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

I remember punk in its early days in the 70s in the UK and went to a number of gigs at the time. Two notable ones were The Stranglers where a massive brawl broke out. And Blondie, Debbie Harry in a black bin bag when you’re a young 17 year old is a sight to behold.

I had a pierced ear at the time, but recall at a party, some bloke putting seven large safety pins through one of his ears when he was absolutely pissed.

There was also a Toga party, another time, but that’s a whole different story…

DG…
 
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I remember punk in its early days in the 70s in the UK and went to a number of gigs at the time. Two notable ones were The Stranglers where a massive brawl broke out. And Blondie, Debbie Harry in a black bin bag when you’re a young 17 year old is a sight to behold.

I had a pierced ear at the time, but recall at at party, some bloke putting seven large safety pins through one of his ears when he was absolutely pissed.

The first ever punk-rock concert in Warsaw were The Raincoats (a British band) on 1st of April 1978. There was no punk movement in Poland yet, so the gig was greatly overlooked.

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At the first domestic PUNK gig in Warsaw, The Boors/KRYZYS on 7th of April 1979. Me wearing a necktie and a Johnny Rotten self-made badge; the man in hat was the owner of a 72-frame camera who documented most of that gig. Our clothes were not as colourful or fancy as ones worn by British punk-rockers (Communist Poland was indeed a poor country!)
 
The last time I had my ear pierced with a safety pin was 1979, when I was indeed shocking my classmates and teachers with the PUNK attire :)
While PUNK was already DEAD in the UK in 1978, we were delayed by the Iron Curtain, so we started the movement in Warsaw in 1978, and it lasted by the Summer 1980 (the outbreak of Solidarity). Younger people still follow punk-rock but not I :)
It passed me by even though I was in my teens at the time, I was always jeans and tshirt..still am.
Had an 80s mullet from 1970 to 2010 😂
Solidarity, that takes me back..it was so big in our news, I reckon most Brits of our age could remember it
 
My friend who I climb the mountains with falls off constantly, its his signature move for thirty years, I 've got hundreds of pictures of him on the floor with pushbikes and dirtbikes next to him or on top of him.

Anyway he drove three hours into Wales and fell off in 30 seconds and broke a rib.

Too old for it, hopefully this will slow him down.

Warning, pretty grim moaning, but hes OK.
Cant laugh though, or move more than an inch, or turn or hold a drink 😂
Watch your sound if in public, he moans like hes been shot
 
@DiggyGun

Sorry to hear about your fall. If it's any condolence, I've just joined your ranks the other day. Not a lot of damage - just a scraped elbow and a sore arm bone.

How it happened: friend called and wanted to ride. I was way too busy but thought I'd steal an hour since the temps were actually bearable (we had been in the relentless clutches of 90+°F heat for weeks). I said a short ride only, she agreed. We had just started out and were about half a mile from her place. I was leading. At a crossroad I stuck out my right arm to signal a turn right, and called over my shoulder we were turning right.

As I started to turn right my friend, without warning, suddenly shot past me on the right and turned left, directly in front of me. I grabbed both brakes to do a panic stop and barely missed crashing into her bike as she flew past the front of my bike. Had I not braked so quickly, she would have been T-boned as she cut me off, and both of us would have ended up on the ground.

Because my front wheel was turned right, my stopped bike went into a slow motion free fall to the pavement. I tried to get my right leg under me for support, but it didn't happen fast enough. Both my Gazelle and I were unceremoniously laid out on the pavement, my right elbow bearing the brunt of the fall.

I haven't taken a fall since I was a kid, and that pavement was pretty unforgiving. Friend stopped when she saw me on the ground, and stood looking confused until I told her what had happened, at which point she was mortified. Thankfully no damage to the bike because it was a fall from a halt and it has a carbon belt drive, no derailleur. Minimal damage to me. Although my arm stung the rest of the ride, we still had a nice time. The day was too perfect not to return the smiles. Once back home a smear of Destin on the scrape made for a quick heal, and an Advil each day for the next two days helped me ignore the bruised elbow bone and stiff neck, both of which are fine by now.

