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

[Stefan Mikes]

Someone from the Yukon just posted on my vid thats its -45c, I checked to see if he was telling porkies, coldest today is -63!!

I've watched numerous videos from various authors about Siberia, North and East Russia where the winter temperatures are extreme (for instance, Oymyakon is believed to be the coldest inhabited place on Earth). Some of those people were actual travellers. some other like the excellent Simon Whistler of the Places YT channel discussed the matters from their research perspective. A general comment is hard winter has some positive aspects for that big area as you can cross frozen rivers with a car or truck without the need of any bridge, and the usually muddy roads become hard...

 

[Chargeride]

My friend went back to Inuvik up the Dempster Highway with his missus in the winter, he just drove over all the rivers we had to ferry across.
At every gas stop he had to climb out the rear hatch and get hot water to unfreeze the doors.

 

[RabH]

After heavy overnight rain our roads were saturated this morning and with mist and patchy fog added to the mix it certainly wasn't a morning for cycling! The forecast was looking more promising late morning and throughout the afternoon but I had my doubts and was considering waiting until Tuesday, however all of a sudden the skies started to clear and I grabbed my chance to go for it! It was a mild 8C but a chilly 20mph easterly wind made it feel close to zero! So I decided to head east into the wind and enjoy a nice tailwind on the way back home!

One of my local hills had surface dressing laid recently, making it very dangerous with loose gravel on a very steep road! I decided to check it out today in the hope the traffic had dealt with the loose gravel and my luck was in, cue a 45.2mph descent! What a buzz that was to start my ride off, after that I headed for Newhouse and turned east and joined the cycle path to Salsburgh! Then it was up the big climb before hurtling down the descent into Harthill, still over 30mph into a 20mph headwind!

I then joined the cycle path towards Whitburn and turned south up the climb into Longridge, then it was another awesome descent before turning east towards Stoneyburn and on to West Calder! From there I turned SE towards Harburn and then SW on the back road to Wooldfords, a long straight road with little to no traffic other than a tractor!

I spotted these 2 lovely Shetland ponies on my way!

The weather was improving every minute and the sun even made a welcome appearance as I was approaching Woolfords, I stopped for a few photos before the village!

Looking SE with the Pentland Hills in the distance!

The descent into Woolfords, looking back up the hill from close to the village!

Another view of the Pentlands!

I was now heading towards Auchengray and stopped for more photos before turning south towards Tarbrax!

The road to Tarbrax passes through Polkelly, I had a very nice view of the Pentlands from here!

The road through Polkelly from the top of the climb, it almost looks flat but it is a 7% gradient!

The village of Tarbrax then came into view in the distance!

Another very quiet and mostly smooth road!

Then I had a big climb up to almost 1100ft and joined the amazing A70 road to Carnwath, this one isn't so quiet but its such a great road!

A couple of miles from Carnwath I had another amazing view of the Pentlands!

The awesome A70 road just keeps on going!

I arrived in Carwath with 38 miles covered and finally turned west, that 20mph tailwind was very welcome! I stayed on the main road for a few miles from Carnwath and near Carstairs I came across a line of traffic due to some roadworks! So I decided to take the back road to Yieldshields to avoid the traffic, I didn't see a single car for miles so it was the right decision! I passed the Alpacas after a couple of miles and managed to catch the main herd this time!

Time was getting on now so this was my last photo, after a few miles of mainly climbing I arrived in Yieldshields and turned north towards Carluke before taking the back road to Allanton and up the climb to Hareshaw and over the back roads to home! Another awesome day on the bike, I'm glad I decided to go for it and I arrived home just as it was getting dark! Over 400 miles in December and still a week left, its going to get colder now but still around 5C during the day so hopefully I will get more miles before the end of the year!

 

[Chargeride]

Yieldshield is such a nice name to pronounce.

 

[Chargeride]

The lads are loving this site.
AI generated roasts of your Strava stats.

It begins doesnt it...

Roast My Strava

Get AI generated roasts and motivational messages based on your Strava profile and activities

roastmystrava.com

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The lads are loving this site.
AI generated roasts of your Strava stats.

It begins doesnt it...

Roast My Strava

Get AI generated roasts and motivational messages based on your Strava profile and activities

roastmystrava.com

Are you kidding me?

1. I can do it myself.
2. Strava has its own AI about the user's performance. I switched it off. If I go for a shopping ride in TURBO, AI would say "What a feat!" If I do it in ECO, I would get a polite remark, like "You are slacking!"
3. I put a lot of creativity in the titles of my Strava activities. Specifically, one Captain Slow (a former EBR member) gets no kudos from me because he uses AI for his activity titles

DEA and ATF could take some interest in me Although the "F" here is just a gas-lighter in this equation

 

[Chargeride]

So is this a seperate site to Strava?

