Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Stefan Mikes]

30mph headwind

No wonder there are so many windmills in Scotland

Ride through standing water like that where I came from and you’ll wind up stuck ass deep in mud and gators hahahaha

No alligators in Poland but mosquitoes can eat you alive!

 

[Haystacks]

Polish guy tries to tell a scot about midges. Priceless.

 

[Dallant]

Polish Gravel Cycling

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Did anyone say Specialized e-bikes weren't waterproof? They are...
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Ankle deep!

That’s the turn around point in my world.

 

[PatriciaK]

Polish guy tries to tell a scot about midges. Priceless.

That’s the turn around point in my world.

The midgiest place I've ever been is the Lake Myvatin (which means midge) area of Iceland - huge black clouds of them you could see from miles away, and they got EVERYwhere!

 

[Chargeride]

I was driving back from a snow climbing course in Glencoe.
Its that famous road with the James Bond Skyfall house in a valley scene.
Anyway there was a bike race on and a water/ checkpoint set up every few miles.
After passing a few I commented that theres not a lot of black people in Scotland..but every single volunteer/race official was black.
So we slowed down at the next one and it turned out they were just wearing full hand and face black mesh midge protection.

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Not really interested in my passing…

Fairney View
Brisbane Valley Rail Trail
20l9 R&M Homage Rohloff​

Sunday's ride on the rail trail involved an early start and a late return, both on my own, with a thoroughly enjoyable social ride with almost thirty other ebikers separating them. The image above is from part of the ride when the only company I had was a mob of not particularly interested cattle.

 

[Anna]

Not really interested in my passing…

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Fairney View
Brisbane Valley Rail Trail
20l9 R&M Homage Rohloff​

Sunday's ride on the rail trail involved an early start and a late return, both on my own, with a thoroughly enjoyable social ride with almost thirty other ebikers separating them. The image above is from part of the ride when the only company I had was a mob of not particularly interested cattle.

David, it looks to me like a few of those cows are considering the ‘species’ of the intruder and whether or not to take it out! . Once again, beautiful photography.

 

[Anna]

With the dense smoke from burning sequoias lingering in the air, this summer’s riding opportunities have not been favorable... only occasional hurried hill climbs just to wake up the ‘cycling muscles.’ The wildlife seems uneasy and thirsty. Cycling vicariously through you all!

 

[kahn]

This thread is by far very entertaining and informative than most.
I went for a relaxed ride on one my favorite trail. Petroleum pipeline trail that leads to the wild life refuge. I learned from another ebiker riding a sondors folding X that the pipeline used to operate under the name BHP Hawaii (Broken Hill Propriety)
I was lucky to spot a duck on the water and noticed a few new trees planted along the stream. The fallen tree is still laying there. It had fallen a month ago when there was highwinds and heavy rain.
I then decided to get the old heart pumping and did a few laps around the dirt pit being developed into $700K - $1M plus homes After I was sweaty and satisfied, I stopped drank the blended fruit drink my ol lady made.
My bike sure looks like a gnat compared to the giant earth mover
"Big Wheels keep on turning " TinaTurner came to mind when I saw the earth mover.
I then pedaled homebase bound to watch NFL.

Your Big Wheel shot reminded me of one of my own. Showing how much snow there can be, this was taken in the month of May. Washington Pass, North Cascades Hwy.

Oh, I might as well overdo it with old, motorless images

 

[ActionJackson]

Funny I was thinking leather bag out those cow hides.

And Beef Curry

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Your Big Wheel shot reminded me of one of my own. Showing how much snow there can be, this was taken in the month of May. Washington Pass, North Cascades Hwy.

Kahn, your and Rome's 'big wheels' tempted me to put a link back to a John Deere 4730 self-propelled corn sprayer that I encountered on a ride last year. Rather than have the 2020 Rides thread reactivated, here is the beast rolling past my Homage which was cowering behind me out of harm's way:

I went for a relaxed ride on one my favorite trail. Petroleum pipeline trail that leads to the wild life refuge. I learned from another ebiker riding a sondors folding X that the pipeline used to operate under the name BHP Hawaii (Broken Hill Proprietary).

Where Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) began (inverted red teardrop):

• Best to ignore "Attractions" on the map; Broken Hill is an isolated mining town and doesn't have too many.
• The red X (obscuring "Brisbane") indicates the location of the photos of the cattle and the John Deere sprayer.
• The red X is also where I am now, and is roughly the same distance south of the equator (top edge of map) as Hawaii is north of it.
• The bottom edge of the map (49ºS) is the equivalent of the US/CA border. With the exception of Antarctica, there's an awful lot of water and not much land down there!
• The right border of the map is 180ºE: cross it and you'll change the date from 'today' to 'yesterday'.

 

[Alicia Margaret]

Haven't posted in a while, for various reasons, including I spend too much time in front of a screen as I've gone back to work for a while.
Retirement #4 was over and I was getting bored.

But often it's because I ride mostly in the same place all the time because it's so close to home and how many pictures of Nose Hill and the Rockies in the distance do you want to see???

