weather's like there now, but try to lose a few more pounds on a boat trip on the Thames or ( maybe better / cheaper) a canal boat if you have good weather. I enjoyed both. So did the students, I think.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

IDK what the weather's like there now

It's surprisingly cold and windy as for March in South England. It is expected to be a Spring month there, yet I heard about some snowing a couple of days ago.

but try to lose a few more pounds on a boat trip on the Thames or ( maybe better / cheaper) a canal boat if you have good weather. I enjoyed both. So did the students, I think.

Did several Thames boat trips in the past during warm and sunny season. The trip such as Greenwich to Central London on an open deck cruise ship (such as City Cruise line) was worth losing some pounds indeed! A warning: a tourist shall never take any of them "Thames Clippers": these are for getting you from A to B, not for sightseeing!

On a Greenwich to Westminster boat cruise.

Such a good tour guide is a treasure! (City Cruise, Victoria Embankment to the Tower of London).

'The building you can see there used to be a headquarters of the biggest window-washing company...'
(ROAR OF LAUGHTER from the audience)
'...until they moved to The Shard opposite'

The aforesaid Shard at 6 a.m as seen from Southwark Street (the area around is full of hotels and just several steps to the Tate Modern gallery and the Millenium foot bridge towards St. Paul's Cathedral).

Stefan, you look Polish when you are home but you look British when in England.

An anecdote: I approached a receptionist on the last morning to order a breakfast at the Mercure London Bridge hotel. After a short exchange she asked: "Do you speak Polish maybe?" You would not guess she was Polish! Now, I can get yet a better room at the hotel for my next stay! (The fact is it would be hard to provide me with even better room than the one I got on the last weekend!)

Saturday 11th of March 2023.

@Art Deco: I'm already in Poland!

 

[Art Deco]

If it's cold and windy and you are close to the section of Southwark by the Eye there were many covered shopping areas and some posh shops there, as well a graffiti covered skateboard park, under the bridge there were a bunch of street bands and flea market type booths, popup restaurants, and such. Our students were housed nearby and it seemed safe and well lit then as well.Enjoy.

 

[Chargeride]

The rest of the country sees London as very unfriendly, as Stefan says, people always in a hurry, but I think thats true of any big city, freindliness and humanity forms quickly with any drama.
Its quite the joke in the UK that Londoners think England turns into cobbled streets and cart horses about 50 miles out of the city, and there is a lot of truth in that stereotype.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The rest of the country sees London as very unfriendly, as Stefan says, people always in a hurry, but I think thats true of any big city, freindliness and humanity forms quickly with any drama.

As Art Deco says I actually am fond of London; nobody really cares how you look like or what you do there (unless you are doing really bad things).
On the other hand, nothing can match the Welsh hospitality!

 

[Chargeride]

That is so true, my friend moved to Wales, to a place called Druid no less, real rural farmer country, you would expect them to be a bit insular, but the complete opposite is the truth.
A sheep farmer down a half mile long muddy track to his house surrounded by rusting farm machinery, within minutes he was telling me stories I didnt know about where I lived and then he moved on to Cuban and Spanish politics.

 

[DaveMatthews]

NDPD!
Finally caved to the desire of getting a dropper post. Of course the original intent for such a thing is to bomb down gnarly hills in the dirt, but my use case is much more mild.
The seat height I like on my L frame is just right for pedaling, but is just a tad too high for planting your foot at a stop. Especially if that stop is a bit lower where your foot is in comparison to the wheels.
So, enter the dropper post! This will also make mount/dismount easier as a bonus.
Now all I have to do is get used to it...

 

[Prairie Dog]

Nice Dave. The dropper will definitely make stop and go rides incredibly convenient. Just being able to adjust your saddle height on the fly without interrupting one’s ride is reason enough. Safer too just in case you do happen to decide to bomb down that steep trail that you’ve always thought of doing in the back of your mind.

 

[DaveMatthews]

Nice Dave. The dropper will definitely make stop and go rides incredibly convenient. Just being able to adjust your saddle height on the fly without interrupting one’s ride is reason enough. Safer too just in case you do happen to decide to bomb down that steep trail that you’ve always thought of doing in the back of your mind.

Yup, thanks for confirming the movie that's been running in my head for a year! Looking forward to using it. There's been a few times where I've wanted to put my foot down and all I get is air. That's uncomfortable for sure.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

Stefan, 8 years ago you looked in pretty bad shape. Biking has improved you!

 

[RabH]

After 10 days of awful weather I spotted a weather window today and grabbed it with gusto, it was pretty icy first thing but the clouds were rolling in so I waited until almost midday and set off knowing rain was coming around 3pm! I had to use the main roads as the back roads would have been too risky, the wind was from the SW and only around 15mph so no factor today! I headed for Carluke where I would turn east towards Carnwath, just my luck that the road south to Lanark was closed and all the Lanark traffic were being diverted on to the same road...thankfully not many trucks though and the drivers behaved themselves! I reached Kilncadzow and stopped for a couple of photos of the Tinto Hills which were pretty white and shrouded in clouds!

