Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Stefan Mikes]

This happens when you ride together with a competing gravel cyclist...

...And you both are pedalling very hard! On that part of the ride, my riding mate actually sped up! I had to use the 70/70% of my Vado 5.0 assistance to keep up with him! And my legs turned into jelly

Average speed of 28.2 km/h, max speed of 35.7 km/h, all in rough terrain!

Poligon Rembertów Droga Pożarowa 46 SW | Strava E-Bike Segment in Zielonka, Poland

www.strava.com

 

[Readytoride]

Who wouldn’t love a ride on something called the Snickersville Turnpike? But that last picture of the sweeping gravel turn leading into that long straight through the trees is pretty much my definition of a perfect afternoon. Looks like a great day.

It is funny that this little country paved road still clings to its glory days of 100 years ago. It lost stature as a main thoroughfare in 1916 and nowadays is a simple public 2 lane road. It is, however, one of very few paved roads surrounded by the protected gravel roads of the Historic Roads District, so it does get a few more cars traveling on it, but not near as many cars as most other paved roads in other areas.

Here is the road described by a webpage devoted to traveling the quiet roads in my area: The Snickersville Turnpike (SR 734) is a quiet, two-lane road, that passes farms and fields, and preserves much of its early character. George Washington traveled the road as a surveyor. By 1786 it was the first operating turnpike in America, praised by Thomas Jefferson as a success.

It is a sweet road to ride an analog road bike on the western stretch with its gentle rolling terrain. It's an ebiker's dream (and a road biker's sweat-and-tears) to ride the very tough, steep and persistent hills on the eastern end. Fortunately, I live near the western end.

 

[Readytoride]

I’m sure that you were feeling a bit of redemption after the last disappointing ride. Nice come back! Sometimes, the more satisfying rides are those closest to home.

So true!

 

[Readytoride]

Thankfully I got home dry and very happy with my days cycling, it was so good to get out again!

I love your photos and your ride descriptions. Whenever I get back to Scotland again it will probably feel just like home.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

What I Did On Tuesday

First, rode my Vado SL to see my daughter. Nice 20 km; the headwind was unpleasant though.
Second, rode to Jacek the Mechanic for yet another fix...

Several days ago, I was trying to ride onto a bike path at night. Because I didn't carry a strong external light, I rode onto a curb... My "crash survival technique" was as effective as to almost completely protect my body (a single bruise did not count!) but the e-bike took the whole impact! My brother had found the right crank arm got bent inwards, making the pedal "float" on the ride; he could straighten the crank arm in several minutes! He also noticed the rack being bent, and he straightened it, too!

I also got me O-Synce remote (eventually!) The O-Synce store in Germany had addressed the first shipment wrongly; I got the remote on the second attempt only. O-Synce and the BLEvo app are the equivalent of Micro Tune found on the new Mastermind Specialized e-bikes; the combo allows precision tuning of the e-bike motor as you ride. While it makes a little sense on the low power Vado SL, I think it will be very useful with the full-power Vado. One of my objectives on the ride was learning to use the O-Synce.

When I was returning at night, the temperature dropped dramatically (down to 3 C!) I had adequate clothes on me, only I could have worn thicker gloves...

As I was riding a bike path reasonably slowly, I could spot a police car parked on the wrong side of the road. Something must have happened there! I slowed my e-bike very much to see what that was. There was a crashed bike and the rider was lying on his back, unable to move. From what the policemen were asking him for, I could determine the guy must have been totally drunk! He was lucky someone called the police as the guy could die from hypothermia!

I happily reached home. Oh, ninety-one kilometres on a low power e-bike this cold Autumn was a demanding workout for me!

I took a forest ride to avoid a massive traffic jam on the road.

 

[Chargeride]

Bent the crank arm, must have been quite an impact.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Bent the crank arm, must have been quite an impact.

Were it made of carbon, the crank arm would have been shattered, I'm sure!

 

[Tom@WashDC]

It is funny that this little country paved road still clings to its glory days of 100 years ago. It lost stature as a main thoroughfare in 1916 and nowadays is a simple public 2 lane road. It is, however, one of very few paved roads surrounded by the protected gravel roads of the Historic Roads District, so it does get a few more cars traveling on it, but not near as many cars as most other paved roads in other areas.

Here is the road described by a webpage devoted to traveling the quiet roads in my area: The Snickersville Turnpike (SR 734) is a quiet, two-lane road, that passes farms and fields, and preserves much of its early character. George Washington traveled the road as a surveyor. By 1786 it was the first operating turnpike in America, praised by Thomas Jefferson as a success.

View attachment 137614
It is a sweet road to ride an analog road bike on the western stretch with its gentle rolling terrain. It's an ebiker's dream (and a road biker's sweat-and-tears) to ride the very tough, steep and persistent hills on the eastern end. Fortunately, I live near the western end.

Snickersville Turnpike is the most beautiful, pastoral road in Loudoun County, about 15 minutes from me by car. Everytime I drive that road it evokes the Scottish and Irish countryside.

 

[dodgeman]

I did 14 miles today of which 3 or 4 miles was on gravel, which I don’t do often. Found a couple of barns, one of which was really bad and the other one was headed that way with some roofing coming off. I also shot a picture of a windmill that appears to be an old one that is restored on a much shorter tower.

 

[Djangodog]

Here are a couple short videos. We are at peak now. If you are not too sick of these foliage videos yet, please give them a look. I do love this area.

Please set your YouTube settings to HD, otherwise, it looks like rubbish.

