2025 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

[Chargeride]

I visited a rather expired fishing town of Fleetwood, no connection to the band, its a typical Victorian north west holiday resort that has
declined due to cheap flights to southern France and beyond.
They for whatever reason have decided this coast needs protecting and an utterly epic sea wall has been constructed that spans for miles and miles

There is a disturbing starkness to its construction, across the sea is Englands Lake district of mountains, plush hotels and endless walks , hiking and superb scenery.
But this forgotten expanse of coast has a rich history that is long gone and as all the money drifted to the south it has become viewed as a place for the lost and addicted.

The wall is endless and at times you feel disconnected from reality, only seeing occasional dog walkers and cyclists.

Now and then it meets a local community, that building is a manned local coastal lookout and it feels like some alien outpost overseeing the immense sand flats of this
entire coast.

Eventually you come to the town centre to be met with a glorious simplicity of a model yacht club building

The town is full of the leftovers of its past

I washoping to take the ferry over to an even starker and desolate coast, but the tide was too far out for the ferry.

Too far out even for the lifebaot

These are proper northern people, the absolute salt of the Earth, deep Lancashire accents of the spade is a spade, going down t'mill type.

This seemed to be a bunch of acting, musical students painting up the entrance to their little hall.

I tried to have my fish and chips outside this pavilion, but here was a cold wind

So I ate it with my back to a sand break on the beach, it was very warm out of the wind and I settled into the empty vastness of the scenery.

A random couple on escooters on the way back

There were derelict boats all along the intertwined rivers and it was quite creepy riding out to them, I was the only person on the shore and the tide was running past quickly
and menacingly, making you feel at its whim.
All in a very interesting ride and insight into this forgotten part of England, we have so much coast that much of it is unremarkable, but close inspection can reveal that everything has
a gem of history or change to provoke emotion in the observer.

 

[JGcycle]

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

 

[Chargeride]

I was wondering what Honneur meant..its French

 

[Chargeride]

An old friend has reappeared after years dealing with injuries, kids. go karting and more injuries.
So I took him on his 400wh Focus to a favourite haunt of mine, the Darwen tower

The entire ride was him groaning with every creak, break, arthritic joints, complete with detailed break down of the relevant surgeons opinion.
He had walked this route and few years ago and he kept pointing out where his knee or his ankle or back went on the walk.

This downhill Ninja was probably in his 60s.

He is actually perfectly capable on a mountain bike, but then explained he cant put his dropper post down because neither of his rebuilt knees have enough
movement to cope.

Dan is that friend who breaks something everywhere we go, I've seen him put in an ambulance twice and I wasn't riding with him, just randomly driving around.
I've rang ski rescue for him twice, rang mountain rescue three times, carried him pillion off the mountains on my dirt bike with a broken leg, Ive got the stone that pierced through
his knee so badly I could see his kneecap going past as he bent it, I've seen him knock himself out on the only rock in an entire large field he was cycling through.
He is famously the guy in the ebike total dunking video.. he bought a fully rebuilt Audi Quattro and wrapped it around a tree two days later, we had to drive for miles back down a french motorway to find his passsport that blew out the window. I've seen him knocked out cold twice by people he's told unwise jokes to, he had to wear an eyepatch for months from one of them, the other one was his bachelor do.
I've watched him being chased around Geneva airport by a increasing amount of security staff who were only trying to give him his passport back.
When I say knocked out, proper out cold, his nose has been reset so many times he snores really badly.

I'm telling you this because he has the opposite of PTSD, he just laughs it off.

This cobbled country path is ludicrously steep.

Hes given up sausages for his blood pressure, which is so strangely specific with no apparent known clinical connection.

Beef sandwich has been cleared by the world hypertension organisation.

This is the remains of the English hall that was used to check English time against the Popes, it was concluded the Pope was correct and we took 11 days off the calendar by adopting the Gregorian one, which resulted in riots across the country as days were taken from peoples lives.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Hes given up sausages for his blood pressure, which is so strangely specific with no apparent known clinical connection.

A reckless man indeed. You'd have to present me with a ream of peer-reviewed scientific evidence and put me on a Zoom call with a panel of leading experts on the causative role of sausage in hypertension to get me to give up sausage.
;^}

 

[Stefan Mikes]

To Buy A Comic Book For Magda

I'm riding to see my daughter Magda in her Social Care Home for the Family Day today (Sunday). (It should be the the Mother's Day but many residents -- such as Magda -- have already lost their mothers...) When Magda asks me for a present then I usually feel the most uncomfortable: what is "The Immortal Hulk" book, for instance?! EMPiK is the largest bookstore network of Poland but the nearest place had no Hulk books. So I took the direct route to Warsaw (via the Aleje) on Saturday.

Entering City of Warsaw from southwest.

Warsaw has become beautiful and provided with a good bike infrastructure by the President of Warsaw Mr Rafał Trzaskowski. I'm voting for him as for the President of Poland on next Sunday!

Just recently reconstructed CEPELiA pavilion of 1960s. Originally selling folk art, now it is the central EMPiK bookstore of Warsaw.

Yes, I got excellent help from the personnel and could buy "The Immortal Hulk Pt 1" for Magda! (A friend works for a major publishing house for comic books, so she was happy to hear I could find what I was looking for!)