A quiet solo ride today for a lovely 27 miles in almost chilly weather put me back in a happy mood. Our county, as well as the surrounding counties here in northern Virginia , are in a declared drought. Everything is bone dry, the ground like concrete, and lots of vegetation - grasses, crops, trees - is either severely stressed from lack of water, or dying. So the landscape is brown, and sad. Not picture worthy. I stopped enroute to talk to one of the riders attending the first foxhunt of the season at an estate along my route. She said everyone kept their horses at a walk because of the rock hard ground. No jumping, all used the field gates to go from field to field. but all had fun. At least the hounds got to run about.

A bit further down the road a polo match was in progress. I stopped to watch a bit of play and give a friendly doggie a happy scratch around the ears. There were no spectators today. I'm guessing the wretched days of restless heat and humidity had cowed even the most ardent polo supporters into staying home . So the players played to no one other than themselves, happily chasing and whacking the small white ball up and down the field of dead brown grass.

I also saw my neighbor out riding her horse with her daughter on a young Thoroughbred, both walking alongside the road just as I had set out. Two years ago my neighbor had fallen off another horse while out on a trail ride and suffered a TBI. She was medivacced by helicopter to a hospital and put into an induced coma for several days to allow her brain to heal (yes, she was wearing a helmet at the time), had an operation for her broken bones, and was told not to set foot in a stirrup again. Ever. She spent the past two years recovering and I guess the doctors relented on allowing her to ride again. We stopped to chat for a bit before we both moved on - she and her daughter together at a slow gentle walk, and me on a far faster clip down the road.

It was nice to get out today since the heat ramps back up tomorrow all the way through to next week with temps forecast to almost 100°F for several consecutive days with no rain in sight.

I have a 50 mile charity ride coming up Saturday. At this point I've barely been riding at all in August due to the heat, so I'll wait to see what the temps will be next weekend before I make any "go/no go" decisions.

At least by then my elbow will be back to being as good as new. I hope.

Wednesday we pick up my new Rivian electric truck - a whole other exciting adventure I'll write about later since I plan to use the truck to carry my Rivian Blue Gazelle to the bike ride on Saturday. If I go. Weather will tell..
 
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@Readytoride

Sorry to hear of your fall, but glad both you and the bike are OK.

Mine was also a low speed incident. Coming along a cycle track some workers were replacing a wire fence and new wooden posts. I had slowed down for them, but didn’t notice a roll of fence wire which was protruding onto the track. Unfortunately, I have some vision loss and didn’t see it until the last minute. I tried going to the left sharply and simply over-balanced and over I went.

No damage to the bike apart from some dust on the left pannier, but did have a load of workers in Hi-Viz Orange watching and asking if I was OK. Advised yes, got up and continued.

You can see the kink of the fall when you look at the Garmin route.
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Strange though, the incident alert activated on my Garmin Epix watch, which I had to cancel, but not on my Specialized ANGI crash sensor on my helmet. But I don’t think my head hit the ground.

In the end, both me and the bike are OK and I was down the same track yesterday, but pleased to report that all the work is finished.

DG….
 
Diverge EVO? No STR test ride?
Yes, it was the Diverge EVO. I will write a more extensive report later (my Saturday's ride started at 7:20 am and finished at 0:30 on Sunday so I need to recover!) but let me tell you were I a healthy person, I would buy that bicycle on the spot! I loved it! Regarding the STR, that model was not in the demo fleet. Even if it were, I would not sign the contract for renting it as I never rent a bike that is beyond my financial capacity (in case anything goes very wrong with the demo bike).

The other ride tested was a Tero X 4.0. What an excellent e-bike! (I did not miss the power, and the smaller battery was irrelevant for the demo ride). While I would not buy a Levo (I do not ride technical singletrack), the Tero X was even more than I would need!
 
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An update is that its worse than we thought, hes broken three ribs and punctured his lung and developed a small emphysema.

Spoke to the rest of the crew last night and they have been concerned with his excessive riding, hes even been building large ramps in his garage.
59 years of age.
Midlife crisis 😂

Such a simple looking crash as well, he'll be fine but hopefully slower.
 
@DiggyGun - I didn't get any zig-zag in my GPS recording. Guess my RWGPS didn't think my fall was worthy of recording.

