What stupid thing did you do with your bike this week?

jeroen

Active member
Jul 8, 2020
75
97
Switzerland
In the vain of What did you buy your ebike this week? I like to try out a new thread, more of warning thread, so noobs like me avoid these situations instead of getting caught in it. As I noted in in that buy thread, I got myself a nice mudhugger, and thus thought "hey, lets do that cool trail I know, should be fun and muddy", and muddy it was....

Well at least the good thing was that it was a lot of fun, but for the warning part, when in .ch you see white-red-white, that is a mountain pass, and typically that means wearing proper shoes. Indeed, a emtb rides up on it perfectly fine, lots of fun, and much quicker to take in the sights; but at one point that white-red-white .... well, take a look at the pix:

It started out quite reasonble, bit leafy, but very rideable and amazing scenery:
stupid01.jpg


stupid02.jpg

oh yes, you can't go left... it is a 200m++ drop already at this stage.

Nice little waterfall, which we'll pass next at the top...

stupid03.jpg


top, or actually middle of that waterfall, it goes up more to the right...
stupid05.jpg

up to here it was a bit leafy with small rocks under it, all good fun and very nice.

and the 'top' (flat-ish section) of this part of the trail:
stupid06.jpg


upto here, all good, see that dirt road on the other side though, that is where the first fun slowly starts...going more up there and we'll encounter the first wee bit of snow:

stupid08.jpg


still a decent trail, though getting narrower:
stupid08a.jpg


and another waterfall, even narrower and a wee bit more steeper and rockier and rootier....
stupid09.jpg


mmm, snowy bridges, had to walk as wheel kept on spinning (even with engine off) and sliding and did not want to risk going down the drop on the right...:
stupid10.jpg

and then a bunch of no pix, as it would not make sense to even attempt to make photos during that section due to slippery and steepy.

thus after quite a bit of climbing, some 400m up..., left-hand bottom is where the above pic was taken... climbing meant thus lifting & pushing the bike as the roots where too much to either get a grip or get anywhere that would have been safe... btw "walk mode" is useful, just make sure you have grip yourself too...
stupid12.jpg


and a wee bit further up from there:
stupid13.jpg


which fortunately was the top of the trail which gave me these amazing presents:

stupid14a.jpg


stupid14b.jpg


bike still looking fine fortunately after having been dragged up the mountain:
stupid15.jpg


and fortunately the proper road I knew was up there was mostly snow free (though downhill it was covered in snow, thus had to do some balance exercises :))

stupid16.jpg


and as the climbing was not really done, a bonus pic from the ridge in the above picture:
stupid17.jpg


bonus pic from the other side:
stupid18.jpg


TLDR:
- in .ch white-red-white is a mountain pass, likely not very appropriate for a bike due to the small paths, possible snow, rooty paths, slipperyness, etc etc...
- thanks to Lupine SL X for getting me safely down again as night has properly set before I was down the mountain again and then all the way home
- thanks to Goretex (inventor, RIP) for keeping my feet dry, even though puddles of molten snow got me quite a few times...
- ensure your phone is charged, and that you have that walky talky with you, just in case..... and likely go with multiple people not alone
- thanks to my ribs for catching me for a few slips and not breaking....
- thanks to my amazing bike for making it up there... and not having a blown tire or some other malfunction ;)

Now a little Q: anybody got tips on how to determine if a trail is doable by bike and what, other than white-red-white (and definitely not white-blue-white, aka alpine trail, which thus means ropes and possible climbing).

The fun thing is, the Bosch app thinks this is a doable path... even funnier it marks it as scenic, well scenic it is... but bikeable, not for me at least.

Tips/comments/questions, wanted! ;)
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
Just fantastic detail & very very high level in every respect :cool:
I ❤Le Suisse.

I wins the most st00-pid award because I haven't gone for a ride this week. Definitely next week though.

BTW your pics are probably the best static solo bike ride images I've seen. Which amazing canton is that?

Maybe I can spot das Matterhorn ?
 
Last edited:

jeroen

Active member
Jul 8, 2020
75
97
Switzerland
I wins the most st00-pid award because I haven't gone for a ride this week. Definitely next week though.

