Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

Rode up Little Mountain Road today, which is a seriously steep hill. Only a handful of riders on regular bikes have made it to the top without having to get off and walk.
I don't know the degrees of steepness, but it's a bitch.
Here's a photo from the top.

IMG_2700.jpeg
 
1652012704583.png


A perfect day for a bike ride, wish I could have gone way further but I have to be happy with 50 milers for now! I had a 20mph headwind to contend with for the first 32 miles but my bike can handle winds like that no problem! I headed south today and enjoyed some very nice roads! I had this lovely road all to myself, a nice 17% gradient to get the heart rate up ;) For some reason Ridewithgps says my max grade was only 12% :rolleyes:

1652012947088.png

1652013096123.png


Into the town of Strathaven in South Lanarkshire!

1652013307182.png


As you leave Strathaven its straight into the countryside and the lambs were out in force today!

1652013416854.png


A few miles on and I came across 2 calves, mom wasn't interested! 🤣 Mom is needing a good wash I think...

1652013544680.png



The start of the descent into the Clyde Valley!

1652013687024.png


Part way down the descent, I took lots of photos here but they all came out over exposed except this one...no idea what happened with my phone! The lady that owns this house saw me taking photos and asked if I was enjoying the view, I told her I will never get sick of that amazing view!

1652013872103.png


Into the valley now and I stopped at the bridge at Kirkfieldbank before the very strenuous climb up the hill to Lanark! The river is pretty high at the moment and with rain all next week its only going to get higher...

1652014066268.png


At the top of the climb the view of the valley is pretty awesome, you can see the hill I just climbed in the foreground!

1652014249073.png


What a great ride that was, probably my last for a while if the weather forecast for the coming week is correct...fingers crossed they may be wrong!
 

Attachments

  • elevation_profile73.jpg
    elevation_profile73.jpg
    22.6 KB · Views: 100
  • trip-89465073-map-full73.png
    trip-89465073-map-full73.png
    446.5 KB · Views: 113
  • 20220508_092436.jpg
    20220508_092436.jpg
    536.5 KB · Views: 112
  • 20220508_094735.jpg
    20220508_094735.jpg
    723 KB · Views: 109
  • 20220508_100717.jpg
    20220508_100717.jpg
    600.8 KB · Views: 108
  • 20220508_103110.jpg
    20220508_103110.jpg
    484.7 KB · Views: 111
  • 20220508_103121.jpg
    20220508_103121.jpg
    741.1 KB · Views: 104
  • 20220508_103159.jpg
    20220508_103159.jpg
    650 KB · Views: 101
  • 20220508_103716.jpg
    20220508_103716.jpg
    794.5 KB · Views: 105
  • 20220508_105136.jpg
    20220508_105136.jpg
    548.2 KB · Views: 115
  • 20220508_105227.jpg
    20220508_105227.jpg
    426.3 KB · Views: 113
Last edited:
The lady that owns this house saw me taking photos and asked if I was enjoying the view, I told here I will never get sick of that amazing view!

That is so nice. I've been confronted by angry people when taking pictures and sometimes, I worry about getting shot! Why/what are you taking pictures of!! ( kind of like the dreaded, What are you looking at?) I was nervous about stopping for all the tractor pictures. A different world.
 
Just joined this group. 2 Ariel Rider Xclass 48 volt. Purchased last summer. Added 2nd battery for 50 mile throttle only range, new tires, horn, alarms.
We have Sena bluetooth helmets for communication
 

Attachments

  • 20A4DF8D-84E4-475C-B1AB-CAF69D1C492E.jpeg
    20A4DF8D-84E4-475C-B1AB-CAF69D1C492E.jpeg
    481.8 KB · Views: 123
  • 3BA29A3E-2E91-48A7-8287-FC263337A6CA.jpeg
    3BA29A3E-2E91-48A7-8287-FC263337A6CA.jpeg
    683.6 KB · Views: 121
The lady that owns this house saw me taking photos and asked if I was enjoying the view, I told here I will never get sick of that amazing view!

