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

[Stefan Mikes]

This dad brought is four year old son up here on quite a quick little tiny electric pit bike, I ended up racing him and it wasn't much slower than the BMX.
Gloriously bad parenting and I wasn't helping, but the sheer joy on his face made up for it.

Which reminds me of my recent ride to meet Magda. There is a really bad multi-kilometre bike path but it is the shortest way. I was blocked by a dad and his perhaps 10-yo son, both riding trad bikes. I looked at my speedometer... 24 km/h. WOW. I asked for way, and while I was carefully overtaking both riders on the narrow pavement (British)/sidewalk (American), I said to the Dad: 'You should be proud of your young racer! What a speed!' and I could tell it was a good compliment to both of them!

 

[Chargeride]

There you go Stefan, forget dieting, Kardashian it.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

There you go Stefan, forget dieting, Kardashian it.

"Body mass first.
Body-building next."
/Robert Burneika a.k.a. Hardcore Coke, a famous Lithuanian body-builder/

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Its quite the cultural conflict, the towns around here are very large Pakistani immigrant centres with high grooming and exploitation convictions

Really enjoyed that ride log, as usual from you.

I could see helmet hair and wrinkled cargo shorts in the wrong restaurant getting a stern warning from the judge. But a grooming conviction? For my own mental safety, had to stop imagining what that would take.

 

[dodgeman]

A couple of epic rides. Prairie Dog riding the cliffs of Canada, RabH riding what looks to be an acoustic bike, very impressive. Stefan forging large rivers in Poland. All of these great looking rides!

I actually have some pictures from today’s ride that aren’t corn, bean fields, or broken down barns. We loaded the bikes up and drove to Quincy Illinois, about an hour away. We rode with my brother and sister in law. Quincy sits on the Mississippi River. The first is an abandoned building where they used to have a lift over a part of the river, kind of like a ski lift, long gone.

Next is a picture of the Bay View bridge, it’s a newer cable stayed bridge and in the background you can see the older Memorial Bridge, which is an older through truss bridge. These connect Illinois to Missouri .

Next is a decorative light house that the birds seem to have adopted.

Last but not least a benchmark. As a retired land surveyor these things just jump out at me. These pictures were all taken from the same area.

 

[RabH]

I got the final piece of the jigsaw in the mail today and my bike is good to go again! What a relief, I had to order a new power switch also as the old one didn't want to part company with the old mounting bracket...stupid miniature screws are a pain! Anyway we are good to go and I'm hoping to do a big ride on Sunday all going well!

 

[JGcycle]

A couple of pics from today's 23km ride:

 

[Watana Bob]

A couple of pics from today's 23km ride:

View attachment 178144View attachment 178145

Beautiful JG !

 

[JGcycle]

A pic from today's 20km ride:

 

[dodgeman]

I did 25 miles today, around where I live. The first picture shows and old silo, the top gone. It’s made of of clay tile, roughly the size of a cinder block but clay and fired in a kiln. For those that don’t know silage is usually corn picked when it’s green, then stored and allowed to ferment and fed to cattle. The silos are not used any more around here and the farmers that use silage store it in these large white long plastic tubes.

The second picture is what used to be an Amish house. I assume the past tense since I see cars and farm equipment parked that they wouldn’t normally have.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Oh, How Hot! (Korboloza v2 S)

Two guys appeared at the Finish Line Bar this morning. Tomek rides a Marin flat handlebar gravel bike. He had his front hydraulic disk brake out of order, so he brought a new brake pad set and asked me to install it. I can say I defended the honour of EBRF well! I had some issue with pushing the brake pistons back into their idle position but could do it! Then Krzysiek, the senior "lost rider" of the last Sunday's trip arrived, too.

As I was the only rider with GPS navigation and good understanding of the route, I became the group leader. I had to negotiate the assistance level of my Vado SL with my buddies. Eventually, I set the ECO to 55/55%, which is my usual assistance on regular solo rides! I could have made the whole trip on the main battery + a single Range Extender!

Our group: Krzysiek, Tomek and Stefan

So many of you misspell my name! I am Stefan not Stephan! To my joy, I found a Sacred Wood named Stephan's (A nature reservation).

Unlike the last weekend ride (when I lead the group into impenetrable woods and scrub), this time I had my route adjusted properly. So we went on the Gravel Highway #24 in the Chojnowski Woods! Krzysiek is an unusual person. He rides a 1970s Polish made Jaguar road bike on road bike tyres! (Unfortunately, he never wears a helmet!)

So we arrived in Łoś (Elk). I went in the nearby Lewiatan store soon...

I bought vodkas: "Łoś" (Moose Bull) and "Klępa" (Moose Cow), a bottle each. The vodka bottles were very expensive, and I wondered why. It has turned out these vodkas were made in Toruń exclusively for the Łoś store! I admire the store owner. He is the man who funded the elk statue, and the history of the businessman's past activities I could read on an information table was really exciting! (I have tried the Moose Bull in a long drink and can tell you the vodka is of top quality!)

Later, we plundered a sweet cherry orchard in Jeziorzany a little. The whole story about the orchard is weird...

There are big bunches of totally ripe, sweet and juicy fruit on the trees. The cherries have already started falling to the ground, and nobody comes to pick the fruit. Has the owner died? Why does nobody come and pick the cherries? We felt excused and feasted on the fruit a little (I'm allergic to sweet cherries so ate only as much as it was safe for me!)

The usual route followed: a rail trail, a 6% climb, crossing a ford, riding magical singletracks...

...and we found ourselves "At The Girls". Salmon, Lemonade, Cold Soup.

'Guys, let me be serious. Are you excited with the perspective of pedalling for the next fifty kilometres through boring woods on this hot day? Because I'm not. Why don't I take you to the gorgeous Podkowa Leśna (Horseshoe In-The-Woods) so you can take a commuter train to Warsaw?' My mates gladly agreed!

As we said our good-byes, I bought me a portion of ice-cream at the train station and took a half an hour rest. Then I only had 8.5 km to pedal home...

It was a good, although a really hot day! I'm going solo for 110 km for ice-cream on Sunday! It will be even hotter!