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

[Rás Cnoic]

Jeremy, Ras, Chris: I guess nobody of you treats E-Biking as a discipline of sport; I do, and as you may know I took part in as many as four gravel races, two of them being E-Bike Race. You need to navigate on a gravel race as your ride is tracked and you must follow the course. The other situation is competing on Segments. A Segment is a predefined route on which different riders try to get the best result. You need to navigate if you want to be classified, especially if the Segment is defined in a rough terrain with many alternate paths.

The third situation is a Gravel or XC Group Ride, adventure cycling. A big group of riders start together and they follow a predefined course, which is usually off beaten paths (a good Gravel route in Poland shall involve at least 50% off asphalt). Riders are constantly dropped, small groups are formed; someone might experience a flat or another technical issue; on recreational group rides a small group assists the wretch until the problem is solved. You may be last and suddenly you discover you are a way forward than you thought. You simply need navigation to follow the Group Ride, for instance to meet your co-riders at a cafe or a restaurant or a shop on the trail.

Finally, there are all types of long rides where you simply explore an area you don't know. How can one do it without the GPS navigation? Consult the map? Oh, that slows you down, and chances are you'd make a gross navigational error (GPS navigation finds an alternate route for you shall it happen).

Let me guess people: No one of you uses a GPS car navigation? Seriously?

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A 92 mile total ride, of which 62 mile was a gravel group ride of 45 riders. (Vado SL). Nobody could do that without any GPS navigation (at least on a smartphone).

Turning Pro Stefan? Good on ya! Ineos recently lost Tom Pidcock, they must be looking for a replacement, give them a shout.

My racing days are long behind me. Didn't have any phone apps back then or phones for that matter, just marshals with flags and whistles.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Jeremy, Ras, Chris: I guess nobody of you treats E-Biking as a discipline of sport

Left all discipline behind when Mistress Scarlet and I parted ways. Now I have a Vado SL to make it hurt so good. But this time, I'm the one who must be obeyed.

Let me guess people: No one of you uses a GPS car navigation? Seriously?

Of course I do. Not at all equivalent.

Finally, there are all types of long rides where you simply explore an area you don't know. How can one do it without the GPS navigation? Consult the map? Oh, that slows you down, and chances are you'd make a gross navigational error (GPS navigation finds an alternate route for you shall it happen).

On the bike, I use GPS mapping mainly to see where I am now, where I've been, and where whim might take me next.

On the bike, I generally don't need or want a navigation app telling me where to go, but the gain/pain ratio works out occasionally. Have a good sense of direction and a good read on landcapes. No gross navigational errors yet, but many delightful serendipities to show for it.

There's no "should" here. It's all a matter of taste and temperament. Wife can't go down the block now without her nav lady's instructions. I think it's the silliest thing ever for places she goes often. But I assure you, no good comes of telling her so.

 

[teskow]

"I assure you, no good comes of telling her so."
Amen to that one brother.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Magda: A Xmas Gathering At SCH

I was very afraid of snowing on Sunday. Fortunately, the white cr*p had melted overnight and I could set off before 10:00 to see my daughter in her Social Care Home. Something told me I should wear very carefully for that day! So double merino wool long johns, Gore-Tex trousers, two thermal layers under my sailing jacket, double socks, shoe covers, winter gloves... I was right! It started with +1 C but there was a very strong westerly wind! Suffice to say I was achieving 20 km/h with a difficulty while riding my Vado 6.0 at a massive 60% assistance! Had to assume an "aero position" with my hands on Innerbarends, forearms on the horizontal, my torso huddled, and the helmet top pointing forward, so what I could see was my front wheel and some road surface It was occasionally raining, too!

I was on time at the SCH. Sweets and lemonade were prepared at multiple tables.

The empty stage soon filled up with the residents playing their roles in the show.

I was very much impressed with the Ukrainian carer from Odessa who assumed the responsibilities as a singing and music teacher at SCH. People from Black Sea have no slightest relationship with Poland. Yet, the carer mastered Polish to the level she could flawlessly sing in Polish! What drew my attention, however, was a single defect. Polish "L" is pronounced hard, very hard. The carer had no issue with the "L" except the single word: 'Hallelujah' Hers was "Awwe-wujah" as she pronounced the "L" as the Eastern Slavic "Л" (Polish has a special character "Ł" to make these two sounds different).

The whole crew. Magda is in the centre disguised as a flower.

