Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Alaskan]

looks like a really nice ride ! do you have two (or more) suitable bikes or did your brother bring one all the way out?

Nancy and I have an embarrassingly fine quiver of 4 ebikes, so when another couple is visiting we can all go out on a ride together. The are different enough in style and functionality to give us some great choices of what to ride for different purposes.

 

[Chargeride]

Got the drone card and this shot just seals the deal for me, fixing punctures in the hills, with a track ahead to climb.
Its that emotive spark in the mind thats triggered by some ancient desire......enough of the poetry.
Get movin.

dronecirc

Watch "dronecirc" on Streamable.

streamable.com

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Central Poland Workout

I drove to Pabianice, formerly a textile industry city south of Łódź too late on Saturday to even think of making my planned imperial century. I rode for a workout to understand the area better instead.

In less than 20 km, I reached a small town of Łask, which was established in 1422. The Hwy 482 turned out to be perfect for cycling: it is equipped with a very broad shoulder.

A collegiate church in Łask (1517). The front is Baroque while the rear is Gothic (no photo, sorry).

A proof I was there

I consulted Google for a good place for a lunch. Trust me: that small pierogi-restaurant in Łask was perfect. And the great asset was a talkative owner, full of charisma and humour It is only six pierogi there. Look at the fork and visualise the size of the dumplings. I left the place stuffed and full of energy!

So I decided to extend the ride to Zduńska Wola (another small town). 3 km before the city, I was caught by raining. And I was totally unprepared for that. The way back was pretty long especially with intentionally low assistance level.

I'll spare you my looks just after return but hot shower and dry clothes at the hotel made me alive again

Since covid restrictions are gradually relaxed here, I could enjoy delicious pizza in a Pabianice restaurant. It is so nice to not wear the face mask... And hotels are working!

I hope it wouldn't rain on Sunday. It will be cold though.

 

[Catalyzt]

Yow! Guys, I know these are all variants of the same rides, but each time, I go a little further and higher up Brand Park Motorway, it gets a little more technical. I only added a few miles, but that added a lot of vertical... 3,265 feet total today in 26 miles, and almost half of that was on the trail and 9 to 11.5% grade. Bit of a workout for a 63-year-old with only 40 Nm. Didn't quite make it to the top-- about a mile and 350 feet short of it-- but I just couldn't reliably guesstimate how climbing on dirt affects overall range. Now I know I can do it. (There's even an alternate descent, but I have to assess that more carefully. Might be too steep or a bit too far.)

May be too hot already to try it this summer, but when conditions permit, I will be able to ride from my house, on the southern side of the eastern Hollywood Hills, to the top of the Verdugo mountains, where I can look out and see the La Crescenta valley. From as far as I got, you can see both the entire eastern Hollywood Hills and downtown off in the left hand corner.

After the first 200 feet of climbing, I didn't see a soul for the entire ascent-- though I could tell by the tire tracks this was a place for MTB and EMTB. The route wasn't that challenging, but those tracks were VERY handy choosing a line on the brief steep stretches. "Well, at least someone got up on the right, I guess over the rocks is better than the sand." I did see one high-power EMTB ascending when I was on my way back down-- he could have had double by torque, definitely wasn't working as hard as I had been-- and later a lone acoustic MTB who gave me an... ambiguous look.

I guess you could say I was... kind of in a positive frame of mind? I mean, do you ever wind up asking yourself, "What is wrong with the world? Why isn't everyone doing this?" Quickly followed by, "Kind of glad they're not..."

Here are a couple of other angles on the bridge in Atwater on the way back, since Reed asked. You can see the sign directing horses to the right and bikers to the left, and the weird little wooden wall that is supposed to keep the horses from spooking. (It's noteworthy that traffic spooked the horse that died here, not a bike.)

