2024 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

[Jeremy McCreary]

The road to the beach was closed and everyone was having to do a long detour, of course I ignored the multiple signs and found this.
Theyre correct you could barely fit a combine harvester past that.
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The waitress at the beach bar was the most insufferable snob I have ever met, I presume she doesn't like bicycles, she asked me to repeat everything I said
with a look on her face that she having to converse with some toothless northerner, I actually had to repeat the word sugar three times before she understood and her face
got more disgusted each time.
She asked my name for the order to be called out
Chris
sorry?
chris
pardon?
chris.. she just shook her head, luckily a man sat with his family listening to this got equally peeved and shouted..'hes saying chris as in christopher!'
Oh, and walked away without any a word of apology or recognition of her obvious ridiculous attitude.

Anyway the Mumbai roll was delicious.
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rode down a road Ive never visited before and found it was full of posh campsite all with lovely cafes and restaurants, so that's where everyone goes?
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I wouldn't be surprised if this sign could still be enforced by digging through some local council basement, or its some trendy faux sign from a London boutique
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I just loved this cute thatched outhouse, for little people?
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This used to be my dads house and I stayed many times, it belonged to the postmistress and she hung herself in the attic.
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This road got more and more remote and creepy, the car in front was a tiny Smart car and it only just fitted through, there are no signs to warn you off it's tiny dimensions.
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I followed this road to find this unmetaled track as they call them, it didn't disappoint and was quite the challenge to climb.
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Unfortunately a mile in it turned into a trench that was impossible to ride due to pedal strikes, by this time I was feeling a bit Deliverance as i had passed a lot of weird
homestead style setups and strange hoarder encampments that I feel few people are aware of.
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But then it got much worse, the track narrowed to an very overgrown path, I had put so much effort into getting to this point, I soldiered on
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Then it went to ridiculous after good mile of partially hacking through thick brambles, I stopped to consider my option, of which there were only two.
And got quite a jump of claustrophobia, behind me looked just as impenetrable and climbing out was impossible.
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I eventually popped out to a herd of cows looking over a fence, there was a swarm of flies following me the whole way and I couldnt get enough speed to lose them.
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This trail felt ancient, the gopro is really upping the exposure here, in real life it was very dark and brooding.
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It led to another hillbilly style area with chickens in the road and all kinds of abandoned cars in sheds.
But its OK , its England , probably lovely people and next to no chance of being shot or fed to the pigs.

Great day exploring and only this ebike could do it, the endless supersteep climbs would exhaust me.
They are simply the best exploration tools for local areas.
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What do you make of the fact that the flies liked you but the waitress didn't?

Great ride report as always. Exploring's one of the best parts of ebiking.

 

[Chargeride]

Ha, I was festering because it started the day before when I asked her if they had wi-fi, got the same repeated confusion, its like when youre trying to ask a Frenchman for something and they look at you like they dont understand, just because you are saying it in a microscopically incorrect way, when they are really saying

'We hate the English'

A geordie couple stayed in the pod next to us and were sat outside when they arrived, really strong accents.

' wah neeed da geyat insiyde, but ee diina have da cowd'

It was the last word, and Im processing my inbuilt translator, but its an object that is obviously a thing or a bit of knowledge with ambigous context.

They repeated it after my blank stare.

'Da Cowd'

'Da cowd ta geyt da key oota ta box'.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

its like when youre trying to ask a Frenchman for something and they look at you like they dont understand, just because you are saying it in a microscopically incorrect way, when they are really saying

'We hate the English'

Had the same experience several times in Paris ca. 1995 but never in the south. Much less in Paris and nearby Marines in 2019.

 

[Chargeride]

I travel to rural France a lot, its a stunning country , but they take English hate to a level that is borderline racism.

But its OK, when Im in a queue for the lift in Chamonix and ask if its the Mont Blanc line and they shove an open hand in your face and say.
'No english', both parties know why.
We know.

No one would ever do that to a Frenchman in England, OK maybe Macron

You can tell Im all alone down here, Im using you lot to shout at the Moon

 

[BlackHand]

Ha, I was festering because it started the day before when I asked her if they had wi-fi, got the same repeated confusion

Sounds similar to the exchange between my dad and a waitress a couple days ago. They had wings and tenders 2 for 1 listed as the special on the board and my dad wanted to know if it was the meal or the appetizer. She seemed rather put out that he asked questions and was determined not to give a straight answer.

How much is the special?
- The usual price

What does it include?
- Bone-in or bone-out

Umm, so bone-out is the tenders?
(Patiently and slowly)- Bone-in are regular wings, bone-out are boneless wings.

But it says tenders on the board..
-tenders aren't wings, but I can bring you tenders if you order them.

Does it come with fries?
- if you order fries, yes.

No, does the special come with fries?
-(Very patiently and slowly) If you order the special and ask for fries, they will come out on the same plate together.

At this point my wife interjected that maybe we should start off with drinks, much to everyone's relief.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

@Chargeride: it is both some dumb people and the local accent. Just imagine how difficult my stays on the British Isles are for me, a person with English as the third language (Russian used to be my second language although I admit my skill remained at understanding the spoken language and reading by now; English has shifted to the role of my second language).

