Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Chargeride]

I too am putting on the pounds, that holiday didnt help.
I now weigh 15 stone ..210lbs to our american friends, and Im only 5ft 10.
It does kinda reinforce the ..ebikes are for fat people...but really its just my age, 60 next year and it gets harder to keep it off.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I now weigh 15 stone ..210lbs to our american friends, and Im only 5ft 10.

That's 95 kg at 178 cm.
It is worse for me: 96 kg at just 173 cm!
Last year, I was at 89.9 kg! I blame last Winter for my weight increase!

 

[DiggyGun]

and I thought the "DiggyGuns" had great picnics!

I know, Stefan always finds great places to eat.

We’ve had a quiet eBike week this week and haven’t been out on the bikes at all.

However, we’ve been extremely busy finalising our Wedding day, which was yesterday: when Mrs DG became officially, Mrs DG.

We are starting the honeymoon next week, which will be cycling in the Lake District followed by the Peak District. Plus plenty of Picnics, off course.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

However, we’ve been extremely busy finalising our Wedding day, which was yesterday: when Mrs DG became officially, Mrs DG.

My sincere congratulations to the newly wed couple!

We are starting the honeymoon next week, which will be cycling in the Lake District followed by the Peak District. Plus plenty of Picnics, off course.

A dream!

I know, Stefan always finds great places to eat.

I take recommendations from my cycling friends As I need a goal for a ride, eating well somewhere is a good goal! Staszek The Roadie (who has an excellent sense of humour) often says:
"I actually hate riding bikes. I only ride bikes because calories burnt on a ride allow me enjoy DEM CAKEZ And... recently I prefer eating some salty cakes, such as Marta's meat-pies!"

 

[Chargeride]

I know, Stefan always finds great places to eat.

We’ve had a quiet eBike week this week and haven’t been out on the bikes at all.

However, we’ve been extremely busy finalising our Wedding day, which was yesterday: when Mrs DG became officially, Mrs DG.
View attachment 119395

We are starting the honeymoon next week, which will be cycling in the Lake District followed by the Peak District. Plus plenty of Picnics, off course.

congratulations, thats a simply perfect honeymoon.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Yesterday Mrs DG became, officially, Mrs DG.

We are starting the honeymoon next week.

Beautiful! Enjoy your time away, but let us all in on the rides and picnics.

 

[tomjasz]

That's 95 kg at 178 cm.
It is worse for me: 96 kg at just 173 cm!
Last year, I was at 89.9 kg! I blame last Winter for my weight increase!

As long as I can look down and check plumbing, I’m good.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

Drop one thing, that you eat every day, that you know you shouldn't or which is really superfluous. Could be that glass of wine, or the chips and dip or dessert every day. Also, have a big salad for lunch every day, with lots of garlic. You will taste it for the rest of the day and it will make you think that you just ate.

When you think you want to snack, first drink a big glass of water and Google something, anything that will use up 15 minutes of your attn. You will forget that you "needed" to snack. Like any craving, it will evaporate if you don't think about it for a quarter of an hour.

For dinner, half your plate should be green salad, 1/4 is your protein, 1/4 is a wholegrain carb. And none of it deep-fried .

 

[ChezCheese:)]

 

[tomjasz]

McDougal diet and forks over knives.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

For dinner, half your plate should be green salad, 1/4 is your protein, 1/4 is a wholegrain carb. And none of it deep-fried

Just like that?

 

[RabH]

I was finally able to head north into the Campsie Hills again, I just love this route! This time I went round in a clockwise direction, its a close thing between the 2 directions but I just favour this way when there's no danger of any ice! I passed about 10 roadies on the way up Crow Road, I remember struggling up this section before I got my e bike! No nasty comments from any of them which was nice, we just exchanged greetings and continued on riding! This was just before the big climb, it was good to see the hills clear and free from mist or low clouds!

Now it was time for the awesome descent down into the Carron Valley, the road twists and turns all the way down and even though some parts are a bit rough the smooth parts sure bring a smile to your face! At the bottom of the valley the road soon rises once again after the bridge here!

The road has some really rough bits at the start of the climb but eventually it becomes lovely smooth tarmac! You get nice views of the Carron Valley Reservoir and the Campse Hills here!

