Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Deleted member 18083]

Rohloff territory?

I think not, because these dry creek crossings presented our ebike group with too many abrupt changes in direction, gradient and surface.

In these conditions, I find derailleur gears superior to Rohloff; the immediate change down to a lower, and then an even lower gear, is preferable to the wait demanded by the internal gear hub.

My friend, on the R&M Superdelite Rohloff, in abandoning his intention to cross the dry creek bed via the sandstone slabs, has been caught in a difficult situation – smooth concrete strewn with loose gravel, followed by a drop.

Further up the trail: the right-angle turn between the two riders pushing their ebikes (using walk mode?) is a problem spot: cut the corner and encounter a monstrously steep slope (albeit for no more than a few metres), or go wide and spin the rear wheel on the gravel.

The durability of the Rohloff gears and near-silent smoothness Gates drive belt are unimportant here: what matters is being able to shift gears (with immediate effect!) whilst abruptly changing direction, gradient and terrain. (Guess who was also riding a Rohloff-equipped R&M ebike on this outing!)

Also, think through the ride in the opposite direction: not easy! Had we not been on ebikes, few of us would have managed the steep gradients encountered whilst bypassing old trestle bridges on our rail trail.

Brisbane Valley Rail Trail
Coominya—Esk Section
Queensland, Australia​

 

[Haystacks]

FFS man, you coulda give a SPOILER ALERT, i'm still on the PRINT and GOTO episode.

Obviously too nichey and nerdy for a joke on here (PRINT and GOTO were the first programming commands learned in BASIC 40 odd years ago, DOS superceded as the language de jour)

Glad you got it @kahn we must be of the same vintage and geekiness lol.

 

[RabH]

After some nasty weather I woke to a very different sky today! Only 6C when I set off so an extra layer was added, the frosty mornings aren't far off now!

My legs were still feeling Sundays big ride but it wasn't long before they recovered and I was in my element once again! Just the local roads today which are pretty special if I do say so myself!

The lovely blue skies continued and although there was a strongish wind it wasn't a problem today, not quite the 30-35mph winds I experienced on Sunday! Strangely the wind turbines were all static today, sometimes they get paid to turn them off so I guess this was one of those days!

It was great to get out today as the next 2 days are looking pretty awful, next ride will be Sunday if I can brave the 35mph winds that are forecast!

 

[Chargeride]

I haven't read Douglas Adams and my life is probably the poorer for it. For now (it's 5:30 am), the imperative is to 'Go Ride!'

I suggest listening to the original bbc radio episodes.
It was brought perfectly to life by them..and you can do it on the bike!

 

[Chargeride]

Obviously too nichey and nerdy for a joke on here (PRINT and GOTO were the first programming commands learned in BASIC 40 odd years ago, DOS superceded as the language de jour)

Glad you got it @kahn we must be of the same vintage and geekiness lol.

Yes..I programmed in basic on a pericom I think...

 

[kahn]

Rohloff territory?

I think not, because these dry creek crossings presented our ebike group with too many abrupt changes in direction, gradient and surface.

View attachment 101651

In these conditions, I find derailleur gears superior to Rohloff; the immediate change down to a lower, and then an even lower gear, is preferable to the wait demanded by the internal gear hub.

My friend, on the R&M Superdelite Rohloff, in abandoning his intention to cross the dry creek bed via the sandstone slabs, has been caught in a difficult situation – smooth concrete strewn with loose gravel, followed by a drop.

Further up the trail: the right-angle turn between the two riders pushing their ebikes (using walk mode?) is a problem spot: cut the corner and encounter a monstrously steep slope (albeit for no more than a few metres), or go wide and spin the rear wheel on the gravel.

The durability of the Rohloff gears and near-silent smoothness Gates drive belt are unimportant here: what matters is being able to shift gears (with immediate effect!) whilst abruptly changing direction, gradient and terrain. (Guess who was also riding a Rohloff-equipped R&M ebike on this outing!)

