Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Stefan Mikes]

"Fire-Roads Only", Seriously?!

An organizer posted an event for Sunday: a gravel group ride in the Kampinos National Park. The promise was an easy ride solely on fire-roads. Really? I had to check the "Short" route the day before... I agreed with Jacek to ride up to him and restart the off-road part in a group of two

"Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter nur falsche Kleidung".
"There is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothes".
Not necessarily good for Canadian winters, even too warm for Polish December

On the way to my brother. As the ground was frozen, that part was even not too bad, had I reduced the tyre pressure before the ride

We continued the ride together; that's why I got these pictures!

Jacek rode a Giant Trance E+ 2 Pro, too adequate for the conditions! Unfortunately, Vado SL seemed to have too a weak motor for that harsh Winter terrain.

"Fire-Roads Only"? Seriously?!

Then we had to ride fire-roads consisting of a kind of "soft manure" soil. My Vado SL (Turbo mode, granny gear) was unable to let me ride at times! And it was for many kilometres.

I got so tired I had to take a longer rest, sitting on snowy stairs of one of the many war cemeteries in the Kampinos forest (namely, the one for the year 1863 insurgents against the Imperial Russia). Meanwhile, Jacek was riding "unpowered" circles not to get cold. See the colour of my Vado SL: "Dove Gray". It is decidedly not white!

At some point, we had had enough. Jacek just winked at me, and magically brought me out of the forest to the Biker Pub in Stanisławów

We got mulled beer (Czech Opat from Broumov we enjoyed on our 2021 Czech vacation), Zhur (soup) and apple-cake. What a nice ending to the murderous Kampinos loop!

The remaining 14 km involved mostly the pavement, although I had a single frozen gravel segment 3 km before reaching home. See the glow of CatEye Volt 1700 headlight at the full power

Not a bad ride as for winter, eh? Meanwhile, most of my buddies pedal their bike trainers staring at Zwift

 

[Saratoga Dave]

You should have stolen the Giant back when he wasn’t looking, Stefan! From earlier descriptions of Jacek, it sounds like he could have ridden this on a skateboard, certainly on your SL.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

And on this fine cold day in upstate New York, another point for the hub drive in that age old argument… hard to plan for the pedal arm to snap right in half, and ain’t no throttle on a mid drive Giant! At least this post gives me something to do while waiting for the rescue ride.

 

[fooferdoggie]

Mt hood looking cool.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

You should have stolen the Giant back when he wasn’t looking, Stefan! From earlier descriptions of Jacek, it sounds like he could have ridden this on a skateboard, certainly on your SL.

He said he had big doubts if he could do that trip on a traditional gravel bike. Offered swapping e-bikes with me for the ride but I said no; am too ambitious!

And on this fine cold day in upstate New York, another point for the hub drive in that age old argument… hard to plan for the pedal arm to snap right in half, and ain’t no throttle on a mid drive Giant! At least this post gives me something to do while waiting for the rescue ride.

Hard to believe that! The pedal looks quality to me, what's that?

 

[Prairie Dog]

An unexpected break in the weather prompted me to head out into the darkness just after sunset. Temperature at the time was -12C with light breeze coming from the NW. I took to the single tracks at Heritage Ranch and finished up my ride with an impromptu visit to City Hall to view the Xmas lights as well as a few adorned homes in my own hood.

 

[Chargeride]

That is awesome!

 

[RabH]

I grabbed the opportunity to get out on the back roads today before the ice takes over tomorrow, my new tyres got their first outing also! My tyres were supposed to arrive on Saturday but the courier gave me the runaround and finally delivered them this morning, just after they arrived I also received my new batteries for my heated gloves! I put the batteries on charge and used my old ones for the ride, it will be handy having spares now with winter starting to hit! I should be able to crank the heat up next time, today I only used level 1 and at 5C that was just perfect! Although as I was late getting out the temp really dropped near the end of my ride so I switched to level 2 and the old batteries lasted until the end so I got over 3.5 hours from them! With the windchill today it was around zero though for most of the ride, the difference with the 20mph north easterly wind behind me on the way back was very noticeable and very welcome!

I headed east today to Bridgend and had to join some main roads at times, thankfully no idiots around today to spoil my fun! I did get a little rain but nothing nasty, the roads were already wet and a bit filthy so the tyres got a good workout and performed as I expected! I bought the same Schwalbe Marathons that lasted me for almost 12,000 miles as they have really good grip in the wet and really good puncture protection!

The back road from Avonbridge to Standburn!

The Bowhouse Burn which runs alongside the road was flowing very fast today!

Up the big climb next and I turned on to the awesome road to Standburn, one of my favourites with many ups and downs!

I continued on towards Bridgend, which means passing through the busy town of Linlithgow! Thankfully it wasn't too bad today and I reached the far side of the town unscathed!

Looking north from Linlithgow towards the Ochill Hills!

I arrived in Bridgend where it was time to turn south and then west towards Beecraigs Country Park! Another big climb here before the awesome descent towards the country park, another nice view of the Ochil Hills from part way up the climb! I wouldn't fancy riding through these fields!