And yes, I forget who mentioned it, but there is, indeed a tunnel under the 5 freeway. It is further north up the LA river, and I actually used it on one of my early 15-mile rides on the kit bike this winter... would have run out of electrons otherwise, that tunnel was the only way to get from Crystal Springs Drive to the LA River Bike Path. I never would have found it without Google Maps, and I had to cut across the golf course, which was an adventure in itself-- had to sweet-talk some golfers, and I didn't see the tunnel entrance until I was right on top of it. I ignored the sign that said "No bikes" because I was too stupid to realize it was for horses, and had to walk the bike anyway because it was so sandy... now I realize that was probably to protect the horses hooves. It's also dark and reeks of urine in an area where there are lots of homeless folks-- not a gang encampment by any means, like the one on Berendo, but not the safest, mellowest encampment, either. Just another reason l will never use that tunnel that again. The main one is that I don't want to spook a horse.

You can see a smaller encampment by the base of the bridge on the right. That one looked almost like a tourist camp-- nicer tents, little or no junk, and a weird common area in the back. I am tempted to take photos of some of the camps, because they all are very different, but would never do so without asking permission, and I don't want to stop and do that riding a $2,500 bike.

I'm very pleased with the Motobecane's performance. It handles beautifully on the trail, and the low power E5000 motor isn't going to keep me from going anywhere I could reasonably want to go.

 

[RandallS]

Hi there, I haven't posted here in a awhile. I typically don't do much posting of any length on anything other than my desktop PC. It's been out of service for a few weeks as the power supply was starting to fail, and I had no desire to take out any hard-drives so I kept it powered off for a few weeks until I changed out the PS.

In the meantime, I've been riding a bit, bit most have been in the same place as usual - Nose Hill here in Calgary, Alberta.
Therefore, I'll only show the route of my latest ride, from today.

My May numbers, have been 342 Km traveled, with climbing of 4,452m and a riding time of 21.5 hrs.
But I've taken a few breaks in there, as I hurt my knee a bit (improving thankfully, and the weather was pretty poopy for a while.
Oh - and golf season returned and I'm happy to say my shoulder is holding up remarkably well - with a crap load of birdies to start the year. Unfortunately my driver is not up to scratch yet and is forcing me to modify my swing a bit, but it's a heck of a lot better than I thought it would be.

Here's some stuff from today - I was hitting the singletrack up on the hill and combined it with a visit to my brothers and one of my best friends. My brother has put money down on a Giant Talon and is returning to biking. Bike is supposed to be here in the next 2 weeks. His house backs on the park - so getting anything other than an eMTB would have been silly. He's go some physical ailments so he's starting off with a lower priced bike.

The ride itself :

As you can see via the bottom graphic - lot's of ups and downs.
A lot of it was reasonably technical and my skills are coming back, and some of my downhills were fairly quick.

Pics from today:






I took both the Ergon GP2 grip and Mirrcycle mirror off as I knew I would just be up on the hill and needed slightly narrower bars for riding through some of the thickets.
I am still considering cutting them back a bit, but in the meantime I am using GA3 grips.



Today's ride, had I taken a selfie - would have looked like this - I know I had a big smile on my face as I was having a blast!


Some older pics from the hill:


And even more older pics - @LouLouLePew and I rode from Calgary out to a suburb called Chestermere Lake a few weeks ago. There's an irrigation canal that comes off teh Bow River and feeds an irrigation district to the east of Calgary. As the route was a paved path beside a canal - it was flat and not my normal type of ride, but we had fun nonetheless.



One final story, regarding one of my longtime friends who I golf with a lot.
He's the one one the left on the tee box overlooking the Bow River south of Calgary.
I Birdied that one too, #17 at Speargrass GC - 3 Hybrid and pitching wedge to 2 feet . Feast or famine round - birdies and double bogeys, it's early and I'm still semi broken.


His wife just bought a bike from Costco to ride to work and back, an iGo Elite 3. Nice basic bike and great deal at $1800.
So last Thursday my buddy borrowed my old BionX powered Electra Townie to ride the Legacy Trail between Canmore and Banff, and when they stopped in Banff to grab a snack, she bought a lottery ticket and won $15k. So he is now shopping for an eMTB like mine, although I did tell him the bike rental was $14k and he could keep the bike...

