Another week has flown by so here I am with yet another cycling post, in my last post I talked about I accidentally rode the same route twice, instead of my planned route 😅 well... it wasn't all that bad it's the mileage that counts, or rather.. the hours spent on the bike.
Last Thursday I did ride my planned route, I built it because it follows a lot of the pretty dykes in my area and I found out the dyke along the river 'De Waal' has been reopened after a very thorough maintenance and reinforcing the dyke itself, it was already closed when I started my cycling adventures in May of 2025 so I had never been there on my bike before, it was still cold, the entire ride was about 3 degrees Celcius and I know it's better not to stop and take off my gloves to take a picture but it was just so pretty I did anyway, and yes... it was cold for a couple of minutes when I got back on the bike. 😅
The total ride was 51km, I found out it's a comfortable distance for me and like this I can do roughly 400km every month, the colors display my speed, I started at the top left and went East (to the right) in to the wind, so you can easily see the wind fighting me and as soon I was going South it was already better and when I reached the dyke on the way back with tail wind I was able to get to some nice speeds even in heart rate zone 2.
A road ride
Sometimes I wish I had two bikes so I could switch for when I'm not going off-road but they are so very much expensive this is not an option and I don't know where I should store it because our little shed in the backyard is kinda full already with 5 bicycles. 😅
More on this later because there is a nice development happening...
Because it had been raining a lot last days, it was better to stay on the road. I don't mind getting dirty but washing the bike isn't the most exciting thing to do so when I do road rides like this I only have to rinse off the bike so any salt that's been sprayed on the roads in these winter conditions is washed away, salt can deteriorate nice backs real quick so we have to watch out for that.
When I was passing through this village I knew there is a nice looking mill just outside the village, the last time when I was here it was even colder but this time I felt like I had to stop to snap a picture for my Cycling post. 🙂
And when I was standing still and had my phone out I figured I might as well snap a picture to the other side as well, my phone isn't the fastest one so it takes about a second when I tap on the screen to take a picture before the picture is actually taken, but in that second I got a nice little surprise, can you spot it in the picture?
A rabbit was running from under the wooden siding on the left to get to the field on the other side of the gravel path, that's a nice coincidence!
I was 40 minutes in on my ride, my cycling computer is warning me every 45 minutes to eat something so before getting back on my bike, I took out one of the currant buns from my back pocket, and quickly started pedaling again, don't want to get too cold but I could already feel this wasn't the best idea for today, the head winds were quite strong and cold but the pretty pictures made them worth it.
The sun started to shine! I don't like the sun in the summer at all, I easily burn and I'm always warm by myself anyway, well... just not on the bike around freezing temperatures 😆 but when it's not summer and the sun isn't that strong, it's lovely and everything instantly looks so much better.
Sadly this only last for about 30 minutes before the grey skies took over again, rain was forecasted in a couple of hours, hopefully it won't be here early!
Looking like a criminal
I've got these glasses from AliExpress, it has a photo chromic lens so it turns darker when the sun is starting to shine, it's great! I ended up often guessing wrong, either wearing my sunglasses when the entire ride was grey but the opposite is worse, riding with clear glasses when suddenly the sun is starting to shine brightly, this lens fixes my problem. I couldn't believe it would actually work to be honest, it only was €7!
The positive thing about 'bad' weather
You know what they say, there isn't bad weather, only a poor choice of gear... well I have to say this is entirely true. It did break the bank a bit, weather gear is expensive but it's a world of difference.
The positive side of this is the roads are so empty, I hardly see any other cyclists on my rides, this will be so different when spring arrives.
This picture taken on the side of the road isn't particularly pretty but I found a can on the road side, when it's safe to stop I do and pick them up, every can is worth 15 cents I buy Splinterlands Shards for, combining my one hobby with the other and also cleaning my environment. On average I collect two or three cans on every ride but two weeks ago I found so many I couldn't store them anymore so that was too bad. 😅
The dyke, open after maintenance
So after fighting the wind, I finally arrived to the fun part - exploring this new dyke I haven't been to before. The wind helping me was fun as well and my tires were humming loudly on the perfectly smooth asphalt with speeds easily going over 30km/h.
I'm not sure what was made all new and what was already there but looking at the bigger trees in the water they have been there for a while, yet it's a beautiful area I will definitely visit more often.
The birds also seem to like the place made for them, there were a lot of them.
Here you can see the dyke going all the way along the river, from where I got on to the dyke it's possible to ride all the way to Rotterdam I think, it's about 70km from this point. Way too much for one ride for me but die hard road bikers will probably love it here as well.
My first chain is worn!
So, when I got home I always drink a big glass of (warm) chocolate milk to warm up and replenish fluids, sugars and proteins all in one and after a little stretching I hop in the shower, lie down for half an hour when I have the time and then rinse off my bike with water to get rid of any salt. I long for higher temperatures so the only thing I need to do I run my chain through a piece of cloth, no more salt please! 😆
After most of the water has dripped off, I blow dry my chain and moving part with pressured air and re-lube my chain so the oil had time to reach the inner parts of the chain before my next ride, I also measure my chain wear every now and then so I knew this chain was getting close to the point it needed to be replaced. Well, it would have been better to measure the ware before lubing because this chain is now past the 0.5% wear mark, so before my next ride I need to replace it.
I already ordered two new chains but I still need to degrease them from the sticky factory grease, take some links off to bring it to the same size, mount it on to the bike and lube it, it's not hard to do I think but I have never done this before. I am a mechanic just not a bike mechanic! 😅
I'll probably make a little post for this job on it's own.
I have a total of 2997 kilometers on this chain, which is quite average I think for it to be replaced. My bike wasn't entirely new when I bought it, it belonged to a man who almost didn't ride it and traded the bike for an electric MTB. This was a perfect chance for me to get a more expensive bike for about €250 less than it would cost new so I don't know exactly what the total distance for this chain has been, I will found out with the new chains!
over 1500 words already 😏 so I'll leave it at this to add the last part for this weeks Cycling Sunday Chit Chat post!
Sunday Chit Chat
An unplanned REALLY busy Sunday which was pretty much completely about cycling and bikes (more on that in my next post) later, the new Chit Chat Challenge has launched!
With so many responsibilities —work, home, family— how do you manage to find time to keep turning the pedals? We’d love to hear your stories.
I think this can be a real struggle for some people indeed, when you have a partner and kids... I have a wife and kids as well but I'm thankful I only work four days a week so I go riding every Thursday - rain or not I don't care!, it's my regular day off. My second cycling day is Sunday, my family knows I'm gone for a couple of hours and plans accordingly, and maybe... they also like it. 🤣
The real struggle is on holidays, the bike goes on holiday as well and all cyclists are keen to explore all these fresh undiscovered miles of asphalt (and maybe even some off-road) but we can't only think about ourselves... 😅
Has no one at home complained yet about all those hours on the bike? I ask with affection, because balancing passions and responsibilities is quite an art.
No, and I think I can honestly say 'never'. I'm not overdoing it with about 5 cycling hours every week of which 2.5 are on my day off when nobody is home, plus in the summer I usually leave the house before everyone is awake because I hate riding in the blistering sun, I'm warm blooded and I don't do well on hot days so on those days I'm usually back between 9 and 10 am, it's about the time the rest of the house gets out of bed on Sundays.
A glimpse of what's to come
The new development I was talking about at the start of this post has suddenly become real... And it's about this beauty!
More on that next week, thanks for stopping by and sorry for the long post! 🤣