A bit further on I'm getting ready to start the climb up the Tak Ma Doon Road, the road before the climb is a dream to ride and these 3 lady cyclists were certainly enjoying it! I made sure they knew about the rough
descent a few miles down the road but they already knew about it and were ready to hold the brakes all the way down!

On the climb now and I'm preparing to cross the ford here, you get tempted to blast over it but you never know if any loose rocks are around so its best to ease your way across it and make sure you are in a low gear for the big climb up the other side! The photo doesn't do this part justice, its way steeper than it looks!

I was ready to jump back on the bike when I noticed this lovely view down the hill that I had just climbed!

Time was against me now so I just blasted down the awesome descent and never stopped all the way home, I was pretty tired by then but still on a high after a truly awesome day on the bike!

In other news I decided to have a go at removing the broken brake pad retaining screw from my front brake caliper, if the worst happened I was just going to drill it out and use a split pin! It was my lucky day as I managed to drill dead centre and the pin popped out the other side, was the new screw going to catch the threads was my next thought and lo and behold it tightened perfectly!

I then removed it again and applied some copper grease to prevent the same thing happening again, followed by the rear caliper screw which also got the copper grease treatment! Thankfully I had lubed the rear one earlier and it loosened no problem!

@DiggyGun Many congratulations to you and your lovely wife, I hope you have a beautiful time in the Lake and Peak Districts! May the weather gods be on your side!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

"The E-Biker Code Prevents Me From Declining A Gravel Cyclist's Challenge"
/A paraphrase of the "Belzeeboss" song lyrics from the "Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny" movie/

The gravel cyclist actually didn't challenge me on the Saturday evening. Nonetheless, I accepted the (unsaid) challenge and promised one Michał H., a Graveloza CC member, to come to Góra Kawiarnia (cafe) on Sunday at noon I only didn't expect two things:

• A massive westerly wind
• A terrible wind chill factor

And I set off for the ride too early! I don't actually know how many watts a strong tailwind can add to your ride but even at 35/35% assistance I was moving forward too fast! To avoid too long waiting for the "challenging person", I was doing many things to delay my arrival to the city of Góra Kalwaria. For instance, I stopped at a petrol station and ate there to warm myself up as well.

I know there are not many gravel roads in Central Mazovia. Strangely, I quite often had to ride gravel even if I hated that!

"A Teutonic Knight Falling Off His Horse After Being Hit With A Lance": a steel figure made by an artistic blacksmith in Lesznowola.

Too early at my destination! (11:37 a.m.) Góra Kawiarnia was frequented by plethora of roadies today.

Meeting my gravel-cycling buddy Paul. It was a totally unexpected meeting! Since the first time we met each other, I have been mystified and thought Paul was a Pole. In fact, he is a native English speaker who has mastered his Polish! Only when he started telling me stories, using long, perfect sentences, I spotted some very small imperfections, and understood my buddy was rather not born by The River Vistula! (There is one feature of the Polish language with which native English speakers do struggle: the declination of the numerals). He said: "Na dystansie dziesięć kilometrów" (at the distance of ten kilometres). He should have said "dziesięciu" Otherwise his Polish was excellent!

While waiting for the group of Michał H, I ate a warm tart, and a bowl of Lentil Soup. (My legs were still cold!)

A little contribution to the Ukrainian war efforts: Free stickers at Góra Kawiarnia. Now, I proudly wear one on my helmet!

Meanwhile, somewhere in the forest...

Michał and his group arrived to the cafe at 1:15 pm. (Michał is the tall guy with his thumb up).

The four guys were suffering from cold. After they had eaten, they started shopping for warmer clothes in the adjacent LBS!

Puławska Street is the longest one in Warsaw. It starts well in the heart of the city to extend past Piaseczno and end in Góra Kalwaria! I was lucky: The wind relented a little bit and changed its direction to SSW. The ride back was not bad if not the wind chill factor...

So-called "Raszyn Radio Tower" in Łazy is the highest steel structure in Europe with its 335 m (1099 ft) of height. It is another local landmark seen from a distance!

Ride Map. See the colour-coded Puławska Street.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

Good choice: Nobody gets fat on lentil soup!