However, autumn is here and it was a glorious day - these pictures are all from around 10-15 minutes from my house.

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Hope everyone here is doing well!

Wow

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Bolimoza (Polish Style Gravel Cycling)

"Gravel cycling" is the hype of recent years. You know that: lightweight road bikes designed as gravel-worthy, with pretty wide tyres, flared drop bars, and with Shimano GRX groupset as obligatory feature Guys and girls zooming pavement to switch to gravel and back to asphalt at high speed and long distance! Super expensive bikes! The fashion came to Poland from the United States (as I understand, the U.S. seem to own the biggest share of gravel roads worldwide). Funnily enough, gravel roads are pretty scarce in our country, with pavement or dirt/sand roads dominating. Therefore, Polish gravel cyclists ride some gravel but that's mostly pavement and/or off-road

I took a "Polish gravel cycling" route in the Bolimów Landscape Park from a gravel cycling club, modified it, and rode alone on last Saturday from Żyrardów at 10:36 a.m. (my friend Howard could not join me because of force majeure; my gravel riding mate Przemek set off at 8:00 for a shorter ride in his neighbourhood: he regretted that later!)

That's what would be the ideal terrain for gravel cyclists: Either asphalt or gravel.

My Vado is not a gravel bike. It doesn't need to be. It is as capable as a gravel bike. Only it is heavy

Not sure when and where I took that photo but it looks I was still in high spirits there That part of the day was warm and sunny: No need for a windbreaker!

That place should get me thinking if my idea of a "Polish gravel ride" was indeed smart (Nobody makes as much of damage to forest roads as lumberjack brigades with they heavy vehicles).

I could see a morass somewhere in the forest. The water level was as high as to break into the road and cut it. Approaching the (50 metre long or so) "puddle" slowly, I was thinking rapidly "Will I make it or not? How deep?" and I simply rode into it! It was ankle-deep, and I mean ankle-deep when you were pedalling! I didn't lose the momentum and just pedalled through it! What a fun! (A couple of kilometres farther, I inspected my shoes: they were full of stinky water!)

Somewhere, I found a small metal gangway over River Korabiewka.

I was hungry, far from civilization, and that was Sunday when the trade is generally banned. In Ruda, I recollected the city of Skierniewice was not that far, so I pedalled for some ice-cream and a hot-dog/coffee to the town suburbs. I know I look stupid there I was only thinking of eating something, haha!

Then I stopped taking any photos but was just riding hard. When I saw that house, I recollected I WUZ THERE on one of my earlier trips of the last year. Only I was riding an e-MTB and was on last fumes at that time.

On July 10th this year, That Woman took us for a group ride to see her Aunt, a herbalist in Wycinka Wolska. This time, Ewa recognized me, and she with his partner Jurek invited me in for tea and a chat. What a nice place and charming people!

It was an exciting ride for me. Especially, as I managed to lose my way inside the forest for several times...

 

[Deleted member 18083]

David, it looks to me like a few of those cows are considering…

I'm not sure that they'd want to be called 'cows'! (Not that they are going to grow up to be bulls, poor fellas!)

Gravel roads are pretty scarce in our country… My Vado is as capable as a gravel bike. Only it is heavy.

The section of our rail trail frequented by the young beef 'cows' is much favoured by gravel cyclists. It is rough and challenging: ideal terrain for my heavy Homages (just a different experience).

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The section of our rail trail frequented by the young beef 'cows' is much favoured by gravel cyclists. It is rough and challenging: ideal terrain for my heavy Homages (just a different experience).

David, let me show you a picture with the breakdown of surface types for the "gravel" route I rode on Sunday:

Only 26% of the route is really gravel (or, "not specified") here!

No doubt your Homages would handle such ride perfectly! (Unless the Homage would sink because of its weight hehe)

 

[kahn]

I'm guessing
Did you plow your way up on the mountain. descended with your bike and park the green machine for somebody else to return it to the yard?

I did not plow on the ROAD bike.

But did on the mountain bike. This was in March another year. It was a bit nuts. I actually did it alone and ran into others. It was slimy and squirrelly and I was frozen. It was deeper than I expected and downhill was slow and slippery. The last shot was the same day down in the valley. This was the house my friend was building - she planned it herself. Washington Pass closes almost ever Winter and generally does not reopen until May, so there were no cars.

 

[Adventum]

Oil is already losing, just as the horse transportation based society did in the early 1900s. Horses were pretty much gone by 1940. I suspect gasoline cars will follow that same trend by 2040.

Well, Flora, just as you still enjoy horses, some of us will always appreciate great car makes even though licensed as "antiques."

 

[kahn]

Cool I meant burrrr!
Im rolling towards the beach on one of my short cuts.
I miss the ocean. Needing a swim in the Pacific. Almost there.
Im just taking a breather.

The Pacific by us, WA state, is almost like the snow. Wet suit swimming.

 

[kahn]

Anybody notice that Stefan only goes places where ice cream cones are available?

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Six ebikes, all in a row…

Lowood
Brisbane Valley Rail Trail​