Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[reed scott]

From the Infinity site:

• Weight and dimensions: The weight of the seat ranges from 245 to 265 grams. The dimensions are 10 1/4 in (260.35 mm) by 6 ½ in (165.1 mm) for the Elite Series. The dimensions are 11 1/2 in (292.1 mm) by 6 1/2 in (165.1 mm) for the L-Series.

There is no 'L' series available under their 'shop' option. FYI

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Snake Bitten (or, Jagger & Jerzy Spring Ride)

It should have been a perfect riding day. Sunny, 20 C (68 F), and even 24-40 km/h SE wind had positive cooling effect (and, of course, tremendous stopping power). I thought I was prepared for anything. Now (as some of you might know), my mate "Dick Jagger" lives in Warsaw with his young wife and a baby son. As Jagger hasn't brought his bike from his hometown of Wrocław yet, I let him ride my Lovelec. And he was gladly riding it -- unpowered When I was driving (with two e-bikes in my station wagon) to the ride start point, I realized it would be easier if I drove up the Jaggers' place and then he and I would quickly ride to the place. All successful, until...

"See, some electricians joined us!" - was a remark we heard from gathered large group of cyclists Here: at Wild Beef, a popular Warsaw biker place dubbed "The Bar Under The Pipe".

Piotr (the man in the red helmet) was to lead the pack, and Natalia (the gorgeous girl) was taking care about the peloton rear.

Even Janek (a member of the Merry Gang) joined! However, he ran in hot pursuit after another group ride that was heading South (they started 5 minutes earlier).

And the disaster struck. A rail in my Selle Royale Respiro saddle broke just when we started riding... To make a long story short: All ended well when Jagger drove to my (half burnt) house and brought a spare Ergon ST Core Prime saddle for me. We had lost 2 hours and 16 minutes altogether.

The downwind ride to the Marie Curie Bridge was very fast.

When we were essentially repeating my Easter Monday route, @Jerzy Bańkowski gave me a phone call; he had already been on his ride. Facilitated by tailwind, Jerzy met us soon en route. And we rode together into massive headwind.

Now: I noticed I could ride upwind far easier than both friends, only using 25% of assistance! So I reduced the ECO mode to 20%. And finished the ride with 75% of 604 Wh battery! What a range! (100 miles looks doable at the cost of low speed).

Jerzy: "Guys, whole Warsaw and suburbs have ridden out. Major bike paths are totally jammed! Let me lead you through my paths". And we rode through Old Praga, for instance. That part of the city survived WWII; once, it was the most dangerous of Warsaw neighbourhoods. Now, it has nicely gentrified... A mural in a quiet, forgotten street of Old Praga.

@Chargeride certainly knows what Birkenhead on the other bank of the River Mersey (Liverpool UK) used to be, and how it has changed. Praga is Warsaw's Birkenhead.

Not the end of disasters. We started to hurry because Jagger wanted to spend the rest of the nice day together with his family. So, we shortened the ride, parted our ways with Jerzy and hurried back on the left bank of River Vistula. And then I had a crash.

As you already know, there were tens of thousand of cyclists on Warsaw bike paths on this Sunday. I was making a left turn and a hothead crashed into me from behind and the left side. Actually, we had a sideways crash. While the guy kept his balance, I fell.

Believe or not: Almost no consequences. Yes, bruised knees (left one swollen) but I could continue riding! (Yes, I know how to fall with the bike; I just hate doing that...)

I led Jagger onto the tall part of the Warsaw escarpment (no crowds there) and we were zooming like madmen over the King's Road (a sequence of historical streets with no traffic on weekends) to reach the Jagger place on time! Happy! Although I felt worse than I could dream of after such a nice day...

Back at my new place (using Lovelec as my daily commuter e-bike now). The day was so warm I even didn't wear the blue jersey during the ride!

Ride map with POI.

Notice very low average speed.

 

[reed scott]

Riding with other people. What a novel concept. I must try it someday.

Although in my 'youth' I many times rode with huge groups on century rides. Prolly why I don't do it now.

 

[PowerflyLee formerly known as CheetahLee]

Super fun day!

These treads were made for walking, walking all over you (singing)

Duck soup, anyone?

 

[K PierreR]

K, Help us out. How does this thing work? It's so strange looking and counter to ordinary thinking that one's initial impression on seeing one is ..... WHA ...???? But you are obviously no babe in the woods with bikes. And you ride mega distances that most of us cannot achieve. Give us your understanding of this revolutionary bike seat. Please.