At the top of the climb the views are even better and you can see the snow on the mountains in the distance!

I hammered down the descent at 41.1mph and started the climb up to the country park which is right at the top of this hill in the photo!

A final view of the Ochill Hills before the ride home!

With darkness descending around 4pm this was the last of the photos, I really didn't want to arrive home in darkness as I don't have the powerful lights that @Prairie Dog was sporting in his awesome ride in the dark! What a brilliant video mate, the Christmas lights were just incredible to see!I arrived home just before darkness with enough time to clean the bike and buzzing from another brilliant ride! I will need to use the main roads now unless we get another mild spell, I will choose the safest roads of course!

@Saratoga Dave What a nightmare you had with the pedal disintegrating like that, I hope you got home safely mate!

 

[Saratoga Dave]

He said he had big doubts if he could do that trip on a traditional gravel bike. Offered swapping e-bikes with me for the ride but I said no; am too ambitious!

Hard to believe that! The pedal looks quality to me, what's that?

They're Origin8 Slimline pedals, very good stuff and not particularly inexpensive either. About six thousand miles on them on my Toughroad. I was just cruising along a flat section of paved bike path, nothing exciting, and I heard this crack and the pedal was spinning off across the pavement.

 

[Djangodog]

That is awesome!

I agree. Thanks for taking us along. The deer and rabbit were nice bonuses.

 

[Frank/Delaware]

View attachment 141752

I grabbed the opportunity to get out on the back roads today before the ice takes over tomorrow, my new tyres got their first outing also! My tyres were supposed to arrive on Saturday but the courier gave me the runaround and finally delivered them this morning, just after they arrived I also received my new batteries for my heated gloves! I put the batteries on charge and used my old ones for the ride, it will be handy having spares now with winter starting to hit! I should be able to crank the heat up next time, today I only used level 1 and at 5C that was just perfect! Although as I was late getting out the temp really dropped near the end of my ride so I switched to level 2 and the old batteries lasted until the end so I got over 3.5 hours from them! With the windchill today it was around zero though for most of the ride, the difference with the 20mph north easterly wind behind me on the way back was very noticeable and very welcome!

I headed east today to Bridgend and had to join some main roads at times, thankfully no idiots around today to spoil my fun! I did get a little rain but nothing nasty, the roads were already wet and a bit filthy so the tyres got a good workout and performed as I expected! I bought the same Schwalbe Marathons that lasted me for almost 12,000 miles as they have really good grip in the wet and really good puncture protection!

The back road from Avonbridge to Standburn! View attachment 141756
View attachment 141755

The Bowhouse Burn which runs alongside the road was flowing very fast today!
View attachment 141757

Up the big climb next and I turned on to the awesome road to Standburn, one of my favourites with many ups and downs!
View attachment 141758

I continued on towards Bridgend, which means passing through the busy town of Linlithgow! Thankfully it wasn't too bad today and I reached the far side of the town unscathed!

Looking north from Linlithgow towards the Ochill Hills!
View attachment 141759
View attachment 141760

I arrived in Bridgend where it was time to turn south and then west towards Beecraigs Country Park! Another big climb here before the awesome descent towards the country park, another nice view of the Ochil Hills from part way up the climb! I wouldn't fancy riding through these fields!
View attachment 141761
View attachment 141762

At the top of the climb the views are even better and you can see the snow on the mountains in the distance!
View attachment 141763
View attachment 141764

I hammered down the descent at 41.1mph and started the climb up to the country park which is right at the top of this hill in the photo!
View attachment 141765

A final view of the Ochill Hills before the ride home!
View attachment 141766

With darkness descending around 4pm this was the last of the photos, I really didn't want to arrive home in darkness as I don't have the powerful lights that @Prairie Dog was sporting in his awesome ride in the dark! What a brilliant video mate, the Christmas lights were just incredible to see!I arrived home just before darkness with enough time to clean the bike and buzzing from another brilliant ride! I will need to use the main roads now unless we get another mild spell, I will choose the safest roads of course!

@Saratoga Dave What a nightmare you had with the pedal disintegrating like that, I hope you got home safely mate!

love your reports - thank you

 

[Prairie Dog]

View attachment 141752

I grabbed the opportunity to get out on the back roads today before the ice takes over tomorrow, my new tyres got their first outing also! My tyres were supposed to arrive on Saturday but the courier gave me the runaround and finally delivered them this morning, just after they arrived I also received my new batteries for my heated gloves! I put the batteries on charge and used my old ones for the ride, it will be handy having spares now with winter starting to hit! I should be able to crank the heat up next time, today I only used level 1 and at 5C that was just perfect! Although as I was late getting out the temp really dropped near the end of my ride so I switched to level 2 and the old batteries lasted until the end so I got over 3.5 hours from them! With the windchill today it was around zero though for most of the ride, the difference with the 20mph north easterly wind behind me on the way back was very noticeable and very welcome!

I headed east today to Bridgend and had to join some main roads at times, thankfully no idiots around today to spoil my fun! I did get a little rain but nothing nasty, the roads were already wet and a bit filthy so the tyres got a good workout and performed as I expected! I bought the same Schwalbe Marathons that lasted me for almost 12,000 miles as they have really good grip in the wet and really good puncture protection!