Magda during the "God Is Born", or the most solemn Polish Christmas carol.

Magda was.so happy to see me! We spent a good time together, and I promised to bring her a Samsung tablet on 19th.

The return way was fun! I got a strong tailwind into my back. For the last kilometres, I went on a regular highway (which I hate, such boring it is!) and switched to 100% Turbo Assisted by both the motor and tailwind, I went above the speed limiter, and the max speed was 47.1 km/h (29.27 mph)! I was at home in no time!

Ride map. See how the principal river of the area, the Utrata affects the road system. As I turned south before Kopytów, I could not find a single road heading East!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Heavy Raining And A Strong Gale

Over several years of e-biking, I managed to create a nice collection of clothes for any weather Monday was the day I needed to ride at least to a pharmacy to collect the monthly portion of my medications. The weather outside looked scary. The westerly wind blew at 36 km/h with gusts up to 72 km/h, and it was pouring! At least, it was warmer than in the days before, 10 down to 6 C. As I had to do the pharmacy ride, I pulled on, i.a., a waterproof trouser/shoe cover, and my waterproof sailing jacket.

The e-bike choice was obvious: it had to be the Vado 6.0 with mudguards and a strong motor. During the weather like that, it is full power TURBO to shorten the ride time!

After the first ride. The outside of my garb was soaked with water! It was not dramatic inside though thanks to the inner membranes of my jacket and motorcycle gloves. The 12.6 km ride took less than 32 minutes, and I was some 50 minutes outside.

In the evening, I needed to do some grocery shopping. I thought the ride would be short, so I would not spend time to pull the trouser cover on. The TURBO ride took less than a quarter; now, most of my clothes required drying!

Only 19.2 km for the day!

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Thank heaven, we finally got a day where the sun came out, the temp hit 50 degrees and the snow is gone, even the last couple inches that fell two days ago. Called my riding buddy and it was off to the Saratoga National Battlefield, closed for the winter to cars but plowed anyway, and today everything was just wet.

Last Fall a major update was performed here, with all the informational kiosks replaced with new ones and a whole bunch of additional ones installed as well. All the pathways have been repaved and several have been extended so on top of all this amazing history around you, it is all a hell of an even better place to ride. It’s always popular with the local bike clubs anyway… I was amazed that we were the only cyclists out there today, at least that we saw. For anybody in this region, whether as a journey through history or just a damn good bike ride, I highly, highly recommend it.

I’ve posted on this place before, but a couple of quick shots. A cannon overlooking the Hudson river, a nasty surprise to the British army that was expecting a quick trip down to Albany to fight there:

And a random shot of Chris coming down off one of the exhibit loops:

After almost a month off the bike due to all kinds of crazy weather, this felt great on my Creo today. Hopefully I can get out again tomorrow before it all turns to winter again. Don’t dare ride on regular roads this time of year, you might as well just lay down and let someone run you over. Has to be paths or restricted access stuff like this park. My new mountain ebike has been stashed for the winter, so the Creo is the only option. Not a bad one, obviously!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

A Tablet For Magda and A Meeting of Old PUNKS

I need 9,000 km this year! Also, competing hard with foofer on Strava Club (He is a hard competitor!)

First, it was a fast ride to SCH in Bramki to hand out a Samsung tablet to my daughter Magda, and to teach her operating the device. 53 km.

After the dark, I went for another ride to a meeting of the oldest Warsaw PUNKs of 1970 still being alive. The pretext for the meeting was a release of the first Polish live recordings of the seminal band The Boors/KRYZYS. We were behind the Iron Curtain in those times, and we only formed the PUNK crew in 1978 with the first concerts in early 1979. The April/May gigs of Kryzys can be compared to the seminal Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks concert in Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on June 4th, 1976, where a small group of audience later formed several bands important to the British music. So was the effect of the Kryzys "Recorded'Anin" gigs of 1979 on the Polish alternative music.

Bajerka (left) was the first female in the Warsaw PUNK movement, and she later played bass. I and Ada (centre) were publishing the first PUNK fanzin 'SZMATA' (The Rag) also in 1979. The man on the right also belongs to the crew, and is a singer. Far left: the album producer and publisher.

You could be surprised how well a Samsung S24 Ultra can record live music!

It was a 51 km ride. I enjoyed slightly higher temperature even reaching +10 C!