As an aging very pragmatic engineer I have to tell you that I didn't spend a lot of time on all of that. It works to such a high degree over everything else I just didn't bother past my satisfaction. I bought the cheapest model. A friend of mine gave me an old one of the originals and my wife wanted it. I put my old saddles back on and chased a bunch of rabbits down the hole until I finally bit the bullet, just ordered the damned thing and was done with it. It pains me greatly to pay that much for half a saddle but pay it I did. Unfortunately, its worth it and they know it.
Of the eight people I know that own one, none of them will trade for anything else. What I hate the most about the saddle is " YOU paid WHAT for that saddle, you better send it back and get a refund because that is only half a saddle, give me a cloud 9 please" A damned Cloud 9 is a comfy two mile or no pedal saddle. You pedal far and it will chaff you but good.
I don't know anyone under 60 that owns one of the Infinity saddles. Somewhat touchy to adjust but when you get it right, you know it.

 

[K PierreR]

Short ride today without the trailer. Just enough to test out the bike. A standard route very close to my house. Ride was 1 hour and 20 minutes. 23.1 miles (37km) all paved. Headwind of 10-15 for half the run, tail wind on return. 350 feet up and 350 feet down (104M). Average speed 18.1 mph (29Kmh). Watts used was 433 watt hours. mileage 18.74 Watt hours per mile (11.43 watt hours per Km) Tires today were 4.4" Jumbo Jim's at 14-16 PSI. about 1 bar

 

[Readytoride]

..To make matter worse, a few times a year I get migraines that are vision disturbance only and a really bad one started 20 mins into the ride, Im talking no central vision and jagged lights around the rest...

Known as an "ocular migraine" or "migraine aura" when accompanied by a circle of the marquee lights (jagged and flashing) surrounding the blank spot in one's vision. Hereditary for the most part and somewhat common. Fortunately no pain, just annoying. Tends to last 15-25 minutes and affects a small % of the vision in both eyes since it is brain related. One just has to wait it out.

 

[Readytoride]

Stole some time away yesterday afternoon from the endless Farm and House Projects To-Do List (which included mowing about 8 acres of pastures and then transplanting 100 strawberry plants in a new garden bed) to enjoy the delights of an impromptu Spring afternoon ride with my LaFree on the local roads. Had asked G earlier if she wanted a chance to escape adult responsibilities by joining me, but she was mired in her To-Do list and paperwork. She did make me promise to ride again today so she could join me, and would text L to come with us as well.

So I headed off with no agenda other than to rest my aching back (which had been complaining as the new garden bed had to be amended with 400 lbs of wet (it had just been rained on for 3 days) aged organic equine produced manure that needed to be dug from ye old manure pile and transported via wheelbarrow to the garden first before turning it into the soil for the strawberries to be happy). I was worried that the gravel roads would be wet and/or muddy from the recent rains, but was pleasantly surprised at how dry they were with just a few hours of intense sunlight.

Mindless hours today spent on our big farm tractor mowing acres of my own pastures, plus my 80 year old neighbor's fields with their tractor, was nothing compared to the hours spent by the local farmers tilling their fields to get them ready for crop seeding. If you look close in the picture below you will see a tiny square dot that is IRL a very big farm tractor. (I have added a helpful arrow in case you couldn't find the tractor)

But what entranced me today was the incredible blue skies. That and the puffy clouds that were the harbinger of thunderstorms moving in our direction. The storms were still a few hours away, so I dwalded, stopping at my leisure to take photographs and enjoy the views whenever the road topped a rise high enough and open enough to offer a lofty vista.

Because the afternoon was mine, and any direction I chose was A-OK by the committee of 1 (me), I decided it would be fun to see what was going on in a local development several miles up the paved road. A big time residential development company had purchased (for $17 million) a farm with a large lake as the central focal point, and had built new roads and planted new houses all around the lake's perimeter. They had withheld the best section for last, opening it up recently to sell the premier lots (lowest price for 1/3 acre lot with a colonial style house was $700,000, and ALL of the 50 or more lots were already sold). Not much that was picture worthy. I mean, when you've seen one building site you've seen them all. Then I saw this sign:

Totally made my day.

The other thing that made my day was the spectacular blooming of all the redbud trees enroute. An "understory" tree that likes protected spaces under other trees, and down in hollows where the winds can't damage the fragile limbs, this arbor species puts on a brillant display of fuscia colored flowers in early April. Accompanied by the pink or white blooms of the dogwood trees, and against a backdrop of fresh green grass, the redbud is the best indicator that Springtime in Virginia has truly arrived.

