Category Archives: Cycling

Cycling, Luxembourg, Stuff

Cyclehack Luxembourg City 2016

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Thanks to Cycle Luxembourg, I was privileged to help with the preparation of the first Cyclehack in Luxembourg City. A very nice experience from the inside, where a group of very busy people have managed to do everything; also it was a bit discouraging because it was during the National Holiday weekend and many people decided to travel for an extended weekend before the beginning of the holiday season.

Back to the topic, the event took place during the whole weekend (from Friday the 24th of June to Sunday) at the Rotondes. Friday evening and Sunday afternoon were opened to the public and the rest of the weekend only to participants.

Videos

All videos are also available for download on my personal gallery.

On Friday, there was a series of talks:

Introduction talk by Kasia Krzyzanowski:

Keynote speaker: Marc van Woudenberg of Amsterdamize:

Some local speakers:

Sam Tanson, member of the Aldermen council and in charge of mobility and transport issues for Luxembourg City:

Philippe Herkrath from  Lëtzebuerger Vëlosinitiativ:

openData by Tezza Lana from Level2 – Syn2cat Hackerspace:

Jean­-Michel Mertz from Bike43, a bicycle related startup here in Luxembourg:

Pierre Englebert from the Luxembourg branch of Cycling Without Age:

And my first ever talk,  I even tried to talk, about my daily bike commutes in Luxembourg, with the glitches and everything:

My slides are also available online.

And to finish, Steve Clement from Level 2 and coorganizer made a very inspiring talk:

Sunday: presentation of the projects

Continue reading Cyclehack Luxembourg City 2016 →

Cycling, Europe, Luxembourg

Waste of money and insecurity

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While cycling on PC14,  I discovered it was closed; and they did a detour via a the roads CR103 and CR109, a popular itinerary for trucks going to Kehlen. So I wasn’t very pleased to find which wasn’t announced on any web site. Imagine a family going for a bicycle ride altogether during this sunny Easter holiday…

Detour sign

The fun continues one kilometre ahead, where the main road is also closed, and all the best they have done is to Strikethrough the bicycle detour…

Detour no longer applies

What a waste of money; doing a detour via a dangerous road, and then close the detour…

Also, on Tuesday, April 14, the cycling route is also closed between Mamer and Capellen; no alternative road is planned; but at least they have put the sign since last month:

PC14 closure

So let me suggest the alternative way below to go from Mamer to Nospelt, which is technically against the law as the way is market with a (C,2) sign with no bicycle exemption, but:

  • no one cares, they often put this sign even on official cycling routes, and
  • safety first.

Please note the traffic light when crossing Route d’Arlon in Mamer.

Cycling, Europe, France, Germany

Cycling from Strasbourg to Offenburg

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On cycleways, mostly dedicated. Easy to ride, the total distance is about 60 km long on a flat surface, mostly on asphalt; only one small segment is on a track and another one on gravel. The North segment to Offenburg is nicer than the South back to Strasbourg via Illkirch.

Download GPX file.

Elevation map
Link on GPSies.

Cycling, Life

Not a common Monday

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It’s very pleasant to start a new week with a day off. The main reason was to study and to let the repairman in. Then a succession of events occurred:

  • he called me in the early morning and let me know at what time he was going to arrive,
  • I will be going to be on call from this evening on,
  • according to the weather forecast, it was the last sunny day until god knows when,
  • I couldn’t find any interactive way to study on the security frameworks, knowing that passive learning is useless.

Based on all the facts above, I invited some people for an evening BBQ, went out into the forest and rode my mountain bike,  bought some groceries to cook a nice salad, let the repairman fix the dishwasher, started some laundry, went out again to another forest, mowed the lawn, went shopping for BBQ food and finally had my guests.

Tam showed up to fetch his car but unfortunately his battery was flat; since it’s a hybrid car it wasn’t possible to push it. Therefore he stayed with us for dinner until his car could be fixed, which took about 1 minute and costed 100 Euros. At least he could enjoy with us some fish-kebab, grilled mushrooms and other vegetables. It was nice to spend some time with some friends!

Ended the day doing 61 km of activities, including 48 km on my bike. Still 690 km to go this month and 6,428 km this year (7,042 km would be ideal if I can afford not to include non-bike sports as well). Too bad this week I won’t have as much free time than I had for cycling…

Of course my mind wasn’t in security frameworks while mountain biking, but rather organising some games on mountain bikes based on the snake game which could be played in groups in the city centre or in the forest.

So below are the maps of the two rides.

Cycling

Lunch ride to Diekirch

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Today I went to the Meetup event called Lazy Sunday Bike Ride.

The meeting point was in Mersch at 10:15. I left home on time, but went slowly and did a detour via the city centre,  and at 9:44 I saw the sign displaying 15 remaining kilometres, I had to boost and arrived there exactly at 10:15 😉 Of course, I could also have contacted the organiser as I knew the tour details, but that would have been no fun.

The group was great, it was great riding with 12 other people while talking a bit and listening to others – I have two ears and one mouth. One person got lost so I went back to fetch her and we finally found the group back after an hour, and we cycled to Diekirch and stopped for lunch in a Portuguese restaurant named Jardin du Portugal where the food was good so I recommend it.

In total, I cycled another 109 km today, it was called a “Lazy” 😉

I’ve done 412 km of outdoor activities this week, and I still need another 743 km this month to reach my goal, but since I’m going to be on duty next week I won’t be able to cycle as much as last week.

Elevation map

To finish the day, I’ve cleaned the BBQ; it’s like a new one 🙂