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

[Prairie Dog]

I miss the days when our kiddos were young enough to believe in fields of giant marshmallows

PK - I’ve edited my post to reflect yours. With that said, I like to think that there’s still a bit of kiddo in all of us.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Back from my vacation! @Brix reached her home in London without issues. As for myself, the train ride from Gdańsk Main to Warsaw Central was a pleasure but returning home from Warsaw by trains was an ordeal. (There are multiple reconstruction works on railways in the area). Had to take an Uber to get home from the county city home. At the moment, the easiest way to commute between my area and Warsaw is riding a bike... What a pity my suitcase is too big to be transported by e-bike!

In the Gdańsk Main railway station at 12:50 p.m. on the Monday afternoon. The TriCity railways are like a dream!

Upon returning home, I had to mount my Vado SL for the necessary grocery shopping. Just put my helmet on and set off for a ride. What a pleasure! I could notice my vacation made me stronger, perhaps because of the need to walk a lot, climb stairs, and carry heavy baggage!

A Kindertransport monument in the front of the Gdańsk Main Station. Soon before the outbreak of WW2, many Jewish children got saved from the Holocaust by being transported from several German cities to London. You will find a similar monument in the Liverpool Street Station in London.

Totally gentrified Gdańsk Brewery in Wrzeszcz (Danzig-Langfuhr). We lived in the apartment building at the left. The famous Danzig author Gunther Grass was born in 1927 and lived nearby during his youth.

Reportedly, the most beautiful street of Gdańsk, and the Gunther Grass Roundabout. The architecture is from the 19th c. (Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz/Danzig Langfuhr).

@Brix travelling to the Lech Walesa Gdańsk Airport by a Polregio train. It only takes 6 minutes to get from Gdańsk Main to Gdańsk Wrzeszcz, and then it is just 20 minutes to travel to the airport. It could not be easier!

 

[DiggyGun]

Today’s ride was just a quick one, but cut short by a door repair man who turned up early, so rushed back for that.

First time using a new Brooks Cambium C19 Carved Saddle. Or, plank, as Mrs DG calls it.

This one is the vulcanised version and is supposed to need no breaking in. It is hard, but does have a lot of flex in it. It is not uncomfortable, but I think it would benefit from some breaking in.

I think also, it’s finding the absolute perfect position for it. It’s not as thick as my previous Ergon SC Core Prime Men saddle, so the seat post had to be raised as well and getting the tilt right will help the man bits. A bit of fettling over the next few days should hopefully get it in the right position.

DG…

 

[RabH]

I needed 55 miles to reach 4000 miles for the year, so I looked at 3 different weather apps and all were showing heavy rain showers but at varying times...so I looked out the window and elected to head south in the hope of taking the Clyde Valley route! I used the quiet back roads down to Allanton which meant a lovely big descent early in my ride, I actually used the same road on Sunday but in the opposite drirection so it was nice to descend it this time! From Allanton I took the quiet back roads to Carluke!

As you can see the roads were wet at this point but it was dry!

I was nearing Carluke and the roads here were dry but looking down towards the Clyde Valley didn't fill me with any confidence, this was the scene I was looking at! No way was I heading that way....

So I decided to head east and had a nice 20mph tailwind to enjoy, but that meant the nasty weather was going to be following me! I took the big climb up to Kilncadzow but it was pretty easy with the strong tailwind, as soon as I reached Kilncadzow I had this awesome descent and the roads were still dry!

The weather was looking very iffy to the south towards the Tinto Hills!

The road from here is almost flat for around half a mile before another big climb which is then followed by my favourite part which is a very fast descent down towards Harelaw, this is looking back at the big climb which is hidden by a tight bend!

You can see why this is my favourite part of this amazing road!

Its not a steep descent but I was nudging 40mph with that strong tailwind, just after here there's a roundabout where you can continue east or turn south for Lanark or north for Forth! I chose to continue east and enjoy the tailwind as much as I could and I was managing to easily outrun the rain!

The view of the Pentland Hills in the distance from near the roundabout!

I then continued down the descent towards Carnwath, I was really flying along and loving that awesome tailwind! When I reached Carnwath I decided to turn northeast on to the A70, a road I use mostly in the opposite direction so it was going to be a lot of climbing but I still had that tailwind following me! I stopped at the top of this climb for a photo, its such a fast descent going the other way but today it would have been into a very strong headwind!

After this the road flattens for a bit and then its very undulating and a lot of fun to ride!

I had a look to the north as I was going to have to head that way pretty soon and I didn't like what I could see in the distance!