The 1950s building on the right was the Boy-Scout Warehouse when I was a kid

Of course, I had to ride to "Fregata" for lunch

Pork tenderloin was my choice of the day. I felt like at the family home in Fregata!

A furry friend in Skaryszewski Park.

Warsaw has changed and is changing. A whole line of new railway stations was built in less than last five years! (I used to cycle nearby to work in early 1990s and couldn't recognize that place!)

A bike wash for my Fearless this time.

Some squeaking developed in my Vado SL in recent months. I could not localize that unpleasant sound but knew it was not critical. However, I had enough yesterday! Turned out it was my Redshift ShockStop suspension seat-post! Back at home, I dismantled the part into individual components. It was black from dirt and sand, there was no trace of grease, and a teflon housing of the spring cracked! I thoroughly degreased all the components, cleaned the inner of the post, and applied grease generously (as instructed by the manual). No squeaking anymore!

Something for Chargeride

 

[Chargeride]

Ive drunk that a few times when the Bacardi ran out, you have to be drunk to drink it .
You could make that day into a tearjerker TV advert Stefan, even down to the squeaky seat as you rode around looking for the book.
Poland does look lovely, its an ever increasing mention over here , we always use to compare ourselves with Scandinavia, now it is shifting to the East, it seems hilarious now that we believed Polish migrants that the country was a dump, I guess for them it was.

Is that a Red Squirrel?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Is that a Red Squirrel?

Yes, it is indeed. We don't have the grey variety here at all!

it seems hilarious now that we believed Polish migrants that the country was a dump, I guess for them it was.

They left the country when it was just the beginning of the development era, and for many of them finding employment was hard, especially in small remote cities. Now, they settled in the UK so they wouldn't return.

Bear in mind Poland passed the 2008 world crisis rather intact!

 

[Chargeride]

We have a local red squirrel population in the woods who's entire population is zero , they have finally dropped the marketing, I havent seen one for twenty years.
Hilariously the invading grey squirrel is now being threatened by the black squirrel

 

[Chazmo]

Alcohol-free rum? I suppose you could put that in your water bottle. Or not. Might make a good mixer with coke, I guess.

By the way, and apropos of nothing, if you like a refreshing spritzer drink try mixing orange gatorade (I use sugar-free) with seltzer.

 

[Chazmo]

We have a local red squirrel population in the woods who's entire population is zero , they have finally dropped the marketing, I havent seen one for twenty years.
Hilariously the invading grey squirrel is now being threatened by the black squirrel

I haven’t seen any red squirrels in Massachusetts. Only greys. Reds are what they have out in California, at least if I recall correctly.

Is there such a thing as a black squrrel? Pretty sure I’ve never seen one (or mis-identified any as something else).

 

[stompandgo]

We have chipmunks, which some people call red squirrels. Those stupid things will chew a hole into your house and turn your attic into a brothel. I used to trap at least a dozen every year. We had a few black squirrels, full sized, like gray squirrels. This was in western MA.

Once the fox, fisher cats, wolves, coyotes, hawks, and eagles woke up from their nap, their numbers would gradually disappear. Same with the bunnies.

I've got one gray squirrel that tears my lawn up looking for buried acorns. I think a small air powered BB pistol should teach him to think twice about doing that again. I've gotta find one of those.

 

[Chazmo]

We have chipmunks, which some people call red squirrels. Those stupid things will chew a hole into your house and turn your attic into a brothel. I used to trap at least a dozen every year. We had a few black squirrels, full sized, like gray squirrels. This was in western MA.

Once the fox, fisher cats, wolves, coyotes, hawks, and eagles woke up from their nap, their numbers would gradually disappear. Same with the bunnies.

I've got one gray squirrel that tears my lawn up looking for buried acorns. I think a small air powered BB pistol should teach him to think twice about doing that again. I've gotta find one of those.

Chipmunks? I’ve never called those squirrels, Chris… ?? Reds look like Stefan’s picture.

Interesting on the black squirrels. That’s new on me! Yeah, not surprised there are different breeds out in and beyond the Berkshires.

 

[Chargeride]

I haven’t seen any red squirrels in Massachusetts. Only greys. Reds are what they have out in California, at least if I recall correctly.

Is there such a thing as a black squrrel? Pretty sure I’ve never seen one (or mis-identified any as something else).

Yup we have the mutation in the UK and its a dominant gene, its not a new species .

Black squirrels the result of 'interbreeding' grey squirrels, study finds

Black squirrels evolved when greys and fox squirrels historically bred, Cambridge researchers find.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Chazmo]

Couple of vids from my 25 miler today… Overcast skies and mist so the vids aren’t the greatest, but the scenery is wonderful. Hope you guys can follow the links and view streamable… This site doesn’t allow it in a media tag (but should)

Watch IMG_1767 | Streamable

Watch "IMG_1767" on Streamable.

streamable.com

Watch IMG_1768 | Streamable

Watch "IMG_1768" on Streamable.

streamable.com

 

[Chargeride]

I love bridges in the woods

 

[Chargeride]

My friends just sent me this from their ride today in Wales, I added the sound.