My friend Brian rang me late one night last week.
'Where was the dealer who offered you 2700 for your Levo?
He was looking to trade in for an Amflow himself.
His Levo is speed boxed and our trail rides are now me and two others, with Brian miles ahead.
But..
Hes not the fastest on the trail because Amflow riders are beating him up the big climbs, the Amflow can be derestricted by setting up a vpn on your phone to New Zealand.
So he starts getting all morbid and concluding he hasnt got long left at this and might as well go out with a bang.

So I said..'youre going to give up if youre not as fast as the fastest riders on a man made course?'
Like you havent got decades left as an ordinary rider enjoying it and not basing the entire experience around stats.

This is why I dont want anything to do with Strava, I took them up High Cup Nick, stunningly beautiful and challenging , driving back they were disappointed not to be the fastest riders up it on Strava.

 

[stompandgo]

The Amflow can be derestricted like any other e-bike, but it has the built-in 1000w 30 second boost mode right out of the box.

 

[Chargeride]

Speed restriction, its 15mph in Europe but still a 1000w.

 

[Chargeride]

I had a look at my analytics, its all a bit strava in there .
anyway heres the gender stats, read into it what you may.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

So is this a seperate site to Strava?

Affirmative. Strava has an Application Programmer's Interface, so any programmer can play around Strava provided the Strava user has consented to share their login (haha!)

My friend Brian rang me late one night last week.
'Where was the dealer who offered you 2700 for your Levo?
He was looking to trade in for an Amflow himself.
His Levo is speed boxed and our trail rides are now me and two others, with Brian miles ahead.
But..
Hes not the fastest on the trail because Amflow riders are beating him up the big climbs, the Amflow can be derestricted by setting up a vpn on your phone to New Zealand.
So he starts getting all morbid and concluding he hasnt got long left at this and might as well go out with a bang.

So I said..'youre going to give up if youre not as fast as the fastest riders on a man made course?'
Like you havent got decades left as an ordinary rider enjoying it and not basing the entire experience around stats.

This is why I dont want anything to do with Strava, I took them up High Cup Nick, stunningly beautiful and challenging , driving back they were disappointed not to be the fastest riders up it on Strava.

It's horses for courses. Brian apparently is in a Need For Speed but different people have different needs.

 

[Chargeride]

Affirmative. Strava has an Application Programmer's Interface, so any programmer can play around Strava provided the Strava user has consented to share their login (haha!)


It's horses for courses. Brian apparently is in a Need For Speed but different people have different needs.

Im the only one out of the entire crew who doesnt sit scrolling strava on the way home.
I dont fit in , I get it.
Its important group bonding.
I have only child syndrome

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Im the only one out of the entire crew who doesnt sit scrolling strava on the way home.
I dont fit in , I get it.
Its important group bonding.
I have only child syndrome

I decided to spare you the details why Strava was good for me. I'm not the Brian's Pack type.

 

[Chargeride]

I know Stefan, I just dont want be drawn in, if they had no interest, I might well use it

 

[Base]

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Just a quick tour through the local woods, riding a long hour into Sunset. Its just below 0°C here so nice to ride, in the woodland not to much of the eastern wind is feld.

 

[RabH]

Another lovely day for a bike ride so I made the most of it, it was a bit chilly but ok for the end of December with a temp of 6C! A chilly NE wind made it feel much colder though but it was only around 15mph, I decided to head SE for Biggar as I hadn't been down there for a while! I made the right choice as it was just amazing and I even had many dry roads which is almost unheard of in winter here! I was able to use the back roads as there was no ice around so I made my way down to Allanton and over the back road to Carluke and up the climb to Yieldshields!

This is the awesome road from Yieldshields to Carnwath!

I used a back road I haven't been on for a long time, past the White Loch near Carnwath and stopped for a couple of photos!

From Carnwath I turned south towards Libberton and enjoyed this cracking descent on the way!

I had lovely views all around on this amazing road!

This is a tough climb but I had a tailwind helping me!

Then a flatter part before a nice descent!

The next part of the descent with a nice view of the Pentland and Coulter Hills!

Then the big descent near Biggar with amazing views of the stunning Coulter Hills!

Almost in Biggar now and another lovely view across the fields and rolling hills!

From Biggar I turned SW towards Symington and stopped for a short break and a snack and grabbed another couple of photos!

A short time later I passed over the bridge over the River Clyde where I had a nice view of Tinto Hill!

The view to the north near Symington wasn't too shabby either!

