I promote my videos on a few different social media platforms, but I just remembered that I haven't posted much on here lately. Let's rectify this!
The release frequency is slow and uneven, but there are several new episode about the 2024 Alps trip on my YouTube channel at this point. Last time I posted about this, we had only just gotten into the Alps, on day 2 of the trip. Now we're up to day 8 out of the 11 total days.
Day 3: The pass not taken
Day 3 of our bike trip through the Alps. The original plan would have
taken us up the Kunkelspass. But since Ben's knees were still not great
and it was raining, riding a steep, partially unpaved pass seemed like a
bad idea. So we stayed in the Rhine valley before turning toward the
Albula. And we encounter an unpleasant surprise.
Day 4: Albula and Bernina
Two named, legit passes separated our start in Filisur and our finish
near Tirano in Italy: The Albula and Bernina Passes were the two highest
ones of our whole trip. And maybe the most beautiful ones?
Day 5:Aprica, Tonale, and way too many motorcycles
To save our knees, we we skipped the Mortirolo and rode the Aprica and Tonale passes. And had to share the road with way too many motorcycles. Ugh.
Day 6: Mendel pass, Passo Pinei, and we reach the Dolomites
On day 6 we start with an easy pass for breakfast: The
Mendel Pass. And then some much more challenging riding that gets us
into the Dolomites.
Day 7: Dolomites classics: Sella, Pordoi, Falzarego
It's all Dolomites today! We hit several classic passes, with the Sella, the Pordoi, and the Falzarego.
Day 8: The quiet part of the Dolomites: Mauria and Passo di Pura
If you want to stay abreast of new videos, subscribe to my channel. But I'll also try to remember to post new videos here.
Madison doesn't have passenger rail. Over the past year, there have been a lot of news that indicate that that may be changing, sooner than anticipated. But I'm not going to get my hopes up. And "sooner than anticipated" still means 2029 at the earliest. And so to get to Chicago without a car, you have to take a bus. Or bike to the nearest train station, which is in Harvard, IL.*
In 2024 I did that trip for the first time, on my fixie: Bike to Harvard, take the Metra commuter train into downtown Chicago. And for the way back, Amtrak train to Milwaukee and bike back from there. I documented that trip in two videos.
This year there was another opportunity. A grad school friend was going to be in Chicago. My significant other had a hotel room booked already and so I might as well join! The plan: Leave early on Saturday, catch a mid-day train and arrive in Chicago in the afternoon. Have some fun, eat a lot, sleep. Do the reverse the next day.
This being March in Wisconsin, the weather is an important variable. March can have days warm enough for shorts and t-shirt. Or a blizzard. Or everything in between. On that spectrum, the weather forecast looked okay-ish: Cold but sunny on Saturday morning, with a predicted low of -7 C/20 F and a high of +7 C/45 F; and much warmer and mostly sunny on Sunday. Good enough for me.
One adaptation in response to cold morning was to not aim for the 11:35 am train (which would have necessitated a departure around 5 am) but the 1:35 pm train instead. This was to reduce the amount of time I'd be riding while the sun wasn't up yet or very low. I departed Madison at 6:19 am, half an hour before sunrise. And yes, it was cold! A few degrees warmer than the forecast, but still well below freezing. I wore thick wool socks, neoprene shoe covers, and wool tights on my lower body. A wool baselayer, long sleeve wool jersey, and a softshell jacket on top. A buff to keep the wind out, plus a hat. I knew that my hands would be the weakest link and added a pair of chemical warmers to my gloves. Juust warm enough.
Aside from the cold, it was a beautiful morning. A clear sky, birds singing, not much wind, the sun just about to rise over the Madison lakes. I managed my effort to balance staying warm enough while not riding too hard. After all, it was 135 kilometers (80 miles) to Harvard, which this early into the season is a considerable distance. Some of the ill effects of the cold were that my contents of my water bottles turned into slush (but not wholly freezing at least!). And the wax on my chain was so hard that it caused my drive train to be noisy and imprecise.
The route I had created prioritized short distance and low traffic roads. Scenery, on the other hand, was not a priority. The parts of Wisconsin and Illinois I was riding through are flat and agricultural. In March that means endless shades of brown fields, with the occasional farm house or town in between.
The riding was going well enough that for a while I thought I may be able to catch the earlier train. It would be tight, but maybe I could increase my effort and cut a few kilometers off the planned route. However, as the sun rose not only did the temperatures go up but so did the wind. And it was not in my favor. So I had to resign to the fact that I would arrive much too early for the 1:35 pm train but had no realistic chance of catching the 11:35 am. Ah well. I dialed my effort back down and arrived in Harvard at 12:08, after 5h 48 minutes. My moving time was only 13 minutes less than that—when it's this cold, you really need to minimize the time stopped! Harvard has a very nice coffee shop, The Mug, one block from the train station, and I slowly warmed myself up with a "golden oat latte."
The Metra train is great for bringing on your bike: Most cars have a bike rack and no extra ticket is required for the bike. And if you do a Saturday/Sunday trip like I did, you can buy a weekend pass for $10.