That is so nice. I've been confronted by angry people when taking pictures and sometimes, I worry about getting shot! Why/what are you taking pictures of!! ( kind of like the dreaded, What are you looking at?) I was nervous about stopping for all the tractor pictures. A different world.
That should have said her, not here haha! Yes she was very nice about it, I did have a guy question me one day! He shouted what are you doing? that's my wife there! I quicky replied, I'm taking photos of the wonderful scenery actually, do you have a problem with that? He then apologised and I went on my way, strange guy! His wife was in the doorway of a farm house and actually behind where I was taking my photos! :rolleyes:

Welcome @tdevery cool bikes 👍
 
That should have said her, not here haha! Yes she was very nice about it, I did have a guy question me one day! He shouted what are you doing? that's my wife there! I quicky replied, I'm taking photos of the wonderful scenery actually, do you have a problem with that? He then apologised and I went on my way, strange guy! His wife was in the doorway of a farm house and actually behind where I was taking my photos! :rolleyes:

Welcome @tdevery cool bikes 👍
Ah, so we American's got our belligerent attitude from you folks over there! :eek: (that should stir up a hornet's nest!)
 
No rides, sun mixed with weekends means everywhere is rammed.
Pushed the new creation to the top of a sandune for piccies.
Then decided to ride down it, gopros severely flatten hills and this was seriously steep, I only did so because a crash would have just meant picking sand out from everywhere.
When I let the brakes off it was a roller coaster ride.
 
Liw Castle & The Heritage Ride #4

'We're going to use possibly low assistance during our Saturday ride' -- Jacek warned me the day before -- 'I'd use the minimum allowed by Giant to see how far I could go on a single battery!'. Half past six in the morning I was riding off the Junkyard by the Tank to quickly cover a 15 km distance to Decathlon Bemowo, or our meeting point. (I had extra clothes on me, as it was cold!) After we met, Jacek packed our gear into his car and we reached Łochów (including a small breakfast on the trip), being able to start the ride at 9:10 a.m. Jacek's "50% assistance" meant "You input 1 watt to get 0.5 W of the motor assistance". Translated to my half as strong legs as brother's, I had to use 35/35% of full power Specialized assistance, with twice as much battery energy expenditure (1.12 W of motor power per 1 W of leg power)!

1652060594642.png

Before1429, Janusz I of Warsaw, a Prince of Mazovia, told his mason Niclos to erect a castle on the River Liwiec. Nowadays, the Castle in Liw (read: Leev) is a distant tourist attraction of the northeast Mazovia. You better take a train or car to get into the area! The shortest cycling round trip from Warsaw is 160 km, and Warsaw roadies often set the castle as the target for their Double Metric Centuries! (We only had to cycle for 33 km from Łochów).

1652060981151.png

Warning: As soon as you set your foot on the Castle grounds, you are bound to buy a ticket! I didn't mind, and had a peek inside the Armoury as well.

1652061042664.png

I don't mind when Jacek drinks a single bottle of beer early on our long trip. The mass-produced lager is disgusting for me. For a company, I had a glass of non-alcoholic Łomża beer. Awful carbonated water with taste of very bad hops, if you ask me :D We completed our Liw visit with Zhur. It was good but it was not the solid lunch I had expected!

1652061296080.png

Jacek was on his genealogic trip now. As we are actually first cousins, I was not
that interested in his maternal family roots :)
Top: After a 10 km ride into headwind.
Centre: A library of a borough village of Stoczek Węgrowski. It is located in a historical wooden house.
Bottom: Inside the Bug Landscape Park. During WW2, the villages in the area were occupied by German soldiers in the daytime. The local population were returning to their homes for the night (when the soldiers were out). Actually, people there spent five years of the occupation sitting in the woods with their livestock!

1652061742005.png

At my Aunt Teresa (Jacek's Mother) family homestead in Bojewo. We met my Uncle, Teresa's brother there. We got excellent coffee from that old pensioned farmer! And I could listen to how the Uncle was speaking with the local countryside vocabulary! (Polish has no difficult or special regional accents or languages -- except of Silesia and Kashubia -- but the countrymen use different wording).

1652062035393.png

Beautiful weather and vistas as we rode from Bojewo to Sadowne.

1652062101888.png

Jacek was tracking his ancestors in the cemetery of Sadowne. I looked at a huge church (1909) and was thinking how many people of that village /and around/ had to contribute to be able to erect such an enormous building!