Also, think through the ride in the opposite direction: not easy! Had we not been on ebikes, few of us would have managed the steep gradients encountered whilst bypassing old trestle bridges on our rail trail.

View attachment 101650

Brisbane Valley Rail Trail
Coominya—Esk Section
Queensland, Australia​

Interesting observations about derailleur versus the other stuff!

 

[kahn]

Obviously too nichey and nerdy for a joke on here (PRINT and GOTO were the first programming commands learned in BASIC 40 odd years ago, DOS superceded as the language de jour)

Glad you got it @kahn we must be of the same vintage and geekiness lol.

Former Cobol programmer here - AT&T Long Lines. And 50 very ODD years ago!!!!

 

[ava1ar]

Interesting observations about derailleur versus the other stuff!

The inability to quickly switch multiple gears is nothing to do with limitation of the IGHs - I can easily switch from 8 to 1 on my Nexus 8 in less than a second, same for Enviolo (both with mechanical shifters). The problem is really electronic shifting R&M does for Rohloff - I got a chance to test ride this and found it very slow even on the regular rides. My experience with it limited though - probably bikes owners could provide better feedback, but from the post above I see this looks like a valid issue (even if Rohloff advertise this as super fast 180ms shift speed). I am big fun of Kindernay choice for gears shifting - hydraulic lines, similar to the break ones: they are fast, maintenance free and providing nice feedback, allowing to switch multiple gears at once, exactly same as for good derailleur setup (but better, since you can shift always, not just when riding).
In terms of gears range, Rohloff with 500+% is far superior to the derailleur, not even mentioning the Pinion here.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I thought that I would follow up with a report from my last outing at West Bragg Creek two days ago where a couple of friends and I rode some of the downhill trails there.

Bragg Creek is a small hamlet and is only about a 30-minute drive west of Calgary. It’s a popular spot for outdoor adventurists and is chocked with trails for hiking, horseback riding and some of the best MTB singletracks that Alberta has to offer, many of which are e-bike friendly.

We started off our first run on top of the trail at Moose Mountain which affords great views at the top of the climb.

Speaking of climbs, we had no other options than to ride the 4km climb up along the main gravel road (Husky Trail) in order to access the trailhead to Pistolero and repeat this ordeal two more times for the other trails.

The conditions overall were dry, loose (not loamy at all) and rocky but the terrain was hard to distinguish at times particularly in the shadow of the trees. We encountered some steep sections even on the moderate blue runs.

It was hard to ignore the occasional splash of fall colors along the way.

So far, I've only managed to upload footage from the first DH run (Pistolero). I hope to have the other two completed in the coming days. This would be the first time someone else besides me assumed the role as official videographer.

Another DH video to add to the mix. This one is of Flo’s Diner.

...and one more for good measure.

 

[Chargeride]

Thats lovely, but I got mauled by a bear watching it.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Thats lovely, but I got mauled by a bear watching it.

In hindsight, I feel more reassured that they named it moose mountain rather than bear or cougar.

 

[Chargeride]

Talking of scary things, started taking apart my friends hideous 1000wh battery that he butchered to fit in his frame.
Genuinely concerned, Ive got a bucket of water ready to throw it in if things go wrong.
Yes he encased the entire monstrosity in two types of resin.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Ive got a bucket of water ready to throw it in if things go wrong.

Pour water on a burning Li-ion battery and it will simply explode.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Time to be gone…

Australian Magpie
Boondall Environmental Centre, Brisbane​

Thanks for lunch: I'll see you down the trail (never forget a bicycle helmet target).

 

[ActionJackson]

Former Cobol programmer here - AT&T Long Lines. And 50 very ODD years ago!!!!

Have you ever heard of a 3B2?

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Let the pictures flow like a beautiful water garden.

I cannot do 'water garden' but here is the dry stony creek leading from the Homages' shed to the gravel access lane that we share with our neighbours.

 

[Chargeride]

Pour water on a burning Li-ion battery and it will simply explode.