Say, we are in Buxton (Peak District). I'm trying to locate the Buxton Brewery pub, so we enter a regular pub. I'm asking the bartender for some Buxton ale (Bahx-ton, like in bahs - bus). She seems to totally not understand me, and when she does, she loudly corrects me with 'IT'S BOOX-TON' (Fortunately, we could find the Buxton Brewery pub soon).

 

[dodgeman]

I rode 23 miles today, a picture of a soybean field. I’m not sure the size of the field, the picture doesn’t show it all, but probably 200 acres or more.

Chargeride I like the way you wrote out the people’s accent. It wasn’t until the last line I figured out they needed the “code”. We spent two weeks in Ireland this last spring and I think the people tone down their Irish accent for us Americans. I still think it’s funny they thought we were the ones with the funny accent.

 

[Prairie Dog]

It was another epic day weather wise as we fit in a vigorous 40km ride. This fellow rode by on his Caad while I was waiting for the missus to finish her climb up the hilly 2km long section on Hwy 11. Meanwhile, west bound traffic was being held up by a slow-moving harvester.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

We spent two weeks in Ireland this last spring and I think the people tone down their Irish accent for us Americans. I still think it’s funny they thought we were the ones with the funny accent.

Where have you been in Ireland?

I usually had no language issues in Donegal. Once, I almost banged a man with the door on exiting a pub. The guy merrily burst with a cacophony of sentences! I smiled and him and explained myself to not be the native speaker, and asked him for speaking slowly and distinctly He slowed down indeed but the only what I could understand was something like "I often speak the Old Language (i.e., Irish Gaelic), and that language is spoken very fast; that affects my English!" I pretended I understood him, laughed, and we said our goodbyes.

Apart of that, any Irish I talked with was speaking understandably to a foreigner I was. Only I could notice the sound "u" in many words "fun", "bus", "cut" was pronounced as the one in "sufficient". As that is so similar to the way we Poles pronounce the "u", I was delighted I could speak that way! Actually, I had more issues to understand our Chinese host Kathy in Killybegs than her Irish husband Eunan!

And well... I could learn so much of the everyday British English from Facebook Reels and Youtube Shorts Once, I was spending my morning in the main square of Donegal Town. There was a sweeper doing his morning work. As I was passing him, I said: 'Alright, mate?' and he answered "Good, cheers!" Is it how people great each other in North America?

 

[JGcycle]

A few pics from this morning's 33km ride:

 

[dodgeman]

Stefan, we saw most of Ireland, we did a GLOBUS tour over a period of 13 days.

 

[Chargeride]

The daughter had a cowboy themed 30th birthday party just before I came down, so this start to the days ride gave me good omens
How wrong can you be

Steep but far easier to navigate than previous trails.

There were three very long tracks that all led into each other, much steeper than it looks, but nothing I cant handle.

The fourth had a few moments, but was mostly wide enough to drive a 4X4 down

No idea what this plant is, you seem them occasionally outside old cottages.

At this point I completely lost my front brake, not just scraping, it stopped having any effect at all, this is actually very steep, and I've got the back brake and locking point, but it won't go slower than 12mph, locking it up made no difference.

Relieved the creek is low enough to push across the stepping stones

This is where it went downhill, my bright idea was to ride along the creek to the beach, but it soon came apparent that the tide was coming in very quickly,
so I had to speed up or turn back

Id reached the point of no return and there was no way to get the bike up the bank, just a mass of trees and branches, so I had to walk through this mud, which stunk and grabbed everything with super suction. I ended up putting a mud soaked sock back in the shoe.

Its that black mud that stinks of methane, sulphur, sheep sht and cow poo.

So I rode back along the road with no front brake, very steep descents and everyone tear arsing around corners, I just locked up and slid every time.

This Discovery did 10mph the whole way because of leaves scraping the paintwork, this was close even by my standards, there was a telegraph pole on the left
and atone point the body panels were less than half an inch apart., complete with road surface swaying the Landrover closer.
Thats the passenger covering his eyes

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

The daughter had a cowboy themed 30th birthday party just before I came down, so this start to the days ride gave me good omens
How wrong can you be
View attachment 180953


Steep but far easier to navigate than previous trails.
View attachment 180954

There were three very long tracks that all led into each other, much steeper than it looks, but nothing I cant handle.
View attachment 180955

The fourth had a few moments, but was mostly wide enough to drive a 4X4 down
View attachment 180956

No idea what this plant is, you seem them occasionally outside old cottages.
View attachment 180957

At this point I completely lost my front brake, not just scraping, it stopped having any effect at all, this is actually very steep, and I've got the back brake and locking point, but it won't go slower than 12mph, locking it up made no difference.
View attachment 180959

Relieved the creek is low enough to push across the stepping stones
View attachment 180960

This is where it went downhill, my bright idea was to ride along the creek to the beach, but it soon came apparent that the tide was coming in very quickly,
so I had to speed up or turn back
View attachment 180962