Funny now that you mention your smart watch. Mine didn't activate either. Guess because I went down and got up so quickly.

One of my riding buddies took a fall off her horse early last week during a trail ride, and sustained a mild concussion. Thankfully, she had one of her boarders with her who said my friend's watch alerted three times, asking if she was OK and when she continued to lay on the ground, unresponsive, the watch called 911 (emergency services) plus the first person on her emergency list. Smart phone indeed!

Long story short she "came to" a moment later, cancelled the ambulance call, and contacted me asking if I'd go to her place to get her trailer to bring the horses back to her farm. I took care of that while she went to the hospital emergency room with her boarder's brother (who the boarder had called for help). Hospital took all kinds of tests, found her OK, dealt with her migraine which happened right after the fall, and released her that evening. A mutual friend and I picked her up from the hospital and brought her back home. She remained slightly dizzy, and the migraine persisted, for the next three days.

I think she is buying a new helmet this week. One bad fall and crack on the head usually means the helmet is now compromised. With my fall, fortunately, I didn't hit my head. My neck and side muscles did their job keeping my head up and out of harm's way at the expense of some neck and back muscle soreness for the next day or two.
 
Funny now that you mention your smart watch. Mine didn't activate either. Guess because I went down and got up so quickly.
Yes, the Garmin Epix worked, but the Specialized ANGI didn’t.

I had the ANGI system prior to getting the Epix and continue to use it as it is supposed to be more responsive than the Garmin system, but is this case, not.

Will probably still use the ANGI as it notifies Mrs DG when I start and finish a ride, when I do a solo ride.

Anyhow, it’s good to know that at least one of the emergency / incident crash sensors worked.

DG..
 
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I was hoping to go to the motorcycle racing at Knockhill today but with winds over 30mph I decided to give it a miss, I could have gone in the car but I preferred to get the bike out as the winds weren't as gusty at home! I was hoping to head down the Clyde Valley on my last ride but the weather put paid to that, so that was my first choice today! It was a little nicer shall we say! ;)

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I joined the valley road at Carluke and took the awesome descent down to Crossford before turning right at the road end and taking on the big climb up to Blackhill Viewpoint, a real beast of a climb with an average gradient of 9.1%! I stopped part way up for some photos of course and I couldn't get my bike stand to deploy, it wasn't for locking into position for some reason! Thankfully there was a handy kerb available....

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A lovely view of the valley and the clouds looked incredible also!

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I reached the summit and stopped just before the scary descent, the reason its so scary is the road just drops away on you and there's actually another road just beyond the steepest part so you have to make sure you are able to stop at the junction! I virtually freewheeled it at 43.3mph...

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This road then takes you back down into the Clyde Valley at Kirkfieldbank, then its another beast of a climb up to Lanark! Its only 1/2 a mile of ascent but an average gradient of 9.6%! Thankfully I caught Lanark at a quiet time and breezed through without any problems, taking the lovely descent down to the Hyndford Bridge in the valley! Then I joined the main A73 which is a road to be avoided during the week with many massive trucks hammering along it, no problems today though! I found another handy kerb to grab another photo part way along the road, the scenery is lovely all the way along this route with the Tinto Hills on one side and the Pentland Hills on the other!

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This is the main Tinto Hill which is very popular on a day like today although I'm sure it was very windy up at over 2300ft!

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You can see why I love this road so much here!

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A few miles later I was nearing the junction for Symington which then leads to Biggar, the views to the north here are lovely!

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I tried my bike stand again and it actually locked down this time, although when I attempted to put it back up it didn't want to stay up so I had to tie it up! (new one now ordered)

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The Pentland Hills then came into view!

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I reached the bridge over the River Clyde just before the turn off for Biggar and was shocked to see the water so low, especially considering all the rain we have had recently!

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A handy wall to support the bike...

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I soon arrived in Biggar and would finally have the wind at my back heading north to Carnwath, lots of farms along this road and its a very busy time for the farmers!

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This road is just amazing also, lots of climbs and fast descents and twists and turns! Just my kind of road and today the motorbikes were enjoying it also, it has been a long time since I saw so many motorbikes on my cycling roads and you can see why here!

