That’s my Giant 24 speed. That turned out to be a heck of a good bike. Aside from a few broken spokes and replacing the tires when necessary it’s worked perfectly for thousands of miles.
The new bike first: When I started bicycling when I retired it surprised the family a lot. They all figured the bike I bought would end up gathering dust in the garage. Here we are several thousand miles later and I’m still at it, and it was time to replace my old bike with something a bit better, and that’s it up in the first photo. It’s a Specialized Vado and it is very, very nice. Hydraulic disc brakes, built in lights, great front suspension, a fancy built in computer system, a cargo carrier on the back I can strap stuff to. And best of all, a motor.
Yes, it’s an ebike. I still have to pedal, I still get my heart and respiration rates up, I still get back from a long ride with my legs pleasantly tired. I have the thing set up so I do most of the work but when I get to a steep hill the motor gives me a boost to help me get up the hill, or gives me an extra burst of speed to get away from dogs that want to eat me. I’m no spring chicken. I’m sixty-eight this year and while I’m in pretty good shape I’ve been getting twinges in my knees trying to power up hills and I’ve been having to drop down a gear or two to get up ’em.
The Vado is, frankly, amazing. And it is well suited to the type of riding I do which is, I must admit, pretty leisurely. I make a lot of stops to take photos and I’m out there not so much to get exercise but to enjoy nature. I watch birds and animal life, look at the vegetation, watch the sun coming up, stop to take pictures and that kind of thing. The Vado is perfect for me. I’ve had it for about a week and I have over a hundred miles on it now and I love it. I did a twenty mile ride the other day that would have left me exhausted on the other bike. I’ll take a closer look at the Vado later after I’ve lived with it a while long.
When I’m out on the road on the bike I’m constantly stopping to take photos of stuff I find interesting, things that you don’t see when you’re zooming past at sixty mph, so here are a few.
I live about a 4 mile ride away from an extensive trail system. It runs more than 20 miles north all the way to Green Bay, and from a little town called Forest Junction it also branches off to the east to the town of Brillion. This is the trail that runs to Brillion.These grow wild in the ditches all over around here and I suspect most people don’t even see how beautiful they are because they’re zooming past at 80 mph or too busy trying to text, talk on the phone and eat a cheeseburger at the same time.I found this stunning flower growing along the side of one of the trails. I took about a dozen photos of it from different angles.This is another “weed” that grows all over around here. But up close it has one of the prettiest flowers I’ve ever seen.I’d stopped at a small parking area for a nature reserve to get a drink and found this lonely little guy hiding in the tall grass. I thought it was one of the loveliest things I’d seen. There’s something about the symmetry of those petals surrounding that central pod that I found very striking.And of course I had to include queen anne’s lace. The stuff grows everywhere in the ditches along the roads around here. Those intricate little flowers that make up that lace like structure are amazing.Another “weed” you’ll find growing along the roads around here.A thistle, one of several varieties that grow around here. They’re considered a “noxious weed” around here but the flowers are this rich purple-lavender color and so beautifully delicate that I find myself photographing them a lot.This is, I think a verbascum or mullein. Maybe. My father called it wild tobacco which seems to be a fairly common name for it. When I was a kid I’d see this stuff all over the place. On the farm it would grow along the makeshift roads we had around the farm to access the fields and sometimes along cattle trails. It can be a spectacular plant, growing up to three or four feet tall.This is the river down by the old stone bridge and that white thing you see out there is a pelican. I watched this guy swimming around feeding for several minutes.
And that’s it for this time. Hope you enjoyed the photos.
BTW: You’re more than welcome to leave comments in the comments section. Or you can reach me at old.grouchyfarmer@gmail.com.
Yes, I'm a former farmer. Sort of. I'm also an amateur radio operator, amateur astronomer, gardener, maker of furniture, photographer.
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2 thoughts on “Photos From The Backroads and a New Bike”
VERY nice photos. I love flowers so it’s always interesting to see the different kinds.
Re; the bike. I’m not at all familiar with Vado, but you mention it’s an “e-bike” so I’m assuming it’s one of those bikes you can pedal … or not. My other-half and I have occasionally talked about getting a couple of these bikes, but were put off by the pricing — especially for both of us! In the end, we figured at our age (older than you) we probably wouldn’t use them all that much anyway.
In an event, they seem to be an ideal solution for enjoyable bike riding and I hope you get the full benefit of your new “toy.” 😉
This one still has to be pedaled, it doesn’t go on its own. It’s an electric assist that gives a boost when going up hills and that kind of thing. How much assistance you want can be changed in the programming. In eco mode, which I use most of the time, the motor does very little until I get to a hill or I’m starting out from a dead stop. I do most of the work myself. “Sport” mode gives a bit more boost when riding normally. In Turbo mode the bike does most of the work but you still have to pedal but it feels almost as if the bike were free-wheeling.
There are some that do indeed work more as an electric powered moped and don’t need to be pedaled at all. I’ve been told those aren’t strictly legal in some jurisdictions because they may actually be classified as mopeds or motorcycles that require licensing and insurance. Not sure about that, though.
It is very, very nice, but as you said, it’s also very expensive. This one was pushing close to $4,000 and I’ve seen some a lot more than that. You need to do a heck of a lot of biking to justify that, but I’ve been averaging over 100 miles a week.
grouchyfarmer 
VERY nice photos. I love flowers so it’s always interesting to see the different kinds.
Re; the bike. I’m not at all familiar with Vado, but you mention it’s an “e-bike” so I’m assuming it’s one of those bikes you can pedal … or not. My other-half and I have occasionally talked about getting a couple of these bikes, but were put off by the pricing — especially for both of us! In the end, we figured at our age (older than you) we probably wouldn’t use them all that much anyway.
In an event, they seem to be an ideal solution for enjoyable bike riding and I hope you get the full benefit of your new “toy.” 😉
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This one still has to be pedaled, it doesn’t go on its own. It’s an electric assist that gives a boost when going up hills and that kind of thing. How much assistance you want can be changed in the programming. In eco mode, which I use most of the time, the motor does very little until I get to a hill or I’m starting out from a dead stop. I do most of the work myself. “Sport” mode gives a bit more boost when riding normally. In Turbo mode the bike does most of the work but you still have to pedal but it feels almost as if the bike were free-wheeling.
There are some that do indeed work more as an electric powered moped and don’t need to be pedaled at all. I’ve been told those aren’t strictly legal in some jurisdictions because they may actually be classified as mopeds or motorcycles that require licensing and insurance. Not sure about that, though.
It is very, very nice, but as you said, it’s also very expensive. This one was pushing close to $4,000 and I’ve seen some a lot more than that. You need to do a heck of a lot of biking to justify that, but I’ve been averaging over 100 miles a week.
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