Prairie Dog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Red Deer
I agree. Winter certainly isn’t my favorite time of the year to ride but I do try and make the most of it.
2024 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos
- Thread starter Saratoga Dave
- Start date
BlackHand
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Western WA
In Seattle, summer is followed by spider season. This one took advantage of me biking to work to build a web across most of my car's windshield.
For now, I still get to enjoy evening commutes home. After spider season we'll go into the Big Dark
For now, I still get to enjoy evening commutes home. After spider season we'll go into the Big Dark
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
I managed to completely forget the United States had a state up north! Sorry! Now, I can see Anchorage, Oslo, Helsinki are the places where people can still comfortably live...
Same in Poland, only we think of the spiders in the terms of our "Old Woman's Summer" (Indian Summer). We had a drought and heat-wave for several months now. It has just started raining and instantly flooding began in South Poland! Perhaps Poland is in so-called "temperate climate zone" but it is usually the extremes...
A recent photo sent by a friend who stays in the montane South-West Poland. Fortunately for her, she stays in a house on a hill.
The red is for the "extreme weather conditions".
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JGcycle
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Saint John
Our winters tend to be a real mess--snow, rain, freeze, repeat.
Prairie Dog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Red Deer
I think we can both agree then that the arrival of spring can’t come sooner.
DaveMatthews
Well-Known Member
Sadly, I think it will over time mate...
dodgeman
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Macomb, Illinois
I rode 20 miles today. I went to a couple of car dealers just to look at them and see how stupid high prices are. We got lucky and bought newer vehicles and a small diesel tractor before Covid hit. Prices are high but have come down some. A couple of pictures of a street project I did the surveying on for the design before I retired. That was 4 years ago and is actually a pretty quick turnaround. They are building it in stages because it leads to the high school and junior high, they have to keep at least parts open.
Jeremy McCreary
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
The brand new Vado SL 5.0 EQ got its first taste of dirt today on a 16-mile rail trail and Coast Highway ride. You've seen some of these places in previous posts, but hey, any excuse to show off my new ride!
Not an official rail trail trail, just a packed-dirt rail service road with an ever-changing veneer of loose sand. For such slick treads, the SL's stock 38 mm Nimbus 2 city tires handled this surface with complete confidence. Made several passes to rack up 4 miles of offroad testing.
On this (east) side of the tracks, you have to get over these stairs to get past the Avenida Encinas rail bridge. No way with my heavy hub-drive, but carrying the lightweight SL over was no problem.
On this day, an unseen chorus of teen girls had assembled under the east (right) end of the bridge — presumably take advantage of the acoustics. Their songs were unfamiliar, but they sounded pretty good.
The SL has an aluminum frame, its only suspension is an undamped FutureShock 1.5 stem, and the tires were at 65 psi. Expected a bumpy ride over the rougher parts of the trail, including the coarse gravel embedded in the dirt here. But the ride was fine. Plan A was to add a suspension seat post. Plan B now is to wait and see.
Southbound, the rail trail turns east at Bataquitos Lagoon, the boundary between south Carlsbad and north Encinitas on the far shore. The entire lagoon is a heavily protected wildlife preserve.
This superb ocean and lagoon vista deserves a temple in my book. So does the SL. But this structure's just an inexplicably lavish shaded rest stop. Shameless new bike shot.
As a matter of policy, I stop at all beaches easily reached from the road. South Ponto here is just a quarter mile south of the lagoon on the Coast Highway. Much more sand than usual below the high cobble beach berm.
Moonlight Beach at the mouth of Cottonwood Creek. Except for a quarter mile of TURBO to outrun some traffic, rode the rolling 5 miles home with the motor OFF.
Back home, all bikes have to negotiate this tight squeeze between cars. Threading the heavy hub-drive past the mirrors is always slow going. Much faster to lift the SL over them.
Not an official rail trail trail, just a packed-dirt rail service road with an ever-changing veneer of loose sand. For such slick treads, the SL's stock 38 mm Nimbus 2 city tires handled this surface with complete confidence. Made several passes to rack up 4 miles of offroad testing.
On this (east) side of the tracks, you have to get over these stairs to get past the Avenida Encinas rail bridge. No way with my heavy hub-drive, but carrying the lightweight SL over was no problem.
On this day, an unseen chorus of teen girls had assembled under the east (right) end of the bridge — presumably take advantage of the acoustics. Their songs were unfamiliar, but they sounded pretty good.
The SL has an aluminum frame, its only suspension is an undamped FutureShock 1.5 stem, and the tires were at 65 psi. Expected a bumpy ride over the rougher parts of the trail, including the coarse gravel embedded in the dirt here. But the ride was fine. Plan A was to add a suspension seat post. Plan B now is to wait and see.