I was like "nice weather, if I don't do it now, the rest of the week will be rain" :)

Your ribs will thank you at the moment though; mine are a wee bit sore from slipping. Long live holding the breaks on the bike as support though for most of the slips, and heck 'walk support' can partially pull you up I noticed...

BTW your pics are probably the best static solo bike ride images I've seen. Which amazing canton is that?

Maybe I can spot das Matterhorn ?

Matterhorn would be hard from that altitude and also otherwise from Kanton Schwyz, almost in the centre where Switzerland took it's name from.

One can see Titls from there and Titlis from Matterhorn though: Panoramic Mountain View: matterhorn but even Titlis is puny from that view.
Unfortunately the world is a globe, thus with the curvature even the big ones become tiny again.

The moment you get into the pre-Alps or the real alps, schwyz, graubunden, obwalden, glaris, uri, wallis, etc etc, everything goes up and up, and as there is forest almost everywhere rides are always beautiful, just sometimes, a bit scary.

In the end though, Switzerland is just concentrated with these things, the NZ has these kind of places, and Canada and the US has these places too, you just typically first have to take a long long drive before one get to those areas. Here everything is so compact (as there is not much space) and thus it is around the corner. But the whole world has these kind of places somewhere. Too bad not too many asian inhabitants visit these forums, or heck, Africa or South America.... nice stuff they got going there too :)
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
I remember being up the top of Titlis as a young child with my parents so wow. I'll be back there some time soon, this time on a bike. Switzerland Tourism called & they're impressed.
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
Now a little Q: anybody got tips on how to determine if a trail is doable by bike and what, other than white-red-white (and definitely not white-blue-white, aka alpine trail, which thus means ropes and possible climbing).
Maybe so. I use Maps 3D which is useful I think. Offline auto trail route app also on-line using various selectable nav sources. iOS only.

 

jeroen

Active member
Jul 8, 2020
75
97
Switzerland
Maybe so. I use Maps 3D which is useful I think. Offline auto trail route app also on-line using various selectable nav sources. iOS only.


That looks to be using Openstreetmap data, which is wildly inaccurate for out-of-city locations, but more importantly, it does not show if the trail can be ascended at all (e.g because every 30cm there is a big tree root :)

For .ch there is amazing mapping available, even in 3d, many from laser-measurements, for instance:


map.geo.admin.ch also has differrent types of viewing options, for instance, 'where is fiber' etc.

But even that, does not answer my Q, the best thing is likely simply the indicator of white-red-white: thou shalt not pass with a bike, easily... ;)
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
That looks to be using Openstreetmap data, which is wildly inaccurate for out-of-city locations, but more importantly, it does not show if the trail can be ascended at all (e.g because every 30cm there is a big tree root :)

For .ch there is amazing mapping available, even in 3d, many from laser-measurements, for instance:


map.geo.admin.ch also has differrent types of viewing options, for instance, 'where is fiber' etc.

But even that, does not answer my Q, the best thing is likely simply the indicator of white-red-white: thou shalt not pass with a bike, easily... ;)
Right that's that's similar to our Geoscience portal - but like a lot of things that are Swiss - it's better.

Have you tried Bikemap ? Not sure if it indicates trail rating but it certainly won't take you up the side of the mighty Titlis. I laughed at that name as a 10 year old hehe. My parents : ??


Titlis.jpg
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
it actually makes more sense with heat maps & 3D. Looks like it might lead you down the side of Titlis though :{) those first few steps are a killer :O

Titlis 3d heat.jpg
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
Subscriber
Jun 12, 2019
14,028
20,818
Brittany, France
In the vain of What did you buy your ebike this week? I like to try out a new thread, more of warning thread, so noobs like me avoid these situations instead of getting caught in it. As I noted in in that buy thread, I got myself a nice mudhugger, and thus thought "hey, lets do that cool trail I know, should be fun and muddy", and muddy it was....

