Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Chargeride]

Those legs, he need no turbo.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Those legs, he need no turbo.

Aye. This guy (on a white hybrid bike) was on a gravel-cycling race yesterday. He rode for 82 km in mixed terrain (sealed roads, gravel and off-road) at average speed of 31.4 km/h. He completed the race in the 4th place. Mateusz is the founding member of Graveloza but he only joined us for a meeting at the end of the ride, as he was recovering after the yesterday's race.

P.S. He reported he would have won if the whole race were off-road. He lost his lead on long asphalt roads.

 

[kahn]

Yesterday.

Started in the garden attempting to get very heavy bags of soil into the new raised beds using the lawn mower as a kind of wheelbarrow. Then the bike ride and then dinner....

So, removing the old rotting wooden raised beds and installing the stock tanks led to a serious back strain. Biking works but walking was a real problem. But PT is helping. So, the view of Shilshold Marina from Sunset Park. Beach at Golden Gardens Park and then making and serving dinner. My friend grew the shallots last summer and they have preserved well in a perforated paper bag in the fridge.

 

[kahn]

Finally. Today was warm and there was a music thing going on down the road about 5 miles so I hopped on my bike and rode there as there would be beer. Good beers to try! I got a beer and sat down with some strangers who offered to share their shade. There was music from local folks. One fellow orchestra member was playing his horn in a jazzish band.

My new Gazelle bags on their maiden voyage. All systems worked but I only carried water and extra layers of clothes. It is Spring after all.
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Beer. I only had two but I haven't had any drinkage for many months so I had a good beer buzz on. This eating establishment has their own microbrews.
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Food. I wanted a lunch and the music sponsor was not serving food until later so a visit to the Taco Wagon next door was necessary. I consider this to be the best taco wagon around these parts. There are 4 in the area.
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That guy was going to perform later. I had the enchilada plate and did not break the plastic fork.
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One of the stage areas before it got busy.
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What a gorgeous day. I rode back a less traveled, but longer route.

Where are you again - other than the EAST side?

 

[kahn]

And another ride this week. One of my standard loops over to Discovery Park, Smith Cove Park, Myrtle Edwards Park and home via Seattle Center. First three images - Smith Cove Park, Olympic Mts and fishing boats. Echo sculpture in the Olympic Sculpture Park with Space Needle in background. Waterfront skyline and then the enlarged PI (defunct newspaper) Globe.

 

[BlackHand]

Good news, bad news here: I just discovered the power cord on my bike charger wasn't fully seated so my battery is still only at 50%. OTOH, I managed to successfully charge my lawnmower battery....looks like chores first and a shorter ride later.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

A bit of asphalt does no harm …

Pine Mountain Road
Brisbane Hinterland, SE Queensland
5 km from home​

Mateusz… reported he would have won if the whole race were off-road. He lost his lead on long asphalt roads.

It's the interspersed asphalt bits that make a gravel ride! Well, for me that's how I like it.

In this photo, the gravel road (foreground) joins our local sealed road. Wouldn't have it any other way! Don't forget to take in the scenery.

 

[Mulezen]

The great baseball player Yogi Berra said "When you come to a fork in the road take it." And that's what I did today and"that has made all the difference." In my case today it made approximately ten miles in difference to the tune of 24m...my seasonal tops. I stopped at my friend's store (closed) to take breather and thought with my high heart rate I should go the short easy way home...Instead I shoved off in turbo down the long decline going 30mph on the bridge over the sluggish branch of the South Anna river.

 

[mschwett]

A bit of asphalt does no harm …

....

In this photo, the gravel road (foreground) joins our local sealed road. Wouldn't have it any other way! Don't forget to take in the scenery.

gorgeous. and a big reason to have a gravel bike or gravel-capable road bike, to string together the paved and unpaved sections!