1652062254232.png

My journey was not over yet. After the return to Decathlon, I still had to pedal to get back to the Tank!

1652062320915.png

Jacek fancied having a decent lunch in Łochów's "Grill Bar" but it was closed! We could find a private restaurant by name 'Top Drive'. Organized on McDonald's principle, it was McDonald's + KFC + Pizza Hut in one! :) Clean, tasty, and fast! I must have been hungry but the pizza was just delicious!

1652062509536.png

Our main trip. Jacek got the range estimate of 187 km (+20% battery left!) for his Giant e-bike and for his strong legs!


1652062630941.png

My commutes, and the overall ride distance.

1652062913348.png

Within the map of Poland.

1652070350061.png

Historical map. 1381: Mazovia being split between Janusz I and his brother Siemowit IV. Janusz establishing the capital city of Mazovia in Warsaw. Liw was an important city then, on the Podlachian frontier.
 
Last edited:
On Sunday, we went back to Stanwick Lakes in Northamptonshire. The sun was shining, with virtually no wind and temperatures around 18oC.
259827C1-695C-45F3-AFBD-59FE259B42DA.jpeg

This is now a country park and has lakes, old railway trail, canals and a nature reserve. It was formally old gravel pits that were used during World War Two in the building of military establishments.

The last time we were there,which was in March, it was fairly flooded, but it was nice and dry this time.

Our first picnic stop.
98970D04-610A-4F4B-A948-87228D10FB3A.jpeg
3C109E56-E328-4013-B067-A0E7EBB79128.jpeg


Our second picnic stop was at Rushton Lakes which is a retail park, built in the nature reserve, seems to work.
D64258CD-9F61-4702-AB19-C18EB8D572F9.jpeg

BBCA3885-A250-4E4E-A469-29AA2FF7C6F5.jpeg


Mrs DG decided that she wanted to be a model.
873187A8-0231-40D2-AE7D-29F290E0DBFD.jpeg


We had fitted some new Ergon GP2 grips and a new mirror to Mrs DGs bike, so we’re trying them out and can report back that they worked well.
6EDA09B7-E70D-4CF6-B764-602F7074BC70.jpeg


We like riding round here as it is quite varied, without being too challenging. Looking forward to trying in the winter when the trees have lost their cover.
 
Liw Castle & The Heritage Ride #4

'We're going to use possibly low assistance during our Saturday ride' -- Jacek warned me the day before -- 'I'd use the minimum allowed by Giant to see how far I could go on a single battery!'. Half past six in the morning I was riding off the Junkyard by the Tank to quickly cover a 15 km distance to Decathlon Bemowo, or our meeting point. (I had extra clothes on me, as it was cold!) After we met, Jacek packed our gear into his car and we reached Łochów (including a small breakfast on the trip), being able to start the ride at 9:10 a.m. Jacek's "50% assistance" meant "You input 1 watt to get 0.5 W of the motor assistance". Translated to my half as strong legs as brother's, I had to use 35/35% of full power Specialized assistance, with twice as much battery energy expenditure (1.12 W of motor power per 1 W of leg power)!

View attachment 122771
Before1429, Janusz I of Warsaw, a Prince of Mazovia, told his mason Niclos to erect a castle on the River Liwiec. Nowadays, the Castle in Liw (read: Leev) is a distant tourist attraction of the northeast Mazovia. You better take a train or car to get into the area! The shortest cycling round trip from Warsaw is 160 km, and Warsaw roadies often set the castle as the target for their Double Metric Centuries! (We only had to cycle for 33 km from Łochów).

View attachment 122772
Warning: As soon as you set your foot on the Castle grounds, you are bound to buy a ticket! I didn't mind, and had a peek inside the Armoury as well.

View attachment 122773
I don't mind when Jacek drinks a single bottle of beer early on our long trip. The mass-produced lager is disgusting for me. For a company, I had a glass of non-alcoholic Łomża beer. Awful carbonated water with taste of very bad hops, if you ask me :D We completed our Liw visit with Zhur. It was good but it was not the solid lunch I had expected!

