Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Deleted member 18083]

No snow, no rain, no wind …

Hays Inlet, North Pine River
Moreton Bay Cycleway, Brisbane​

… just the usual sunshine and mangroves.

 

[FlatSix911]

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean in Carmel, CA.

 

[Chargeride]

View attachment 78944

Love the tune and transitions..though they probably give you a fright on a big screen.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

On a Sunday ride

Windy! Headwind stopping me even down to 16 km/h (10 mph).

 

[Chargeride]

Yes, thats no racing body position there....

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Valentine's Day 2021 Ride

I did everything I could not to disappoint Magda on the Valentine's Day! The winter somewhat relented; some -2 C, sunshine past 18th km of the ride, only the wind... My winter suit is impenetrable to wind; it is only wind's stopping power that's frustrating (suffice to say I had to ride my Monster with Giant's 300% pedalling assistance not to crawl!) I set off early: 12:21 p.m. with appointment at 14:00. It gave me peace of mind as I was not worried to ride pretty slowly on the outbound leg. (The ride out took 1 hour 9 minutes net).

I knew how to make Magda happy with the little gift!

There is a 5.4 km (3.4 mi) straight MUP between Błonie and Bramki. I'm normally bitching about that segment's quality: I was very happy with it today as it was snow-free. At this point, splendid sunshine appeared, making the rest of the ride pleasant.

I could probably could have taken my "winterized" Vado for the ride instead of the Trance. Yet, approximately 10% of the ride was snowy; no risk needed. Here: A stop in Piorunów because I had a plenty of time and wanted to take some shelter against the wind. And to "take control over my FB"

Although most of outbound leg was ridden in dull weather condition and against the wind, the return leg was very pleasant, with a lot of sunshine and mighty tailwind. I even rode to the specialist ale store in Podkowa Leśna for some delicious Double and Triple IPAs!

Some interesting ride metrics. The tailwind ride allowed me to achieve almost 21 km/h average ride speed, which is normal for an e-MTB ridden on-road (mind you, 2.6" spiked tyres at 1 bar or 15 psi). The actual energy consumption was some 506 Wh meaning I could do the ride on a single 625 Wh battery, or even on the 500 Wh battery if I reduced assistance. Why to take a pannier with me at all?

 

[Art Deco]

Valentine's Day 2021 Ride

I did everything I could not to disappoint Magda on the Valentine's Day! The winter somewhat relented; some -2 C, sunshine past 18th km of the ride, only the wind... My winter suit is impenetrable to wind; it is only wind's stopping power that's frustrating (suffice to say I had to ride my Monster with Giant's 300% pedalling assistance not to crawl!) I set off early: 12:21 p.m. with appointment at 14:00. It gave me peace of mind as I was not worried to ride pretty slowly on the outbound leg. (The ride out took 1 hour 9 minutes net).

View attachment 79035
I knew how to make Magda happy with the little gift!

View attachment 79036
There is a 5.4 km (3.4 mi) straight MUP between Błonie and Bramki. I'm normally bitching about that segment's quality: I was very happy with it today as it was snow-free. At this point, splendid sunshine appeared, making the rest of the ride pleasant.

View attachment 79037
I could probably could have taken my "winterized" Vado for the ride instead of the Trance. Yet, approximately 10% of the ride was snowy; no risk needed. Here: A stop in Piorunów because I had a plenty of time and wanted to take some shelter against the wind. And to "take control over my FB"

View attachment 79038
Although most of outbound leg was ridden in dull weather condition and against the wind, the return leg was very pleasant, with a lot of sunshine and mighty tailwind. I even rode to the specialist ale store in Podkowa Leśna for some delicious Double and Triple IPAs!

View attachment 79039
Some interesting ride metrics. The tailwind ride allowed me to achieve almost 21 km/h average ride speed, which is normal for an e-MTB ridden on-road (mind you, 2.6" spiked tyres at 1 bar or 15 psi). The actual energy consumption was some 506 Wh meaning I could do the ride on a single 625 Wh battery, or even on the 500 Wh battery if I reduced assistance. Why to take a pannier with me at all?

Safety. The extra battery is a sunk cost that only adds a few pounds, while having a dead battery in the cold is serious.

 

[bmatt]

After what seemed like eternity, my bike arrived and I drove the 400km to the bike shop to pick it up. Yesterday, despite winds that would have made me stay home prior to the electric assist and the forecast of heavy rain, I took it for a maiden ride! And what a please it was.

This is my first eMTB, as well as full-suspension bike ... I cannot believe I have reached this stage of my life without having had one! It's an amazing improvement over the previous hardtail acoustic and carbon road bikes I've owned.

There are still plenty of adjustments to be done, for example the saddle seems to be pointing upwards a little bit, which made the last bits of the ride a tad uncomfortable. And I might want to adjust the position of the break and other elements in the cockpit ... though overall it was the best ride I've had in a very long time!