Id reached the point of no return and there was no way to get the bike up the bank, just a mass of trees and branches, so I had to walk through this mud, which stunk and grabbed everything with super suction. I ended up putting a mud soaked sock back in the shoe.
View attachment 180963

Its that black mud that stinks of methane, sulphur, sheep sht and cow poo.
View attachment 180964


So I rode back along the road with no front brake, very steep descents and everyone tear arsing around corners, I just locked up and slid every time.
View attachment 180965


This Discovery did 10mph the whole way because of leaves scraping the paintwork, this was close even by my standards, there was a telegraph pole on the left
and atone point the body panels were less than half an inch apart., complete with road surface swaying the Landrover closer.
Thats the passenger covering his eyes
View attachment 180966

If I could, I would have given that one love and laugh emojis, too. Excellent!

Wouldn't it be nice for us cyclists to have a phone cam setting that makes hills look STEEPER than they really are?

 

[Chargeride]

I might get the 360, it makes everything look steep.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Relieved the creek is low enough to push across the stepping stones

Id reached the point of no return and there was no way to get the bike up the bank, just a mass of trees and branches, so I had to walk through this mud, which stunk and grabbed everything with super suction. I ended up putting a mud soaked sock back in the shoe.

Now I can fully understand why you need a fat e-bike!

This Discovery did 10mph the whole way because of leaves scraping the paintwork, this was close even by my standards, there was a telegraph pole on the left
and atone point the body panels were less than half an inch apart., complete with road surface swaying the Landrover closer.
Thats the passenger covering his eyes

Incredible!

 

[dodgeman]

My wife and I did 16 miles today. If I ride a little tomorrow I’ll be over 1 Rab for the week (100 miles).

 

[Chargeride]

I completely upstaged everyone at the party with my self made oversized cowboy hat.
I got a round of applause from the cricket spectators , it was held at our local cricket ground.

 

[Mulezen]

^Looks like Leon Russell.
Irish-English was on glorious display in Kevin Barry‘s ‘Night Boat to Tangiers’ which I recently read. On the Penguin/Randomhouse site is this clip of Barry reading the opening few pages. After some pages the talk of this strange novel become a kind of music. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/...evin-barry/9780593146842/?ref=PRHA41A0D52358A

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I completely upstaged everyone at the party with my self made oversized cowboy hat.
I got a round of applause from the cricket spectators , it was held at our local cricket ground.

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[RabH]

After 8 days of crazy weather I finally got back out yesterday, not to say the crazy weather was gone but I just had to get out so I braved 40+ mph winds and had a great ride which was in 2 parts! The wind was almost a direct westerly so I opted to head east, passing the choppy Hillend Loch after a few miles!

I continued east to Armadale and took the back road to Bridgehouse, I have used this road many times but surprisingly always in the opposite direction (well its all big fast descents so I guess thats the real reason) Anyway I reached the first hill...

Its in 3 parts and each one is as steep as the other!

This was looking down part 3!

The best part about taking on the climbs was the descent down into Bridgehouse where I had the tailwind right at my back, just over 41mph, it could easily have been over 50 but I bottled it a bit due to the wind swirling at times! I then headed up the climb into Westfield and grabbed a photo of the viaduct!

Then it was the big climb up to Torphicen and it then continues all the way up to Beecraigs Country Park, just before the climb I took this photo! There are some really nice houses in this part of the village!

I reached the top of the climb and enjoyed some nice descents before stopping for this photo!

The Ochil hills were just a silhouette this time!

It was then time for the scary descent down into the valley, once again the wind was swirling so I took it easy!

In the distance my next climb could be seen!

With the wind as strong as it was I had to be very careful with crosswinds so I chose my route wisely, I opted for the rollercoaster Burnhouse road as its mostly treelined and so much fun to ride!

Just before the final descent down into Dechmont I stopped for some photos!

I think the cows thought I was there to feed them...

This part of the road is a real blast!

Then I reached the scary part with no tree cover to protect me from the wind...

I slowed to a crawl going down it and stopped for these photos at Dechmont!

At Dechmont it was time to turn into the very strong headwind and head west for home, as I turned into the village I saw a roadie in the distance battling the headwind! Amazingly as I reached the road junction he was closing me down, I crossed the junction and joined the cycle path which leads to Bathgate and turned to see him bearing down on me but he stuck to the road and he shot passed me like I was standing still! It was a gradual incline also and he stood up on the pedals and pulled away, he was probably less then half my age though and 10 times fitter!

I stuck to the cycle paths all the way to Whitburn and then up the climb to Armadale and took the back road to Blackridge! In the distance I could see one of the massive wind turbines with no blades, I eventually reached it to see this sight! The crane was just massive, I couldn't get it all in the picture!

From Blackridge it was a straight road home directly into the headwind, assist level 2 was used all the way! I passed Hillend loch again and decided to use the cycle path alongside it to get some closer photos!

I'm having problems with the site so can't post the remaining photos, I really hope this posts as it has taken me ages!