Southbound, the rail trail turns east at Bataquitos Lagoon, the boundary between south Carlsbad and north Encinitas on the far shore. The entire lagoon is a heavily protected wildlife preserve.
This superb ocean and lagoon vista deserves a temple in my book. So does the SL. But this structure's just an inexplicably lavish shaded rest stop. Shameless new bike shot.
As a matter of policy, I stop at all beaches easily reached from the road. South Ponto here is just a quarter mile south of the lagoon on the Coast Highway. Much more sand than usual below the high cobble beach berm.
Moonlight Beach at the mouth of Cottonwood Creek. Except for a quarter mile of TURBO to outrun some traffic, rode the rolling 5 miles home with the motor OFF.
Back home, all bikes have to negotiate this tight squeeze between cars. Threading the heavy hub-drive past the mirrors is always slow going. Much faster to lift the SL over them.
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RabH
Well-Known Member
We finally have a week of decent weather so I made the most of it today, light winds but a little chilly at first when I set off at 7am! I had a ride planned in my head which involved a trip down to Ayrshire as I haven't been down that way for quite a while! I headed out to the Clyde Valley but discovered the road I wanted to take was closed so my plans were scuppered in the first hour, so I had a rethink and decided to do the route I wanted to do but in the opposite direction! That way I could get on to quieter roads, in my head I was thinking this way was going to be tougher but it turned out to be 500ft less climbing which surprised me...
I climbed up through Shawsburn from the Clyde Valley and took the road to Blackwood where I joined the cycle path, its a nice wide one and very welcome to avoid the morning traffic!
The views aren't too shabby either!
The path runs for a good 5 miles down into the valley near Uddington, here I turned SW towards Douglas which starts with a big climb! Once again the scenery was very nice!
My new aluminium mudguards had arrived recently and I made the decision to fit the rear first as its usually the difficult one, it took me less than 10 minutes!
On to the front which I thought would be a 5 minute job but things didn't quite go to plan, the stay was too short for my bike! I tried many different positions but it came up short no matter what I tried, but I managed to find some brackets which allowed me to extend the stay and although it didn't look the best it was nice and secure! I then had a look online and discovered they do a longer stay, of course they don't come cheap...
Anyway my OCD made me place the order and I'm expecting it on Wednesday, hopefully it will do the trick!I passed through Douglas and Glespin and was now heading west towards Muirkirk, passing Glenbuck Loch on the way! The water was like glass today at this side of the loch!
This is at the far side of the loch!
The road was a little rough for a bit before it improved, loved this part even though it was a climb!
I passed through Muirkirk and continued west towards Sorn where I enjoyed the awesome descent down into the village, my original route would have had me climbing this so that was very welcome! Of course now I had a climb out of Sorn but a much easier one, part way up the climb I stopped for a couple of photos!
After reaching the summit I had this fun descent ahead of me!
The road does ramp up but not for long before another cracking descent!
Its one of those rollercaster roads so I had another climb that can be seen in the distance, just after that I arrived in Sornhill and was looking forward to this descent!
I stopped before plunging down the descent for a break and a snack and grabbed this photo!
After enjoying the descent I stopped for this photo looking back up the hill! The last couple of times I have climbed this and its a real beast of a climb so it was nice to head down it today!
After this its pretty much descents all the way down into Galston where it was time for a very tough climb up through the village of Moscow! Blink and you will miss it!
On my way up the climb I spotted a cyclist stopped at the side of the road and could see he was studying his gps, I asked if all was ok and he said he was a bit lost! He had only recently moved into the area and didn't know the roads at all, he had a very nice Colnago racer! I asked him where he was intending to go and he said Strathaven, I told him if he headed down into Galston all he had to do was turn left at the first roundabout and that road would lead him all the way to Strathaven, but I warned him it could be busy as its the main A71 with many trucks using it! He wasn't keen when I told him but I talked him into using the road I had just taken which would take him to Muirkirk where a turn north would take him to Strathaven and it was one of best cycling roads around the area! I did warn him about all the climbing but he said he loves it so he left with a smaile on his face! I bet he loved it, if he didn't get lost!
I then continued my climb and stopped just before Waterside for this photo, another amazing road! I would have enjoyed coming down it but the road closure at the Clyde Valley put paid to that...
Eventually the road joins the main A77 which used to be the main road from Ayrshire to Glasgow but the new motorway took most of the traffic away from it and its much quieter now! There is a cycle path that runs alongside it so I just used the path despite the quiet road! After a mile or so I turned on to the Eaglesham moor road where I had a big climb in front of me!
At the top of the climb I stopped for this photo with the wind turbines of the Whitelee wind farm strewn across the landscape!
This is looking back down the road!
