Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Mr. Coffee]

@Stefan Mikes ,

I'm glad you are okay. I'm also glad your bikes are okay. And who here didn't wonder when they first read @Stefan Mikes 's post if his bikes were okay?
Take care and take your time getting things back together.

 

[PatriciaK]

Had a wonderful ride on the Flow, after scrounging around for some warmer clothing this crisp Carolina morning!

Tossed the bikes (carefully!) in the trunk of the car (no hitch or rack yet) for the short drive to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, where we picked up the paved trail. The sun was shining, a decent amount of folks were out walking (a decent amount of them were also walking IN the bike lane - I don't like that ); I was glad we bundled up and rode .

The Battlefield park adjoins another City of Greensboro park - Country Park. That's where the lake we rode twice around, the Science Center, and the new Carousel are located. Very nice!

Near the trail that connects the two parks is a Veterans Memorial, where I took the obligatory bike photo . I skipped the selfie of the crazy-clothed, homeless-looking lady with her expensive bike .



Have ridden the Flow twice now. I think the gearing needs a little adjustment, as on a few occasions it seemed to slip from one gear to another. Used PAS 2 to get up the larger hills; otherwise stayed in 0 or 1. I did use the throttle once, on a larger hill on the road in the park (to stay legal), just to experiment. It's very responsive, and I found that I really CAN go as fast - or, in my case, as slow, as I want based on how far I push the throttle trigger.

Still getting to know the bike, but liking it more each ride! So happy I got something to ride here - 6.7 miles of smiles today!

 

[reed scott]

Had a wonderful ride on the Flow, after scrounging around for some warmer clothing this crisp Carolina morning!

Tossed the bikes (carefully!) in the trunk of the car (no hitch or rack yet) for the short drive to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, where we picked up the paved trail. The sun was shining, a decent amount of folks were out walking (a decent amount of them were also walking IN the bike lane - I don't like that ); I was glad we bundled up and rode .

The Battlefield park adjoins another City of Greensboro park - Country Park. That's where the lake we rode twice around, the Science Center, and the new Carousel are located. Very nice!

Near the trail that connects the two parks is a Veterans Memorial, where I took the obligatory bike photo . I skipped the selfie of the crazy-clothed, homeless-looking lady with her expensive bike .

View attachment 83342View attachment 83344

Have ridden the Flow twice now. I think the gearing needs a little adjustment, as on a few occasions it seemed to slip from one gear to another. Used PAS 2 to get up the larger hills; otherwise stayed in 0 or 1. I did use the throttle once, on a larger hill on the road in the park (to stay legal), just to experiment. It's very responsive, and I found that I really CAN go as fast - or, in my case, as slow, as I want based on how far I push the throttle trigger.

Still getting to know the bike, but liking it more each ride! So happy I got something to ride here - 6.7 miles of smiles today!

People walking in the bike lane when they have adjacent walking path: Hate it. Meme: God talking with some guy over what sends someone to hell. Questioner: Walking in the bike lane? God: Straight down! Right to the boiler room!

 

[PatriciaK]

People walking in the bike lane when they have adjacent walking path: Hate it. Meme: God talking with some guy over what sends someone to hell. Questioner: Walking in the bike lane? God: Straight down! Right to the boiler room!

Agreed!!!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Daybreak with friends …

Yimbun, Queensland
6.25 am; 7 km​

Before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion regarding my early morning friends, here are my real friends cropped from the centre of the photo before it was reduced for EBR. I've ridden with this ebike-only group a few times and they are almost accustomed to my stopping to take photos. He'll have to switch to Turbo and catch us up!

 

[Chargeride]

The rest of the ride to follow, but here's a short video of the wind.

Omg wind mike needed!

 

[Chargeride]

I seem to have turned my notifications off and thought you'd all gone into hibernation.
So Im just reading now and found out about Stefan.
His poor little cat, but thankfully he is OK and the house can be rebuilt.
I noticed you mentioned you needed some changes.
Maybe new curtains or a haircut next time eh

 

[rajron]

I got my second shot today!