After passing through Symington I stopped for more photos at the top of the climb, looking east with the Pentland and Coulter Hills providing a specatacular backdrop!

I joined the main A73 here and stopped after a couple of miles for this photo looking east, there was very little traffic on this normally busy road thanks to the Christmas holidays!

At Hyndford Bridge I made my way up the climb to Lanark but turned on to the Carstairs road to avoid the busy town, from Carstairs I headed towards Carluke on the main A721 which was also quiet! Its a big climb but the wind was helping, I stopped for this photo looking east part way up the climb!

This was looking SE from the same spot!

Time was getting on so it was time to get my head down and make sure I got home before dark, I used the back roads once again from Carluke to Allanton and up the big climb to Hareshaw where I used the main road home this time with very little traffic around! What a brilliant ride on a glorious but chilly day, 7200 miles now and I should get 1 more ride before the year end! I have covered 481 miles in December, which is probably my best December ever and I should get well past 500 miles on Monday or Tuesday!

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[Chargeride]

Just a quick 70 miles on Boxing day.
Not worth locking the door for that.

 

[Chargeride]

Im doing a little local ride tomorrow, I planned it and then realised it passes 32 pubs, the coincidence is astounding.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Black Ice But On Studded Winter Tyres

As I woke up at 2 p.m. the first message read: "Have you installed your studded tyres yet?" it was from Jacek -- "Should I?" -- "There's black ice everywhere" -- "Thank you, installing"; followed by a message from Tommy: "Not riding today. Black ice. People fall all the time! -- "Uh oh, thank you for head ups!"

Warsaw's paralysed. People lying on the pavement, buses delayed (Boxing Day 2025)..

I do hate swapping bike tyres. This time, I was slow but accurate and careful. Had my trusty Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus 35-622 installed on my Vado SL without any trouble. Put some warmer clothes on and then walked my Fearless outside. Ooh. My feet started slipping on invisible ice! As a spiked tyre braked bike is the most firm thing when on ice, I slowly "skated" to the nearest lawn, using my e-bike as a support. There I could mount the e-bike and problemlos rode to Pruszków by bike paths, which looked dry.

I was totally confident about riding my Fearless!

As I was riding a bike path in the city, I noticed a woman sliding her feet on the pavement instead of walking! Now, I started understanding how it worked... As I reached the Italian restaurant and tried to dismount the e-bike, I found it impossible! My feet were slipping under me! So I slid next to a bollard, was holding on it, laid my bike flat on the pavement (sidewalk) and using the post as a support, I could walk over the bike frame... Then, I rose Fearless and again used it as a support to slide to the restaurant door

After the lunch, I needed to "skate" to the next small lawn to mount the bike... A similar situation repeated by Little Frog convenience store, where I additionally had to pull me up on a little slope into the shop by holding onto the door handle Eventually, I had to mount my bike, reach home and then dismount the bike for the last time

A very interesting evening for sure! All the bike paths or MUP were under black ice! (Wahoo read -1 C).

MOSTy 500 km RELAY GRAVEL RACE
Jacek rides the gravel race in Warsaw on Saturday. Any team is four riders, and it must include a female. 13 laps of 37.5 km each and one 14 km lap are to be ridden (501.5 km). Jacek is to ride two laps during the day and one at night. The last 14 km lap is to be ridden by the whole team. I will certainly be there to cheer my brother! And Tommy and I would ride a single lap as the fans! We may choose nearby bike path though not to disturb the racers!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Black Ice But On Studded Winter Tyres

As I woke up at 2 p.m. the first message read: "Have you installed your studded tyres yet?" it was from Jacek -- "Should I?" -- "There's black ice everywhere" -- "Thank you, installing"; followed by a message from Tommy: "Not riding today. Black ice. People fall all the time! -- "Uh oh, thank you for head ups!"

Treacherous stuff, that black ice! Frictionless and invisible is a vicious combination. Glad to hear that the studded bike tires work so well.

Black ice actually figured into our decision to leave our beloved Denver home for SoCal. As we got more and more of it in our Denver neighborhood over the last decade, it became harder and harder to avoid on mandatory winter dog walks.

Often had to walk with spiked hiking poles, but as dog walker-in-chief, still managed to fall on black ice 3 times in our last 2 winters there. That footbridge in the distance was especially prone.

As a seventy-something, that just wasn't sustainable. Then came our first long post-retirement vacation — 2 winter months in La Jolla, just north of San Diego. Above, La Jolla Shores beach, March, 2022.

With "We really need to move before somebody gets hurt" in the back of our heads, it wasn't much of a leap to "Hey, let's move here!"