The way back
Our hotel's breakfast room had a large window. With some trepidation I watched a flag across the street: Clearly it was quite windy, and the wind appeared to come from the west. My route back was going northwest overall. I was mentally prepared for this and resisted the temptation to take a closer look at the wind forecast. It's not like I could do anything about the wind. I biked to the train station, and after less than 19 hours in Chicago I was on the train again. I got back on the bike in Harvard at 12:16 pm.
As I had anticipated, it was windy! The wind seemed to be from the south rather than the west, though. Better than expected. My route for the return trip was different. Head west to Beloit, northwest to Orfordville, and then straight north back into Madison. The first segment felt hard. Boring landscape, tired legs, strong crosswinds. I was resigned to the day being a long slog. But hey, the fact that it was much warmer and I had no pressure to catch a train counterbalanced this. And while the crosswind made me feel very slow, I noticed that my actual average speed was pretty decent. And whenever there was a segment of road heading north, the tailwind felt amazing. My mind increasingly focused on the fact that for the last 30 km of my ride the wind would be in my back the whole way! Spoiler: indeed it was.
It is hard to convey how good a strong tailwind feels. You forget your tired legs and butt. It is suddenly quiet, except for the hum of your tires spinning at 22 miles an hour. The distance remaining on your bike computer ticks down rapidly. You no longer care about the featurelessness of the landscape because you just focus on your effortless speed.
I arrived back home after 5h 20 min, in an elated state of mind. These types of ride make me fall in love with biking over and over again. They're ridiculous, hard, easy, fun, memorable.
* Technically, the nearest train station is Columbus, WI, from where you could take the Empire Builder long-distance train to Chicago. But that train runs once a day, is expensive, and (because it comes all the way from the West Coast) is often delayed by many hours. Milwaukee is another option, but you need a reservation and extra bike ticket for the Hiawatha service.
It's December 31, and over on the iBOB list, people have been posting what they tried and liked in 2025. Here's what I have for this year:
Selfie during Dairy Roubaix 2025
Liked
- Riding a skinny-tire vintage road bike. My
accidental Serotta Colorado frame purchase has turned out to be a good
investment. I finally found a nice fork for it (a scarily light Columbus
Minimal), and I did a bunch of rides on the bike this year. As long as
the pavement is reasonably smooth, I'm really enjoying the ride, despite
the 25/28 mm tires.
- Assos Arm Protectors: https://www.assos.com/us/arm-protector-188424.html
Nice sun protection that works for my long arms and doesn't slide down
match. And for an Assos product, it's remarkably reasonable in price
-
Dairy Roubaix: This is an early-season gravel ride in the Wisconsin
Driftless region. I used to do it regularly but hadn't done it since the
pandemic. I had an absolute blast this year. The weather was great, as
were the roads. I'll likely be back next year.
- A rear rack
on my Stevens MTB. I added a rear rack to the early 2000s Stevens MTB
that I have at my parents' place in Germany. Having the option to add
panniers, in addition the Carradice saddle bag, is really nice.
Should've done that a long time ago.
- Having as many front
lights as bikes. My regularly used bikes all have dyno lights. And now I
finally have at least one decent battery front light for all of the
other bikes. No more annoying switching around of lights.
- Making bike videos: I'm still not fast or super skilled, but I enjoy filming, editing, and narrating my bike adventures. Here's my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ride-or-pie/
Undecided
-
For my winter indoor riding I switched back from Training Peaks Virtual
to Zwift. Zwift has a whole lot of annoying user interface issue that
are much more glaring after coming back from TPV. I also liked the
racing experience on TPV more. On the other hand, Zwift's gamification
gets me to ride a lot, and it's important to be on the same platform as
your real-life friends.
- TPU tubes. I still go back and forth
between liking and disliking them. Just yesterday I had a flat that
most likely wouldn't have happened with a butyl tube. While on other
bikes the tubes have performed great.
- Lumintop B01 front light: One of the battery lights I acquired this year. It doesn't conform with the German cut-off regulations, but it does have a shaped beam that doesn't blind oncoming riders. And it's relatively cheap, has a replaceable battery and seems sturdy. I think I like it, but it hasn't been long enough to be sure.
Disliked
-
Not having big goals. I struggled with motivation to ride in the first
half of the year. I didn't have any events or tours planned for later in
the season, and it showed. I'll have to figure something out for 2026.
I used to be a regular Coffeeneur (and have the patches to prove it). For a few years, though, I have been on a break. I'm not sure why. Probably a lack of new destinations, riding indoors more? Anyways, this year I returned.
Ride 1: Crossroads Coffeehouse
A mostly overcast fall day took me out to Cross Plains. I'd been to Crossroads Coffeehouse before, but it was a long time ago. It's a very nice coffee shop right on the main street and I had an iced coffee (3/5) and a surprisingly good vegan/gluten free brownie.
My favorite coffee shop in Oregon, Firefly, changed their hours last year and is no longer open on weekends. I considered trying a new-to-me place downtown, Kickback Cafe, but eventually landed on Bodihow Brewing. It's a cool place that combines a bike shop, cafe, and brewpub. During previous visits I had had their beers, and I have to say they definitely beat their coffee. Anyways, it was warm enough to sit outside and the overall ride was excellent.