I reached the road junction for Tarbrax at 1100ft elevation and here I had no choice but to turn north, as i turned all I could see was a big squall passing over the valley below so I stopped for a break and a snack hoping it would blow through quickly in the strong wind! After a few minutes I could feel the rain in the air and it was still looking a bit nasty, I even contemplated going back down the A70 back to Carnwath but I loathe going back the way I came! I gave it another few minutes and decided to just go for it and chance my luck, as I plunged down the descent the rain was hitting me straight in the face and it suddenly got pretty cold! I had fingerless gloves on and my hands were feeling the cold but luckily I had the sense to put my waterproof gloves in my bag so I stopped to put them on and it made such a difference! I was nearing Auchengray and suddenly some blue sky appeared, the difference in temperature was instant!

Soon I would need to turn west to head for home and I knew it was going to be headwind time, the wind was a direct westerly and it was now getting really gusty! I joined the A71 and turned into the wind heading for Breich, as soon as I passed through the village I turned north to Longridge which would mean it would be crosswind time! Thankfully the gusts weren't too bad and I had a trouble free ride down into Whitburn where I would turn west into the wind once again! I now had a gradual climb from Whitburn to Harthill and then the big climb up to Kirk of Shotts, all into the strong headwind but I was coping well as I used assist level 3 for the big climb! It would have been a real chore getting up that climb on a standard bike today...

When I reached Kirk of Shotts I turned north over the big climb up past the Blackhill transmitter, I also used this road on Sunday as its such a fun road with almost no traffic! After the big climb the descents are just awesome, pretty much all the way down into the village of Plains where I would turn west again with only a few miles to home now! When I arrived in my home town I had covered 59 miles so I decided to take a tour around town and make it a metric century! I was amazed I managed to get home dry today, what a brilliant day that was! So I have now covered 4007 miles from 58 rides which is an average of over 69 miles per ride, the last time I had average mileage like this was 2012 when it was around 72 on a standard road bike!

 

[Prairie Dog]

@RabH -Awesome! There’s no way I can even come close to matching your stats. I’ve managed to ride 4300 km so far this year, however, this month I was able to hit the 1000 km mark which was a first for me. I should mention that only two of those outings were mtb powered rides along our local trails and the remainder of our road trips we've relied on our analog steeds.

Blackfalds East Loop

Today’s 65km ride was along some familiar roads just outside of the townsite of Blackfalds. We were planning on a full 80 km outing but an hour into the ride it was already well past 30C and the heat reflecting off of the road only made things worse. It does look like were in for a bit of a cool down next month which is welcome news.

The Missus heads east out from the townsite of Blackfalds along Hwy 597.

This view atop 597 was the only decent vantage point along the entire loop.

It’s that time of year again when the locals can be seen preparing for the annual harvest.

Heading north up RR 260, we could see that many crops had already been taken off.

This vibrant blue four-track rig caught my eye as we rode south on this township road. Quite the setup and even the paint looked fresh.

From modest homesteads…

to larger operations..

…and even some that appear to span several football fields long such as this massive dairy farm.

Time to head back west towards Blackfalds as we had spent too much time in the hot sun. Shoulders weren’t in the best condition but we’ve ridden on far worse.

Traffic along 597 in both directions wasn’t that bad either but semis hurtling by you at over 100 kph with barely enough side shoulder to maneuver around was disconcerting to say the least. What made matters worse were the substantial wind gusts created by these 18 wheelers as they whizzed by.

The posted speed limit is 80 kph but I can assure you that locals who drive farm equipment are likely the only ones who adhere to that speed.

 

[Nvreloader]

PD
Outstanding photo's,
at least you have shoulders on your roads and the 18whlr's move over when passing,
around here with no road shoulders and the 18whlr's Don't move over, the last one passed me (with no oncoming traffic), I could have touched the side of the dump belly.
I contacted the local Hiway Patrol office and found out one of the troopers is also a bike rider, there is going to be some "Press hard, 4 copies" reminders, handed out,
as NV has a mandatory 3' passing rule for bikes etc.
I envy your wide open roads.............
Thanks,
Don

 

[Prairie Dog]

PD
Outstanding photo's,
at least you have shoulders on your roads and the 18whlr's move over when passing,
around here with no road shoulders and the 18whlr's Don't move over, the last one passed me (with no oncoming traffic), I could have touched the side of the dump belly.
I contacted the local Hiway Patrol office and found out one of the troopers is also a bike rider, there is going to be some "Press hard, 4 copies" reminders, handed out,
as NV has a mandatory 3' passing rule for bikes etc.
I envy your wide open roads.............
Thanks,
Don

I hear ya. Some of our rural/township roads have no shoulders at all but for the most part motorists are respectful towards cyclists by slowing down and moving over while passing. We encountered one driver of a pickup today that was hauling a covered trailer who pulled over to give us the thumbs up and comment on how visible our rear helmet/bike lights were. Many (not all) drivers of semis seem to be in an mad rush to get to where they're going.