Then its a nice descent before the road ramps up again, what a road it is!
The entrance to the wind farm is just here but I gave it a miss!
At the top of the climb I had this lovely view of Lochgoin reservoir!Another cracking descent then followed!
After this descent Dunwan Dam came into view, its really more like a small loch than a dam though!
The road then plunges down through Eaglesham and Jackton before ramping up into busy East Kilbride, I used to work in this big town so I know the roads very well and made my way out of it avoiding the worst of the traffic! The road out of East Kilbride leads to Strathaven but it was pretty busy so I turned off as soon as I could and took the back roads to Chapelton, I spotted this road but it was in the wrong direction!
The road eventually joins the main road from Strathaven to Hamilton and its a big fast descent down into the town! The problem now was the road to the Clyde Valley was closed so I had to think of an alternative route from here, I decided to take the road to Bothwell and then to Uddingston which was busy in parts but not too bad! Then I headed north through Bargeddie and Gartcosh and on to the back roads to Glenboig where I stopped at the loch for a couple of photos before heading up the back roads to home!
I had changed to my second battery at 58 miles and it was now depleting but I had enough left for the climbs and made it home with 22% left! This leaves me with only 90 miles required to reach 5000 for the year, if everything goes well my record from 2020 looks like it might fall this year! I have 6223 miles to beat which should be easily doable with more than 3 months left but I never count my chickens before thay are hatched!
Another fantastic day on the bike, this weather is supposed to be nice all week so hopefully the 5000 will be surpassed this week!
@Jeremy McCreary Enjoy your new steed!
Attachments
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
After this its pretty much descents all the way down into Galston where it was time for a very tough climb up through the village of Moscow! Blink and you will miss it!
Prairie Dog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Red Deer
A few pics of our ride today in Banff National Park. Hope to have a complete report done up soon enough.
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
Looks so good in yellow, or californian summer burst, or whatever it is.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
I have found a nice remembrance from a group ride of September 24th, 2023.
It was a Specialized Turbo Levo SL demo ride of mine. I was assisted by Pawel Jonca (a quite famous graphic artist), and Paul (a Welsh who chose living in Poland thirty years ago). Watch me easily riding loose sand!
Saratoga Dave
Well-Known Member
Drove over to my brother’s in New Hampshire yesterday for a little trip across some of the Northern Rail Trail. We started at the iconic Danbury Country Store and rode 23 miles back to his house at the east end of Lake Mascoma near Enfield.
Flat as a table and with a very good hard packed surface, whether it was dirt or stone dust at any given point, so I never bothered to turn on the Creo motor. 80 degrees, sunny and beautiful day, and most of the path is in pretty heavy shade.
The leaves are starting to change in NH and VT. The ride home was gorgeous, especially between Woodstock and Ludlow in those mountains. I was in no hurry at all to get home, a lovely day.
Flat as a table and with a very good hard packed surface, whether it was dirt or stone dust at any given point, so I never bothered to turn on the Creo motor. 80 degrees, sunny and beautiful day, and most of the path is in pretty heavy shade.
The leaves are starting to change in NH and VT. The ride home was gorgeous, especially between Woodstock and Ludlow in those mountains. I was in no hurry at all to get home, a lovely day.
Prairie Dog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Red Deer
The Four Three Hills of Banff (Part 1 of 2)
Our ride on Monday in and around Banff National Park came to an abrupt end as we neared the final loop. Due to my own negligence of forgetting to charge my Di2, I was unable to complete the last leg of our ride up towards Lake Minnewanka. It would have added an additional 18.6km and 250m of elevation gain to the day’s totals. Despite the minor setback, it was still an epic day of leg burning climbs and thrilling descents.
We rode the full monte two years ago on our Creos but this time we decided to test our mettle on the saddles of our Cannondales in true roadie fashion. The four hills consist of the Minnewanka Loop, Mount Norquay, the road to the historic Sulphur Mt Gondola and a final assault up a short assent to the Banff Center of Arts and Creativity and beyond. We managed to knock off three out of four climbs before the debacle with my shifter, riding the route in a CW fashion instead dispensing with the 6km climb up to Norquay right off the bat along with its six switchbacks.
We departed from Cascade Ponds and began the casual ride into town along the Legacy Trail. A convenient access point below the TC Highway allows one to safely transit to the other side.
One’s attention can’t help but focus on Cascade Mountain upon exiting the underpass.
Between April to mid October, the 26 km Legacy Trail that runs from Canmore <-> Banff is a convenient means of cycling/walking between the towns while enjoying the spectacular scenery along the way.
Even this late in the season, the main street was still humming with activity and traffic and the campgrounds were filled to capacity. Last week, business owners and its citizens voted in favor of nixing the traffic free zone along two blocks of Banff Avenue due to complaints of over parking in residential neighborhoods.