The road to Carnwath is great fun to ride, even today with lots of traffic I really enjoyed it! I had to wait for a few minutes to grab these photos while there was little traffic...

When I reached Carnwath it was time to turn north towards Braehead and the roads were very quiet now and well gritted, I actually passed the yard where all the salt is stored so I knew there was a good chance the roads would be treated here! Its pretty much climbing all the way up to Braehead, this is looking back towards Carnwath with the Tinto Hills in view once again!

This is the view to the east with the Pentland Hills in the distance!

I passed through Braehead and enjoyed the big descent down into Wilsontown, yet another great road with lots of twists and turns and the road eventually joins the main road from Forth to Breich where I had the awesome descent to look to forward to! Luckily the road wasn't busy so I had a blast flying down the descent to Breich where I passed over the railway bridge where there is another fast descent towards Longridge!

The clouds were starting to gather now and I still had 20 miles to go...

Its a straight road all the way to Armadale from here with lots of ups and downs, the roads were starting to get busy again but I didn't have any lunatics around thankfully! I arrived in Armadale and it was time to turn west for home, the rain was holding off but I knew it was coming and it turned out to be my lucky day as it just started spitting as I reached my home town! The only problem was I was 2 miles short of 50 so I decided to chance a loop around the town hoping the rain wouldn't get worse...I turned into my street when it started to pour and I literally threw the bike into my garage and just washed it indoors! I had to make sure all the salt was washed off....

So it turned out to be my lucky day, it was such a great ride and on mostly dry roads which is always a bonus at this time of year!We are expecting some milder weather now but its going to be wet so I'm not sure when the next ride will be, hopefully it won't be another 10 day wait....

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Around Wenatchee, WA on a sunny late winter day…

 

[Prairie Dog]

Well, after a week without a ride to account for due to a stomach virus, I was finally myself again and feeling quite anxious to be able to head out and get some much-needed time in the saddle.

My timing couldn’t have been any better as this bad boy really helps level the playing field. I lost track of the days this past winter where I couldn’t ride due to copious snow and narrow tires that were holding me back. This will no longer be the case.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

So, enter the dropper post! This will also make mount/dismount easier as a bonus.

Congratulations Dave! Even if you perhaps do not bomb singletrack downhill, the dropper is very useful during riding downhill on asphalt, too. Just drop the seat, stand on the pedals, move your bum above the rear wheel and enjoy!

Brake Pads Replacement and Big Grocery Shopping Day

When I was on the first grocery ride of this Wednesday (22.8 kg of cargo), I could notice poor performance of brakes on my Vado SL. Well?

Were the Tektro hydraulic disk brakes more advanced on my Fearless, I could still squeeze a bit of life from the existing brake pads by adjusting brake levers. The original pads were good for 8228 km (5,113 mi), which is an excellent figure. Well, the e-bike is lightweight, it doesn't ride very fast, and we have no hills where I live! The original pads lost up to 1 mm of their thickness. As I keep spares for preventive maintenance, the brake pad replacement (and calliper adjustment) was very easy!

Then, I went for the second round of shopping. A rare photo of Ortlieb Vario pannier-backpack from different generations. Left: Ortlieb Vario (-2021). Right: Ortlieb Vario PS (2022-current). They are totally different! No doubt, the PS has more of the internal capacity, is properly secured on the rack with the QL2.1 system, has more of the ground clearance, and can be converted to a backpack at any time. It is, however, tall. You cannot have it all!

Stefan, 8 years ago you looked in pretty bad shape. Biking has improved you!

Thank you for your kind words!

 

[DaveMatthews]

Well, after a week without a ride to account for due to a stomach virus, I was finally myself again and feeling quite anxious to be able to head out and get some much-needed time in the saddle.

My timing couldn’t have been any better as this bad boy really helps level the playing field. I lost track of the days this past winter where I couldn’t ride due to copious snow and narrow tires that were holding me back. This will no longer be the case.

View attachment 149375
View attachment 149376

Don't think I've seen that one before. Is it a Bigfoot?

 

[Prairie Dog]

Don't think I've seen that one before. Is it a Bigfoot?

Yep, that obvious, eh? It’s a VLT 1 with the 900 Wh battery option shod with 27.5 x 4.5” 45Nrth studded Wrathchilds. I took off from the LBS for a shakedown run and headed to the nearest trailhead. Temp was -11C under foggy conditions which created a lovely coating of frost on the trees.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

It’s a VLT 1 with the 900 Wh battery option

A real monster! How easy it must be to ride in the deep snow with that beast!
-11 C! (You know my opinion of Canada, eh?)