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:

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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!

 

[dodgeman]

I ride 19 miles today, near where I live. Yesterday wasn’t great weather, not a lot of wind but very humid. Today windy but much nicer. A picture of an abandoned house. I don’t know why I always want to know what the story is. This house was resided and looked to be in good shape when it was abandoned. It’s usually an older person that dies or moves away and then it sits empty. It’s gone down hill in just the last few years and there is a demand for houses in the rural area around here. I’ve shot pictures of this house before but not from this angle.

This is an Amish farm field. I’m not sure what it is, it looks like wheat, put in haystacks.

 

[RabH]

My longest and best ever ride and my dad was with me all the way!

On May 30th 2022 my dear old dad passed away at the grand old age of 93, he was my inspiration and encouraged my cycling throughout the years! To honour him I decided to ride from my front door to St Andrews and back and hope to do it every year while I'm still fit enough! It was his special place and he holidayed there every year when he was able! In July 2022 I set off for his special place and amazed myself by doing 162.6 miles, I'm certain he was behind me giving me a push! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could better that feat, until today when conditions were just perfect!

I set off just before 5am with a light westerly wind (around10-15mph) and a temp of 9C and had most of the roads all to myself for the first couple of hours or so, I made my way out to Shieldhill to enjoy the awesome descent down into Glen Village and hurtled down at 42.8mph! The descent doesn't end there though as the road descends steeply all the way down into Falkirk, this set the tone for the day and I was absolutely loving it! I then joined the cycle path out to Kincardine Bridge and headed for Culross on the coast road and on to Rosyth on the main A921 which was very quiet at this early hour! I stayed on the A921 all the way to Aberdour where I had the first big climb of the day!

A 16% climb that required assist level 2 to get up as level 1 was never going to get me up comfortably! My new Evo display seems to have reset my assist levels to the default and I decided to leave it that way as I don't want to touch the app (even offline) in case it bricks my new display! Thye have certainly improved the display now, it looks way more water tight! At the top of the climb I captured this photo, it was a little murky but dry thankfully!

I continued on the A921 and passed Pettycur Bay Holiday Park where I took these photos!

I then passed through Burntisland and Kinghorn and soon arrived in Kirkcaldy with 50 miles covered, a couple of photos from the Esplanade!

It was time to start climbing again up through Dysart and through many villages out to Leven right on the coast! From Leven I continued towards Lundin Links which not surprisingly has a links golf course which runs right alongside the road with the North Sea as a backdrop!

I continued along the coast road towards Elie, grabbing any photo opportunities that came my way!

This is at Elie Harbour with the Elie Ness Lighthouse in the background!

While I was here I could feel rain in the air for the first time and as I continued along the coast through St Monans and Pitenweem the roads were wet, luckily the rain was light and as I arrived in Anstruther it stopped and I had dry roads again! I continued hugging the coast out to Crail where I took this photo of the tiny harbour!

At this point I had covered 78 miles and my first battery was down to 24%, this was actually my original battery which is just over 6 years old so it has served me well and continues do so! At this point I was 10 miles from my destination at St Andrews and at 83 miles my battery dropped to below 10% so I changed to battery #2! I then passed the Fairmont Hotel grounds and stopped for this photo, unless I win the lottery I will never stay in this millionaires haven...

I arrived at the high point of the town looking down at the beach called the East Sands and the sun actually made a short appearance, I was glad it was short lived as the temp was perfect for cycling without it! It was around 17C now and I was now going into a headwind which would be the case pretty much all the way home! It was still around 10-15 mph so nothing like the gusty winds we have been experiencing lately!

I then headed to the East sands and had a break and a snack at the 88 mile mark!

After a rest I took the back road out of town out to Pitscottie, it starts with a long gradual climb and is followed by some lovely twisty descents, the scenery wasn't too shabby either!

From Pitscottie I took the road to Cupar and then turned north towards Newburgh to avoid the main road, its such a great road with very little traffic and has this cracking descent!

I arrived in Newburgh where I headed down to the harbour and had my lunch next to the River Tay with the sun making another short appearance!

