Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

not too much of a ride jsut out into the somewhat country outside portland or.
I cant imagine living on a street called riptide. nothing like a farm called the farm. maybe it is a CIA training center? way too cold to be fishing right now.
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Breaking In Winter Tyres, or Cyberpunk 2021

I (of course) needed a pretext to go for a long winter ride: to bed the spikes of Ice Spiker Pro tyres (it requires riding at least 40 km on paved surfaces). Radosław (Radek) -- to who I will refer to as "Cyberpunk" invited me to the distant part of Warsaw on the right-hand River Vistula bank. It was sunny, -4 C (25 F) when I rode out with my "winterized" Monster at 10:50 a.m. I had to face severe headwind on the whole outbound ride segment.

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My favourite stop halfway to meet Cyberpunk. The shortest route to meet him feels industrial, cold, and boring, especially in the wintertime.

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The management of Warsaw is unwilling to remove snow from the city bike paths. Even if we had thaw in recent days, I could meet long, uneven ice patches on my ride. You know what? Ice Spiker Pro tyres held to ice as if glued, and the full suspension of Monster ensured traction at all times ❤️

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Radek knows pretty well I hate AC/DC (he loves that band). He, in turn, hates the QUEEN. So we took a provocation photo :D (It is the actor Rami Malek not Freddy Mercury on the screen).

1612655629034.png

At the sunset, I turned the full 1700 lumen high beam on with my Cateye Volt headlight and plunged into off-road. You see nothing special here. When I, however, took a turn to the left, I got confronted with solid ice and frozen mud ruts. You know what? Trance E+ with the Ice Spiker Pro tyres is ice-proof. It is not proof to frozen mud ruts though... I almost wiped out once and then rode very slowly, searching the best line for riding... Adventure! Adrenalin! :)

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General Grot's Bridge in Warsaw has so complex system of bike paths that use of GPS navigation is a must there.

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Off-road, ice, frozen mud ruts, darkness, 18 F.

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The Bródnowski Cemetery is the largest in Warsaw Europe. The wall I rode along was exactly 1 mile long.

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Ride metrics. Note the ride duration. Giant Trance E+ Pro is not by any means a speed monster ;)
 
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Stefan Mikes said:
Running In Tyre Spikes, or Cyberpunk 2021

I (of course) needed a pretext to go for a long winter ride: to run in the spikes of Ice Spiker Pro tyres (it requires riding at least 40 km on paved surfaces). Radosław (Radek) -- to who I will refer to as "Cyberpunk" invited me to the distant part of Warsaw on the right-hand River Vistula bank. It was sunny, -4 C (25 F) when I rode out with my "winterized" Monster at 10:50 a.m. I had to face severe headwind on the whole outbound ride segment.

View attachment 78483
My favourite stop halfway to meet Cyberpunk. The shortest route to meet him feels industrial, cold, and boring, especially in the wintertime.

View attachment 78486
The management of Warsaw is unwilling to remove snow from the city bike paths. Even if we had thaw in recent days, I could meet long, uneven ice patches on my ride. You know what? Ice Spiker Pro tyres held to ice as if glued, and the full suspension of Monster ensured traction at all times ❤️

View attachment 78487
Radek knows pretty well I hate AC/DC (he loves that band). He, in turn, hates the QUEEN. So we took a provocation photo :D (It is the actor Rami Malek not Freddy Mercury on the screen).

View attachment 78488
At the sunset, I turned the full 1700 lumen high beam on with my Cateye Volt headlight and plunged into off-road. You see nothing special here. When I, however. took a turn to the left, I got confronted with solid ice and frozen mud ruts. You know what? Trance E+ with the Ice Spiker Pro tyres is ice-proof. It is not proof to frozen mud ruts... I almost wiped out once and then rode very slowly, searching the best line for riding... Adventure! Adrenalin! :)

View attachment 78489
General's Grot Bridge in Warsaw has so complex system of bike paths that use of GPS navigation is a must there.

View attachment 78490
Off-road, ice, frozen mud ruts, darkness.

View attachment 78491
The Bródno Cemetery is the largest in Warsaw. The wall I rode along was exactly 1 mile long.

View attachment 78492
Ride metrics. Note the ride duration. Giant Trance E+ Pro is not by any means a speed monster ;)
Click to expand...
Intrepid is much too small a word for you Stefan. 👍 👍👍👍
 
Not so close …
reed scott said:
Well there's mud and there's MUD.
Click to expand...
One day I'm going to have the guts to ride across the mudflats!

In the detail (below) clipped from the mangroves and mud photo on the previous page, you can see how tantalisingly close Shorncliffe is… but it's actually a fifteen-kilometre ride around the wetlands to get there from Nudgee Beach and there's no shortcut!

It's all part of the fun of riding an ebike! And the genuinely ‘good news’ is that area that has to be skirted around is a wildlife refuge.

