2026 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos

Rab, I'm impressed with the Metric Century you made on an analogue bicycle in your mountains! The chain link... Well, the things do happen. Had a similar situation recently on my big Vado but was able to fix the quick link anyway. (I carry both 11- and 12- quick links for both my e-bikes now).

Waiting until you get your new e-bike (and possibly resolve your Yamaha motor issue)!
 
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Riding in three countries in one day, France, Switzerland and Germany. Had some luck with the weather and some good post ride grilling.
 
The ride started at Sadgill, hopelessy cute hamlet
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Started very unassumingly, easy gravel ride in lovely weather.
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Withinminutes the clouds gathered and the track became seriously steep and loose
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Its quite a tourist attraction for offroaders as its a public road, you need a permit for once amonth usage.
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This guy was superfit on a manual, but couldnt ride most of the uphill sections
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It was first geat turbo all the way with the front end deciding your path
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Not too bad, but very tiring, its much steeper than it looks.
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It was trying to rain but held off.
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This is where we joined the bridleway to basically climb over that mountain in the distance
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Everyone told us it was impassable with a bike
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It slowly got steeper and steeper and more unridable
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Youd have to be a horse stunt rider to make this.
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I had become completely exhausted, a passing group told us it was twice as steep and rocky to the top, i was like..its a bridleway, could the horses fly back in the day?
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We reluctantly retreated and rode the pass back in the rain, thank god we did.
The slippery rocks made it twice as hard.
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Maximum concentration on the descent, once a tyre slid it skipped over two foot.
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These guys were chatting about riding a bike over the pass so loud they didnt hear us approach
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Rain cleared on the final run out, we stopped talking we were so tired
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The road up to Sadgill is like a disneyland ride of beautiful english mountain homes.
Im just mowing the lawn dea...splash.
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The roads is 6 inches, '152,400,000 nanometres' wider than the van either side
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how could you ever be sad living in this up here.
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I think they bought that Landrover just to park it outside the house.

Strangely enough I came back with five bars and brian only two, this is unexplainable, I was in turbo all day.
Either my electronics have gone haywire or Brians battery is failing.
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Yesterday, I decided to take a shorter ride on the Pinarello and explore some of the roads and beaches on the Outer Cape that I haven't seen.

54 miles, 1155 feet, 3:30, main battery only. I rode mostly in Off, and some in Eco, as I had 75% battery left at the end. I used the predictor beforehand, set to all Eco, and it told me that I would have 17% left. That sounds about right.

A nice shot of the upper Bass River from the rail trail overpass. The navigation bouys have been removed for the season. The terns on the wires are watching for lunch below in the water.

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The first stop was Skaket Beach in Orleans on the bay side. The snack bar is closed up for the season but there were plenty of beach goers out.

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Next stop was Rock Harbor. The old landing and dock system was falling apart, to the point that it could not support commercial fishing anymore. The town spent $9M to completely rebuild it.

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Too bad they were closed. I could have gone for some beignets. Around the corner from Captain Cass', is the Rock Harbor Grille, one of the nicest seafood restaurants on the Cape.

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At the harbor inlet.

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After the Rock Harbor stop, I decided to head east over to the ocean side. I jumped back onto the CCRT, crossed Route 6, and then rode the Nauset trail over to Coast Guard Beach. The trail winds through the dunes.

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The trail crosses this huge estuary via a wooden boardwalk.

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The Coast Guard Station has been turned into an educational center for studying sea life and the coastal environment.

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A mile or so up the road from Coast Guard Beach is Nauset Light. This was moved here in the 1800's from what is now the Coast Guard station in Chatham, was fully restored in the 1950's, and is automated today.

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My next stops were on the bay side, so I took some back roads over to Thumpertown Beach. While we have tall dunes on the bay side mid-Cape, this is the first bay side beach that I've seen that has a steep dune with stairs down to the beach. This is very common on the ocean side, but not so much on the bay side.

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Down the road from Thumpertown Beach is Kingsbury Beach. No tall dunes here. My home is off in the distance about 1.5 miles from the beach.

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