View attachment 122776
Jacek was on his genealogic trip now. As we are actually first cousins, I was not
that interested in his maternal family roots :)
Top: After a 10 km ride into headwind.
Centre: A library of a borough village of Stoczek Węgrowski. It is located in a historical wooden house.
Bottom: Inside the Bug Landscape Park. During WW2, the villages in the area were occupied by German soldiers in the daytime. The local population were returning to their homes for the night (when the soldiers were out). Actually, people there spent five years of the occupation sitting in the woods with their livestock!

View attachment 122777
At my Aunt Teresa (Jacek's Mother) family homestead in Bojewo. We met my Uncle, Teresa's brother there. We got excellent coffee from that old pensioned farmer! And I could listen to how the Uncle was speaking with the local countryside vocabulary! (Polish has no difficult or special regional accents or languages -- except of Silesia and Kashubia -- but the countrymen use different wording).

View attachment 122778
Beautiful weather and vistas as we rode from Bojewo to Sadowne.

View attachment 122779
Jacek was tracking his ancestors in the cemetery of Sadowne. I looked at a huge church (1909) and was thinking how many people of that village /and around/ had to contribute to be able to erect such an enormous building!

View attachment 122780
My journey was not over yet. After the return to Decathlon, I still had to pedal to get back to the Tank!

View attachment 122781
Jacek fancied having a decent lunch in Łochów's "Grill Bar" but it was closed! We could find a private restaurant by name 'Top Drive'. Organized on McDonald's principle, it was McDonald's + KFC + Pizza Hut in one! :) Clean, tasty, and fast! I must have been hungry but the pizza was just delicious!

View attachment 122783
Our main trip. Jacek got the range estimate of 187 km (+20% battery left!) for his Giant e-bike and for his strong legs!


View attachment 122784
My commutes, and the overall ride distance.

View attachment 122787
Within the map of Poland.

View attachment 122797
Historical map. 1381: Mazovia being split between Janusz I and his brother Siemowit IV. Janusz establishing the capital city of Mazovia in Warsaw. Liw was an important city then, on the Podlachian frontier.
Am I reading this right, you did a 100 miles-ish!
Im such a wimp, I'd need ten soup stops.
 
Part Four: Epilogue

Prior to the holiday, I decided to get a new pair of cycling glasses. The pair I had, had an optical insert, but we’re not that comfortable or that clear to see through. I went for the Optilabs Onyx glazed with varifocal brown photochromic lenses. I must admit that these are fantastic, not only are they extremely comfortable, but you don’t even notice that you are wearing them. The optical clarity is brilliant and I can see the bike’s cockpit very clearly now.
A7E047A2-CAE2-452D-B075-82408571C412.jpeg


Mileage in the Lake District was 76.5 miles. Although not as much as we normally do in a week, the terrain at times was particularly difficult. Some of the inclines were that steep, that you were using full power assist and the lowest gear setting. However, only once did I have to get off and walk on a steep part, only because the tyres could not get enough grip on the very loose surface.

Mileage in the Peak District was 132.7 miles. The terrain wasn’t as rugged as the Lakes as we did a number of disused railway lines.

Overall, the weather was kind for us. In the Lakes, it was mainly sunny or partially cloudy. The temperatures were not too cold and were around 14-16oC. There was however, some strong winds at times which did cause a bit of chill, particularly in the Lakes. In the Peaks the weather was mainly overcast and the temperature was a lot chillier. With the wind chill, the temperatures were around 4-6oC.

The van mileage for the holiday was 1094 miles.

A few minor repairs on the way, but nothing significant;
• Loose saddle on my bike, caused the nose to ride up becoming uncomfortable. A quick bit of work with a 10mm socket and back to normal.
• Squeaky pedals on both bikes. Think it was dry and dusty bearings, but some WD40 soon sorted that out.
• Mrs DG had a puncture, but the Slime and a CO2 capsule sorted it out.

As this was Mrs DGs time in these National Parks, her thoughts were;
Lake District: Amazing place and landscape, wants to go back. Although some of the rides were challenging and scary at times, this was outweighed by its beauty.
Peak District: Pretty area with some interesting features. No rides were particularly challenging.

Overall, the scenery in the Peaks is pretty, but not as dramatic as the Lakes.

End of Part Four.
 
