Race Face Ride
The weather has been weird since this morning. It was over the freezing point, with magnificent sunshine and very strong westerly wind. What clothes to put on? I settled on merino wool basic layer with the "Spring" wind-resistant trousers and a Softshell jacket. Combined with my own heat generated on the ride, it was just about right.
I was riding on the Vado. When making a short stop in Raszyn at a bus stop, an old lady approached me. She needed to talk. We exchanges some pleasantries. When she was leaving the place, she said: "Your comeliness is beautiful". "Thank you!" I said, totally surprised
The outbound ride leg was easy. Riding with tail-wind brought me to Anice & Lech in some 100 minutes gross ride time. Anice -- as always -- had served good victuals, of which pork jelly was just delicious!
Then I replaced Anice's Como pedals with Race Face Ride (green). Spring! Come! I'm excited to build a ride gang with Anice and other friends!
The September 1st, 2019 group ride. Lech (in blue helmet) had forgotten inflating the wheels of Anice's (yellow cap) traditional bike and it didn't go really well. Anice discovered e-bikes soon. It took a while before she bought her own to be in the lead of the pack @Jerzy Bańkowski is in the front of the photo.
The same place: January 16th and March 6th, 2021.
I deliberately took the ride through the Kabacki Forest twice on today's ride. The dirt was packed and hard. On the return, I inadvertently rode into another forest road. Oh, that was bad. Liquid mud and puddles... I had to negotiate that segment in the 2nd gear... (I'd prefer the granny gear but my Vado's drivetrain needs some adjustment).
My ambition was to cover the whole trip on a single battery. I could almost do that: The battery #1 (that is not 100% healthy) was good for 60.0 km. However, I had to replace the battery just 4 km away from home... Wind! Massive headwind! I should have been saving the battery when riding with the wind!
A
big news now: I got a message from my new riding buddy Przemek: "Stefan, despite of terrible weather forecast for Sunday, we're riding out for 72 km. 8:00 a.m., a start location is in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. Will you join our group?" Hah.
"And I wouldn't be able to raise a full bathtub with my both hands?!" Of course, I'm joining. On the Trance E+ as some off-road riding is expected
There is a Warsaw cycling enthusiast fan-page on Facebook that I joined. I presented myself and my Vado there, telling the group members of my background. Nobody -- I repeat -- nobody said anything bad on e-bikes! On contrary, I got a lot of encouragement, Likes, and the members assured me I would be gladly welcomed to group rides! The world's changing... I can bet many of those people would be riding e-bikes if they could afford them.