The clouds in the background looked a bit threatening but that was the opposite direction from where i was headed! I knew I had some big old climbs coming now but they were well sheltered so I knew they wouldn't be too difficult although I had to use level 2 on the steeper parts, my second battery was lasting well though! After the climbs I had the best descent of the day to enjoy, down into Gateside! Of course after the descent came yet more climbs and many of them all the way to Milnathort! On the way I passed the Lomond Hills and grabbed a few photos!

Okay more than a few... From Milnathort I continued towards Kinross where I joined the main A977 which was very busy with mostly cars and a few trucks! I stayed on the main road until I reached Powmill and decided to take the road up to Knockhill Racing Circuit to get away from the traffic, I knew I would have to climb for a couple of miles but my plan was to turn off the road part way up and take the back road down to Saline! The road was recently resurfaced so I knew I was in for a real treat and I wasn't disappointed! At Saline I took the back road to Forestmill which is a long gradual descent for miles, and with little to no traffic it was just amazing!

I was now heading towards Kincardine Bridge and my second battery dropped to 20% at 142 miles, which meant it had lasted for 59 miles into a headwind with lots of climbs so that was impressive! On to battery #3 and I knew I only had around 25-30 miles to go now! So I knew I could crank the assist up now without fear of running out of juice, considering I had some huge climbs to come that filled me with enthusiasm for the final push! After crossing Kincardine Bridge I took the cycle path towards Grangemouth but turned off for Carronshore to head up the back roads for home! At Carronshore I spotted the Clydesdale horses again, the young one must have been running around for a while as it wasn't for budging when i stopped!

From here I took my usual back roads up some massive climbs and flew up them using high assist levels, that was such a treat! I arrived home almost 13 hours after I left and although I was knackered I was buzzing after my best bike ride ever!I will enjoy a break now as the weather is looking grim pretty much all week...I probably should have waited until tomorrow to post this, it took so long and I'm shattered now! I will sleep like a baby tonight for sure!

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Epic ride, epic scenery, epic tribute to your dad with a lot of time for you to reflect on all of it. Super impressive. If your dad got to live in such a beautiful place for 93 years he was certainly ahead of the game.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

My longest and best ever ride and my dad was with me all the way!

On May 30th 2022 my dear old dad passed away at the grand old age of 93, he was my inspiration and encouraged my cycling throughout the years! To honour him I decided to ride from my front door to St Andrews and back and hope to do it every year while I'm still fit enough! It was his special place and he holidayed there every year when he was able! In July 2022 I set off for his special place and amazed myself by doing 162.6 miles, I'm certain he was behind me giving me a push! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could better that feat, until today when conditions were just perfect!

An epic ride indeed! You have honoured the memory of your Dad in the most beautiful way!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The Hottest Day This Year? Or, An Ice-Cream Ride

Poland is fortunate to be located in the moderate climate zone. Meaning, temperature of 34 C (94 F) in the shadow is perceived by us as very high! While most of my cycling mates left at home, at swimming pool etc, I fancied having ice-cream at Caffe Adriano in Biała Rawska. The outward leg of the ride was expected to be uphill, upwind and in the full sunshine. You might be surprised but it was my Fearless (Vado SL) for the ride, as my experience told me that would be the most appropriate e-bike for the day! (More on it later).

Entering Land of Łódź (a province neighbouring my Mazovia). The land is hilly. I chose a "road cycling" route, which meant long but rather flat climbs even if the landscape was rather uninspiring. I was sorry for the horse, which must have been thirsty as it uttered sad loud groaning! (I was taking short stops every 10 km or so).

Starting at 8 a.m., I arrived in Caffe Adriano at 11:23. (I can never take a good photo of the facility, as it is located against the Sun!)

I am now withdrawing my support for Caffe Adriano! Yes, the personnel are very nice and the ice-cream is tasty. However, the size of the ice-cream portion is laughable now! Moreover, they cannot make a proper Iced Coffee! I need to reconsider my future Biała Rawska rides!

That terrible feeling when you had an hour long stop and now your leg muscles do not want to agree to ride again! It had become terribly hot...

