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

[stompandgo]

No Christmas before Halloween.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Quite the daring move these days, they were talking about what to say to the cops as I approached

What are the flag guys doing that's so daring?

 

[DaveMatthews]

Started driving to the Lake District, but there was a crash ahead and we diverted to Blackpool.
Here we are waiting for the screams
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Posted before, so will try to find something different
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This girl screamed 'BIKE' at the top of her voice as I passed, nearly persisted myself
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Good old titanic engineering
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Quite the daring move these days, they were talking about what to say to the cops as I approached
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Newspaper road
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Every electric bike we saw was illegal, there were tons of them.
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Concrete sandstone
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This huge sea wall extension, they were racing the car against the karts
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Blackpool is the very description of cheap jet travel destroying an entire british holiday industry
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Zetor tractors?
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Weird shapes and angles everywhere
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They have just started putting up the christmas lights
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Low res reflection
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That sandstone feature is cool...

 

[Chargeride]

What are the flag guys doing that's so daring?

Its very much seen as a h8 crime to openly fly those flags in the UK as a personal statement.
All it takes is one complaint and you will be on an awareness course to prevent further consequences.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Could you explain this Charge.

 

[Chargeride]

Yup, you can fly one from your house, or walking about but if someone complains you will get a visit to explain your 'thinking'.
No one anywhere around here flies an England or union flag, and it wouldnt go down very well at all of you did.
This isnt unusual..flags can be devisive, but we are running level 11 at the moment.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Yup, you can fly one from your house, or walking about but if someone complains you will get a visit to explain your 'thinking'.
No one anywhere around here flies an England or union flag, and it wouldnt go down very well at all of you did.
This isnt unusual..flags can be devisive, but we are running level 11 at the moment.

Very interesting. In the US, MAGA tried to co-opt the American flag early on as a symbol of their movement. The message was clear: They're the only true patriots, and anyone who opposes them is a traitor. Tried the same with the word "freedom".

The bigger and more in-your-face the flag(s) flying in the back of your pickup truck, the better. Ironically, scads of American flags flying in the MAGA motorcade that tried to run Biden's campaign bus off a freeway in the 2020 election.

Soon we had all kinds of US flag variants. Don't know what a lot of them mean, but I think many carry MAGA-adjacent messages. You still see a lot of these as bumper stickers.

In response, MAGA opponents started displaying US flags as if to say, "Oh no you don't, it's our flag, too." Result: American flags everywhere now — and to my knowledge, without official restriction.

Obvious hate symbols like Nazi and Confederate flags are generally restricted here, of course, but maybe not to the extent you're describing in the UK.

Crazy world. How did your flag restrictions come about?

 

[Chargeride]

I get it, immigration is the hottest potato in town, that guy was walking past hundreds of Indians and Pakistanis, who were colonised by that exact flag.
If anyone one of them complained its instantly a h8 crime.
The reality is an excrutiating interaction of many tribes, classes and associations.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Fuel!
Just to change the subject.

Posting this photo on my Facebook made several of my buddies sigh "You must be rich!" to which my answer was "Unfortunately, the fuel is expensive nowadays"

Let me tell you a story. It was Sudovia Gravel 2025, a gravel race in extremely bad weather: very cold, raining all the time, windy, and on gravel roads that turned into peanut butter. There is always a 226ers booth at the rallys I take part in. Before the ride, I asked the boy selling the stuff to get me something to restore my strength on the race but also which wouldn't be too strong. I think I got 6 sachets of a different formula and taste.

As I reached the 59th kilometre in very slow 3 h 27 min (because of the conditions), I lost my stamina. Almost crying, I opened a sachet and swallowed the contents. (Komoot tells me I was taking rest for long 10 minutes there!) Then, I re-joined the race and felt good again! I had another gel (an isotonic that time) after the next hour and completed that hardest race ever successfully. Then, I believed.

To be very clear: I am supported by the e-bike motor and do not need as many energy gels as traditional riders. I keep the energy gel packets for special purposes such as long and demanding rides. I wish I had some on the latest taxing group ride in the Heights! Unfortunately, the shipment reached the parcel locker when I was still on the ride...

Longer rides require careful nutrition, especially to avoid number two on the ride (energy gels provide energy but no solids). For me, energy gels are not food; they help me survive, that's it.

The shipment was 14 sachets, indeed pretty expensive.

 

[Chargeride]

Haribos for me , super sour, 90% sugar.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Haribos for me , super sour, 90% sugar.

A good stuff, and inexpensive!
The point is, regular sugar is not immediately absorbed by the human body. Specifically, not by mine

 

[JGcycle]

A few pics from today's 34km ride:

 

[RabH]

The new bike performed flawlessly today, the same couldn't be said for my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2 which seemed to have an off day! My bike was showing speeds which were very different to the Wahoo, at one point I was on a steep downhill and I noticed my Wahoo was showing just 12mph! I have tried a factory reset so here's hoping that will fix the issue! My bike was showing a mileage of over 68 miles while the Wahoo showed just 65! For this ride I decided to try the dynamic setting instead of the touring and the motor was so much more responsive and didn't seem to affect my battery usage too badly, I think I will keep this setting unless I go for another 100 miler! The next setting is race which is just insane and hits the battery big time!