Cheers!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Almost winter…

Brisbane Valley RT
near Moore, Queensland​

This ride:

• 59 km gravel
• 8 ebikes : 6 full-suspension eMTBs (Specialzied or Trek) + 2 R&M (Nevo Nuvinci & Homage Rohloff)

Note the signs of approaching winter at 27ºS (and 152ºE):

• warm clothing in the middle of the day;
• long shadows cast to the south of my friends.

Aren't rail trails meant to have gentle inclines? Well, yes but…

A local farmer used the hiatus between the last train and first trail users to dump and bulldoze a rather large amount of rubble into a disused cutting – cows, tractors and the farmer's Mercedes prefer crossing the trail that way – and now cyclists (ebikers excepted, of course) have to expend extra energy riding over the hill rather than through it!

HoudahGeo : Exact location/date/time of photo*
(* Actually of my iPhone on the ebike, out of photo.)​

 

[Chargeride]

This is how we end up getting banned, theres always one.

 

[Alaskan]

My brother Joe, his wife Mary, Nancy and I went on a fun ride yesterday. We stopped by a model airplane club's "airport" to watch then flying their planes along the way, after the ride we pulled our bikes into the dining patio of our favorite local eatery for a, relaxed, sumptuous outdoor dinner to replace all the calories we burned up on the ride. What a great day!

 

[RabH]

I needed a change of scenery and with a really good forecast it was time to visit one of my favourite parts of Scotland! Its a holiday weekend here so I knew the roads would be busy so I set off at 4.40am! I was treated to a nice sunrise but it was very misty!

In fact the first 50 miles was misty and foggy, I had to remove my glasses to see where I was going! Thankfully the promised sun finally made an appearance and with views like this it was worth cycling in the mist and fog!

After 62 miles my first battery had depleted to 22% so it was time to change to the spare, was I glad to have a full battery for the final 40 miles!!! Especially as I was now heading into the wind, it wasn't strong though but there was plenty climbing to come and level 2 assist made it so much easier, I even had the luxury of level 3 for the tougher climbs!

It really was a wise decision to get out early as these roads get extremely busy at this time of year and especially on a holiday weekend with nice weather, I couldn't have timed it any better and despite the 50 miles in the mist it was a truly epic ride! Last July I did a very similar ride with a single battery, last year I went in the clockwise direction though but here is the comparison!

Single battery!

Dual battery!

There will now follow a plethora of photos (it might take 2 posts) and I make no apology for sharing them! What a day that was, it will live long in the memory!

 

[RabH]

The remainder!

 

[Gbart]

Agree totally. However, putting in that it was an e-bike is irrelevant to what happened. Any bike going downhill is capable of going fast.

This is how we end up getting banned, theres always o

 

[BarnBoy]

Wife told me to get out of the house, so I did! I wanted to go yet again further than I have before, but came up a bit short. Winds and lights were not in my favor. This trail was the old road before all the farmers in this area of Pleasanton decided to plant houses instead of crops….


This trail comes out at the winery I photoed before. But I noticed on the way that the fire stations had their flags at half mast; I assume for Memorial Day weekend….


I few miles down the road from here my CGM alarms started to go off so I stopped for some sugar and liquids. Was great to see youths practicing soccer…


So very close to my previous record for distance. Still suffering from range anxiety, but only 119Wh were used for 25.7miles….
-BB

 

[PatriciaK]

My brother Joe, his wife Mary, Nancy and I went on a fun ride yesterday. We stopped by a model airplane club's "airport" to watch then flying their planes along the way, after the ride we pulled our bikes into the dining patio of our favorite local eatery for a, relaxed, sumptuous outdoor dinner to replace all the calories we burned up on the ride. What a great day!

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The weather looks great! We need to come home!

 

[PowerflyLee formerly known as CheetahLee]

Day off today and tomorrow, gonna feast with one of my brothers and take in an Orioles game. I hope this will be a memorable Memorial Day for everyone, and enjoy the freedom that was paid for by others.

RIP Mike...And We Remember

 

[Prairie Dog]

My brother Joe, his wife Mary, Nancy and I went on a fun ride yesterday. We stopped by a model airplane club's "airport" to watch then flying their planes along the way, after the ride we pulled our bikes into the dining patio of our favorite local eatery for a, relaxed, sumptuous outdoor dinner to replace all the calories we burned up on the ride. What a great day!