Pfizer vaccine; I didn’t feel a thing, now I know why some people think they are being given a placebo where as a friend got the Moderna vaccine and he couldn’t move his arm for two days, he is not a wimp 6’ 300 lbs.
I rode back to the site and took a picture, it’s hard to grasp how large and well organized this effort is, in the picture for instance the left of the coned parking area left of the white tent, where you get the shot, is another tented area where a mandatory wait occurs. My first shot was two weeks ago and there were just as many people plus this is just one station of many in the Valley of the Sun the largest is at the Cardinals Stadium, our professional American football team’s home, 45 miles away.

I left with a positive feeling - optimistic things will get better.

 

[RandallS]

My wife and I get our first shots in 4 hours from now. It will be Pfizer or Moderna - one of the mRNA ones.
Today is the first day of availability here for our group (health and age issues) so we're pretty happy to be at the front of the line.

My 91 year old mother get's her second shot next week.

 

[RandallS]

Omg wind mike needed!

Just a cell phone - nothing like your setup.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Sunday’s ride was the first time in a while that I was able to re-connect with some familiar faces. A few friends of a local cycling group and I got together for a casual ride in the countryside along the Trans Canada Trail. We cycled at a leisurely pace from Red Deer to Lacombe and back as one of the members of the group was riding a standard MTB. Both combined legs came to just under 70k.

This remarkable piece was on display at the old Wadey Homestead just outside the town of Blackfalds on the way to Lacombe. It features a steel framed quilt made completely out of glass mosaic tile with a painted aluminum figure of Mary Wadey standing proudly beside her handy work. The old 1930’s Maytag washer was taken out of the original home.

Temperature was a mild 11 C with the wind in our favor. We stopped in Lacombe for a picnic lunch at a local park then departed for the trip back home as the weather was expected to take a turn for the worse. On the return leg, however, it was a different story as the strong wind gusts were creating challenging moments for the one group member who was struggling on her Trek hardtail. I swapped my Trance for a while to give her a break from the wind and she was astounded at how easy it was for her to accomplish the climbs on the return leg.

Here's a brief video of our casual Sunday ride.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Today’s ride was a slight departure from Sunday as I headed out towards the single tracks on the north side of the city. Monday was atrocious as Central Alberta was beset with snow squalls and winds gusting up to 85 kph. I wasn’t sure what the trail conditions were going to be like and my main concern was accumulated snow and ice resulting from the -15C overnight temperatures. I would be riding on stock knobby tires so I knew a bit of extra caution was required. It was -11 wind chill when I set out this morning but it was fortunate that I didn’t put away the winter gear yet. Balaclava, winter gloves, boots and gaiters were all donned in preparation for a chilly ride.

The Pines trail was littered with spruce boughs and fresh snow and ice covered some areas of the track. It wasn’t long before I encountered my first downed tree which stretched across the path but didn’t off up much in the form of a barrier.

The second one did however. The top of a larger spruce, further along, blocked the way and I was forced to break a few limbs/branches in order to squeeze the bike past.

This large poplar was yet another casualty of Monday’s squall. Fortunately, I was able to partially roll it away from the trail and continue on from there. @RandallS – It would have been great to have the trail maintenance crew on standby today.

Once my ride through the Pines was complete, I headed over to the Mtn bike park which wasn’t much better. Tread soft and carefully was the mantra here as the snow was quite slippery on sections with bare roots.

Then it was off to Riverbend to check out the trail there. It was pretty clean but there still decent stretches of snow and in particular slippery sections of sheer ice. Absolutely no chance of bombing down the trail today without studded tires.

Some nice views of the river valley at the end of the north side of the Riverbend Ring.

 

[Prairie Dog]

This is a fun little trail that I occasionally ride on my way to the single tracks on the north end of town and entry to the trail head is only a city block from my home. A slight descent is required to access the double track below which runs alongside the small tributary within a forest canopy. I bypass the paved trail on the other side of the creek where there is generally more foot traffic plus this route is just much more enjoyable to ride than the paved MUP.

 

[ChezCheese:)]

I got my second shot today!

Pfizer vaccine; I didn’t feel a thing, now I know why some people think they are being given a placebo where as a friend got the Moderna vaccine and he couldn’t move his arm for two days, he is not a wimp 6’ 300 lbs.
I rode back to the site and took a picture, it’s hard to grasp how large and well organized this effort is, in the picture for instance the left of the coned parking area left of the white tent, where you get the shot, is another tented area where a mandatory wait occurs. My first shot was two weeks ago and there were just as many people plus this is just one station of many in the Valley of the Sun the largest is at the Cardinals Stadium, our professional American football team’s home, 45 miles away.

