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

We had a ride along the NCN51, which at times runs alongside the River Great Ouse.
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A lovely day for riding again and, some nice views along the way.

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Had to cross a railway line which had this unusual crossing to get over it.
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This was the old Bedford Keep, which us now the Bedfordshire PGL Masonic Centre.
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DG…
 
Why I Cannot Ride A Traditional Bicycle Anymore, Or
The Specialized Diverge Comp E5 EVO Off-Road Demo Ride

It had been (note the tense!) my idea I could complete the next year's Mazovian Gravel 100 race on a pedal bike. Rode my Vado SL to Specialized Warsaw on Friday morning to get the Diverge EVO in my hands. As my previous 1-hour demo ride in very easy terrain on the Diverge turned out to be quite positive, now I rented the same demo bike for a day to make sure if I could ride it in rough terrain and how the climbing would look like.

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I loved that bike! It belongs to the category of "flat handlebar gravel bike", which is a specially designed "rigid fork lightweight MTB". I was enchanted with its features. The frame is made of ultrathin super strong E5 alloy tubes. The bike comes with a carbon fork and FutureShock 1.5 suspension stem system, premium components such as SRAM 1x11 drivetrain and Tektro brakes (identical to ones found on my Vado SL), a dropper seat-post, or 42 mm aggressive Rhombus tyres (which turned out to be whisper quiet on the pavement!) Everything in the bike was a product of high technical culture, and I really admired how the bike was built!

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After having crossed the Southern Bridge of Warsaw, I realized I was the wrong person to ride that marvellous bike! My medical condition made me barely climb a 4.1% incline! (the bike good for me should help me climbing the iconic 8.6% Góra Kalwaria hill, which was unrealistic with my bad legs and no pedalling assistance). Meanwhile, the temperature rose to 28 C at high air humidity, and the worst had yet to come... As the "hideous singletrack" was to begin soon...

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After having crossed yet another sand patch. I was amazed with the Diverge EVO technical singletrack capabilities:
  • Handling and steering: perfect! I was on the same singletrack on Thursday a week ago, and almost shat up myself from fear riding my Vado SL there :D While the Diverge rode the same singletrack easily, surely, no fear whatsoever!
  • Traction: Excellent. There was no surface, no matter how difficult, that would stop me. The Diverge EVO was even capable to ride through the shallow sand. It would probably even cut through deep sand were my legs strong enough...
  • Ride comfort: Next to the full suspension. I was intentionally riding rough surfaces such as stones or tree-roots to find out it was not only the bike front perfectly damping any irregularities but also I had no discomfort in the rear part! (Geometry? Tyres? IDK!)
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A short rest near to a small lake once formed by the Vistula. Notice I was in the 3rd gear at that moment. I was so weak I had to ride in the 1st gear for most of the singletrack part, and my average speed was ridiculous 12.7 km/h there!

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On last Sunday, most of Mazovian Gravel riders made exactly the same navigational error as I did on this Friday. The alternative route led along a dangerous cliff overlooking the Vistula. A single hesitation, and you would end up in the river together with your bike! I felt creepy, especially as I could see a big tree that had recently fallen into the Vistula. Some parts of the trail were leading you straight into the abyss! Can you see the cliff is made of sand? We never miss sand in Mazovia! :D

Near to the end of the trail, I met an angler, and we had some talk together. He told me many interesting things about his hobby. I learned the Vistula has become a very clean river with a lot of fish; and that the foam I could see on the river was a good sign of wildlife of the river!

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As I came back to the civilization, I crossed the river Świder (literally: A Drill) over a small bridge. That shallow river turned out to be quite wild there! Now, I had to cross a steel barrier to get onto the main road... I lifted and moved the Diverge behind the barrier with one hand. It was more problematic to get myself over that barrier! :D

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Again, I was a single passenger on the Gassy ferry. The ferry is doomed. The Southern Bridge has diverted the traffic off the Karczew-Gassy river crossing, and the ferry is mostly used by cyclists and only on weekends...

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I took a long rest in the scorching sun in Gassy, rehydrating. It was just 13 km by asphalt to get back to Specialized. I was totally spent to the level it was hard for me to pedal for that short distance! I felt totally humiliated. The good thing was the Specialized salesman charged me nothing for the bike rental, as he probably felt compassion towards me and did not want to bring me down more! I even got a glass of water from a Spec technician!


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98 km total for the day.

One thing is sure: I'm remaining in the e-bike community! :) Yes, I am an e-biker, and cannot return to traditional cycling anymore!
 
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It was cool day for a ride and I mean that in the literal sense. The mercury dipped to 7C near the end of the ride and leggings, thermal headbands and warmer gloves were definitely appreciated with bitter northerlies making it feel much colder. We managed to get in a 38 km spin before it started to rain.

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Only a handful unswathed crops remain in the fields with most like this one having been harvested over the past week.

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Sai zips up for the return leg home. To the south, the sun was still peeking out from the clouds as it casts a perfect shadow of her and the bike against the blacktop.