Yup...changed that to the barbecue pit.

 

[Chargeride]

Theres a break in the rain on Friday and Im going to nip over to the peak District to hopefully climb Shivering mountain near Castleton.
The castle there is a 1000 years old and pretty well nails the the ruins in the mountains look.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

A New Toy, And Two Brewery Rides

Tuesday
With unpleasant Autumn outside, I needed some incentive for riding more, so I bought me a Wahoo ELEMNT Roam, a GPS bike computer that is compatible with ANT+ e-bikes (all newer Specialized e-bikes and all Giant ones with RideControl One remote). By the way, @Vamos: thank you so much for recommending that device to me!

After getting rid of the smartphone and display from the bars, the Vado SL cockpit has become clean and sleek. The ELEMNT has become my universal ride/rider/e-bike/GPS navigation/ride tracking command centre.

And, of course, I had to ride more to make use of the new toy; wheel circumference calibration against GPS can only be done by riding distances. (Garmin Edge users can calibrate the Wheel Circumference value automatically!)

OK: I got a message from "Hasintus", the owner of the Artezan Craft Brewery that they eventually brewed some Ale I would be interested in. We've been closer with Hasintus when I could drink a lot of Ale and Stout (my diabetes put an end to it). And the Polish craft brewing market has gone silly in the recent years: Every craft brewery makes "hazy, juicy, New England, East Coast, double-triple-quadruple-dry-hopped, low bitter" Ales that I despise. Hasintus just indicated to me Artezan eventually could brew a strong, clear, and bitter Ale by name "ASAP 4.0" that I would love. So I went on a ride. It was only 10.3 km from my new place. I rode there on Vado SL and bought six bottles of that 9% abv Imperial IPA, and a bottle of raspberry infused 11% Imperial Stout.

I rode for 48 km in total on Tuesday. No pics! No interesting map. Yet, I was impressed how Wahoo was helping me improve my workout. With the Rider's Power figure along other relevant data, I understood I tended to be lazy, and could actually pedal harder. I was actually compelled for more effort! And Wahoo helped me finding new roads of the neighbourhood I was not aware of!

Wednesday
The first thing I spotted on my Facebook Wall when I was off work on Wednesday was the Artezan announcement they had their 9% Roasted Barley Wine ready but you would have to wait for a week for the premiere. I learned though private channels I could buy that beer in the brewery store on Thursday. Come on... That time I tried the ELEMNT with my full power Vado. I was shocked how little workout I was getting compared to the SL! But it was dangerously windy on that day and I was happy to have the full power of my bike at my disposal.

The brewery staff were bottling Barley Wine. Well... how to say it. Premiere or not, I didn't come back from the brewery with an empty pannier, as to say it

ELEMNT Roam helped me find a new trail! There is a road marked with a sign reading: "PRIVATE AREA. DO NOT ENTER!" Private or not... I just rode in. To regret it. The road was a wild, overgrown wet trail with a lot of bushes and puddles. I am an adventurer by heart (and a coward, too). Whenever I enter a new trail, I rarely retrace my steps (that might cost me dear life on one day...)

After clearing the most dangerous part of the trail, I was surprised to see large fishing ponds as well as the landmark: The Moszna Stack (I live by that smoke-stack).

And then, well...

I was very much careful that time (bottles in the pannier!) I could ride over that segment in 2nd gear, at very low speed, and came out with my shoes dry

The cockpit of my "big" Vado is still crammed. I will remove the smartphone after the Wheel Circumference calibration against GPS has been completed. (Here: GPS distance = 19.29 km, display distance = 19.6 km, and the Wahoo was a little bit off at the end of the ride). The ELEMNT Roam here indicating the off-road trail really existed.

My booty of the two rides. The fridge is full!

Ride Map with POI.

 

[Chargeride]

I am an adventurer by heart (and a coward, too). Whenever I enter a new trail, I rarely retrace my steps (that might cost me dear life on one day...)

Ha..that is so me.
An adventurer whos always thinking the worst.