Nudgee Beach

Nudgee Beach (foreground)
Shorncliffe (beyond)​

Map : Nudgee Beach to Shorncliffe via Boondall Wetlands
 
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Adventum said:
You go, Girl! It's good to see some sane ride reports from the Northern Hemisphere for a change. Crazy rides abound lately. ("There's nothing wrong with that.")
Click to expand...
Thanks! Wish I could have extended the sanity to yesterday's ride with neighbor G (both of us anxious to get in a ride before the next snowfall due in 24 hours), but it devolved into "crazy" within 3 miles from home when, to give some room to a wide yet carefully cautious delivery truck coming down a very narrow, extremely steep uphill gravel road while G and I were cycling up, I moved too close to the soft ditch at the edge of the road. Momentum took me over the edge and into the super soft super deep gravel wash piled in the ditch. That stuff was like quicksand. A Herculean effort on the part of my legs powering the pedals got me out of the bike-swallowing depths of the ditch and back onto the steep solid road, but at the expense of something that I thought was failsafe - the carbon belt drive.

It literally popped off the rear wheel cog just as the bike heaved itself back onto solid ground

I felt betrayed. Annoyed and upset, but more betrayed than anything else. The next couple of minutes were spent with the bike on its side, elevated by virtue of some nearby large rocks to allow a free turning of the pedals while I tried to coax the belt back onto the gearing. No such luck.

Long and short my favorite SAG was called to bring the car (which was accomplished quite quickly) the bike was loaded inside, G cycled back to my place while I rode home in the car, my Vado was subbed for the crippled LaFree, and G and I continued our interrupted ride with no more fanfare other than a few chilled fingers at the 14 mile conclusion of a different route (because I refuse to subject my precious Vado to muddy and/or filthy roads because of its chain drive) enjoyable for nice views on far less challenging and immeasurably less wet/slushy/muddy roads.

The LaFree, once it's frame was wiped down to relieve it of about a mile of accumulated road dirt so that it was a bit more "presentable" to be taken into the bike shop, then went on a 50 mile round trip in the car to my mechanic (who had been astounded that the belt had popped off) to be hoisted onto a bike holder for the belt to be carefully massaged back in place, and then for all the various and sundry bolts to be checked and tightened. As I sat at the counter outside the repair room, chatting with one of the sales staff, we overheard one of the repair guys mention to my mechanic (with a bit of awe in his voice) that "she (meaning me) really rides her bike more than anyone I know". The sales guy and I just looked at one another and grinned. Perhaps I'm in there a bit more often than most people, for one reason or another, always bringing in a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies the following day for a repair well done, but my mechanic has assured me he loves seeing me and loves the fact that I love riding my bikes. He handed me back my bike with the belt back in place, no charge. Nothing like having a good support system no matter what.

Unfortunately, this small issue has eroded a bit of my confidence level. There is now a bit of tarnish on what was once a pristine and brightly polished opinion of carbon belt drives. While I will henceforth add a socket wrench to my tool kit for the back wheel bolt, there is nothing I can do to smooth out that mental dent I now have in my mind when it comes to the invincible carbon belt drive being able to stand up to any and everything. Subsequent reading on why belts "roll off" their gear rings have educated me in the complex world of bike frame flexing and proper tension adjusting, but ... the damage is done. I will have to ride with a touch more caution than unbridled optimism from now on, and not expect things to never reach the limits of their manufactured ability if they are pushed too hard.

The only picture I have of the ride yesterday is my poor LaFree in the back of the car waiting to head up to the bike shop to have the belt put back on. Not really all that inspiring, so I'll just skip it.
 
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Readytoride said:
There is nothing I can do to smooth out that mental dent I now have in my mind when it comes to the invincible carbon belt drive being able to stand up to any and everything…
Click to expand...
Gates Carbon Drive


From fully functional to useless in less than a second.

My experience is limited to one disaster but I'll surmise that this failure (at around 15,000 km) resulted from 'coaxing' the belt back onto its pulleys.
 
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Prairie Dog said:
It's too cold for a morning ride here. Might have to wait until later in the day. 🥶
View attachment 78554
Click to expand...
Yup...
Just got a note from a friend who is in Ft McMurray. He isn't enjoying the weather much...-51C with the wind chill factored in...

Warmer here, only -30C. Stationary bike ride while watching sports I think...
 
David Berry said:
View attachment 78534

From fully functional to useless in less than a second.

My experience is limited to one disaster but I'll surmise that this failure (at around 15,000 km) resulted from 'coaxing' the belt back onto its pulleys.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the visual, Dave. That's just peachy. Now I've gone from merely annoyed and betrayed to freaked out.

From now on I'll probably be closely inspecting my belt under a magnifying glass instead of cursory glances from above.

Here, have a visual of today to explain why G and I were so eager to ride yesterday ...
VID_20210207_102910229_exported_0_1612716209913~2.jpg
 
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