No, no. Żur (zhoor) or żurek (zhoo-reck) is a soup made of fermented rye flour. It has to include boiled sausage, and it typically served with hard-boiled egg. We also make the sauerkraut soup in Poland (kapuśniak) but these two soups are totally different. (Żur is not that sour, despite of its name).
Horse float ???
The things one learns on EBR!Horse float?
(pun intended), especially after all those months of cold weather. As we have no mountains in Mazovia, someone gave the name of a huge East European mountain range to the long and tall sand dune in our nearest national park. (That very Nature reservation is intentionally never touched by a human hand). (Note: I WUZ HERE on June 14th this year, on a group ride with Jacek and That Woman). (That's my personal meme I love to mention whenever I can see horses)
It is said that one needs to work up incrementally in increasing one's physical fitness. I think that is right. You took a big jump with your new bike. Perhaps you might want to do quite a few shorter rides getting up to your goals. Just a thought.I WUZ HERE (Testing Mine and Vado SL's Endurance Limits)
"Whenever I get up on Tuesday, I'm setting off for a metric century on The Bike!" -- I promised to myself -- and actually could ride out at 7:46 am. Gradually, the day has become hot. Rare cyclists met were mostly people enjoying their vacation; and not many were as brave as to ride under scorching sun. My smart plan was to mostly ride inside the forest; and I like it hot
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I'm a working person. It is marvellous you can do your office work remotely from anywhere you are nowadays! I actually did my work on three stops of the ride. (Besides, I WUZ HERE in Zaborówek a good couple weeks ago when I was testing off-road capabilities of my "big" Vado).
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Single track riding in the Kampinos National Park.
Top: A difficult climb, full of sand and tree-roots. I WUZ HERE only on last Sunday with my riding group. Ania The Roadie could clear the climb with difficulty; no issue for my big Vado but I had to walk my SL up (Walk Mode works perfectly there!) (I need to mention I could later clear a similar (but easier) climb in Turbo mode; there was a good solid undergrowth to ride over there).
Centre: "To each (area) their own (Carpathian Mountains)"
Bottom: As nice Vado SL is as badly it's missing any form of suspension. (I need to think about that).
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Stopped near to the 13th c. Burgh to do more office work. (I WUZ THERE only two days ago!)
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At the legendary "At Marta's" store in Secymin Polski. No mascarpone cheese cookies! (These are available from Thursday through Sunday only). Yet Marta had delicious buns filled with pear or bilberry. And raspberries, too! I sat along a couple of roadies in their early 30s, on their vacation. The man was very nice, talkative, and aware of many interesting sight-seeing and historical facts about the area. His gf rode a Specialized alloy road bike in "brushed aluminium" finish. I felt so happy I didn't buy Vado SL 5.0 that is made in a similar fashion. Not my cup of tea!
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Top: "As one of very few, I seem to perceive a horse here"
Centre: Along Vistula River flood embankment in the Hollander Land. Again, June 14th ride comes to one's mind.
Bottom: I decided to continue the return ride through the forest. Pros: Not that warm, and no wind. Cons: Struggling with sand and tree-roots; mosquitoes and flies!
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Top: Vado is neither an e-MTB nor a XC bike but it does pretty OK on forest paths. No suspension though!
Centre: A village called Strawberry. I just like the name!
Bottom: A memorial stone for a 1939 Polish-German tank duel. I WUZ THERE too many times already! When I can see that stone, the alarm "Sand ahead!" is ringing loud!
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Top: The Palmiry Massacre Memorial. I have been to that place too many times...
Centre: The dreaded "cobblestone or sand, choose one" Palmiry Road. Visited on both last Saturday and Sunday!
Bottom: Mariew. I WUZ HERE.... I start hating that place! It reminds me of the last 15 km to clear to get home.
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The general ride map.
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The detailed ride map with POI.
Let me confess something. Vado SL is not a bike for ailing people such as myself. So-called "40% assistance" actually means 0.72x leg power amplification. It allows a tremendous range (100 miles with the Range Extender for sure) but such low assistance made me totally exhausted. On the other hand, I got an excellent workout with some 1500 kcal burnt, and I pedalled for 5 h 29 minutes. The only two things I need to re-think of the SL is increasing assistance to, say, 50%, and providing some sort of suspension (Kinekt/Redshift/Thudbuster, and perhaps Future Shock come to my mind).
A good cycling day! Wednesday: An Ortlieb E-Mate pannier for my SL should arrive; and I might think of some ride in the afternoon! Perhaps I'd ride to Specialized Brand Store to inquire of the Future Shock?
That’s pretty true. When I got my SL I was really forcing the distances and coming back totally wiped out. With work my rides are patchy, some weeks I can get out 3 or 4 times, sometimes not at all. And yet I’d force myself to do long rides even if I had not gone out for a week or more. Doesn’t work like that! My fitness suffers if I don’t do it regularly, stating the obvious... Just realised it’s now been 2 weeks since I had a ride, work very busy. But I now know to take it easy at first when I’ll get back riding and then increase distance bit by bit. Got a month ahead where I should be able to get out a lot, so am going to see what I can increase distance to by the end of month- while still having fun.It is said that one needs to work up incrementally in increasing one's physical fitness. I think that is right. You took a big jump with your new bike. Perhaps you might want to do quite a few shorter rides getting up to your goals. Just a thought.