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Love those colorful jerseys!!

 

[mschwett]

my longest ride yet today! used 34% (109wh) of the creo's internal battery over 74 miles, 4,600 vertical feet, at an average assistance of 11.44%. of course, that's another way to say zero percent on the flats and downhill and 25 to 30% on the hills lol.

i neglected to take photos of the most beautiful section of the ride, through the redwood forest adjacent to a creek at the northern tip of the route. i was too busy enjoying the ride, which was spectacular even with a bit of holiday traffic.

just 20 minutes into the ride, looking back towards home, near but conceptually very far away already!


quiet shaded residential streets leading up to the foothills.


in the redwoods soon!


midway point fuel stop!


stinson beach was insanely crowded, lots full, miles of totally stopped traffic on the coastal highway. kind of nice to just roll through it all heh.


whoever chose this for a mixed use path needs a new job! there are plenty of ways to make a porous deck over wetlands that don't shake cyclists half to death.


back in the city and almost home! (top of that hill in the near distance...)

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Around The Big Pit

No, @RabH, I didn't make 100 miles on Sunday (congratulations for your effort!) Well @David Berry, you're talking about Australian Winter; I can only say temperatures of 10-14 C (50s F) and strong cold wind prevented me from riding more than 50 miles; yet I could experience one of the most exciting trips of this year on that Sunday! Aware of the weather, I drove with my Vado from Pabianice to Bełchatów in the morning...

Top: The area is so full of greenery, you might be unaware you're riding around the largest industrial enterprise in Poland...

Centre: Until you see that monster. Meet the Bełchatów Power Plant. Brown-coal (lignite) fired powerplant is the largest thermal powerplant in Europe, currently with 5.21 TW (terawatt) of installed power. The plant satisfies one-fifth of Poland's demand for electricity, and it is quite probable my e-bikes, PC, or phones are powered by Bełchatów

Bottom: The powerplant has been in operation since 1977. As far as I know, the early phase meant ecological disaster for the area. The giant open pit lignite mine has drawn water from the area, resulting in dying forests, for instance. Since early 1990s, ecological efforts have reversed the disaster. What you can see in the picture is the Kamieńsk Mountain, a man-made hill created solely of the soil dug in the Bełchatów Open Pit Mine. Foresters have been able to reclaim the soil and create forests there. A huge windmill power-plant has been built, too.

Top: I have modified my ride plan on the fly to climb onto the Kamieńsk Mountain (it has been my dream for years!) And I was met by a bridge made of concrete slabs, endangered with collapse! I really didn't know what to do until I could see a horde of motocross bikers zooming over the bridge! If the bridge didn't collapse under the motorbikes, then...
Centre: Adventure! Adventure! Don't miss any chance! (As a popular song reads)
Bottom: A hard climb. I made it in the Turbo mode in 2nd gear.

I rode my Vado off-road to get to this asphalt road and another view at the power-plant. Two roadies were riding downhill fast. I greeted them, and... One of them stopped his ride, calling his mate to follow him. They climbed towards me.

-- Sir, is your bike equipped with the Supernova headlight?! That's more expensive than my bike! (He was joking). When I saw it, I had to stop! Can I take a photo of your beautiful e-bike?

The cyclist, Paweł, turned out to be a fan of bike technology. He showed a photo of his own e-MTB (Bosch equipped) to me, and we had a pleasant talk. He could not understand how I could ride off-road with a rigid fork. (My acceptable answer was: "Proper tyres, aye?") For one, Schwalbe Smart Sam (and Johnny Watts) are really great! (Paweł and his buddy seen in this picture).

I was climbing off-road to reach a recreation site (can you see a chairlift?) They even have a hotel and restaurant there. I was disappointed not to reach the mountain peak though. And I started riding on very gentle downhill behind some MTBer. I wanted to engage him in some chitchat (the guy was in his late 40s/early 50s).