When the redbud trees bloom, the arrival of the hummingbirds isn't far behind.

The arrival of hordes of cyclists out to enjoy our roads on the Springtime weekends isn't far behind, either.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Short local rides with friends.

Mount Hallen, Brisbane Valley RT
10:35 am (after coffee!); 39 km​

Much the same area, but a week earlier…

Esk, Brisbane Valley RT
The previous week.​

 

[RabH]

@Stefan Mikes Loved your ride report despite your misfortune, great photos as always! You really were unlucky on such a perfect day for cycling, if it had been a horrid day I bet nothing untoward would have happened! I hope your pain is minimal today, take care my friend!

@Readytoride That sign made my day also, must be a construction thing! I'm glad you managed to get some time to enjoy a lovely day, great read once again!

After yesterdays big disappointment today more than made up for it, a glorious 50+ miler on surprisingly dry roads! It was bitterly cold once again but I was dressed for it and wasn't going to let it spoil my awesome ride! Lots of lambs in the fields today, I'm sure they were glad the sun was out!

This one decided to pose for me before running to mummy

Lots of roads like this today which are such a joy when they are dry and traffic free!

This one is from the opposite direction, it snakes a lot and is much steeper than the photo suggests! Today I was climbing it but I recently descended it which is a lot of fun!

This is Blacklaw wind farm which has 88 huge turbines, producing a little more power than my e bike! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Law_Wind_Farm

This was actually my 300th ride on my Giant Road E+1 Pro today, one of the few benefits of Covid 19 and the lockdown! I would never have imagined covering over 14,000 miles in 3 years, all thanks to purchasing a truly awesome life changing bike! The weather is looking promising for the rest of the week so I hope to add a few more miles to my total after tomorrows rest day!

 

[Chargeride]

northView attachment 84423View attachment 84424View attachment 84425View attachment 84426 portland oregon Cathedral park.

Love those pics.
The trail is part of the Forest of Bowland in NW England

And yes that top left name is correct
Just finished the vid for those with a spare 5 mins.

 

[RandallS]

Well, been busy doing other things, so I'm behind on ride reports.
This will be 1 of 3, and is mainly about the mud.

Set out with no particular destination in mind other than up to the park and I thought I'd see how conditions are progressing.

At one of the features, a rock maze, there was a family checking it out. The adult males lost interest quickly as they were more interested in my bike! After leaving that area, I headed up to one of the ridges on the southside of the park and came across a Gov't of Canada environmental study area.


As expected, trails were dry in areas where they weren't sheltered from sun and wind, and less so when they weren't (that would be section X).

Dry:


Not so dry:


Really NOT dry!
Underneath all that was a Johnny Watt that was in it's wrong element...

The picture of the muddy wheel really didn't do the conditions justice.
There were football sized clumps of mud on the chainstay/seat-tube and front fork crown that I had to remove by hand as bike would not move..

As my hands were filthy I chose to not use my phone camera to document until I could clean up a bit.
I did have a good belly laugh about the whole thing - it was nothing to worry about.

Once I rode a few hundred meters on firmer ground, the tires had sufficiently cleared themselves that I wasn't a danger to any oncoming traffic anymore and I wandered about a little longer to clean ROGER up.
There was mud going everywhere!



Was a great day to fly a kite!
I'm not sure if they were just starting or just in the process of wrapping up.

The pictures do not do justice as to how dirty everything was.


A little hose work, with some scrubbing with some soapy water and things were back to a reasonable level of cleanliness - ready to get it dirty again...

No audiobook on this ride due to operator error.
I thought I'd downloaded an audiobook from the library but it was in fact an ePub book, and that's not something I'll do while riding!

Next report will document a brand new location - Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park.

 

[RandallS]

Post 2 of 3.
Last Wednesday, I was part of a small group ride just west of Calgary, at the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park.
@LouLouLePew had his Giant and one of my buddies rode his analog Kona.
He's a super strong cyclist and for the most part, could keep up with us with no problems - although we had to laugh as teh wind switched directions on us so we were bucking a headwind for almost all of the ride.

After riding out, into the wind, to the eastern edge of the park at Y, the wind turned around so we had to fight back to the west as well!

At Y, we turned back and retraced our way and ended up at X for a spot of lunch in a nice location beside the river.