It has to be deadly expensive, I presumeHadn’t thought about future shock. Be interested to hear what your Specialized dealer says. I reckon it won’t be cheap!
Regarding the seat-post, I'm free as the owner of the EQ version. I chose RedShift ShockStop this time as less expensive than Kinekt 2.1.
Civilian GNSS systems like GPS itself aren’t that accurate for altitude/elevation, especially with microminiature receivers used in smart phones. +/- 400 ft. is widely accepted even for Garmin handheld aviation devices. Plus you’re in Australia, so visibility to the GPS constellation isn’t likely to be to your advantage.
cycling tourist is you're never in hurry. So I took some rest in the Raszyn Ponds Nature Reservation. Later, I took a long ride in the Kabacki Forest, which was extremely pleasant because it was not hot there, and the roads there are hardpack, which is easy to ride fast. The owner started recognizing me, as I appear at her store more and more often, always wearing the same helmet I could not believe that! So I rushed after him and we could be talking:Sounds like you’re making excellent use of that Pear thingee!!
So, you all got me curios about this Future Shock so I went to Specialized to check it out. Pretty cool. Seems like a great innovation for road bikes traveling over uneven surfaces and it looks to be a good dampening system in general. Specialized says:Specialized Warsaw Tur Retur
I love the Scandinavian expression "tur retur" just meaning "a round trip". It sounds so hilarious!
Give me a reason to ride, and I'll ride, despite of my tiredness, headwind or high ambient temperature! So I fancied I would ride up Specialized Warsaw to enquire Mr. Mateusz there about the applicability, availability, and price of the Future Shock stem suspension for my Vado SL 4. And I preferred to do it in person (I could e-mail, message, or give him a phone call instead). It was 31 C (88 F) outside, and there was unpleasant warm head/sidewind on the outbound ride segment. I can tell you: Vado SL is not fond of riding into the wind! I needed to use solid assistance (like, 60/85%), and the ride was not fast anyway.
I was somehow snake-bitten on that very Wednesday. As a proper cyclist now, I'm obliged to ride bike paths and lanes. I needed to switch the road sides at some place (to follow the bike lane) and almost fell under a car. I braked vigorously; it turned out the Vado SL 4 brakes were excellent: I stopped so sharply I fell! No harm done, nothing! I was lucky (and always remember: wear the helmet!) Discouraged a little, I could continue the ride.
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The great thing about being a disorganized
Once at Specialized Warsaw, I learned from Mateusz you needed to order an expensive conversion to get the FutureShock, involving swapping the existing alloy fork for a black carbon fibre one. The cost would be some US$840! (I need to think about it).
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How would my Vado SL look with a black fork?
On my return, I took a wrong forest path and had some unpleasant off-road ride. Then I had to negotiate terrible afternoon traffic. At some point, I painfully hurt my foot (below my ankle) with a traction pin of my pedal. I felt myself badly: overheated, hurt, tired, demoralized; I didn't actually want to ride anymore.
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It was my second visit to a grocery store in Dawidy Bankowe on that day: In both cases, I consoled myself with ice-cream
And then something funny happened. When I was pedalling fairy slowly on Hrabska Droga, a roadie took me over. I was in 60/85% Sport mode at the moment, riding with tailwind. "Could I chase him? Perhaps?" I perceive Vado SL as a slow bike (especially with my bad legs) even if it's derestricted now. I started pedalling hard to notice I was at 35 km/h soon! So I went Turbo and gave the crank a good spin! I caught up with the roadie, and we both already were at 40 km/h (25 mph)! I even could go back to the Sport mode! But I knew the chase would end up soon as the roadie was expected to continue on asphalt towards Falenty, and I wanted to ride straight through the Raszyn Ponds. So I went in Turbo again, spun the crank vigorously and rode with the roadie two abreast!
-- "Hi! I need to thank you very much for giving me good motivation for workout! I was tired and was reluctant to ride before I met you!" -- I laughed. He took a glance at my bike and just smiled. And then I overtook him. Just like that. (I was at 46 km/h or 28.6 mph already). Then I "jumped" from asphalt onto the dirt path of the Reservation, reducing assistance and speed. After several seconds, the roadie took me over!
-- "What?! A road bike off-road?! How come?" -- I asked -- "Oh, it is the 35 mm tyres; I measured them and these are actually 30 mm, still good enough for riding off-road!"
Once we popped out the forest, we were stopped by red signal at a pedestrian crossing. We had enough time to talk. He was riding a Decathlon Triban (an extremely popular road bike because of its reasonable price and good quality, not to be bought nowadays because of supply issues and enormous demand). It was his everyday bike for riding in the city, and for carrying his child in a trailer. He owned a CF road bike, too, only to be used on road. Nice guy. We said good-byes and parted our ways.
My next part of the ride was rather slow but eventful. By mistake, I had to ride a dramatic single-track along the WKD railroad! And eventually I decided I needed having some fun
At Żwirowisko Park in Pruszków.
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I think I wouldn't ride on Thursday. Need some rest!
Being inexpensive is not the Specialized thing
Would you imagine that two water bottle cages installed on my Vado SL were made of CARBON FIBRE?!The whole Vado SL, Creo SL, S-Works matter is too complicated to understand. If you have Future Shock then your fork is CF for sure. And it can be painted. I was told that Vado SL CF fork you can buy as an upgrade would be black. I'm going the less expensive way though.