I left with a positive feeling - optimistic things will get better.

Just so's you're aware, most people I spoke with say the kick comes in about 15-24 hrs later, so be prepared. Everyone just plans to stay home, in bed or on the couch, doing not much. Just remember, this too will pass. The older you are, oddly, the less of a kick you may feel.

 

[PatriciaK]

I got my second shot today!

Pfizer vaccine; I didn’t feel a thing, now I know why some people think they are being given a placebo where as a friend got the Moderna vaccine and he couldn’t move his arm for two days, he is not a wimp 6’ 300 lbs.
I rode back to the site and took a picture, it’s hard to grasp how large and well organized this effort is, in the picture for instance the left of the coned parking area left of the white tent, where you get the shot, is another tented area where a mandatory wait occurs. My first shot was two weeks ago and there were just as many people plus this is just one station of many in the Valley of the Sun the largest is at the Cardinals Stadium, our professional American football team’s home, 45 miles away.

I left with a positive feeling - optimistic things will get better.

We got the Moderna vaccine - a little tired the day after the first. Very tired the day after the second, and I had a splitting headache the whole day .. Not fun! But, the following morning, we both woke up feeling fine. Worth it!

I don't think you can predict the reaction by the vaccine. My sister and her husband had pretty severe reactions to the first Pfizer shot...

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Friends,
It was me who started the fire. Smoking kills.

Some positive news: the masonry of my house is solid and the first floor is totally safe and only very dirty. Although the second floor looks terrible, the roof is almost undamaged. I can imagine lowering the house to the first floor level.

And... Although I lost the kitty and a lot of ware, all my e-bike world is intact. (Because almost everything related was kept downstairs). I might have lost my Adidas FreeRider Pro shoes though

Thank you so much friends for your positive support! I think I needed changes in my life anyway...

Just look after yourself Stefan, the shock can have more bad effects then you think & this is going to take a while to get over. If there is any positive from this I guess the time of year is in your favour. With Spring here and Summer ahead you can at least plan for the refurbishment. Had this happened in November say, with a freezing & dark winter ahead, the mountain would have looked much bigger. Good luck with it all & keep riding, it will help keep your equilibrium.

 

[Chargeride]

This is a fun little trail that I occasionally ride on my way to the single tracks on the north end of town and entry to the trail head is only a city block from my home. A slight descent is required to access the double track below which runs alongside the small tributary within a forest canopy. I bypass the paved trail on the other side of the creek where there is generally more foot traffic plus this route is just much more enjoyable to ride than the paved MUP.

Snow!
Its freakin 22 degrees C here in NW England, got sunburn on my face today.
Utter..utter madness, Boris has opened up travel to beauty spots and half of the north turned up on our beach, police cars zooming about, arrests, human waste everywhere.
So theyve closed them today and it was a bit more normal, this is the inherent problem with England, its just so overcrowded, that any area that becomes of interest gets swamped.
There was a well known tree swing in the woods, found it today and they have pulled the entire tree down, thousands of beer cans, crisp packets, luckily we have an army of volunteers who cleared it all in one night.
It does concern me that these lockdown have ushered in a new interest of partying in the countryside.

 

[Chargeride]

Just a cell phone - nothing like your setup.

I did buy one for the gopro..but never use the audio anyway.

 

[Chargeride]

1-0

 

[Twin Valley]

finally back on the bike this week after about 7 weeks off thanks to the perfect storm of helping family move to their new ranch in northern Briitsh Columbia (oh my can't wait to get back in the summer and explore that back country on bike ), waiting for drive train parts for the Levo (apparently I wore them out in my first year with an e-bike), weather and maybe some lack of motivation on my part thrown into the mix as well - today's picture reveals Twin Valley reservoir reluctantly loosening its grip on winter ice but if one looks closely a wee bit of green under that brown grass - Charl and I will soon have our annual contest as to who spots the first crocus on the west facing hill behind our place - nevertheless, I still look at our southern posts on this thread and wishing I was there - so much so that we

booked a vacation for the Cook Islands (Rarotonga) next February - surely we can travel there by then!