 

[mschwett]

this ride is one of my weekend standards, filling the "50-60 mile with lots of climbing category"! my go-to rides are a hilly 21 miler, a couple flatter 25-30 milers, a relatively flat 40 miler, a combo 50 miler which adds some hills, this one and some minor variations, and then a couple relatively flatter 70-80 milers.

it was a beautiful day out there, more cyclists than cars for long stretches, which is as it should be. today i did it on an "acoustic" bike, but i'm posting here because i'm an e-bike rider at heart and would never have gotten into cycling otherwise.

a quick break 2/3 of the way up the big descent to fill my bottle.


still going up! (while others come down)


almost to the top!


fantastic view. you can see where i came from, city skyline at 2/3 left near the top


the only downside of the ride was a driver who passed my in a creaking old subaru (i love subarus! but this one sounded bad.) just before the biggest part of the descent, a very windy two lane road. he proceeded to go 15-20mph (speed limit 25, i would probably have ridden it at 25-30) and so what should have been a beautiful swishing descent became essentially a tailgating exercise, trying to predict when he was going to speed up or slow down. we both stopped at the same market at the bottom of the hill, and he actually apologized, which was nice! he probably didn't realize when he passed me that i'd be going faster than him for the next several miles.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

today i did it on an "acoustic" bike, but i'm posting here because i'm an e-bike rider at heart and would never have gotten into cycling otherwise.

Please correct me: You did the trip on Creo, didn't you?

 

[mschwett]

Please correct me: You did the trip on Creo, didn't you?

nope, the aethos. see the first pic

 

[Stefan Mikes]

nope, the aethos. see the first pic

Then please update "Gear used" on Strava

 

[mschwett]

Then please update "Gear used" on Strava

i did lol. it defaults to the creo!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

i did lol. it defaults to the creo!

It defaults to the Vado SL in my profile

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Our Heritage Metric Century Ride (#3)

My brother Jacek is restless in his genealogical research. This time, he wanted to visit places related to our female ancestors. He brought my e-bikes to Wierzbica, a small location on River Narew, famous of its fish restaurants. All went wrong with ride recording tools on that day. For instance, my Wahoo connected to the Vado SL Jacek was riding instead to my big Vado. BLEvo stopped measuring distance ridden. Jacek's Garmin was reporting underestimated distance ridden...

"We, peasants" Although the village of Zatory means a lot to me, it was irrelevant to the purpose of our trip.

In the village of Mystkówiec, where our grand-grandma Florentyna Tyburska was born.

By the Forester's Lodge in Pniewo. Our grand-grand-grandpa Jan Tyburski (1809-1886) was a "shooter of government forests", or a gamekeeper during the Russian rule in this part of Poland.

The parish church in Pniewo. I have discovered only now that church is not historical (1928). The family of our g-g-grandparents was attending a wooden church in 19 c there.

Jacek bombing downhill off Pniewo. That Lezyne headlight is very bright (see top)! I took the top photo from a distance, using a 10x zoom.

The picturesque River Narew in Pułtusk. We have both been to Pułtusk for too many times, so the city was only an obstacle for us, to be crossed in a short time!

The name of Jacek is strictly Polish. It has been associated with St. Hyacinth. Similarly, the name of Wojciech is for St. Adalbert.
Saint Jacek on a stained glass window in the church of Winnica.

A historical 1509 church (Mazovian Gothic style, Baroque interior) in Winnica. Related to the family of Żbikowski.

The sister of our grandfather Jakub, Marcela Kawiorska née Mikulska married one Władysław Żbikowski. The married couple escaped Warsaw for Winnica to avoid cruelties of the WW2. The husband could even buy a house in Winnica! However, the house got burnt in 1944 (reasons are not known). Woebegone Władysław died soon because of the sorrow. His son and the son's children were banished from Warsaw to Germany as the outcome of the failed 1944 Warsaw Uprising. As it happens, these children, Basia and Wojciech have become very close to our family post-war. We treat Basia & Wojtek as our siblings, and have restored the relationship with them recently.

A village up north of Winnica, the home of the Żbikowski family.