-- Oh, you're riding a YT? Is it a YT?! -- I exclaimed (you certainly know YT makes boutique MTBs) -- Yes, and so what? -- He answered reluctantly. Slowly, the chat developed. I asked him about riding directions and at some point he said we should part our ways. -- Where are you going? -- I asked -- To the peak! -- He replied -- I'm joining you! -- I exclaimed enthusiastically

And we rode: off-road and uphill. And we talked more. He was (again) surprised I could ride off-road with the rigid fork, asked more questions on my e-bike, and thus we reached an asphalt road. -- If you want to reach the very peak, ride to the left, I'm leaving! -- He said -- Have a nice day! -- I replied and started climbing again.

At the peak of the Kamieńsk Mountain. What adventures! I overtook a very young boy and his old grandpa, both bravely climbing the hill with their trad bikes. Then it turned out, there were three very young brethren on bikes; the oldest rode a fat e-bike! -- Grandpa, I have 1% of the battery left! (I felt sorry for the boy).

Top & centre: The Big Pit, or the Bełchatów Open Pit Lignite Mine.

Bottom: A hardcore traditional roadie, a pleasant man. He had already covered as many as 130 km, and had to ride for the same distance back, upwind! A hero, if you ask me. See also windmills. The power company has to follow the target of "50% of conventional, 50% of renewable power" for the future. The windmill powerplant at the Kamieńsk Mt is not small.

I only need to add the downhill ride was very nice, although I preferred to use brakes not to exceed 50 km/h (@RabH would laugh at me!)

The Biggest Pit in Poland as seen from Szczerców. The Old Big Pit is 10 km (6.2 mi) long, 3 km (1.86 mi) wide, and 300 m (984 f) deep. It will eventually be filled in (the ecology seems to be very important nowadays).

Part of the pit has been already filled in with sand. See the two smoke-stacks. Each of them is 300 m (984 ft) tall, and these are one of the tallest free-standing structures in Poland (the smoke-stack I live next to is only 260 m tall)

This photo was taken by a power (or mining) engineer who brought a group of his friends there and was explaining many interesting facts about the power-plant, the brown coal mine, the Mountain, etc. There was an unexpected Bełchatów Power Plant breakdown several days ago (the first one since 1977); all Polish hard-coal powerplants had to increase their production, and a great deal of electricity had to be bought from Germany. He also told us how you can trade with electricity (something I was completely unaware of!) For instance, many industrial enterprises trade their power quota for weekends!

Young boys racing their quad-bikes westwards of the Old Big Pit.

The Old Big Pit as seen from the west. The best viewing point was blocked by a SUV and a guard, who just threw me out from the place! (He said some heavy machinery would pass the exit in a few minutes, so he insisted I left immediately).

Impressive train of conveyors, transporting brown coal from the New Big Pit to the power-plant over many kilometres.

A monster excavator at the New Big Pit.
Massive cold wind made the return ride very hard. 16 km (10 mi) from Bełchatów, I swapped batteries and rode 100% Turbo (the rest of the ride was 30% Eco).

My whole food for the ride consisted of two sandwiches (I treat my diet seriously!) Post-ride, I became a returning customer at Pabianice Presto Pizza Restaurant. How hungry I had been!

50 miles and 1380 ft elevation gain Only now, I realised the English word was "pit". We Poles name the thing "hole"

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Braving 'the cold' …

Brisbane Valley Rail Trail
Toogoolawah, Queensland
11:50 am; 55 km​

• On the concrete (L–R): R&M Nevo, Specialized Turbo Levo, S-Works Turbo Levo (I knew you'd 'need' to know!)
• The pale mounds scattered across the paddock are termite mounds.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

On the concrete (L–R): R&M Nevo, Specialized Turbo Levo, S-Works Turbo Levo (I knew you'd 'need' to know!)

Indeed! David, what does "cold" mean for Queensland now?

 

[Deleted member 18083]

David, what does "cold" mean for Queensland now?

Queensland : Pine Mountain, Ipswich (aka 'Home')…

Northern Territory : Darwin (near map scale)…

Victorian High Country* – eMTB Paradise (near 'A' in 'Victoria')…

* Remember that nowhere in Australia is genuinely 'high'.

​