Cycling

Experimenting with a single speed bike in a mountaineous landscape

My average time riding a bike over the last four weeks was seven and a half hours per week. When I’m not riding the bike I’m usually using the scooter but that’s mainly because I don’t want to leave the bike unattended. It is for this reason that I’ve been looking for cheap alternatives. I’ve looked at folding bikes but they cost as much as a scooter and I’ve been looking at electric bikes but they also cost as much as a scooter.

Training with Zwift

Two days ago I started playing/training with Zwift. I tested it on my phone, the ipad and the laptop and it worked with each. Pairing both the apple watch with the iOS app on mobile phone and ipad worked well. Pairing between the bluetooth cadence and speed sensor as well as the suunto movesense heartrate monitor worked well with the laptop. A set time or distance limit When you are riding loops in the real world it’s easy to plan on a one hour ride and end up taking two hours as you add additional segments because you feel good.

Replacing the scooter with an electric bike

I have been thinking of replacing the scooter with an electric bike for a while now. I am discouraged by the cost of electric bikes. Electric bikes range in price from one thousand to four thousand francs or more and their range is from fourty to one hundred and eighty kilometres. They are also limited to 25 kilometres per hour if you want to preserve the right to use cycling paths in Switzerland.

Summer without a car has taught me to live locally

This summer I was thinking of buying a car until I found out that my contract break was for six months rather than three. As a result of this my ability to buy my own car vanished. I used the scooter, my feet and eventually the bike to travel thousands of kilometres. I rode the scooter for at least four thousand kilometres and I cycled for around 1000km. I also hiked Self powered Break this year This year I have logged 121hrs of moves over 1500 km and 19395 metres in vertical movement.

Cycling to the Vallée de Joux

Yesterday I tried cycling to the Vallée de Joux and succeeded. A few weeks ago I cycled up to St George and I saw a sign that said that the Col De Marchairuz was less than 6km away so I decided to try it. When I succeeded that I saw that getting to the Vallée de Joux would be possible. On Sunday due to the weather I thought that I would go for a small 30km loop to avoid the bad weather and rain.

Cycling into the wind

Yesterday I cycled my first 100km ride. It started as a simple ride towards Geneva and back but by the time I got back to Nyon I felt that I had enough energy to go further so I set the goal of getting to Rolle and after Rolle I set the goal to get to Morges before getting distracted and heading up towards Bière. During this ride when cycling towards Geneva I saw a peloton cycling together and taking turns leading and sheltering behind each other.

Indoor Training With The Elite Qubo Fluid

The Elite Qubo fluid is a home trainer using a viscous fluid to provide resistance when you’re cycling with your road bike indoors. It is easy to assemble and within minutes you can start using it. https://youtu.be/ulhpwTRvAfo These devices cost less than apartment bikes and allow you to train with your existing bike within the comfort of your own home or garage over the winter months when wind, rain or snow would make cycling outdoors less practical.

Cycling to the City that Never Wakes Up

Yesterday I wanted to go for a bike ride. I hesitated between driving to the Vallée De Joux and cycling around the lake, cycling up to Les Rousses and facing a long and sustained uphill or cycling to a meeting in Geneva. In the end, I cycled to the meeting in Geneva. As you see this is a 67 km bike ride with a vertical change 0f 714 metres. On a road bike that’s fine, because the bike is light.

Environmentalism and Traffic Lights

When you’re driving from Nyon to the airport without traffic the journey takes about twenty minutes. If you decide to drive into the city of Geneva that journey time is doubled thanks in main part to traffic lights. It once took me over one hour when scuba diving in Hermance to drive from Place des Nations to the other side of the Mont Blanc Bridge. That’s over one hour for less than two kilometres.

Wordpress and Strava - Using WP Strava on this blog

I installed WP Strava on this blog to share my Strava cycling and running activity. At the time of this blog post you can see my most recent bike rides in the left column as well as the most recent map. With a minimum of code you can also include your bike rides within a post like you see below. You write activity id=number of activity and the ride will be integrated within your blog posts without the need for embed codes and an iframe.