 

[Readytoride]

@Djangodog - Beautiful videos. Hopefully we'll we seeing the colors change in our area of the Mid-Atlantic by next week.

Question: the banjo music is lovely - who is playing?

 

[Mulezen]

Isn't it a little late for corn?

 

[BlackHand]

Finally got out for a decent ride this past Sunday. Our unseasonably warm dry weather has continued, but with it are hazy and sometimes smokey days. Headed over on the ferry to ride the Kitsap Peninsula.

Ended up doing 70 miles with over 6000 ft of climbing.

From the ferry dock at Kingston I headed down to Indianola where I took a few minutes to enjoy the tall pier. If you zoom in you can barely make out the Seattle skyline in the lower left. No Rainier today ...far too hazy.

From there a quick ride down to Suquamish where the 1866 gravesite of Chief Seattle (Si?ahl) is located. The gravestone dates to 1890, but the low wall surrounding the site is from a more modern renovation and carries this inscription ascribed to Chief Seattle from a speech in the 1850's:
Even the rocks thrill with memories of past events, The very dust beneath your feet respond(s) more lovingly to our footsteps, because it is the ashes of our ancestors. The soil is rich with the life of our kindred.


From there it was it was on around to Poulsbo and then across the Hood Canal Bridge to do a 25 mile loop up to Port Ludlow and then down to Shine-gra-la and back across the bridge to ride with the traffic on hwy 104 back to the ferry.

The road to Shine-gra-la:

Riding on the peninsula is always a mixed bag: some amazing roads and views, but if you have to go much distance you invariably end up on 1 or both of the busy state routes.
- saw a few seals and a sea lion at the Hood Canal Bridge but no orcas or submarines
- passed someone in Port Ludlow with the same model bike as me , that's a first.
-somewhere around 40 miles I passed a loaded down bikepacker going slow and steady in the opposite direction and we exchanged greetings across the road. A few hours later just about 5 blocks from the end of my ride, I caught up to the same fellow still going strong. Turns out, we were on the same ferry back to Edmonds but he was at the front whereas I was at the back ( with another ebiker on a Surley with a front hub- nice setup) so he had a 10 minute head start on me. He joked I needed to be carrying another 20-30 pounds like him to slow me down!

 

[Djangodog]

@Djangodog - Beautiful videos. Hopefully we'll we seeing the colors change in our area of the Mid-Atlantic by next week.

Question: the banjo music is lovely - who is playing?

Thank you. I can’t take credit for the scenery.

Regarding the music, it has to be in the public domain for YouTube, so the editing software contains a selection of “generic” music. I try to make the music and video a good match.

I am still new to video editing, (I am a work in progress). I am finding it enjoyable.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Here are a couple short videos.

You do not seem to be convinced to your Innerbarends?
The river in the first vid: Crossable?

 

[Chargeride]

America is sooo big.
That ride alone would be the biggest one in England

 

[Chargeride]

Thank you. I can’t take credit for the scenery.

Regarding the music, it has to be in the public domain for YouTube, so the editing software contains a selection of “generic” music. I try to make the music and video a good match.

I am still new to video editing, (I am a work in progress). I am finding it enjoyable.

yes video editing can get very addictive, I sometimes find myself in the car listening to music and thinking .
oooh, thats a perfect track for that scenery.
You can use any music on youtube, they just flag it as copyright and you cant monetize it , but they allow it.
Though you will have your vid banned in Russia

 

[Djangodog]

You do not seem to be convinced to your Innerbarends?
The river in the first vid: Crossable?

I probably use the inner bar ends about 20% of the time. My bars have 17 degrees of sweep and the 710 grips are quite comfortable, so the position on the grips is pretty nice. I tend to use the inner bar ends more on longer rides.

Regarding the river, I don’t know where the access points are. Our river and stream beds are rocky and tend to be slippery, so crossing moving water is a bit risky. Vermont is full of Granite and Marble.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Django, is that Ascutney at around 1:12 in the first video?

And, maybe consider giving us longer intervals between the transitions. Sort of get a chance to settle into the view of each scene before you take it away!

I drove through the western side of Massachusetts yesterday through the Berkshires, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Pittsfield and Williamstown before going back into NY over the Petersburg gap. It was drop dead gorgeous! I really wished I had my Creo in the back when I got around Stockbridge.

Heading for the Saranac Lake area Monday and it’s supposed to do nothing but rain for three days. I expect the trees are all bare over there already, so I’m happy to have your videos to look at.

 

[Djangodog]

Django, is that Ascutney at around 1:12 in the first video?

And, maybe consider giving us longer intervals between the transitions. Sort of get a chance to settle into the view of each scene before you take it away!

I drove through the western side of Massachusetts yesterday through the Berkshires, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, Pittsfield and Williamstown before going back into NY over the Petersburg gap. It was drop dead gorgeous! I really wished I had my Creo in the back when I got around Stockbridge.

Heading for the Saranac Lake area Monday and it’s supposed to do nothing but rain for three days. I expect the trees are all bare over there already, so I’m happy to have your videos to look at.

That is Ascutney. Ascutney, and Morningside Flight Park are what brought me to this area. I don’t fly any more, but I see no reason to leave.

My earlier videos had longer clips, but I was concerned that the videos and clips were too long. I try to vary the length of the clips depending on content. Is there a standard or formula? I have only been making videos for a few months and there is a bit of a learning curve. I welcome all opinions. I want to improve and constructive criticism is very welcome.

I spent about a year in your neck of the woods. I made my first solo at Schenectady Airport. Nice horse and lake county.