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Heading west into a crosswind, any glimpse of sun is shrouded in darkening skies as we sprint towards home base.

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I’m going to try and fit one more mtb foray at one of the mountain parks next week. Snow is in the forecast for Banff/K-Country tomorrow but it doesn’t appear that it will be cold enough for it to stick around for long.

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Thank you guys! After I move into my Old Home again (I need space!) and earn more money, I would be tracking the developments regarding the Creo 2, the true gravel e-bike. Perhaps Specialized would release the alloy version of that e-bike for 2025? I'm tempted, even with the current carbon version :) Oh my, 25 km/h speed restriction makes a road e-bike an absurd here but a 25 km/h gravel e-bike makes a lot of sense!

When I was struggling that 4.1% ascent, I was trying to recollect I could make the Góra Kalwaria climb on some rented Specialized bike. Ah, yes, that was a road Creo E5. An e-bike :) That 8.6% climb is easy for Vado 6.0 or Trance E+ but even a Vado SL has no issues with the 8.6% incline!
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Art, see how strange it is about the weather. Last year's September was as cold as I had to wear my Winter Armour Lite. You say it's cold in your area now. While, we enjoy warm Indian Summer here... Summer, please last! :)
 
Art, see how strange it is about the weather. Last year's September was as cold as I had to wear my Winter Armour Lite. You say it's cold in your area now. While, we enjoy warm Indian Summer here... Summer, please last! :)
Nice to know that at least you are enjoying the perks of an extended summer season. With that said, I haven’t lost all hope for a few more fair weather days in the long range forecast even if it means layering up on the rides that aren’t so pleasant. Tomorrow doesn’t look very promising either but at least we’ll stay dry. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what El Nino has in store for us for the remainder of the year. 🤞
 
The Park Loop road in Acadia is one of my favorite rides. I rode it on Tuesday and had a GoPro on my chest. The bike is my Wilier GT-S Carbon road bike, (not my eBike). There was still some smoke in the air from the Canadian wild fires, so the sky is not a bright blue. The ride, including Cadillac Mountain is a little over 31 miles and total climbing is approximately 3,000’. I hope that some of you will enjoy it.

 
Didn’t like it that much, it was comfy to start with, but could feel it wasn’t that comfy even after this short distance.
I used that saddle a way too long. It was ruining my butt even if it looked comfortably! Changed to more sporty saddles to a great effect.
 
The Park Loop road in Acadia is one of my favorite rides. I rode it on Tuesday and had a GoPro on my chest. The bike is my Wilier GT-S Carbon road bike, (not my eBike). There was still some smoke in the air from the Canadian wild fires, so the sky is not a bright blue. The ride, including Cadillac Mountain is a little over 31 miles and total climbing is approximately 3,000’. I hope that some of you will enjoy it.

That tune and the visuals are just perfect, makes we want to ride it, on an ebike of course.
 
That tune and the visuals are just perfect, makes we want to ride it, on an ebike of course.
Thanks. It’s a magical place and I can’t take credit for the scenery or the first three tunes. The last tune was an iPhone recording of me playing my Martin 000-28. It wasn’t the best and the iPhone is a poor recording studio, but the length of the tune fit and seemed to work so in it went.
 
A Bunch of E-Bike Anecdotes From The Last Month :)

E-bikes seem to have caught in Poland, now not only in our mountains but on the plains, too.

The Amp-Hour Man
As I was waiting at the closed railway crossing barrier, a man rode up to me. His ride was a small folder e-bike (it looked pretty lightweight!) The man took a peek on my Vado 6.0.
'It's an e-bike, isn't it?' -- he inquired -- 'What is the battery size?'
'It's six hundred and four watt-hours' -- I replied. He seemed to be confused -- 'In ampere-hours please?'
'Well, you describe the battery charge in watt-hours' -- I tried to educate him a little -- 'as the amp-hours mean nothing without the voltage figure'
Eventually, I used the calculator on my smartphone and said -- 'It is 16.7 amp-hour' -- to which he answered in awe -- 'That's a huge battery!'.

I learned his folder e-bike was a 13 Ah battery, and it only weighed 24 kg, that is, it was 2 kg more lightweight than my Vado! The man looked to be totally happy with his ride, and I admit he had good reasons to be happy, especially as he was actually pedalling his e-bike.

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The Jobobike I saw.

For me, the difference between expensive and cheap e-bikes is the former seem to be powered by Wh and the latter ride on Ah :)

Big Mid-Drive E-Bikes

Wilanów is our iconic "the richest quarter" of Warsaw. Both Specialized Warsaw and META Bar are located within Wilanów, near to its border. The META is the place where you see the more expensive e-bikes frequently. Now, full power e-bikes with big internal batteries have become fashionable. It could be a KROSS (Polish big brand) or a SCOTT, or CUBE. All those e-bikes looked similarly to one another: low-step, big frame, looking very heavy. Compared to those, my Vado SL looked like a pedal bike :)

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Wanna a "Wilanów worthy" e-bike? It needs to match the style! :)

The Darwin's Award Candidate
As I was returning from my short grocery shopping ride on Saturday (it was just after the rainfall), someone overtook me at very high speed, silently. It was a boy, a slim teenager riding a DIY mini motorcycle (a.k.a. #itridesitselfebike), the one with the frame triangle totally filled with a home-made battery, and a big hub-drive motor. And the throttle, of course.