Well at least the good thing was that it was a lot of fun, but for the warning part, when in .ch you see white-red-white, that is a mountain pass, and typically that means wearing proper shoes. Indeed, a emtb rides up on it perfectly fine, lots of fun, and much quicker to take in the sights; but at one point that white-red-white .... well, take a look at the pix:

It started out quite reasonble, bit leafy, but very rideable and amazing scenery:
View attachment 43093

View attachment 43094
oh yes, you can't go left... it is a 200m++ drop already at this stage.

Nice little waterfall, which we'll pass next at the top...

View attachment 43095

top, or actually middle of that waterfall, it goes up more to the right...
View attachment 43096
up to here it was a bit leafy with small rocks under it, all good fun and very nice.

and the 'top' (flat-ish section) of this part of the trail:
View attachment 43097

upto here, all good, see that dirt road on the other side though, that is where the first fun slowly starts...going more up there and we'll encounter the first wee bit of snow:

View attachment 43098

still a decent trail, though getting narrower:
View attachment 43099

and another waterfall, even narrower and a wee bit more steeper and rockier and rootier....
View attachment 43100

mmm, snowy bridges, had to walk as wheel kept on spinning (even with engine off) and sliding and did not want to risk going down the drop on the right...:
View attachment 43101
and then a bunch of no pix, as it would not make sense to even attempt to make photos during that section due to slippery and steepy.

thus after quite a bit of climbing, some 400m up..., left-hand bottom is where the above pic was taken... climbing meant thus lifting & pushing the bike as the roots where too much to either get a grip or get anywhere that would have been safe... btw "walk mode" is useful, just make sure you have grip yourself too...
View attachment 43102

and a wee bit further up from there:
View attachment 43103

which fortunately was the top of the trail which gave me these amazing presents:

View attachment 43104

View attachment 43105

bike still looking fine fortunately after having been dragged up the mountain:
View attachment 43106

and fortunately the proper road I knew was up there was mostly snow free (though downhill it was covered in snow, thus had to do some balance exercises :))

View attachment 43107

and as the climbing was not really done, a bonus pic from the ridge in the above picture:
View attachment 43108

bonus pic from the other side:
View attachment 43109

TLDR:
- in .ch white-red-white is a mountain pass, likely not very appropriate for a bike due to the small paths, possible snow, rooty paths, slipperyness, etc etc...
- thanks to Lupine SL X for getting me safely down again as night has properly set before I was down the mountain again and then all the way home
- thanks to Goretex (inventor, RIP) for keeping my feet dry, even though puddles of molten snow got me quite a few times...
- ensure your phone is charged, and that you have that walky talky with you, just in case..... and likely go with multiple people not alone
- thanks to my ribs for catching me for a few slips and not breaking....
- thanks to my amazing bike for making it up there... and not having a blown tire or some other malfunction ;)

Now a little Q: anybody got tips on how to determine if a trail is doable by bike and what, other than white-red-white (and definitely not white-blue-white, aka alpine trail, which thus means ropes and possible climbing).

The fun thing is, the Bosch app thinks this is a doable path... even funnier it marks it as scenic, well scenic it is... but bikeable, not for me at least.

Tips/comments/questions, wanted! ;)
Great pics ! Nice Trails !
 

Beekeeper

🍯Honey Monster🍯
Aug 6, 2019
1,751
2,197
Surrey hills
Let some air out of your tyres for storage ?

That would work I’m sure but might put me off going for a quick ride after work each day if I had to do battle with a couple of presta valves. Those contraptions are the work of the devil.

I could always go down to a 25mm bar. My current one is 10mm and it’s a bit of a stretch.
 