Out of sentiment, Basia bought an old wooden house in Górki Duże near Winnica already in 1960s. It was popular among young intelligentsia of that era to "come closer to the Nature". It was a quaint, backwaters village then, even without electricity! One of my early remembrances of Górki is Basia's brother baking potato in an oven, and me eating it in the light of a kerosene lamp (!!!) Memories, memories...

They even had a sweep well there! (A Wikipedia photo). Their well was made of stone, and you can still get water there but now you use the wheel and axle.

I said:
-- Jacek, if you agree to ride for a metric century today, I will buy you a lunch in the "Potato Field", a posh restaurant but you have to pedal together with me to Nasielsk
-- Are you sure the restaurant is open?
-- Of course it is! At last the Google Maps say so!

Guess what. The "Potato Field" was closed because the restaurant was getting ready to make some banquet Eventually, we ate in a pizzeria where we could keep an eye on our e-bikes. And it was the Ruthenian Pierogi again! I'm fed up with the Ruthenian Pierogi!

As Jacek's Garmin underestimated the actual distance ridden, we made a long "victory round" in Wierzbica. Which was totally unnecessary. Strava has corrected the distance to 107.5 km... And I was so tired, with the plan on yet another hard ride for Sunday...

Within the map of Mazovia and Central Poland.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Graveloza Lazy Sunday #2

So, Jacek and I have swapped our e-bikes. Now, I could join the "Lazy Sunday" group ride of the cycling club on a premium FS e-MTB! I started from the Pruszków's Junkyard By The Tank, rode for 1.75 km and waited for the train. Fortunately, the lifts were fully operating at the Parzniew train stop as the Giant Trance E+ 2 Pro is a heavy ebike!

"Potwór" or "The Monster" is the name of the e-bike. It is certainly overblown as for our Mazovian plains, and is too advanced for our forests! Especially with the 27.5x2.6" Maxxis downhill tyres!

Adventures began already at the Warsaw-City train station. The lift was out of order there! Worried, I activated the Walk Mode of the Monster... and it dragged me upstairs! Oh, I have already forgotten how powerful that e-bike was...

Yours truly by the Warsaw Mermaid again!

These gravel-cyclists! Whenever they are offered to ride road or off-road, they would always choose off-road. And won't ever ride back! Because of roadworks, those boys & girls rode the grass behind the barrier. To find out they could not ride any further. So they carried their bikes (and climbed themselves) over the barrier. Meanwhile, I hit the barrier with a bar-end and crashed Laying upside-down towards the river. See these guys in HiVis jackets in the background? They were actually helping me get up! Mine 95 kg + the 4 kg of spare battery in the backpack! Hilarious! (Of course, I rode back afterwards; enough is enough).

We have begun the off-road part by riding an exciting singletrack segment. A lot of cornering, up & down, up & down, tree roots, sand, tree trunks projecting from the soil, name it. It turned out it was all too easy for the Trance E+! The downhill slope here is treacherous: only sand and tree-roots slightly above the sand (hanging in the air). On my previous ride with the big Vado, I chickened out and walked my e-bike down there. Now? "Hold my beer!"

If I only had some storage space! I could buy a Specialized Turbo Levo SL right now! You do not need much motor power for the terrain like this one!

We zoomed by the Warsaw Pact Atomic Command without even stopping that time. It was a wooden gangway above the local "sandy desert", and we met... a high staircase! (I told you before the Kampinos National Park was either a sand dune or a marsh). Cursing, I walked the Monster down the stairs.

I was usually riding in the tail of the group. With two notable exceptions:

• Climbing up the Gen. Grot Bridge: "ON YER LEFT!" -- "Hey, buddy, it was actually unfair what you did to us!"
• A potty gravel road, and I immediately rode at high speed to the front of the group, leaving them far behind. To which, some members of the group responded with an impressive sprint! You will see a petite girl in brown later. She's been riding only for a year. Now, she was the third person to overtake me during that sprint! Woo-hoo!