At a short stop before Osuchów (Mazovia), from where the ride would be mostly downhill and downwind. I started terribly sweating! Yet I would like to say to anyone in Poland: 'Before you start complaining on the heat-wave, remember of 7th April 2013! After six months of winter, the morning of that day welcomed us with -7 C frost, ice and snow! Be grateful to the warm weather!'

A long rest in Żabia Wola (Frogsville) in my greater neighbourhood. They have not only a nice House of Culture (formerly, a mansion) but also a shady park with benches! Ate a Pączek bought earlier in Adriano, and drank yoghurt bought well before in Radziejowice!

I decided to stop for Army Pea Soup at the Partisan Cuisine bar in Strzeniówka. Following building an aqua-park and a new roundabout at the location, the Cuisine moved some 200 m, making the place look nice and well organized now. After having the food, I sat in a lounger and felt I would fall asleep soon! Even if I was already very tired, I mustered my remaining power to pedal to my local BP service station for a proper Frappe! Reached home on the fumes, took a cold shower and fell asleep for hours!

At the end of the ride the temperature dropped to 30 C (86 F). Neither the Main Battery nor (single) Range Extender cut-off yet, and the battery set was good for more than 70 miles! I also show my max speed, which was close to 28 mph (downhill).

The fun-fact: I used the SL 40/100% assistance. It amplified my leg power with x0.72 but I could get the full 240 W of the mechanical motor power when I input 332 W of the leg power into the cranks (it happened once on the steepest climb en route). The 40/100% SL assistance is economical but it gives you a lot of boost on climbs when you pedal hard or fast! @mfgrep and @Llcjay: you could find this information together with the Range interesting!

And... I do not regret my decision of installing the 32T chainring and the 11-51T cassette on my lightweight e-bike! I have never missed the lack of the low gear on my ride!

 

[DaveMatthews]

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My longest and best ever ride and my dad was with me all the way!

On May 30th 2022 my dear old dad passed away at the grand old age of 93, he was my inspiration and encouraged my cycling throughout the years! To honour him I decided to ride from my front door to St Andrews and back and hope to do it every year while I'm still fit enough! It was his special place and he holidayed there every year when he was able! In July 2022 I set off for his special place and amazed myself by doing 162.6 miles, I'm certain he was behind me giving me a push! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could better that feat, until today when conditions were just perfect!

I set off just before 5am with a light westerly wind (around10-15mph) and a temp of 9C and had most of the roads all to myself for the first couple of hours or so, I made my way out to Shieldhill to enjoy the awesome descent down into Glen Village and hurtled down at 42.8mph! The descent doesn't end there though as the road descends steeply all the way down into Falkirk, this set the tone for the day and I was absolutely loving it! I then joined the cycle path out to Kincardine Bridge and headed for Culross on the coast road and on to Rosyth on the main A921 which was very quiet at this early hour! I stayed on the A921 all the way to Aberdour where I had the first big climb of the day!

A 16% climb that required assist level 2 to get up as level 1 was never going to get me up comfortably! My new Evo display seems to have reset my assist levels to the default and I decided to leave it that way as I don't want to touch the app (even offline) in case it bricks my new display! Thye have certainly improved the display now, it looks way more water tight! At the top of the climb I captured this photo, it was a little murky but dry thankfully!

View attachment 178245
I continued on the A921 and passed Pettycur Bay Holiday Park where I took these photos!

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I then passed through Burntisland and Kinghorn and soon arrived in Kirkcaldy with 50 miles covered, a couple of photos from the Esplanade!

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It was time to start climbing again up through Dysart and through many villages out to Leven right on the coast! From Leven I continued towards Lundin Links which not surprisingly has a links golf course which runs right alongside the road with the North Sea as a backdrop!

View attachment 178250
I continued along the coast road towards Elie, grabbing any photo opportunities that came my way!

View attachment 178251
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This is at Elie Harbour with the Elie Ness Lighthouse in the background!

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While I was here I could feel rain in the air for the first time and as I continued along the coast through St Monans and Pitenweem the roads were wet, luckily the rain was light and as I arrived in Anstruther it stopped and I had dry roads again! I continued hugging the coast out to Crail where I took this photo of the tiny harbour!

