Tag: bicycles

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Three months, twelve weeks and eigthy four days of riding bicycles in super depressing, muddy and rain-washed-out roads of Dortmund has finally come to an end!
Spring has been spotted all across Dortmund and so I spend the last two dozen rides or so riding around the greater Dortmund area with only one goal: capturing every single sign of spring with my camera!
Today I’m all set up to share the first results in my brand new photo series about spring 2023 in Dortmund!

The entire spring series has been a work in progress for years. Make sure to check out the complete work right here: Urban Photography

-Dennis

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Sunday, the last day of every week, the highlight of any week for most cyclists I know, and still…I don’t feel too delighted on every sunday ride for various reasons. I mean, there might be great reasons for riding on any given sunday, just like I wrote in the last blogpost,“Why Sunday is the best day for cycling!”. However, if sunday is the perfect day for cycling, then why do I feel so angry and unhappy most of the time, when I return home from a sunday ride?
Well, I’m going to answer this question today! Here are some reasons for why I don’t like to go cycling on sundays:

–Popular places in town are so crowded by people!

On a sunday ride I usually like to do a quiet ride, with places and routes, that are impossible to visit or ride during the week, because of traffic or construction work for example.
However, everyone who ever tried to visit the Phoenix Lake or Phoenix West in Dortmund on a sunday afternoon knows, that it’s best to just stay away from those popular places, too. It’s noisy, overcrowded by people, the traffic is insane and it’s just no fun to ride bicycles in such environments.

-Sunday is the day after Saturday!

Saturday afternoon and evening is party time! That’s a worldwide phenomenom. Party time in summer time, means it’s outdoor party time, which leads to outside garbage, broken bottles and shards all over the town. As a cyclist on a sunday ride, you have to be so aware of shards and other garbage, that just waits to cut your tires wide open. There’s no time to enjoy the views at all, because of all the threats on the ground.

-“Sonntagsfahrer”!

The german word for unexperienced car drivers, who don’t drive cars on a daily basis, but like to drive on sundays to visit places for a walk or do a weekend adventure, because traffic is low and the streets are free.
They are not necessarily bad drivers in terms of skills, they just drive cars differently compared to commuters or daily drivers. As a cyclist on a sunday ride, you always have to be prepared for unusual driving and be ready for an unusual reaction on your bike. Keep your eyes on the road, there’s no time for enjoying views and landscapes!

-Long rides on the weekend take a huge part of your weekend time!

Spending the larger part of the weekend on your bicycle means you’ll miss every awesome roadbike race on TV. Of course, you can watch the highlights later in the evening, but it’s only live once. They don’t give you all the expert insights in the highlight show and there’s also no time for all the historic buildings and background knowledge to the race’s region and culture.
Besides, you’ll probably going to miss or at least be late for every summer BBQ with family and friends.
It’s a shame, but you always have to estimate carefully on what’s more important to you. Luckily, there’s the good old german summer. Heavy rain and strong winds in combination with a nice summer storm can have a huge impact on that decision from time to time…

Of course, not everything’s bad on a sunday ride. I had a lot of great sunday rides on the bike, roadbike as well as gravel and mountainbike and I know, that sundays are perfect for outdoor time on a bicycle. So, you shouldn’t take this article too serious. However, maybe you’d like to read about the great and awesome things of a sunday ride instead, here’s the link to the last blogpost:“Why sunday is the best day for cycling!”

-Dennis

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In a world that is ruled by schedules, intervals, speed and efficiency, sunday is the only day of the week to do whatever, whenever and however. Some people like to relax all day and only switch between bed and couch, some people are finally able to do their favorite outdoor activity.
Whatever it is … Sunday is the day, that everyone can rely on!

Since this website is all about cycling, I’d like to write about the reasons, that make sunday the perfect day for cycling:

Sunday is the most quiet day of the week …

… perfect time to aim for a relaxed ride around town, take a timeout on places that are crowded and noisy all week long and start seeing the city from an unknown side. Noone is going to make a huge fitness progress from a ride like this, but if you take this day as your recovery day, you can discover your city from a totally new side and prepare your body for next week’s interval training hell.

Early Birds will get the trophy!

On sunday mornings, cities are absolutely deserted. The traffic is super low, roads are empty and if the wind is on your side, this is the perfect moment to smash the strava segments, that you’ve aimed for a dozen times at least. Most of the time, you won’t have to break for pedestrians or dogs and there are just a handful of cars, that’ll try to do an insane cutting move or whatever.
So, what you’re waiting for? Let’s go and get that trophy!