104.6 km for the day.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

The goal on last Sunday's coast ride south to Cardiff Beach was to stay off the Coast Highway and on quiet side streets and protected MUPs and bikeways as much as possible. And some 60% of the route turned out to do just that.

The star of the route was the south Encinitas segment of our discontinuous regional Coastal Rail Trail. This wide paved MUP, well separated from any auto traffic, runs 2 mi from the downtown train station to Chesterfield Ave. Commanding views of the Pacific most of the way.

The MUP was busy on this beautiful Sunday morning in December, with pedestrians outnumbering cyclists maybe 20 to 1. Not sure what happened to this pedestrian, as everyone was surprisingly well-behaved.

Most of the pedestrians did a passable job of following this much-welcome guide to cyclist-pedestrian relations. Must be something in the water in Encinitas, cuz that's NOT how it usually goes in Carlsbad, the next beach town north.

From Chesterfield, took the southbound barrier-protected bike lane on the Coast Highway all the way to Cardiff Beach. This bikeway is a one-way, single-lane version of the one above.

Walkers and runners are generally bigger threats than cars here, as some just can't seem to stay in their own lanes. And with such unpredictable intruders in play, I think these low curb-like bike lane barriers make the bikeway LESS safe. No room go around oblivious intruders with one bike lane hemmed in, and still too little room with the two lanes hemmed in above.

Sand and beach cobbles covered a good third of the Cardiff Beach parking lot after an exceptionally high king tide the night before. This took place 1 night before the last full moon before Earth reaches perihelion on January 3, 2025. Must've been some decent surf to lift that much rock.

Had a nice chat with a lifeguard who also covers the Carlsbad beaches closest to my house. Meant to ask if he had anything to do with that Christmas tree on the beach in front of the guard tower.

A big surfing contest for school kids 18 and under was underway.

Interesting to listen to the surfing lingo as the announcer described the waves and called contestants' performances. Chatted with a surf mom (our equivalent of soccer mom) as she waited for her son to catch a wave.

Several vendors had booths next to the commentator's tent. We're still talking about surfing, right??


.

 

[Twin Valley]

The goal on last Sunday's coast ride south to Cardiff Beach was to stay off the Coast Highway and on quiet side streets and protected MUPs and bikeways as much as possible. And some 60% of the route turned out to do just that.

View attachment 187659
The star of the route was the south Encinitas segment of our discontinuous regional Coastal Rail Trail. This wide paved MUP, well separated from any auto traffic, runs 2 mi from the downtown train station to Chesterfield Ave. Commanding views of the Pacific most of the way.

View attachment 187660
The MUP was busy on this beautiful Sunday morning in December, with pedestrians outnumbering cyclists maybe 20 to 1. Not sure what happened to this pedestrian, as everyone was surprisingly well-behaved.

View attachment 187661
Most of the pedestrians did a passable job of following this much-welcome guide to cyclist-pedestrian relations. Must be something in the water in Encinitas, cuz that's NOT how it usually goes in Carlsbad, the next beach town north.

View attachment 187662
From Chesterfield, took the barrier-protected bike lane on the Coast Highway all the way to Cardiff Beach. This segment is single-lane version of the one above.

Walkers and runners are generally bigger threats than cars here, as some just can't seem to stay in their own lanes. And with such unpredictable intruders in play, I think these low curb-like bike lane barriers make the bikeway LESS safe. No room go around oblivious intruders with one bike lane hemmed in, and still too little room with the two lanes hemmed in above.

View attachment 187663
Sand and beach cobbles covered a good third of the Cardiff Beach parking lot after an exceptionally high king tide the night before. This took place 1 night before the last full moon before Earth reaches perihelion on January 3, 2025. Must've been some decent surf to lift that much rock.

View attachment 187665View attachment 187664
Had a nice chat with a lifeguard who also covers the Carlsbad beaches closest to my house. Meant to ask if he had anything to do with that Christmas tree on the beach in front of the guard tower.

View attachment 187666
A big surfing contest for school kids 18 and under was underway.

View attachment 187669
View attachment 187670
Interesting to listen to the surfing lingo as the announcer described the waves and contestants' performances. Chatted with a surf mom (our equivalent of soccer mom) as she waited for her son to catch a wave.

View attachment 187667
View attachment 187668Several vendors had booths next to the commentator's tent. We're still talking about surfing, right??


.