JoeBlow

Active member
Jul 7, 2019
729
448
South West, UK
I was demonstrating to my wife why I needed a new lock as I was in danger of chipping or damaging the bike with the current lock and chain combination. In the process of the demonstration I dropped them and chipped the bike. :mad:

Al
 

Jorel

Active member
Mar 4, 2021
109
290
Germany
I jumped a 2.5 metre Kicker.
Almost shat my pants when I got on the ramp.
Felt like a rocketship after take off.
Expected a bomb dive in the mud but landed surprisingly smooth.
The landing gave me the balls to try it again.
Jumped that kicker one hour long... what a fun day it was.
Could have ended in a disaster but hell yeah... I felt so alive ??
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
9,017
9,458
Lincolnshire, UK
I jumped a 2.5 metre Kicker.
Almost shat my pants when I got on the ramp.
Felt like a rocketship after take off.
Expected a bomb dive in the mud but landed surprisingly smooth.
The landing gave me the balls to try it again.
Jumped that kicker one hour long... what a fun day it was.
Could have ended in a disaster but hell yeah... I felt so alive ??
Not stupid then! :love:
 

Teriatric

Active member
Subscriber
Oct 29, 2021
92
77
North East England
I just tried to fit a couple of these (one at a time!) in my DPX2, what am I doing wrong, these are 3 different diameters and the 3 biggies just don't fit in the can! AND the shaft hole is way too big!

IMG_20211126_124048.jpg
 

Daev

E*POWAH Master
Jan 15, 2022
249
289
Cornwall
So, today I decided to get out on my lunch break for a swift ride 'twixt the storms and before half term makes it a little busy at me local trail.
Drove there suffering from conjunctivitis - not brilliant.
Hauled the bike out the car, put it together, started ride. Heading up fire road. Started with no assistance, moved onto eco and was about to switch to emtb as I came to the head of the trail and the battery flew off ( trek Powerfly LT 9.7). Collected battery, reconnected to bike. Controller wouldn't power up - no idea if battery was U.S. 🤔 .... Fiddled about with it for a while, checked contacts etc, all appeared fine, still wouldn't power up. Was about to turn round and go home but decided to go for it after having driven all this way - use it like a real bike - no electric, no problem!!
Dropped a few gears, carried on heading up the fire road.... Started getting a bit sweaty... After another few hundred yards everything suddenly burst into life and got on with the job in hand. Completed the trail, enjoyable ride, if a bit wet ( puddles - lots).
Texted the Mrs to say back in the room and would be home in about an hour.
Then proceeded to lock both keys and phone in car..... 😱
I work as a minibus taxi driver for special needs students and am due to go collect them at 1500 😱
Considered breaking car window, going to rangers hut to phone wife/boss/work assistant/RAC/queen.... Spent next 15 minutes circling car, trying to work out what to do and then miracle of miracles I managed to get in without breaking anything or embarrassing myself in front of the RAC (or queen).
So, stupid thing upon stupid thing ( one of those days I suppose ) Can't wait for the 80-100mph winds tomorrow
😁👍🥂
( seems to have mostly cleared up the conjunctivitis - ain't adrenalin amazing 💪😂 )
 

Nebo1ss

Member
Dec 21, 2021
48
18
London
In the vain of What did you buy your ebike this week? I like to try out a new thread, more of warning thread, so noobs like me avoid these situations instead of getting caught in it. As I noted in in that buy thread, I got myself a nice mudhugger, and thus thought "hey, lets do that cool trail I know, should be fun and muddy", and muddy it was....

Well at least the good thing was that it was a lot of fun, but for the warning part, when in .ch you see white-red-white, that is a mountain pass, and typically that means wearing proper shoes. Indeed, a emtb rides up on it perfectly fine, lots of fun, and much quicker to take in the sights; but at one point that white-red-white .... well, take a look at the pix:

It started out quite reasonble, bit leafy, but very rideable and amazing scenery:
View attachment 43093

View attachment 43094
oh yes, you can't go left... it is a 200m++ drop already at this stage.

Nice little waterfall, which we'll pass next at the top...