The third ride was the first one to take me to a new coffee shop: Grace in Verona. I've been to other Grace locations previously, but this one was new to me. Grace has (had?) a bad reputation among some but I have to say the espresso I had was very good, they have comfortable seats, and staff were friendly.
I wasn't sure if I'd been here before: I remembered a coffeeneuring ride to this part of Sun Prairie, and how many coffee shops can there be? But the name didn't seem familiar and neither did the interior. Well, after some digging through Strava records, it turns out that I had been in this location, back in 2017, but the shop had a different name and presumably owner back then. The espresso exceeded my expectations and they had a vegan protein bar, which was okay. Notably, I had a blazing tail wind on the way north, which was fun! (And no, I didn't hate the headwind on the way back as much as I had feared.)
Another ride to Verona, but this time to a shop I'd been to before: Alice Good. I really enjoyed my previous visits, but their limited opening hours had prevented me from going there more frequently. I was glad to find out that their hours are much better now and so I headed there on a Friday afternoon. Again, I loved it: Their staff are very friendly, the espresso was excellent, and I also picked up some excellent light roast beans to take home. On the way back I got rained on a little, but that was fine too.
Mid November. But warm enough to wear knickers and sit outside, with a cold brew coffee! I spontaneously took the day off and set out for the longest coffeeneuring expedition of the year: Fat Cat Coffee Works in New Glarus is an old favorite, right off the Badger State Trail. I included some detours and new-to-me roads and it was all glorious. The coffee itself was as usual: Fine but nothing to rave about. But I didn't care in the slightest on a day like that.
My buddy Ben had sold me on a new Zwift race series, schedule at 7:45 am on Sundays. The race was long and extremely hard. But it was also another uncharacteristically warm and sunny day and so Nicole and I headed out to Middleton for the last Coffeeneuring ride. Another destination that I'd been too many times: Barriques. While I don't like their filtered coffees, the espresso is reliably decent.
It's been awfully quiet here, and that's because I have poured most of my creative energy into video editing. With tons of footage from an eleven-day trip through the Alps, I'm slowly creating one episode after the other. So far I have a teaser and full episodes for days one and two. I hope you'll enjoy them! And if you'd rather read a written account of our trip, head over to Ben's blog. He has a great day-by-day account with lots of beautiful photos.
I thought I didn't have a lot for this year's edition of tried-and-liked. But once you get going, things add up.
Tried and liked
Ortlieb Seat Pack (16.5l): For a bike touring adventure (see
below), I needed a big seat bag to supplement my front rando bag. The
Ortlieb works well on my tall low-trail bike with an almost level top
tube. However, I have juuust enough seat post showing to make it work. I also got to experience the droopy behavior that I had read about. It happens when the bag is not packed tightly enough (and you can buy accessory straps to prevent it). But my bike is tall enough that there is no risk of the bag touching the rear wheel
Droopy seat bag
Bike touring the Alps. Went on an 11-day trips through the Alps with a
friend. We packed light and slept in hotels and it was amazing.
Taking videos of rides: In prep for the Alps trip, I bought a DJI Action 4 cam and worked on my editing skills. Editing takes a lot of
time, but it's also a fun way to reminisce about your rides. Here's my
little YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ride-or-pie
Rene Herse Nuda mini pump: It's amazingly light and small, and it
worked well enough when I had a flat on my skinny tire road bike.
Selling a couple bikes/frames: I sold a record number of bikes, that is, three, this
year. It felt good to pass on bikes that didn't get ridden/loved enough.
Replacing the battery on my Wahoo Elemnt: Repairing things that are probably
not really meant to be repaired is very satisfying. The computer is five
years old now and I don't feel a strong urge to upgrade now that the
battery capacity has been restored.
Wahoo surgery
To be determined
Ass Savers Win Wing fenders: I bought these recently and have had only
one or two wet rides to test them with. Easy to install, extremely
light, and they do seem to work.
Ass Savers Win Wing fender
Chain waxing: I hopped
on the wax train this fall, with a cheap used crock pot setup. The process is not too bad and I like the
results immediately after waxing. But it seems that the drivetrain gets
noisy pretty quickly. I'm not sure if I can deal with the frequency of
rewaxing that seems to be required. Maybe fancier equipment would help? Probably not, though.
Indievelo/TrainingPeaks
Virtual: A new-ish indoor training platform with a focus on racing. I
decided to give this a try instead of Zwift. I like the racing
experience better than Zwift so far, but it's still a small platform. So
often you end up racing against bots. The bots are implemented very
well, though.
It's been a while since I've published here. It's not for a lack of riding -- I've ridden more than ever this year. The reason is that I bought an Osmo Action 4 camera and am trying my hand at ride videos. Video editing has a steep learning curve, but I think I'm getting better. Here are a couple videos I produced in the past months.
An overnight trip to Beaver Dam, with headwind both ways
The Great Sauk State Trail
My first Permanent in 2024
Madison to Chicago and back, by train an fixed gear bike