On Sunday, we went back to Stanwick Lakes in Northamptonshire. The sun was shining, with virtually no wind and temperatures around 18oC.
View attachment 122798

This is now a country park and has lakes, old railway trail, canals and a nature reserve. It was formally old gravel pits that were used during World War Two in the building of military establishments.

The last time we were there,which was in March, it was fairly flooded, but it was nice and dry this time.

Our first picnic stop.
View attachment 122799View attachment 122800

Our second picnic stop was at Rushton Lakes which is a retail park, built in the nature reserve, seems to work.
View attachment 122801
View attachment 122802

Mrs DG decided that she wanted to be a model.
View attachment 122803

We had fitted some new Ergon GP2 grips and a new mirror to Mrs DGs bike, so we’re trying them out and can report back that they worked well.
View attachment 122805

We like riding round here as it is quite varied, without being too challenging. Looking forward to trying in the winter when the trees have lost their cover.
Please stop with the picnics - I am sorely jealous!!!!! :)

What is your water bottle attachment or her's??? Closer picture and brand?
 
View attachment 122700

A perfect day for a bike ride, wish I could have gone way further but I have to be happy with 50 milers for now! I had a 20mph headwind to contend with for the first 32 miles but my bike can handle winds like that no problem! I headed south today and enjoyed some very nice roads! I had this lovely road all to myself, a nice 17% gradient to get the heart rate up ;) For some reason Ridewithgps says my max grade was only 12% :rolleyes:

View attachment 122701
View attachment 122702

Into the town of Strathaven in South Lanarkshire!

View attachment 122704

As you leave Strathaven its straight into the countryside and the lambs were out in force today!

View attachment 122705

A few miles on and I came across 2 calves, mom wasn't interested! 🤣 Mom is needing a good wash I think...

View attachment 122706


The start of the descent into the Clyde Valley!

View attachment 122707

Part way down the descent, I took lots of photos here but they all came out over exposed except this one...no idea what happened with my phone! The lady that owns this house saw me taking photos and asked if I was enjoying the view, I told her I will never get sick of that amazing view!

View attachment 122711

Into the valley now and I stopped at the bridge at Kirkfieldbank before the very strenuous climb up the hill to Lanark! The river is pretty high at the moment and with rain all next week its only going to get higher...

View attachment 122712

At the top of the climb the view of the valley is pretty awesome, you can see the hill I just climbed in the foreground!

View attachment 122714

What a great ride that was, probably my last for a while if the weather forecast for the coming week is correct...fingers crossed they may be wrong!
Stunning! And that's some serious range for that much vertical, IMHO. I think I calculated that my battery would be totally drained at about 42 miles with 4,200 feet of vertical... and could only do that with lots of long, flat stretches I could take in Eco.
Liw Castle & The Heritage Ride #4

'We're going to use possibly low assistance during our Saturday ride' -- Jacek warned me the day before -- 'I'd use the minimum allowed by Giant to see how far I could go on a single battery!'. Half past six in the morning I was riding off the Junkyard by the Tank to quickly cover a 15 km distance to Decathlon Bemowo, or our meeting point. (I had extra clothes on me, as it was cold!) After we met, Jacek packed our gear into his car and we reached Łochów (including a small breakfast on the trip), being able to start the ride at 9:10 a.m. Jacek's "50% assistance" meant "You input 1 watt to get 0.5 W of the motor assistance". Translated to my half as strong legs as brother's, I had to use 35/35% of full power Specialized assistance, with twice as much battery energy expenditure (1.12 W of motor power per 1 W of leg power)!

View attachment 122771
Before1429, Janusz I of Warsaw, a Prince of Mazovia, told his mason Niclos to erect a castle on the River Liwiec. Nowadays, the Castle in Liw (read: Leev) is a distant tourist attraction of the northeast Mazovia. You better take a train or car to get into the area! The shortest cycling round trip from Warsaw is 160 km, and Warsaw roadies often set the castle as the target for their Double Metric Centuries! (We only had to cycle for 33 km from Łochów).

View attachment 122772
Warning: As soon as you set your foot on the Castle grounds, you are bound to buy a ticket! I didn't mind, and had a peek inside the Armoury as well.