The back road from Avonbridge to Standburn! View attachment 141756
View attachment 141755

The Bowhouse Burn which runs alongside the road was flowing very fast today!
View attachment 141757

Up the big climb next and I turned on to the awesome road to Standburn, one of my favourites with many ups and downs!
View attachment 141758

I continued on towards Bridgend, which means passing through the busy town of Linlithgow! Thankfully it wasn't too bad today and I reached the far side of the town unscathed!

Looking north from Linlithgow towards the Ochill Hills!
View attachment 141759
View attachment 141760

I arrived in Bridgend where it was time to turn south and then west towards Beecraigs Country Park! Another big climb here before the awesome descent towards the country park, another nice view of the Ochil Hills from part way up the climb! I wouldn't fancy riding through these fields!
View attachment 141761
View attachment 141762

At the top of the climb the views are even better and you can see the snow on the mountains in the distance!
View attachment 141763
View attachment 141764

I hammered down the descent at 41.1mph and started the climb up to the country park which is right at the top of this hill in the photo!
View attachment 141765

A final view of the Ochill Hills before the ride home!
View attachment 141766

With darkness descending around 4pm this was the last of the photos, I really didn't want to arrive home in darkness as I don't have the powerful lights that @Prairie Dog was sporting in his awesome ride in the dark! What a brilliant video mate, the Christmas lights were just incredible to see!I arrived home just before darkness with enough time to clean the bike and buzzing from another brilliant ride! I will need to use the main roads now unless we get another mild spell, I will choose the safest roads of course!

@Saratoga Dave What a nightmare you had with the pedal disintegrating like that, I hope you got home safely mate!

Milk it for all it’s worth. It will be months before I can even begin to see a glimpse of grass let alone any signs of blades that even resemble the color green. Here’s hoping that winter solstice on your side of the pond looks and feels much like it does in those wonderful images.

@Chargeride – I was hoping that you might see some snow on the few days that it does occur there. Anyways, perhaps this might perk you up, not that you’re in need of it. The Shred Collective is a group of guys and gals based out of Calgary who love to bike in the mtns of Canmore, Banff, and Bragg Creek and who take their winter fat biking seriously. I don’t ride a fattie but thought this might be right in your wheel house. Cheers!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShredCollectiveBike/

@Djangodog – With its white winter coat, I wasn’t sure if anyone would have noticed Thumper scampering ahead of me. The deer can be spotted in yards almost on a daily basis and during the winter season they are virtually everywhere nibbling on anything they can reach. My wife just adores them….NOT!!

 

[fooferdoggie]

it was 36 degrees out but the bike path was getting frosty so we decided to get home on regular roads so as not to take a chance.
we had a full moon with the overcast looked kinda cool. I am surprised how light my iphone made it. looks like it works pretty well in the dark.

 

[fooferdoggie]

snow ride when it was 37 degrees.

 

[Chargeride]

Im going to have to turn the heating up after watching that.

 

[Chargeride]

He said he had big doubts if he could do that trip on a traditional gravel bike. Offered swapping e-bikes with me for the ride but I said no; am too ambitious!

Hard to believe that! The pedal looks quality to me, what's that?

Is that a one bearing pedal with a short stub?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Im going to have to turn the heating up after watching that.

We're having hard winter coming this Sunday. I shall go on a ride on Saturday before the heavy snow-fall occurs!

 

[Chargeride]

Its just too cold to consider driving somewhere, so I'm back out on the beach.
On top of a large dune pointing to Anfield, Liverpool football club stadium in the distance, it's huge but the superwide lens makes it invisible.

There's the remains of an underground ww2 spotting post in one of the dunes, seems politics gets everywhere.

Strange to find all these wires exposed on a dune path miles from anywhere.

And now an excavator, I found out they are having problems with invasive flowers that kill the dune grass, so they are digging them completely out.

I love the noise it makes as you ride over the razor shells, there are bazillions of them on the beach in a line with high tide.
I'm sure its the same world wide.

This tiny little spot where you can fly the drone between the airport and the gun range, Im sure they are blocking the signals, the drone goes out of range only a 100ft away, this really shows how flat it is around here, these dunes are the highest point for miles.

Those turbines are now Britains second biggest offshore wind farm, some of them are 130m to the top of the blade, on a clear day you can see the turbines on the welsh coast. they form a semi circle from here, or the top of the pigs head on UK map.
Thanks to the US for selling us LNG when they stop spinning....all bleedin winter...

This looks like a remote spot, but actually theres a school the otherside of those trees and the kids never visit the dunes, too busy on their phones I guess.

This is a shot from last week, I just love the way it could be anywhere, mystery lays in the afar.

Anyway back to watching Meghan and Harry on Netflix.

 

[Prairie Dog]

This is a shot from last week, I just love the way it could be anywhere, mystery lays in the afar.

Wow! The last image looks like a scene taken straight out of Dune. You can almost see the spice in the air.

 

[Djangodog]

High 40s, no snow and open water are all unusual for this part of New Hampshire in December. We will be paying for this soon enough.