 

[BlackHand]

Back from visiting family in the Midwest. Snuck in about 60 miles of rides here and there on borrowed bikes. mostly just quick 10-15 mile rides and some 1-2 mile rides to visit relatives.

We stayed at a former Amish house that had been been extensively remodeled (ie it had electricity and running water). Fantastic view at dawn from the porch looking over the rolling farmland and river valley. About a mile from where I grew up...I probably biked past this spot hundreds of times as a kid.

My dad had pulled my old 10 speed out of the barn and aired up the tires. He did stop at 60 psi out of consideration for the 39+ year old tubes, but the original tubes and tires held out for the close to 30 miles I put on the bike this visit! The poor bike has spent decades in a barn but rides surprisingly well given it has had zero maintenance other than a chain clean+lube 2 visits ago. The front hub has a death squeak that is a little worrisome...

A cluster of Amish farms. Lots of chicory(?) and Queen Ann's Lace blooming at the edges of fields. Neal's Harness Shop in the distance is the place to go for local made leather goods.

My old bike at the end of the ride. I really need to get a drop bar road or gravel bike out here in Seattle - even though I was poking around slowly it's such a nice contrast from my Haibike.

That was the last sunny day and the rest of the week was overcast with high humidity and a constant threat of rain. Not much going on in the fields other than plowing. This was on a 15 mile ride to pick up donuts from the Amish version of a pop up bakery. She's smart to make her donuts and pretzels on Wednesday since she's a little off the beaten path. Most of the established Amish bakeries sell on Friday and Saturday.

I had been hoping to see some hay harvesting but no one was out doing it (too wet) even though almost every farm had the equipment out in a field ready to go.

This farming stuff is definitely beyond me, gave myself a headache trying to figure this thing out.

This house on Poverty Point Rd always fascinates me. I was lucky enough to go by on laundry day. It's hard to tell from this angle, but the clothesline is anchored to a pulley about 25-30ft up the side of the silo. The lower end is a pulley anchored to the corner of the house about another 20ft outside of the picture frame.

a quick ride down to Covered Bridge Road - the bridge was closed last time I was here as they were putting new decking down. Used to bike down here when I was a kid with 2 buddies to go fishing below the base of the bridge. I never caught much, but that was never really the point.

Our last day there we walked down to Anna's Bakery (on the right) to get handpies and donuts for breakfast plus a peach pie for the picnic we were headed to that night.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Back from visiting family in the Midwest. Snuck in about 60 miles of rides here and there on borrowed bikes. mostly just quick 10-15 mile rides and some 1-2 mile rides to visit relatives.

We stayed at a former Amish house that had been been extensively remodeled (ie it had electricity and running water). Fantastic view at dawn from the porch looking over the rolling farmland and river valley. About a mile from where I grew up...I probably biked past this spot hundreds of times as a kid.
View attachment 161564
View attachment 161565
My dad had pulled my old 10 speed out of the barn and aired up the tires. He did stop at 60 psi out of consideration for the 39+ year old tubes, but the original tubes and tires held out for the close to 30 miles I put on the bike this visit! The poor bike has spent decades in a barn but rides surprisingly well given it has had zero maintenance other than a chain clean+lube 2 visits ago. The front hub has a death squeak that is a little worrisome...

A cluster of Amish farms. Lots of chicory(?) and Queen Ann's Lace blooming at the edges of fields. Neal's Harness Shop in the distance is the place to go for local made leather goods.
View attachment 161621

My old bike at the end of the ride. I really need to get a drop bar road or gravel bike out here in Seattle - even though I was poking around slowly it's such a nice contrast from my Haibike.
View attachment 161622

That was the last sunny day and the rest of the week was overcast with high humidity and a constant threat of rain. Not much going on in the fields other than plowing. This was on a 15 mile ride to pick up donuts from the Amish version of a pop up bakery. She's smart to make her donuts and pretzels on Wednesday since she's a little off the beaten path. Most of the established Amish bakeries sell on Friday and Saturday.
View attachment 161623