View attachment 43095

top, or actually middle of that waterfall, it goes up more to the right...
View attachment 43096
up to here it was a bit leafy with small rocks under it, all good fun and very nice.

and the 'top' (flat-ish section) of this part of the trail:
View attachment 43097

upto here, all good, see that dirt road on the other side though, that is where the first fun slowly starts...going more up there and we'll encounter the first wee bit of snow:

View attachment 43098

still a decent trail, though getting narrower:
View attachment 43099

and another waterfall, even narrower and a wee bit more steeper and rockier and rootier....
View attachment 43100

mmm, snowy bridges, had to walk as wheel kept on spinning (even with engine off) and sliding and did not want to risk going down the drop on the right...:
View attachment 43101
and then a bunch of no pix, as it would not make sense to even attempt to make photos during that section due to slippery and steepy.

thus after quite a bit of climbing, some 400m up..., left-hand bottom is where the above pic was taken... climbing meant thus lifting & pushing the bike as the roots where too much to either get a grip or get anywhere that would have been safe... btw "walk mode" is useful, just make sure you have grip yourself too...
View attachment 43102

and a wee bit further up from there:
View attachment 43103

which fortunately was the top of the trail which gave me these amazing presents:

View attachment 43104

View attachment 43105

bike still looking fine fortunately after having been dragged up the mountain:
View attachment 43106

and fortunately the proper road I knew was up there was mostly snow free (though downhill it was covered in snow, thus had to do some balance exercises :))

View attachment 43107

and as the climbing was not really done, a bonus pic from the ridge in the above picture:
View attachment 43108

bonus pic from the other side:
View attachment 43109

TLDR:
- in .ch white-red-white is a mountain pass, likely not very appropriate for a bike due to the small paths, possible snow, rooty paths, slipperyness, etc etc...
- thanks to Lupine SL X for getting me safely down again as night has properly set before I was down the mountain again and then all the way home
- thanks to Goretex (inventor, RIP) for keeping my feet dry, even though puddles of molten snow got me quite a few times...
- ensure your phone is charged, and that you have that walky talky with you, just in case..... and likely go with multiple people not alone
- thanks to my ribs for catching me for a few slips and not breaking....
- thanks to my amazing bike for making it up there... and not having a blown tire or some other malfunction ;)

Now a little Q: anybody got tips on how to determine if a trail is doable by bike and what, other than white-red-white (and definitely not white-blue-white, aka alpine trail, which thus means ropes and possible climbing).

The fun thing is, the Bosch app thinks this is a doable path... even funnier it marks it as scenic, well scenic it is... but bikeable, not for me at least.

Tips/comments/questions, wanted! ;)
I was totally confused by the Swiss location and the Scottish slang.
 

jeroen

Active member
Jul 8, 2020
75
97
Switzerland
I was totally confused by the Swiss location and the Scottish slang.

Do you mean "wee", as that I picked up in Dublin, Ireland.... I have unfortunately not been to Scotland... yet.... hopefully this pandemic drags down and travel becomes a possibility again ;)

Also, note that people live all around the world; heck I am Dutch, living in the Italian part of Switzerland, thus one gets a daily mix of quite a few languages, including spanish ;)
 

Justinitus

Member
Feb 15, 2022
55
88
Wiltshire UK
Drove up to Windsor to meet a mate for a somewhat chilly ride today. Left my battery at home 74 miles away. Quite a tough going ride… but thank goodness mostly flat.
 

Gary

Old Tartan Bollocks
Author
Subscriber
Mar 29, 2018
10,496
10,702
the internet
I have unfortunately not been to Scotland... yet.... hopefully this pandemic drags down and travel becomes a possibility again ;)
Edinburgh is hoaching with foreign visitors just now. Mainly seems to be Asians though. Where it would usually be getting busy with European visitors just now.
The video I posted towards the bottom of the thread is in the centre of Edinburgh. The cairn (highest point) was incredibly busy and 90% of the people up there were tourists.
 

iXi

E*POWAH Master
Feb 17, 2019
427
326
Brisbane
Torqued my rear wheel with my torque wrench which decided not to click. Now I can't get the frigging wheel off. 4 weeks until my first service, leaving it for the bike shop because I know I'll snap something.
 

Mabman

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Feb 28, 2018
1,124
1,854
Oregon USA
Nothing a patch or two wouldn't fix.

I had forgotten I had an app going for that ride and I was surprised when viewing it today that I had still averaged over 11 mph.

Flat ride.png

Flat happened around 34:00. 5 miles of beach and 4 miles of pavement with one 2+ mile climb.
 

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