The headland towards which I was cycling had been an objective I had in mind for a while and, one that I was training for. I did most of my ride on Tour and I was really surprised by how much assist I was getting, I expected having to use eMTB or Turbo for many of the hills, and yet Tour seemed to do the job perfectly well! I initially wanted to go to the mountain bike trails we have in our area, and we had a lot of rain overnight, which made me think that I should avoid them to not ruin them for others ... they are maintained by a very small group of volunteers and I wouldn't want to destroy the trail after a heavy rain just out of ... well ... lack of patience

I still can't really believe that, first, I was fortunate enough to get such a good bike! And, second, that it's way way better than I imagined and I was aiming high!

 

[FlatSix911]

It was perfect weather for riding this afternoon... cool and clear with big surf along the coast. If you look closely you can see the Goodyear Blimp in the skies above photo 1.

 

[FlatSix911]

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I took it for a maiden ride! And what a please it was.

Congratulations, Matt. It's been a pleasure to read your report from the first ride!
Can you tell me what assistance % is for Tour in your R&M e-bike?
(And, carrying a portable set of Allen keys helps a lot, especially on first rides. A mini-pump, too)

Safety. The extra battery is a sunk cost that only adds a few pounds, while having a dead battery in the cold is serious.

While I generally agree with you, the additional air drag of the pannier is not a good thing either. I would have never taken a risk of a longer winter ride (say, to Warsaw) without a spare battery; riding locally just means giving Mr Andrzej the taxi driver a phone call

 

[bmatt]

Congratulations, Matt. It's been a pleasure to read your report from the first ride!
Can you tell me what assistance % is for Tour in your R&M e-bike?

That's a good question Stefan, I don't know ... how do I find that out? It's using the Gen4 Bosch Performance CX motor.

(And, carrying a portable set of Allen keys helps a lot, especially on first rides. A mini-pump, too)

I have one of those multi-tools in my backpack ... however with this new beast (Rohloff included) I wouldn't know where to start if there was something more than adjusting seat height, and small things like that

 

[Stefan Mikes]

if there was something more than adjusting seat height

You said yourself your saddle was pointing a tad too high

CX Tour is 140%. Your experience Matt is similar to mine when I started riding my Giant Trance E+. (The default "Basic" mode there is 150%). Since both your SD and my Trance are 25 km/h e-bikes, we decidedly need not very much assistance, especially on the flat... (Unless it is a serious hill or strong headwind).

I liked your ride metrics. Decent distance, nice average speed, hills, downhill ride... It looks like you're using a HR monitor, aren't you?

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Very nice bike, but what appeals to us in the Northeast US is all that green grass! Hell of a winter we’ve got going here.

I bet you can fix that seat quick with a big enough framing hammer. Congrats on a really nice piece of equipment there.

 

[RabH]

@Stefan Mikes Magda looks so much like you, I'm sure you made her day
@bmatt Welcome here! Nice bike, I hope it brings you much joy which I'm sure it will

After 2 weeks of snow (over 2 feet of the stuff) and ice we finally have a thaw, it was such a joy to get out again! It was very windy but nothing I couldn't handle, I even managed to stay dry! 10 minutes after I got home the rain started so I got lucky! The thaw is here to stay for now but after tomorrow its looking a bit wet and very windy, any opportunity I get I will grab it of course! I didn't have to use the main roads today which I was very happy about, I was amazed at how much snow had melted overnight! I was actually expecting some floods but it was fine, so I had a real blast today which was very much needed after recent events here!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Does it snow often in Scotland, Rab?
P.S. I just want to tell you Magda has already got both doses of vaccine, that's why she didn't need to wear her face-mask

 

[RabH]

Does it snow often in Scotland, Rab?
P.S. I just want to tell you Magda has already got both doses of vaccine, that's why she didn't need to wear her face-mask

Not really, Stefan! This is our first major snowfall since 2010! When I was younger we got lots of snow every year but in recent years our weather has been pretty mild!

I'm glad for Magda, the last thing she needs is this awful disease! I have now lost 2 aunts, 2 uncles and a cousin to this horrendous virus!!!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have now lost 2 aunts, 2 uncles and a cousin to this horrendous virus!!!

That is very, very sad... Some of friends of mine had the disease. Agata (a social care worker) still cannot come out of the illness. Małgorzata had covid but it was mild for her and now she's vaccinated (another social care worker).

 

[RabH]

That is very, very sad... Some of friends of mine had the disease. Agata (a social care worker) still cannot come out of the illness. Małgorzata had covid but it was mild for her and now she's vaccinated (another social care worker).

Some people get very mild symptoms and others get it really bad, my brother and his long term partner had it! She had very mild symptoms and was fine after a few days but my brother struggled for around 2 weeks but thankfully he is fine now!

Back on topic, I'm looking forward to another ride tomorrow! Its going to be around 9C but will be very windy, should be dry though!

 

[RandallS]

Starting tomorrow, the weather looks like it will be doable again.
The weekend should be suitably messy as we've a decent amount of snow.

One thing to note about the weather here on the Canadian prairies, when it's cold out, it's usually accompanied by very clear weather.
We do get a lot of sunshine here, in fact Calgary is the sunniest place in Canada.