Tag: biking

12 months of biking

Today marks 12 months of e-road cycling and e-mountain biking for me! and tomorrow will mark 12 months since I got my own eMTB (pictured below).

Dark grey electric mountain bike propped against a tree in the forest
Nakamura e-summit 950

3011 kilometers, shown in orange on the SportsTracker map!

Map of the area showing in various shades of orange the area I have covered on my eMTB. It goes as far as Fréjus and Roquebrune in the Var at the West, Mons, Caussols and Gréolières at the North and Saint-Laurent du Var at the East.
Map of the area showing in various shades of orange the area I have covered on my eMTB. It goes as far as Fréjus and Roquebrune in the Var at the West, Mons, Caussols and Gréolières at the North and Saint-Laurent du Var at the East.

Most of it was recreational but a lot of it was a substitute to driving for errands and commute, or to meet people.

I think (*) I have driven fewer kilometers than I cycled in the last year, as a result.

I enjoy myself biking way more than anything else. I’m not very good at it but I don’t care. I’m not very bad at it either!

Biking makes me happy and I look happy on a bike. I selected from the last 12 months a few pictures of me (taken mostly by my co-biker, former colleague and friend Daniel) that I like in particular.

(*) estimate of 2700-2900 km driven.

Photo of smiling me by me as I am on a black electric mountain bike, wearing a blue helmet, sunglasses and a red tank top. There is another e-mtb visible next to me.
Photo of me smiling on my electric mountain bike as I stand on a flat area with gravel.
Photo of me riding my electric mountain bike and doing a peace sign on a sunny day. The trees around are turning yellow and orange. I'm wearing a red pullover.
Smiling middle-aged woman wearing a bike helmet standing next to a dark grey mountain bike in a steep incline covered in dead leaves
Photo of me riding my electric mountain bike and doing a peace sign on a sunny day. I'm wearing a warm sports coat. The area around is a plateau with rocks and dry grass.
Photo of me smiling as a walk the electric mountain bike on fallen rocks
Photo of me smiling on the electric mountain bike as I stand near the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley.
Photo of me smiling and doing a peace sign as I stand on the electric mountain bike at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Esterel and the sea.
Photo of me smiling as I sit on the electric mountain bike by the end of a former railway bridge. I'm wearing a black tank top and black and red backpack.
Photo of me reflected in a fish-eye mirror at sunset.

DIY: edit yourself IN a WWII pro-bicycle poster

Originally published as a thread on Mastodon.

I had fun with a little photo editing on iPhone 🤗

I am helping by cycling when I can!

Pixelated version in colour of me riding a mountain bike added to the poster instead of the black and white business man on his bike

Even though today’s context is different from when the original poster was made, we still ought to save fuel, avoid carbon emissions, and generally exercise! 💪

I may use this as my avatar on some platforms maybe.

Original propaganda poster from the early 1940s

Original propaganda poster from the early 1940s 'You are helping by cycling when you can', showing a black and white middle-aged man in suite carrying a briefcase and riding a bicycle.

I used as background the poster ‘You are helping by cycling when you can’, printed in Britain in the early 1940s during the Second World War to remind people to conserve fuel resources which were rationed.

Look, I made a template!

Empty poster with text only
Template poster ‘You are helping by cycling when you can’

I made the honorable black and white cyclist disappear, and share it here, so you can save it, in case you’d like to edit yourself IN and state you care about saving fuel, avoiding carbon emissions, or generally exercising! 💪

Make your own!

Here’s how I did it on iPhone with the built in Photos app, and Tayasui Sketches (I think you can get by with the free version).

In Photos:

  • choose the photo of you in your camera roll
  • long press yourself till you see the outline and the “copy|share” button appear
  • Tap “copy”

In Tayasui Sketches:

  • select “New drawing”
  • at the top, in the … menu, select “import” then select “Photos”
  • choose the template image I provided
  • … menu, “import”, choose “paste”

Adjust and 🎉 tada!

Show me the results?

If you’ve followed this tutorial of sort, share your version, please!