They boy was zooming a 400 m long stretch of our street this way and the other. As he was braking before doing a U-turn, his rear wheel slipped but the boy could regain the balance.

He rode without a helmet.

His mother would weep.
 
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Thanks. It’s a magical place and I can’t take credit for the scenery or the first three tunes. The last tune was an iPhone recording of me playing my Martin 000-28. It wasn’t the best and the iPhone is a poor recording studio, but the length of the tune fit and seemed to work so in it went.
Are these the old carriage roads built by the Rockefellers, or new pathways? We drove the gravel carriage roads a million years ago with our pair, when bikes were restricted as to where they could be ridden. It's been decades so my memory isn't the clearest.
 
18 lovely miles yesterday, sneaking away from the farm for a bit over an hour, and setting on the back burner the list of projects needing my attention. The temps were perfect for a bike ride so I left hubby, who was busy painting Rustoleum on the metal farm gates, and took off down the road. I had intended to do at least 20 miles as quickly as possible, so headed straight up the paved road towards a lakeside development to see if they had finished the last stage.

3 years of residential development for the acreage around the lake has resulted in a tightly knit community that now sports a lovely walking and biking path that winds through the entire development, around the lake, connects through to the main road into town. It was a pleasant find, and one that im sure to utilize in the future.

The paved road in my area, once a very quiet and little used road, is now very busy at all times during the day. So much so that law enforcement has set up a large digital sign off the side of the road nwar the development entryway that flashes your speed at you in a massive, pulsing shade of digital yellow, even if you are going at the limit or below. The sign doesn't care. It just seems highly annoyed at every one of the cars, and clearly hates its job. It didn't like my bike either, judgmentally "yelling" at me for going 23mph in a 45mph zone.

I was having a lovely time otherwise. The traffic, while heavier than I expected, was polite, and the paved road was fast and smooth. No time for pictures as I was on a roll to be out and back within the hour timeframe, and before the temps warmed up. Overshot that hour by goofing off at times, as well as making a side trip to a friend's weekend farm to see if she was there (she wasn't, unfortunately) to ask her about her new horse. I learned a week ago from her hubby that she had suffered a broken arm and one or two nasty falls from her prior horse, so here's hoping she has better luck in the saddle with the new horse.

Then it was back home to move the newly painted gates onto their new posts which had been dug and planted the day prior. A few more posts needed to be lifted and reset, a project that took us through the rest of the afternoon.
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Hello everyone

Today (Oct 1) marks the beginning of "Biketober" our local month long celebration of cycling.

This evening the bike documentary "The Engine Inside" was screened. It's not specifically about ebikes and is about the place of bicycles in communities and people's lives around the world.

The trailer may be viewed at:


And further information at:


In my opinion, the documentary is well worth a watch if you have the opportunity. There is some product placement but fortunately it doesn't detract.

Cheers
 
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18 lovely miles yesterday, sneaking away from the farm for a bit over an hour, and setting on the back burner the list of projects needing my attention. The temps were perfect for a bike ride so I left hubby, who was busy painting Rustoleum on the metal farm gates, and took off down the road. I had intended to do at least 20 miles as quickly as possible, so headed straight up the paved road towards a lakeside development to see if they had finished the last stage.

3 years of residential development for the acreage around the lake has resulted in a tightly knit community that now sports a lovely walking and biking path that winds through the entire development, around the lake, connects through to the main road into town. It was a pleasant find, and one that im sure to utilize in the future.

The paved road in my area, once a very quiet and little used road, is now very busy at all times during the day. So much so that law enforcement has set up a large digital sign off the side of the road nwar the development entryway that flashes your speed at you in a massive, pulsing shade of digital yellow, even if you are going at the limit or below. The sign doesn't care. It just seems highly annoyed at every one of the cars, and clearly hates its job. It didn't like my bike either, judgmentally "yelling" at me for going 23mph in a 45mph zone.

I was having a lovely time otherwise. The traffic, while heavier than I expected, was polite, and the paved road was fast and smooth. No time for pictures as I was on a roll to be out and back within the hour timeframe, and before the temps warmed up. Overshot that hour by goofing off at times, as well as making a side trip to a friend's weekend farm to see if she was there (she wasn't, unfortunately) to ask her about her new horse. I learned a week ago from her hubby that she had suffered a broken arm and one or two nasty falls from her prior horse, so here's hoping she has better luck in the saddle with the new horse.

Then it was back home to move the newly painted gates onto their new posts which had been dug and planted the day prior. A few more posts needed to be lifted and reset, a project that took us through the rest of the afternoon.
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I need to live on snickersville Turnpike
 
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