I had been hoping to see some hay harvesting but no one was out doing it (too wet) even though almost every farm had the equipment out in a field ready to go.
View attachment 161624
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This farming stuff is definitely beyond me, gave myself a headache trying to figure this thing out.
View attachment 161627

This house on Poverty Point Rd always fascinates me. I was lucky enough to go by on laundry day. It's hard to tell from this angle, but the clothesline is anchored to a pulley about 25-30ft up the side of the silo. The lower end is a pulley anchored to the corner of the house about another 20ft outside of the picture frame.
View attachment 161630

a quick ride down to Covered Bridge Road - the bridge was closed last time I was here as they were putting new decking down. Used to bike down here when I was a kid with 2 buddies to go fishing below the base of the bridge. I never caught much, but that was never really the point.
View attachment 161631


Our last day there we walked down to Anna's Bakery (on the right) to get handpies and donuts for breakfast plus a peach pie for the picnic we were headed to that night.
View attachment 161632

Spectacular photos and I love how you’ve respectfully chosen to portray your report with regards to how simple aspects of rural life haven’t changed much in that part of the country. The fact that you even managed to get your vintage ride back on the road speaks for itself. Well done!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

@RabH -Awesome! There’s no way I can even come close to matching your stats. I’ve managed to ride 4300 km so far this year, however, this month I was able to hit the 1000 km mark which was a first for me. I should mention that only two of those outings were mtb powered rides along our local trails and the remainder of our road trips we've relied on our analog steeds.

What is especially impressive is Rab's elevation gain, which is 6.5 times bigger than mine
Besides, I only upload my rides to Strava now but not to RWGPS (since August 14th this year). The reason being, an e-bike bug of Wahoo doubles my recorded distance ridden. I can correct the distance in Strava but am not sure if I can do it for a recorded ride in RWGPS.

I hear ya. Some of our rural/township roads have no shoulders at all but for the most part motorists are respectful towards cyclists by slowing down and moving over while passing. We encountered one driver of a pickup today that was hauling a covered trailer who pulled over to give us the thumbs up and comment on how visible our rear helmet/bike lights were. Many (not all) drivers of semis seem to be in an mad rush to get to where they're going.

I had an interesting experience during my Warsaw ride of yesterday. I was leaving the southern quarter of Warsaw (Ursynów) and had no idea how to cross a city artery to get onto a familiar bike path behind it. Having no other option, I rode my Vado SL as if it were a motorcycle, that is, with traffic. Because of the vacation season, the traffic on the artery was light, and I had no single negative reaction from any driver (like, honking). It was such a pleasure to ride perfect asphalt without any obstacles! Eventually, I left the road to roll down an escarpment and get to the bike path safely.

I would not risk it outside the vacation season!


The New Rear Rack For My Vado SL
Since I tended to overload the rear rack of my daily e-bike during grocery shopping (the rack is only rated for 15 kg), the rack got bent beyond the repair, and then Jacek broke it when he tried to straighten it out As the rack is integrated with the rear mudguard, I ordered the new part and rode to the Specialized Warsaw to collect it on Tuesday.

My favourite part of the ride, that is, riding the hardpack in the Kabacki Forest (which is flanking Warsaw from the south).

Proudly reporting: I managed to replace the rack at Specialized Warsaw myself using my own tools! The guys at the store were glad I could do the work myself, as they had a bunch of customers on that afternoon, some collecting newly bought bikes, other talking with the technicians, and some signing up for the Specialized Test Day for Saturday.

As I got a customary discount on the rack, I could afford buying me a new pair of cycling socks (I even got a discount on those!) Haters are going to hate me even more! Specialized socks? What else?

Very hungry, I rode up the nearby META cycling restaurant bar. The cook (on the right) bakes pizzas in the outdoor kitchen during the warm season. Interestingly, there is always another e-biker at META when I'm there (that time, it was a guy riding an economy mid-drive Overfly e-bike, which brand is very popular in Poland because of good specs, reliability, proper marketing, and reasonable price).

To my surprise, I have discovered Overfly e-bikes are made in Raszyn, a town near to Warsaw, and the hometown of the tennis player Iga Świątek (WTA 1). This specific model is equipped with an Ananda mid-drive motor. The price is almost US$3,000, which is typical for a good "economy" e-bike in Europe!

Delicious Countryside Pizza at META Bar. The size was ideal for my appetite!

Then I rode through the huge southern quarter of Warsaw (Ursynów), and stopped for hot chocolate in a cafe located in the same apartment building we usually stay in together with @Brix on her Warsaw visits.