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I was soon in Carnwath and continued north to enjoy that tailwind all the way to Whitburn where I turned west for home and the wind had shifted to the west now, so I had 14 miles of a 25-30mph headwind to contend with! Level 3 assist was now selected and was I glad I had lots of juice left! Another fantastic ride today, from start to finish it was just amazing despite the bike stand problems! I think I will sleep well tonight after that...;)

@DiggyGun @Readytoride Sorry to hear about your falls, I'm glad you are both fighting fit and healing up!👍
 

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Specialized Test Days (Specialized Warsaw): Diverge Comp E5 EVO

How is it done?
Specialized Poland transport their fleet of demo bikes and e-bikes to premium LBSes the day before the event (Poland was left with only premium authorized LBS on the latest "sweep-up" action: only the LBS that could sell the quota have been left intact). The Days for Warsaw would be two dates in September, so the combined personnel of our two Specialized stores ("Warsaw" and "Warsaw Soho") would participate to handle a big number of test riders. You fill in an online questionnaire in advance; in the case you show up, you are given a rental contract to be signed. I prebooked two bikes for 10:00 and 11:30 am. (The demo ride is free but it is limited to 1 hour; if you want to ride for, say, 4 hours, you need to pay a small fee).

Once you have the paperwork done, the mechanic would ask you up to three questions:
  • Will you accept the platform pedals or have you brought your own clipless pedals and cleated shoes?
  • What is your saddle height? (if you do not know it, we'll measure that for you!)
  • What is your body weight? (Relevant to Levo to set the proper pressure for the suspension).

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The fleet of demo Tero X e-bikes in different frame sizes. The Specialized Warsaw personnel know me very well, so I felt as if I were between friends there. As to the demo fleet, it was mostly Aethos, Diverge, Creo, Levo, Levo SL, Vado SL, Tero, and Tero X.

Specialized Diverge Comp E5 EVO

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I did not do my homework! :) I hoped to demo ride the Diverge with drop handlebars (a.k.a. "a proper gravel bike"). (EVO is a flat handlebar gravel bike for riders who do not feel OK with drop bars). I just smiled and said: 'Flat handlebars? Wonderful! Nothing new to learn!' :)

Impressions

Shifting and brakes
The first and really a single surprise was the SRAM shifter. As opposed to Shimano, SRAM requires you to push the upshift lever (it is doable for Shimano, but pulling that lever is more natural). Nothing to worry about but I was constantly trying to pull the upshift lever, haha! Needless to say, shifting was crisp for the 1x11 gear SRAM drivetrain. The Tektro brakes were just perfect (I never needed to think about them).

Geometry & handling
Then, the geometry. The frame size M felt like tailor-made for me! The bike geometry was not what I had been used to. For instance, the bike stem was located just below my chest. Surprised first, I realized I felt very comfortable with that, and the geometry was giving me total control and perfect handling of the bike in rough terrain. Yes, I said perfect handling. The Diverge felt very stable on the hardpack but I could manoeuvre it easily, for instance to avoid riding into a pothole, mud, or a puddle.

Ride comfort and tyres; dropper seat-post
I could hardly believe an unsuspended bicycle was so soft! Yea, later I discovered the Diverge had the FutureShock front suspension (excellent!) but I also felt no discomfort in the rear area, either. The Rhombus tyres felt very good and aggressive for the rough terrain but they were surprisingly quiet on the pavement, too. The dropper seat-post was a nice addition to the bicycle!

Low weight

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The winner! Can you see the big smile on my face? And it is an aluminium bike with a carbon fork! At some point, I met a narrow foot-bridge preceded by a lot of mud. I found it convenient to just carry the Diverge through the obstacle! The bike is feather-weight!

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By a big oak-tree in the Park of Powsin (a part of the Kabacki Forest). The Diverge is almost invisible in the picture! :D

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If she were washed, she would be a visually beautiful bike, too!


The Verdict
Were I a healthy person, I would not bother about e-bikes but buy the Diverge EVO on the spot! What a wonderful bike! However, my medical condition resulted in the average speed in the forest of only 14.5 km/h, and that only was a 9 km ride. I'm condemned to riding e-bikes!
 
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