 

[Prairie Dog]

@DiggyGun – Congrats to you two newlyweds and may all of your picnics be ant free!

@RabH – To be able to cycle in such lovely countryside like that would be a cyclist’s dream…minus the rainy days.

@Stefan Mikes - I can’t believe how fortunate you are to be able to hang out at so many luxe cafes and bars where like-minded cyclists seem to congregate. Your mantra should be, ‘I like eating out a latte.’

 

[Chargeride]

yes, thats 26m higher than our local tv tower at winter hill, which is the tallest in the UK...its on top of a 1500ft hill, so looks pretty impressive.
edit..its the highest,not the tallest

 

[Chargeride]

Drop one thing, that you eat every day, that you know you shouldn't or which is really superfluous. Could be that glass of wine, or the chips and dip or dessert every day. Also, have a big salad for lunch every day, with lots of garlic. You will taste it for the rest of the day and it will make you think that you just ate.

When you think you want to snack, first drink a big glass of water and Google something, anything that will use up 15 minutes of your attn. You will forget that you "needed" to snack. Like any craving, it will evaporate if you don't think about it for a quarter of an hour.

For dinner, half your plate should be green salad, 1/4 is your protein, 1/4 is a wholegrain carb. And none of it deep-fried .

I lost 2 stone '28lbs' a few years ago by eating half of everything I normally ate, I even bought chocolate bars and threw half in the bin, ate half of a sandwich, half of a cake.
I got some stick for wasting food

 

[Chargeride]

Took the bike up to StAnnes , which is an upmarket holiday town just before the not very upmarket Blackpool.
Rode along the front and through the dunes.

The Spitfire, always a crowd favourite and arguably the coolest fighter plane name ever.

I like they way they built the supermarket around this original lighthouse

This is the very end of the dunes and the beginning of Blackpools built up seafront

When the tide is out, these beaches look like the Salt Flats, they seem to dissappear into the horizon

I never even knew this pier existed, you cant see it from the road.

Ukranian flags are everywhere, plus French bulldogs.

Classic Victorian seaside fun, boating lake.

This memorial is just down the road in Freckleton.
On 23 August 1944, a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Consolidated B-24 Liberator crashed during a test flight into the centre of the village of Freckleton, Lancashire, England, killing all three crewmen aboard the aircraft and 58 individuals on the ground, including 38 children aged four to six.

It crashed into the church and adjoining school

This aviation accident would prove to be the deadliest to occur in Britain during WW2and would remain the second worst aviation accident in the world (in terms of number of fatalities) until the 1950 Llandlow air disaster.

Freckleton air disaster - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Stefan Mikes]

edit..its the highest,not the tallest

Thank you!

 

[BlackHand]

I finally got the OK from my surgeon this week to not wear the brace that immobilizes my wrist and my thumb 24/7 and to start to use my repaired thumb as the bone is pretty well set now. he reluctantly gave the OK for me to bike as long as I wear the new brace that protects my thumb but frees the wrist. Was hoping to ride yesterday, but the weather was very unsettled with hail and random rain throughout the day.

It was still cool with active weather today, but the rain was limited to sprinkles so I went out for an 8 mile easy ride with my son down though Edmonds and back via Woodway. I was able to figure out a sort of comfortable position for my hand and thumb after trying a few things so I'll be able to start riding again! Definitely no steep descents though I figured that out pretty quick on the 15-20% grade headed down into Edmonds.

We just moseyed down to the dog park beach where the clouds were the most interesting thing going on. At any given moment the sky was 1/2 blue and 1/2 full of turbulent clouds. These 2 shots were taken about 20 ft apart just looking up and down the beach.

.

Then on to the Edmonds marsh which will someday be rehabilitated into the tidal wetland it once was. Not much going on here either as the herons were just chilling out in the middle and I couldn't spot any of the usual kingfishers or waterfowl.

Even this little lady, an Anna's hummingbird, was content to just hang out in the breeze. She (or a young he) serenaded us for several minutes.
Apologies for the poor quality but I had to zoom in pretty far even though she was just about 30 feet away. They are less than 10cm long and weigh only 3-6 grams.
Those of us concerned with weight should definitely NOT calculate our weight in hummingbirds!