Just after arriving by the place I live now, I was approached by my disabled neighbour who enjoys his electric trike very much, and loves talking about e-bikes!

A 63 km ride in the nicest kind of cycling weather!

 

[RabH]

@Prairie Dog I'm certain if you lived in a climate like mine you would have blown me out the water, thats more than impressive in your climate!

 

[DiggyGun]

As part of my continuing diet and increased exercise programme, trying to get out on the bike every day, this is todays ride.

So far, the saddle is not too bad, still a little bit of tweaking to do, but getting there.

DG…

 

[Prairie Dog]

@Prairie Dog I'm certain if you lived in a climate like mine you would have blown me out the water, thats more than impressive in your climate!

I have to admit that winters here are long and cold and certainly contribute to my lack of time on the saddle but it’s also worth mentioning the amount of vertical that you are able to attain on your rides is what I find truly astounding. I can feel my legs melt simply by reading one your trip reports.

 

[Djangodog]

Between floods, washed out roads and wildfire smoke, the season hasn’t been very photogenic around here. I took this footage a couple days ago on a forty miler. Nothing too special, but I always find Vermont to have lots of charm and a detour allowed me to explore a bit.

 

[RabH]

I have to admit that winters here are long and cold and certainly contribute to my lack of time on the saddle but it’s also worth mentioning the amount of vertical that you are able to attain on your rides is what I find truly astounding. I can feel my legs melt simply by reading one your trip reports.

Yeah its very hilly here so I don't have much choice but to climb! It blows my mind that I have climbed 255,000ft so far this year...

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Yeah its very hilly here so I don't have much choice but to climb! It blows my mind that I have climbed 255,000ft so far this year...

Very impressive! Only 1,261,137,000 ft more to the moon.

 

[RabH]

Very impressive! Only 1,261,137,000 ft more to the moon.

Only another couple of weeks then...

 

[Djangodog]

I have never seen so many turtles in the road. I came across this medium sized snapper yesterday. I could not convince him to stay out of the road. The little snapper and the wood turtle are from earlier rides. We had no rain in May, but we had flooding and record rain in June and July. Lots of critters on the move.

 

[DiggyGun]

Two rides today.

Keeping up the exercise regime.

The saddle seems about right now, just got to let it bed in.

Good news on the noise and vibration front. I have found that this becomes noticeable when the Gates Carbon Rubber belt gets very dusty. Whether this is because the there are pannier bags both sides, who knows.

I have given the belt, both front and rear sprockets a good clean. Then a liberal dosing of dry silicone spray as recommended by Gates and all is quiet.

Anyhow, if it gets noisy during a ride, I’ll just pour some water over the rear sprocket to clean it and the dust should come off easily.

DG…

 

[Prairie Dog]

I wasn’t able to take part in my ritual morning road ride yesterday so I made up for it in slightly cooler and less windy conditions with a romp along the local trails. It’s been two weeks since I was last out on the Levo always hitting the usual series of single track. However, riding them at night is a unique experience and even more so when conditions are ideal. With rain and wildfire smoke expected to arrive in the morning, I didn’t hesitate to head out with a full compliment of bar and helmet mounted lights. I set out from the house just before sunset.

A bit of a rooty climb in the forest along the Bench Single.

I arrived at the top of the bluff on the Bench trail out from the woods around 8:30 pm where there was still plenty of ambient light.

Then it was time to head back down to the river.

It felt like I was miles from nowhere and the only sounds to be heard were from the local beavers and the burble of the river as it traveled along its bed.

A brief stopover along the edge of the no name pond.

And further up the trail, a view from the river's edge with only a few precious minutes of light remaining.

As I crossed the bridge spanning the tributary, I stopped and watched a mamma beaver preening her baby along the shoreline.

As darkness slowly closed in, one more glimpse from the bridge before I moved on to the Pines Single.

It was completely dark by the time I started my ride at the Pines but having this remarkable lighting system allowed me to tear down the trails as I would have during daylight hours.

My transition over to the trails at Heritage Ranch takes me along a section of paved pathway.

I rode a short circuit along the singles at Heritage before heading home. Heavy usage on the top of this trail feature is clearly evident. It was easily handled by the Levo with added protection of a bash plate over the motor housing.

Not so with this one as it was a three-foot drop on the other side of the log berm. I wisely choose to go around it.

My final stop along the outer loop at Heritage before heading home. It was pushing 10:30 pm by the time I arrived back at the house.