View attachment 122773
I don't mind when Jacek drinks a single bottle of beer early on our long trip. The mass-produced lager is disgusting for me. For a company, I had a glass of non-alcoholic Łomża beer. Awful carbonated water with taste of very bad hops, if you ask me :D We completed our Liw visit with Zhur. It was good but it was not the solid lunch I had expected!

View attachment 122776
Jacek was on his genealogic trip now. As we are actually first cousins, I was not
that interested in his maternal family roots :)
Top: After a 10 km ride into headwind.
Centre: A library of a borough village of Stoczek Węgrowski. It is located in a historical wooden house.
Bottom: Inside the Bug Landscape Park. During WW2, the villages in the area were occupied by German soldiers in the daytime. The local population were returning to their homes for the night (when the soldiers were out). Actually, people there spent five years of the occupation sitting in the woods with their livestock!

View attachment 122777
At my Aunt Teresa (Jacek's Mother) family homestead in Bojewo. We met my Uncle, Teresa's brother there. We got excellent coffee from that old pensioned farmer! And I could listen to how the Uncle was speaking with the local countryside vocabulary! (Polish has no difficult or special regional accents or languages -- except of Silesia and Kashubia -- but the countrymen use different wording).

View attachment 122778
Beautiful weather and vistas as we rode from Bojewo to Sadowne.

View attachment 122779
Jacek was tracking his ancestors in the cemetery of Sadowne. I looked at a huge church (1909) and was thinking how many people of that village /and around/ had to contribute to be able to erect such an enormous building!

View attachment 122780
My journey was not over yet. After the return to Decathlon, I still had to pedal to get back to the Tank!

View attachment 122781
Jacek fancied having a decent lunch in Łochów's "Grill Bar" but it was closed! We could find a private restaurant by name 'Top Drive'. Organized on McDonald's principle, it was McDonald's + KFC + Pizza Hut in one! :) Clean, tasty, and fast! I must have been hungry but the pizza was just delicious!

View attachment 122783
Our main trip. Jacek got the range estimate of 187 km (+20% battery left!) for his Giant e-bike and for his strong legs!


View attachment 122784
My commutes, and the overall ride distance.

View attachment 122787
Within the map of Poland.

View attachment 122797
Historical map. 1381: Mazovia being split between Janusz I and his brother Siemowit IV. Janusz establishing the capital city of Mazovia in Warsaw. Liw was an important city then, on the Podlachian frontier.
Epic, Stefan! Love the history and geography as well... I will have to challenge you on the non-alcoholic beer, however. It is an acquired taste, for sure-- just like regular beer. After being on the wagon for eight years, on the rare occasions I grab my wife's beer by accident and take a sip, my reaction is, "Yecch! What is this disgusting swill?!"

It's Spaten, which I used to love!

Just a quick one-off here from one of my local rides-- all I can do until I get PT for the shoulders and get out of my crunch season at work. I am enjoying the few dirt trails here... they are between beginner and intermediate, but I'm working on two things: Increasing my uphill speed on rocky stretches, because I always underestimate what the bike is capable of, and finding the 'sweet spot' speed on sandy stretches, which has been a real education. Some ascents are much easier if you go just a little bit faster, the bike just clambers over the rocks like it has claws instead of wheels. And the sandy spots are easier to manage at 8 or 9 MPH than they are at 5 MPH! Very counterintuitive. The bike still feels like it's slipping and sliding just as much, but it's actually more forgiving, minor errors in balance have fewer consequences. This is the easiest part, I'll take a shot of the uphill rock garden-ish segment next ride....

Hollywood Trail - 1.jpeg
 
The Warsaw School of Film

I had to collect my passport as the first thing in the morning (at last!) and then I pedalled to the green quarter of Warsaw (Żoliborz) to the Warsaw School of Film. A friend is a college student there (she wants to become a movie director), and she wanted me to take part in her movie. I was to become an unconscious cyclist brought to a hospital ER ward (I guess that person rode helmetless!) :)

1652145506386.png

After being "tattooed" by a make-up artist :)

1652145855795.png

Ready... Sound, camera, action!

1652145952852.png

The cameraman filming the "patient POV scene". The big guy at the left is the lighting person.

1652146099501.png

The cast, the cameraman and the director :)


It was quite an experience to see how these things were actually done! As I wanted to keep the "tattoo" for a while, I was warned by the director to ride home with an extreme care! What if I had an accident and the real ER personnel would see the 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE" on my body?!