We stopped for some grub at a biker-friendly restaurant in Palmiry. However, nobody had pre-informed the personnel about our coming, so the cook had a lot of work to do -- to feed 17 hungry people! We spent pretty a long time there.

Although that restaurant makes delicious Ruthenian Pierogi I had enough and ordered a pork roast; the pork had been marinated in Coke, and it was delicious!

A group photo by a hiker. Sixteen people remained at that point. Can you see me raising the front wheel of the Monster?

Eventually, we finished the group ride at the "Under the Tube" bar on the River Vistula in Warsaw. And I made something stupid: Instead of taking a glass of weak "cyclist-worthy" beer, I got me a bottle of 7% abv IPA! After a few small sips, I realized I couldn't drink alcohol and ride! Guess what I did: Poured beer into an empty water-bottle and could bring the beer home! Soon, I bought a cycling beverage, and Jacek's e-bike has now a double set of water-bottle cages! Still, 23 km to ride...

The last 23 kms was the hardest trip for me recently. I was so tired after the weekend rides! Eventually, i reached The Tank. I think an average Ukrainian tractor could tow the thing away!

After connecting it to the Monster, my Wahoo went insane! While reporting the proper cruising speed and time ridden, it was reporting weird distance ridden such as 300 km! Fortunately, you can fix the distance ridden in Strava (to match the GPX to the map).Over 90 kms on Sunday? I'm happy!

 

[BlackHand]

No metric century here, but did get some riding in this weekend to start to get back into shape.
-Friday I did a quick 5.5 miles round trip to go escort my kids home from practice that they were forced to ride to since my wife and I were both still at work.
-I planned for 25 miles on Saturday but had to work much of the day and then had less than 2 hours before we needed to leave for my wife's opening so I did a quick 15.5 miles around Edmonds and Meadowdale.
-Finally, time for a real ride on Sunday only to discover my charger was not fully plugged in! Forced to do yard work for 2 hours but then was able to take off and headed for a decent 36+ miles. My phone died about 5 miles from home ( apparently using COBI and RideWithGPS split screen really sucks the battery.) So the ride map is incomplete.

First stop after getting on the BGT was Log Boom Park in Kenmore. I waited a bit to try to catch a float plane landing but didn't have any luck. Kenmore Air is just next door and does regular flights to the San Juans and several BC locations using de Havilland Otters and Beavers- these go over our house about every 30 minutes in the summer.

On to the popular Sammamish River Trail which is a very pretty ride even when it's crowded. Not very crowded today.

After that it was the North Creek Trail which has its moments with a lot of wetlands and tons of waterfowl, but also skirts office parks and condos almost constantly. Besides the usual duck, duck, goose I saw quite a few herons along here.

Like Stefan, I had a few electronic glitches. Besides my phone dying on the way back, I had about a half dozen times where RWGPS told me to turn the opposite of where I needed to go. I'm also not sure how accurately it recorded my top speed

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I'm also not sure how accurately it recorded my top speed

BH, what I'm getting as Max Speed on Strava is unbelievable!

Wahoo produces a correct Max Speed at the end of the ride. Strava recalculates the ride data, and takes the Max Speed from the GPS glitch (or, e-bike controller oscillation), giving absurd values... (Vado SL, Trance E+). Only Vado 5.0 gets reliable Max Speed values (Wahoo -> Strava).

@Chargeride:
It was the first race ever for "The Guy Who Needs No Turbo", and he was 4th. He was 4th because the first 3 places were taken by a peloton of a club mates. They had to win on the pavement!
"The Woman Who Beats Me" was on her first race, too (the same race). 23rd overall, 4th as Female. And just think she was on her first long rides with me and Jacek

 

[RabH]

The parish church in Pniewo. I have discovered only now that church is not historical (1928). The family of our g-g-grandparents was attending a wooden church in 19 c there.

The same year my dad was born!

Quite a weekend you had, Stefan!