Anyway on to the ride and what a ride it was, the winds were from the east and only around 15mph and it was a chilly 7C when I left at 11.30am, feels like temp was just 5C! I decided to head down to Bonnybridge and tackle the big climb from Denny into the Carron Valley, the easterly wind was in my favour for the climb! On my way down to Bonnybridge I stopped on the bridge over the canal near Allandale for this photo!

Another photo of the canal at Bonnybridge!

Then I headed north up the climb into Denny and started up the near 7 mile climb into the Carron Valley, passing the Carron Valley Reservoir dam!

I just love the road that runs alongside the reservoir and as always I stopped many times for photos!

I then got a very pleasant surprise when I came across some lovely new tarmac on the rough part of the road!

I thought they had actually fixed all the rough parts but a mile or so further and it was back to the bone shaking stuff for a half mile or so! What a difference with the carbon frame and forks though, they really soak up the bumps! The smooth stuff soon returned though, I hope they finish the job soon...

The final descent down into the valley is just incredible, I wasn't keen on stopping on the way down but just had to with these views of the Campsie Hills across the valley!

I also stopped on the bridge near the bottom for these photos, loved the autumnal colours here!

Now it was time to head up the 4 mile climb over the Campsies, I stopped for many photos on the way up!

The road is in perfect condition but they had to ruin it by laying the awful surface dressing which is supposed to help in winter, I was just glad I was climbing it and not descending today!

A couple of Highland cows on the way up!

I was glad to reach the summit and find they hadn't laid the surface dressing for my descent and what a descent it is, my bike was showing a speed of 45.6mph while the Wahoo recorded just 42.6mph! I stopped for a few photos on the way down, I love this first one!

The wind was supposed to be light all day but as I turned into the headwind on the descent down into Lennoxtown there was a very strong gusty wind blowing! I was hoping it was just due to the high elevation but down in the valley it was still pretty strong and remained so pretty much all the way home! From Lennoxtown I headed south for Kirkintilloch and east towards Twechar, I stopped for this photo of the Campsies near Twechar! I think I timed my ride perfectly...

I passed over the canal soon after and stopped for my last photos before heading south up the Twechar climb!

Then it was east towards Cumbernauld where I managed to make a wrong turn, after a mile and a half I realised my mistake and had to about turn! I actually made the same mistake here last year... So I headed back into Cumbernauld and joined the correct road this time, out to Lenziemill where It was time for another big climb up past Palacerigg Country Park and I then enjoyed a short but cracking twisty descent followed by a short sharp climb up to the main road that leads to Greengairs! I was now heading west thankfully so I had a lovely tailwind for a couple of miles, from Greengairs I turned south for home over the back roads!

What a brilliant day that was, the bike just performed flawlessly and had me grinning from ear to ear! I'm really getting used to the bike now but I'm not sure how much longer I will get to use it with winter fast approaching, there was some grit on the roads this morning when it was -3C and very frosty! That strong headwind really took a toll on my batteries on the way back but unlike the Giant the batteries kept going strong after dropping to 20%! I thought I might get some news about the Yamaha motor today but I guess they are still testing it, will email them tomorrow afternoon for an update!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

the same couldn't be said for my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2 which seemed to have an off day!

My bike was showing a mileage of over 68 miles while the Wahoo showed just 65!

This can be easily explained. The system of your Dolan has a wheel circumference value stored. It happens more often than not that the distance or speed are reported wrongly by the e-bike. Does your Polini app allow adjusting the wheel circumference figure? If yes, please gradually decrease the circumference value in the e-bike software.

My bike was showing speeds which were very different to the Wahoo, at one point I was on a steep downhill and I noticed my Wahoo was showing just 12mph!

This is harder to explain. Normally, the GPS measurement of the speed and distance is very accurate. It goes wrong when, e.g., there is GPS spoofing. The way to make the Dolan and Wahoo reported speed and distance identical is connecting Wahoo to Polini. Then the speed and distance become identical (even if there are inaccurate because of the wrong wheel circumference in the e-bike system).
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For instance, neither of my Specialized e-bikes allows adjusting the WhC value. What I've done was connecting either of the e-bikes to Wahoo and manually setting the WhC in Wahoo for either e-bike. But how do I know the result is correct? And now, there is something you cannot do because you do not use Strava.

Strava (on the computer only) allows Correcting Distance. A click in that option will adjust the actual distance ridden (and the average speed) to the ride map. Acting this way (and adjusting the Wheel Circumference in Wahoo), I could precisely calibrate the e-bike to the Wahoo reporting.
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Disregarding the above: On normal circumstances, Wahoo GPS should accurately report the cruising speed, average speed and the distance ridden with no relation to the e-bike. A big part of the road cycling community depends on Wahoo!