1652146887565.png

55 recorded kilometres, 59 actually ridden (I guess I didn't resume the recording at some ride point). Vado SL.
 
Last edited:
Am I reading this right, you did a 100 miles-ish!
88 miles is not a century yet :) As someone said: "The distance is something that only exists in your mind" :) Of course, it is not that easy for us as it is for younger sporty types. Of course: the equipment, batteries and experience are necessary but there is nothing better than a proven riding partner. There was a point on my long ride when I started bonking. Jacek noticed that. We both stopped, and he offered an energy bar to me. It did help!

After we visited the Uncle, I looked at my Wahoo and merrily told Jacek:
-- 'Bro, if it happened to me to see 54 km left to go two years ago, I would be really scared. What is 54 km to go today? Just a distance to be ridden to complete the ride!' :)
I made 68- and 59-km rides on Sunday and Monday. I admit I have not fully recovered yet :)

will have to challenge you on the non-alcoholic beer, however. It is an acquired taste, for sure-- just like regular beer. After being on the wagon for eight years, on the rare occasions I grab my wife's beer by accident and take a sip, my reaction is, "Yecch! What is this disgusting swill?!"

It's Spaten, which I used to love!
Cata, I need to be very clear: I do not need to drink beer at all! I even should not do it because of my insulin resistance and obesity :) If I drink beer, it is craft ale or stout. There is an exception: If we happen to be in the Czech Republic together with Jacek, we drink a light Pilsner or Lager early on the ride (as any decent Czech cyclist would do; it is the part of the country's culture). And if I happen to find the Miłosław Bezalkoholowe, I would drink that non-alcoholic ale with pleasure, as it is craft beer. The Liw was an incident: I just wanted to try how bad the mass produced lager might be :D
 
Please stop with the picnics - I am sorely jealous!!!!! :)

What is your water bottle attachment or her's??? Closer picture and brand?
Sorry about the picnics, it is a British thing… having said that, we did have a nice Huntsman Pie in the Peak District.

Mrs DG’s water bottle attachment is a SKS Topcage which uses straps to fix it to the bike.

49BB7F80-5F58-4498-8A45-7BFA117DDFDE.jpeg








6CE39433-924E-4548-9B06-DF74B6DC1C21.jpeg


Mine is the Fabric water bottle system which is cageless, the bottle clips onto two studs mounted to the frame.
B7F0D7A0-06E2-47B4-9DFF-E41D556CF47C.jpeg
6362CBA9-B339-4D61-B481-DD7647C198E6.jpeg

Both appear to be robust and stable. The SKS attachment straps have a rubber backing which grips well to the bike frame and it doesn’t move once on. The Fabric bottle looks like it could come off, but it never has done so in 1956 miles. There is no movement and it is easy to take off and put back whilst riding.
 

Attachments

  • B110FEA5-3916-42B9-BFA5-177DE3544B7C.jpeg
    B110FEA5-3916-42B9-BFA5-177DE3544B7C.jpeg
    418.4 KB · Views: 91
Last edited:
The Warsaw School of Film

I had to collect my passport as the first thing in the morning (at last!) and then I pedalled to the green quarter of Warsaw (Żoliborz) to the Warsaw School of Film. A friend is a college student there (she wants to become a movie director), and she wanted me to take part in her movie. I was to become an unconscious cyclist brought to a hospital ER ward (I guess that person rode helmetless!) :)

View attachment 122902
After being "tattooed" by a make-up artist :)

View attachment 122904
Ready... Sound, camera, action!

View attachment 122905
The cameraman filming the "patient POV scene". The big guy at the left is the lighting person.

View attachment 122907
The cast, the cameraman and the director :)


It was quite an experience to see how these things were actually done! As I wanted to keep the "tattoo" for a while, I was warned by the director to ride home with an extreme care! What if I had an accident and the real ER personnel would see the 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE" on my body?!

View attachment 122908
55 recorded kilometres, 59 actually ridden (I guess I didn't resume the recording at some ride point). Vado SL.
omg that is awesome, I never know what to expect from your posts.
Can I get an autograph?
 
Back