Post lunch, we continued around a gravel loop adjacent to the Bow River, and then rejoined the main East-West pathway, and headed for Z.
Unfortunately, my PIC's of part of that were defective (? ?).
It was a bit of a climb up, and although it was a lot of fun heading down, the gravel was too thick in some places, so velocity restraint was required.



Post ride, we stopped by my friends place for a beverage. It's likely the last time I'll be on that deck as it's sale closed on Friday.
@LouLouLePew enjoying the sunshine and his beverage!

Great day out with friends but it's pretty clear that it's a weekday type of thing.
Not a lot of parking and it was pretty full for a Wednesday in April.

Next ride report - some Singletrack on some new locations up on Nose Hill.




.

 

[rajron]

Took a ride to Tempe forty-five-mile round trip and still had more battery left, two bars. Rode with lowest level assistance for much of the distance because wind was to my back or extra power wasn’t needed, on the way home I upped the assistance when the wind got too much and then at the end rode with Sport mode for the last six miles.
It took about three hours my legs feel heavy.
Wonderful bike trails in the area which follows the Salt River to Tempe Town Lakes.
The trail connects several stadiums for one of the baseball spring training forums in the valley. https://www.j2design.us/portfolio/rio-salado-stadium-connector/ There is access to several retail markets, condominiums, and office buildings, at west end of the bike trail is Arizona State University football stadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Devil_Stadium
ASU is the largest university in the country +55K students on the various campuses.

Where I started the bike path, map at the curve.

You can just see the stadium at the upper left.

On the west bride of the Mill AVE. Bridges

 

[RandallS]

Post 3 of 3.

Although it wasn't as warm as it's been around here, it was still reasonably pleasant and there were a LOT of MTB's on the trails.




I followed some familiar trails for a while and then came across one heading into a ravine that I hadn't ridden before, so I headed down it.

In spots it was quite a little ditch, and pedal strikes became quite a problem further on where I basically just slammed the seat down and pretended I was a 5 year old on a Strider bike.

Lunch Time - ham and swiss on a portugese roll!

There were a number of sections that were very narrow tracks on the sides of the hills, and I was very careful as my balance has been poor since my accident in 2012.
I need to be ready to ditch onto the uphill side as some of the downhill sides were not anything I wanted to experience. No PICs - I didn't want to stop!
As almost always - one of my blaze orange gloves found its way into one of the shots again.

Good day to check out some new stuff, and to enjoy some trails I know already.

Audiobook is Peter May's "Blacklight Blue", part 3 of the Enzo files (6 books).
I had to skip book 2 of the series as I mistakenly downloaded the ebook instead and no copies of the audiobook are available yet.

That catches me up on the last week's rides.
I've been quite un-motivated lately - so hopefully I've kicked that little "interlude of ennui".

It's been over a year of this COVID crap, and with other things happening, I've certainly not been at my best lately.
I cannot imagine how much more of that I'd be experiencing without my bike.

 

[K PierreR]

I have targeted Friday and Sunday for my best of long ride Out Friday, work Saturday and return on Sunday. One way ride is 128 miles (205Km) and 5,000 feet of climbing (1.500+m). Probably 400lb gross (182 Kg) 29" 29" G One All round 99% paved. Pulling trailer. Planed average speed 16 mph (25.6kph) or 8 hours in the saddle. Will take off about 7AM. There will be a full report on return as I will be keeping track of numbers like always.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Friend! Good news!

My Pentax K-1 DSLR camera has survived the fire, together with a battery, and two good lenses (Sigma 35 mm f/1.4, and Tamron 90 mm f/2.8 Macro). A Chinese replacement battery charger costs dimes. Best of all is I found installed (and configured) the "boxed" version of Adobe Lightroom together with ON1 photo tools on my laptop! Meaning, I will be able to come back with nice pictures from my rides soon

My new office. @Brix in the wallpaper.

Winter is still fighting with Spring this week here. Cold, wet, dull days ahead. I mostly commute between my old and new home on the Lovelec. Now, I've come to believe the hub-drive motor e-bikes are proper for commuting!

 

[steve mercier]

Love those pics.
The trail is part of the Forest of Bowland in NW England
View attachment 84540

And yes that top left name is correct
Just finished the vid for those with a spare 5 mins.

Great video of some fun looking singletrack !

 

[steve mercier]

Mt Baker over the vines ;

 

[steve mercier]

The house on the left under construction will have a nice view from its deck.