View attachment 178254
At this point I had covered 78 miles and my first battery was down to 24%, this was actually my original battery which is just over 6 years old so it has served me well and continues do so! At this point I was 10 miles from my destination at St Andrews and at 83 miles my battery dropped to below 10% so I changed to battery #2! I then passed the Fairmont Hotel grounds and stopped for this photo, unless I win the lottery I will never stay in this millionaires haven...

View attachment 178255
I arrived at the high point of the town looking down at the beach called the East Sands and the sun actually made a short appearance, I was glad it was short lived as the temp was perfect for cycling without it! It was around 17C now and I was now going into a headwind which would be the case pretty much all the way home! It was still around 10-15 mph so nothing like the gusty winds we have been experiencing lately!

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I then headed to the East sands and had a break and a snack at the 88 mile mark!

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After a rest I took the back road out of town out to Pitscottie, it starts with a long gradual climb and is followed by some lovely twisty descents, the scenery wasn't too shabby either!

View attachment 178260
From Pitscottie I took the road to Cupar and then turned north towards Newburgh to avoid the main road, its such a great road with very little traffic and has this cracking descent!

View attachment 178261
I arrived in Newburgh where I headed down to the harbour and had my lunch next to the River Tay with the sun making another short appearance!

View attachment 178262
The clouds in the background looked a bit threatening but that was the opposite direction from where i was headed! I knew I had some big old climbs coming now but they were well sheltered so I knew they wouldn't be too difficult although I had to use level 2 on the steeper parts, my second battery was lasting well though! After the climbs I had the best descent of the day to enjoy, down into Gateside! Of course after the descent came yet more climbs and many of them all the way to Milnathort! On the way I passed the Lomond Hills and grabbed a few photos!

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Okay more than a few... From Milnathort I continued towards Kinross where I joined the main A977 which was very busy with mostly cars and a few trucks! I stayed on the main road until I reached Powmill and decided to take the road up to Knockhill Racing Circuit to get away from the traffic, I knew I would have to climb for a couple of miles but my plan was to turn off the road part way up and take the back road down to Saline! The road was recently resurfaced so I knew I was in for a real treat and I wasn't disappointed! At Saline I took the back road to Forestmill which is a long gradual descent for miles, and with little to no traffic it was just amazing!

I was now heading towards Kincardine Bridge and my second battery dropped to 20% at 142 miles, which meant it had lasted for 59 miles into a headwind with lots of climbs so that was impressive! On to battery #3 and I knew I only had around 25-30 miles to go now! So I knew I could crank the assist up now without fear of running out of juice, considering I had some huge climbs to come that filled me with enthusiasm for the final push! After crossing Kincardine Bridge I took the cycle path towards Grangemouth but turned off for Carronshore to head up the back roads for home! At Carronshore I spotted the Clydesdale horses again, the young one must have been running around for a while as it wasn't for budging when i stopped!

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From here I took my usual back roads up some massive climbs and flew up them using high assist levels, that was such a treat! I arrived home almost 13 hours after I left and although I was knackered I was buzzing after my best bike ride ever!I will enjoy a break now as the weather is looking grim pretty much all week...I probably should have waited until tomorrow to post this, it took so long and I'm shattered now! I will sleep like a baby tonight for sure!

Incredible!
Many many kudos to you AND your dad!

 

[dodgeman]

Stefan had an epic ride, RabH your rides are no longer epic, they are legendary!

 

[peterh_nz]

My longest and best ever ride

Bravo!

 

[Prairie Dog]

On May 30th 2022 my dear old dad passed away at the grand old age of 93, he was my inspiration and encouraged my cycling throughout the years! To honour him I decided to ride from my front door to St Andrews and back and hope to do it every year while I'm still fit enough! It was his special place and he holidayed there every year when he was able! In July 2022 I set off for his special place and amazed myself by doing 162.6 miles, I'm certain he was behind me giving me a push! Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could better that feat, until today when conditions were just perfect!

What an awesome ride that was Rab and such an homage to your Pop. You rock!!