Before we even began the climb up Norquay, there first were a couple of Texas gates we had to negotiate. Balancing on the rails in cycling shoes we found to be a bit tricky.
Sai gets off on the right foot as she makes her way up towards the first of six switchbacks always being mindful that a slow steady pace is likely the best method to get you to the top.
Then there were some, perhaps wiser individuals, who decided that taking to their ebikes was the preferred alternative.
continuing on up...
Until the final switchback came into view and with it an incredible viewpoint overlooking the Banff Townsite, Bow River and Vermillion Lakes. Definitely worth stopping for.
More climbing before arriving at Norquay.
A steep 12% grade and few hundred meters more until one reaches the end of the road at the ski hill – Elevation 1698 meters. During the summer months, the chairlifts continue to be active taking people to the 2000m peak where they can enjoy fine dining up at the chalet while enjoying spectacular views of Mt Rundle.
Heading back down, another ebiker enjoying the fruits of his labor.
I felt a sense of accomplishment as I watched another roadie slowly make his way up to the top.
The need for speed isn’t vital here as the tight switchbacks have a way of keeping you in check.
With Norquay behind us, we took to the pathway that runs parallel along the pristine Bow River eventually making our way to the pedestrian bridge. Both locals and tourists were enjoying the fine weather on this day.
This delightful wood and metal bridge was still under construction during our last visit so we had good reason to stop for a few pics before moving on.
Our ride on Monday in and around Banff National Park came to an abrupt end as we neared the final loop. Due to my own negligence of forgetting to charge my Di2, I was unable to complete the last leg of our ride up towards Lake Minnewanka. It would have added an additional 18.6km and 250m of elevation gain to the day’s totals. Despite the minor setback, it was still an epic day of leg burning climbs and thrilling descents.
We rode the full monte two years ago on our Creos but this time we decided to test our mettle on the saddles of our Cannondales in true roadie fashion. The four hills consist of the Minnewanka Loop, Mount Norquay, the road to the historic Sulphur Mt Gondola and a final assault up a short assent to the Banff Center of Arts and Creativity and beyond. We managed to knock off three out of four climbs before the debacle with my shifter, riding the route in a CW fashion instead dispensing with the 6km climb up to Norquay right off the bat along with its six switchbacks.
We departed from Cascade Ponds and began the casual ride into town along the Legacy Trail. A convenient access point below the TC Highway allows one to safely transit to the other side.
One’s attention can’t help but focus on Cascade Mountain upon exiting the underpass.
Between April to mid October, the 26 km Legacy Trail that runs from Canmore <-> Banff is a convenient means of cycling/walking between the towns while enjoying the spectacular scenery along the way.
Even this late in the season, the main street was still humming with activity and traffic and the campgrounds were filled to capacity. Last week, business owners and its citizens voted in favor of nixing the traffic free zone along two blocks of Banff Avenue due to complaints of over parking in residential neighborhoods.
Before we even began the climb up Norquay, there first were a couple of Texas gates we had to negotiate. Balancing on the rails in cycling shoes we found to be a bit tricky.
Sai gets off on the right foot as she makes her way up towards the first of six switchbacks always being mindful that a slow steady pace is likely the best method to get you to the top.
Then there were some, perhaps wiser individuals, who decided that taking to their ebikes was the preferred alternative.
continuing on up...
Until the final switchback came into view and with it an incredible viewpoint overlooking the Banff Townsite, Bow River and Vermillion Lakes. Definitely worth stopping for.
More climbing before arriving at Norquay.
A steep 12% grade and few hundred meters more until one reaches the end of the road at the ski hill – Elevation 1698 meters. During the summer months, the chairlifts continue to be active taking people to the 2000m peak where they can enjoy fine dining up at the chalet while enjoying spectacular views of Mt Rundle.
Heading back down, another ebiker enjoying the fruits of his labor.
I felt a sense of accomplishment as I watched another roadie slowly make his way up to the top.
The need for speed isn’t vital here as the tight switchbacks have a way of keeping you in check.
With Norquay behind us, we took to the pathway that runs parallel along the pristine Bow River eventually making our way to the pedestrian bridge. Both locals and tourists were enjoying the fine weather on this day.
This delightful wood and metal bridge was still under construction during our last visit so we had good reason to stop for a few pics before moving on.
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mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
what a gorgeous ride!!!! thank you for posting this. i've spent a fair bit of time in calgary (and edmonton) for work but never made it out to banff. kind of tempted to make an excuse to get our there and rent a bike. the scenery looks similar to the sierra nevada, but simultaneously more dramatic and more ridable!!!!!!!!
