Hey cycling fans! it's been a while since my last post, I've been pretty much missing in action for over a week because I went on a small holiday in Germany so I limited my computer time to only early in the morning before the rest of the family was awake, about two hours in total every day and I figured posting would take too much of that time.

When looking at my thumbnail, AI can make really nice pictures already but it completely messes up with the shadows, I mean... what monster is on that bike!? 😆

But back to my story...

I did bring my bike to Germany as well, in fact we brought both mountain bikes and it turned out to be a great area for gravel riding, and I found a forest that took all of my off-road skills and beyond because the forest won and made me crash 😆, off-road climbing is something I still have to learn and that day I learned that with steep and rough terrain you only have a couple of seconds to decide what line you're going to take and if you make a bad choice, you'll end up really close to the ground!

Forest grounds are mostly really soft so it didn't matter and fear not, it's all on camera for you all to gloat in a couple of weeks when I'm done editing everything, I'm quite behind on that as well. It's crazy how big the video files for a 360 camera are, so I brought my external HDD to just dump every ride on so my camera was empty again to record the next ride.

And since here on Hive was the start of my cycling journey here are some sneak peaks!

I've been riding with my daughter for about half of the distance I rode on my vacation and as you can see we had great fun, the banana thing was my daughters input and she even had a little song about it. 😂

The cycling virus is spreading!

While on holiday, something I had never expected happened and while the reason is kind of sad I think this development is awesome.

My wife has pretty serious back problems for over six months already, neither rest or therapy didn't help and after an MRI scan she had before we went on vacation she got the call from the hospital with the results; they couldn't see anything wrong on the scans besides a little wear in her lower back. At least it's nothing serious like a tumor but she still lived with pain every day so her options are limited at this point, returning to the physio therapist who would probably give her exercises she can do on her own at home as well to strengthen her core muscles, also, therapy in my country is only partially covered by the health insurance.

I've been having back problems as well (don't we all when we're getting older?) for the last 15 years but since I started cycling the last six months have been without any problems whatsoever so she figured it's worth a try although she doesn't like sports for fun, it's now with good reason.

A couple of weeks ago, we were in a really big cycling store, the Mantel Super Store in Utrecht and they had indoor virtual trainers that looked really cool.

I took this picture for my sister, I've been talking about virtual cycling to her when we last met but at that moment without much interest for ourselves, well that escalated quickly!

So, my wife asked if this would be an option for her and if I would be interested in it as well because a nice setup like these are not cheap and she didn't want to buy it only for her own use, so I gave it a thought and figured I would need my MTB for my zone 2 rides if I didn't want it and also when the weather is bad (rain, heavy winds, snow...) I would have an alternative, so I started to learn more about indoor cycling.

Of course, Zwift is the OG but it had a $20 monthly subscription and it's only for ONE user and I'm cheap so that's not going to happen 😆 I mean I don't mind at all spending a good amount of money for a nice setup we can last years with, but expensive subscriptions are not my thing, especially when there are other options.

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So while watching cycling content on YouTube, I've seen adds for MyWhoosh and the fact it's totally free so we did buy an indoor Zwift Ride cycling frame, so I don't need my real bike since our trainer is on the second floor and it's less stable and not very good for your bike I think because of the side way forces on the frame, the frame is attached to a Wahoo Kickr Core 2 smart trainer that's linked with bluetooth (and ant+) to my Laptop and Heartrate monitor.

Don't mind the blue paint it's not our choice 🤣 when we bought the house, the entire interior was painted in bright colors: blue, red and yellow 😏 and because this is a storage area with the washing machine it never got my attention, it was already on my to do list to repaint and now the trainer is there it will definitely get an overhaul, work in progress!

The only drawback for using MyWhoosh compared to Zwift for me is I can't use the bluetooth shifters on my handlebars (yet). MyWhoosh isn't supporting it just yet and there is a work around with the Bike Control app but it needs a monthly subscription, virtual shifting can still be done by pressing two keys on the laptop which I'm fine with. Every month there are new updates in MyWhoosh so hopefully some day this will just get integrated into it without the need of third party tools.

I think it's really cool the cycling sport gets gamified like this, with every ride you earn coins you can spend to alter your in game character's apparel or save up for a new wheel set or a completely new bike, to keep you motivated there are events that run for multiple weeks you can participate in to earn special reward sets as well so this will definitely change my riding where my mountain bike will see less roads, it's still new at this point so let's see how this develops.

And because cycling can now be done without going outside, my other daughter decided to join in as well so I've motivated them all. 😁

Yesterday I've made a small DIY table just above the handlebars, and today I will make a power outlet under the table so the laptop can be charged and I also need to tidy up all the cables for both ventilators because it's getting quite hot when you ride indoors!

This cycling virus... or evolution is crazy, just under a year ago I started this journey - by then I swore not to go riding in lycra and a year later look where I am. 😁

And to add this weeks Chit Chat prompt to this post that's all about tech...

How far do tech upgrades in sports gear change the game — making it richer or messing it up?

For me this is quite literally a game-changer... pun intended 😄 with sports in general I think this is just natural evolution, if you see how much development there has been in the last thirty years it's crazy going from steel to aluminium to carbon, with it unfortunately cycling is getting more and more for rich people only, and getting back to my own topic this is why the developers of MyWhoosh made it free, they're funded by the United Arab Emirates and they're pretty loaded so hopefully it will remain free when it gains more popularity in the years to come and they will get revenue from in world adds.