Endless Time on an unscheduled day!

Thinking about sundays always feels like standing on a rooftop, looking at an wide open area of free space. There are cities, but the roads are empty, there are forests and offroad areas, that I don’t know yet and far in the distance, there are huge mountains covered in fog, so there’s no possibility to see the summit from where I’m standing.
There are dozens of possible rides on a sunday and sometimes it’s hard to decide on where I want to go, however, sunday is the only day of the week to scout some new roads, paths and trails, so make sure to take this chance every single week of the year!

Personally I think, sunday’s the perfect day to do a huge ride around Dortmund and districts, that are just too busy during the week. It’s so cool to do a ride across the harbor or even the city centre, because there’s just a super low amount of cars and not a single truck around.

However, what about you? Why do you think sunday is the best day of the week to do a ride on your bicycle?
If you’d like to write about that, feel free to share your thoughts in a comment below this blogpost!

-Dennis

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Eventually winter has left this area after a tough and ugly period of time. The sun is shining for more than 30 minutes per day and the trees and plants take back control of the urban landscapes in Dortmund. The last couple of weeks were pretty rough for any cyclist. It was super cold and there was extraordinary lot of rain, which becomes a total evil combination, if you add the dozens of windy almost stormy days to that. People called it “normal April weather” and although “der April macht was er will” is an old farmer’s wisdom for a reason, it still felt a bit weird to wear winter’s clothing in the fourth month of year.
These days should be over by now, although you can never be a hundred percent sure about that…

Nevertheless, the sunny sunshine weather conditions around the eastern holidays were the perfect opportunity for me to do a nice recovery ride across town and stop for a picture whenever I spot a tree in total bloom.
It was no surprise, that the best shots and sightings came out at the Technical University of Dortmund. The TU Dortmund is one of my favorite spots in Dortmund for taking urban landscape pictures, because there is a great combination of architecture and nature.
Plus, the trees at the university have a bigger and larger bloom or crown (is that how you call it?) than most trees along the roads across town.
However, if you look close enough, there are great spots everywhere in Dortmund and I think, I’m going to do another ride to the local parks to find additional spots soon.

‘Til then, make sure to visit the Seasonal Content Page on this website, if you’d like to see the whole archive of urban landscapes in spring!

-Dennis

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The other day, the free coaster on my everyday bicycle, the Creme Cycles Vinyl Solo, broke. I had to run some errands and the weather was okay, so I really wanted to take the bike for that. The only quick fix for that problem was to flip the rear wheel and start riding on the fixed gear and that’s how I got into riding fixed gear bicycles within five minutes.

So far, my entire knowledge about riding fixed gear consisted of watching other people riding fixed gear bikes in YouTube videos and they make it look so easy … well, of course it’s not that easy:

The first problem hit me, when I tried to jump on the bike to start riding. The bike stopped immediately and nothing happened: I jumped on the bike when the pedal had just passed its lowest point, which is basically the perfect way to hit the rear brake.

Once I had that figured out, I still looked like a noob on a bicycle whenever I had to stop or start again (which is definitely the reason, why so many fixed gear riders try to avoid getting stopped in traffic – including myself…) However, at least I was able to get the bike going after all, although it didn’t take long until the next problem showed up:

Usually I like to let the bike roll whenever there’s a slight downhill or there’s not much going on and I’m not in a hurry. Stop to pedal and enjoy the view, that’s how simple it is. Did you know how hard it is to get rid of such behaviour?
Stop pedaling is not a great idea on a fixed gear bicycle, because the pedals won’t stop spinning unless the rider kicks and pushes the pedals back into the opposite direction with an unreal power and strength effort. I learned that the hard way when the pedals almost knocked me out of the saddle…

However, right now I’ve already spend a few hours on the fixed gear and sometimes these problems still bother me during the ride. Nevertheless, I already feel way more comfortable riding fixed gear, than I did in the beginning. Actually I think, that this is possibly the coolest and most chill way to ride bicycles in a city or on a commute to work.
I left the rear brake and the rear brake lever on the bike, just in case I didn’t like the fixed gear at all. Right now, I don’t see a reason why I should keep it on the bike any longer, because I’m absolutely hyped about riding fixed gear.

-Dennis