Blue skies, surfing and sunny days - we went from minus 27 Celsius two days ago to plus 10 today with those Chinook winds blowing in from the west, had to look up perihelion, (around the sun, at our closest) should have known that having taught earth sciences many "moons" ago

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Szczodre Gody x MOSTy (A Charity Ride)
9,000 km This Year!

Szczodre Gody (literally archaic: Generous Eve) is a pre-Christian celebration of Winter Solstice by our Polish ancestors; it is similar to Yule, and was celebrated as Koliada in other Slavic lands. Gravel.Love had organized a charity event: You were expected to make a donation and then do a group or a solo ride on one or two or three predefined routes this weekend. I chose the MOSTy (BRIDGEs) route for Saturday.

Imagine you had totally prepared your ride, winter clothes, necessary pannier contents and you are rolling your e-bike out of your flat and then hear a worrying noise but you are on a tight schedule to catch your train! It took me a few minutes to swap my Vado SL for Vado 6.0, with replacing the spare battery as well! I was at the train station at the last moment!

As I cycled from Warsaw City Centre down to the Mermaid, I met several gravel cyclists ready for the ride. A big surprise was meeting my cycling mate Krzysiek who is senior to me, and who always rides vintage bikes!

The first 16 km were fabulous. We had a beautiful sunshine! I rode my Vado at 60/60% assistance, and that even let me be in the lead for several kilometres! (Bear in mind Vado 6.0 is a 45 km/h e-bike).

Past the Praga Harbour, and reaching the Meadow-Upon-Vistula, I felt I needed to take a short rest. Now, I regret it as I could have completed the ride together with my buddies in an exceptionally good time!

Warsaw New Town as seen from the right bank of the Vistula.

My Roadrunner (Vado 6.0). Dirty but happy!

Meadow-Upon-Vistula. Gdański Bridge in the background. It was one of a very few muddy segments!

After 38.8 km ride, I could upload this ride to Strava...

Guys! I could eventually make the 30 km Strava E-Bike Segment! Usually, Strava Segments are short. To make a very long segment, you must ride the course to the T! Woo-hoo! Besides, I advanced to the 12th place on the popular "Suzuka (e-bike)" segment.

Later, I returned home "on the wheels". Eventually, rode to a grocery shop to make the 9,000 km this year! (Of course, I am not in the position to match Rab!)

The five rides on the Winter Solstice 2024.

It was all OK with my Vado SL. The front wheel had just been rubbing against the mudflap stay...

 

[Stefan Mikes]

e-BRIDGEs E-Bike Segment Effort: The Result Improved By 14 Minutes!

I was expecting raining on Sunday. As I could see an opportunity to ride dry around noon, I was at Warsaw Mermaid at 11:40.

I met a group of seven riders there! It was the group for Generous Eve by Gravel.Love (two riders including the organizer Paweł K left the scene before I could take the photo). The main group rode for 50 miles in the rain. The red bearded man and Paweł K rode for 100 miles on that wet and cold day! KUDOS to them!

At the e-MOSTy segment start.

I was riding from Mermaid to the segment start line at a moderate speed as the sole objective of the ride was to improve my result on the 30.0 km E-Bike Segment. There, I prepared myself:

• Number one
• Installing a fresh battery and verifying assistance levels (SPORT 75/75% for the main ride and full TURBO for climbs)
• Drinking hot tea and fixing the clothing (cleaning my goggles was important).

I was determined to not to stop on the Segment at all! It was raining on my ride from Mermaid but it stopped raining for the Segment as forecast!

The ride was just fun. I was familiar with the Segment so I was zooming as fast as I could given some mud on the trail. As I completed an extreme climb up Praga Harbour, I stopped for several seconds, grabbed the water bottle, drank the half of the contents and rode again! The next forced stop was red lights at Gwiaździsta St, where I finished the contents of the bottle.

At the finish line.

I could not wait any more! I uploaded the ride to Strava to discover I improved my result from 1 h 33 min 19 s to 1 h 18 min 59 s, that is, by 14 minutes and 20 seconds! The total stop time was 1 minute and 16 seconds.

Happy, I could now finish my tea!

Fun-fact: Public toilets are paid in Germany but free in Poland (I mean, public not private ones). There is a Metro station just by Mermaid, and there is a big lift. Two levels down and a beautiful clean and free loo waited for me there! I'd say it is yet another thing making the life in Poland so good!

Delighted with my success I simply rode home "on the wheels" to record 70.8 km for the day