Cyclenix - The Ultimate Interactive Mountain Bike Website in Israel

Ride Report - Feb. 20, 2010 - Gvar'am Ride

Another Summer's Day- By Francis
Twenty-one of us gathered near the entrance of kibbutz Gvar'am - a lot of familiar faces we haven't seen in a while and all the regulars too. It's about 7 km south of Askelon and by the amount of cars in the parking lot, a popular place for rides and sightings of wild flowers.

We headed off southwards, led once again by Ariel, towards the Gvaram forest and along some singles to a cave where we made a short stop. Here two of our group ventured off by themselves - not to be seen again ....! The unusually warm weather has fooled the flowers and it looks like spring with bright red and yellow blooms. Recent rains have made the desert green - hard to believe that you are in Israel. In fact, one area had so many Eucalyptus trees that Ted thought he was back Down Under.

The ride, about 20km long was characterised by roller-coaster singles - thrilling to bump and fly over. It may seem a short distance, but it required a lot of concentration through the more technical bits. There were some short steep declines followed by steep iinclines - so the muscles were pumping!

Gabi and Maurice left after we passed the meshek for the first time (we passed again at the end of the route). Not only did we see other cyclists enjoying the route, but we passed a large flock of sheep and contented cows as well.

We also witnessed the touching of wheels and Megan taking her first fall. But, being made of rubber (so it seems) she bounced back up and was off at her usual pace.

It was a great ride with some wonderful scenery and exciting singles with lots of unexpected bumps along the way. Thanks to Ariel for once again bringing us all home in one piece.

G'varam Ride. 20.2.10

Ride Report by Ted
Sitting in the car on the way down to Gvaram was misleading. It was pleasantly warm and cozy and promising with clear blue skies smiling at us through the windscreen. Upon reaching Kibbutz Gvaram and opening the door of the car we realised it was in fact a little cooler but definitely bearable.

Ariel briefed the 21 attending riders (David and Ingride were unusually absent and we missed them) and in little time we set off with a brisk uphill climb towards Gvaram Forest..
It was followed by the first exhilarating singles bounded on either side by blossoming flowers and short clumps of brush gently feathering our legs. By the time we reached the abandoned caved quarry we were comfortable with the conditions and loving the ride. Two of our group left and we were down to 19.
We set off on more great singles with ascents and stony down-hills, blotches of sand and winding paths and at one point I was certain that I was back in Australia as the surroundings with the gum-eucalyptus trees and undergrowth were a dead-ringer of my former homeland. All that was missing was a Koala and a Kookaburra. We rounded more curves than on Marylyn Monroe’s body and climbed up and down more hills. At the Kibbutz Maurice and Gaby left and we were down to 17(what next?) but Ariel surprised us with the continuation of the trail to the North and we followed him to more adventures as we bumped along on mogul like sections. More flowers and winding singles and a brief stop for a graze near the Kalaniot and what a treat as we rode of for more fun. As the song goes….we could have rode all day and asked for more. We rode some 21 kls but with such conditions we should have ridden double that quantity. Camera work is by courtesy of Hylton and Megan to the best of my knowledge.

Some of us ended off with a brunch at Yad Mordechai and continued to comment on what a wonderful ride it was today. It was indeed.
Thanks to Ariel and Ofra.

Ride Report - Feb. 13, 2010 - Re'im - by Ariel

Re'im Ride - 13th February, 2010

ביום חורף די קייצי התאספנו בכניסה לקיבוץ רעים כדי לרכוב בסינגל הידוע בתקופה הכי טובה בשנה.
מנינו 25 רוכבים אשר הגיעו למפגש מצפים לנוע בין מרבדים של פרחים ועשב ירוק . לא התאכזבנו - הנוף אכן היה כזה ויותר.
מי שרכב בעבר במסלול לא הצליח לזהות את הנוף משום שהגשמים האחרונים באיזור שינו את הטופוגרפיה וציפו את האדמה הצהובה בירוק מקצה עד קצה.
רכבנו כ 20 קילומטר בנופים משתנים, עליות וירידות כיפיות כשמדי פעם מרטיבים את רגלינו בשלוליות המעטות.
הגדיל לעשות אדריאן שהתעקש לטבול את מחצית גופו במימי נחל (כן - נחל, בתקופה זו) הבשור.
מסלול רעים אינו מפורסם כל כך לכן נתקלנו בכמות מעטה מאד של רוכבים לעומת מסלול בארי הקרוב שהיה מלא ברוכבים ומטיילים.
בסוף המסלול הצעתי למשתתפים לעבור ברכיבה לחלק האחרון של מסלול בארי ואכן 8 רוכבים אמיצים הצטרפו.
רכבנו 10 ק"מ נוספים במסלול היפהפה שזיכה אותנו בהרבה כלניות וגם בלונה פארק של דילוגים נחמדים.
קשה היה להוריד את החיוך של הרוכבים בסוף הטיול, עת ישבנו להתאושש עם שתיה בחנות לה מדווש בבארי.
תודה לאדריאן על ההסברים המלומדים ולטד על האיסוף

CLICK HERE to view our route thanks to David's GPS.

Ride Report - Feb. 6, 2010 - Local Ride - by John

Home Patch Ride - 6.2.2010

There's an old univerrsity song that I remember where one of the lines is : "Never mind the weather, as long as we're together"! What happend to all our regulars??

Despite the weather forecast it turned out to be a beautiful day, cold at first , but soon warming up, an there were only four of us there to enjoy the ride.....Dina, Ted, Frederic and yours truly. We also took a route with a minimum of mud. Part of the ride took us through the public gardens of Kfar Shmaryahu passed the cultural centre where there's a great exhibition of sculptures (see the photos). The flowers are now out in full bloom. We rode through Kibbutz Gaash, skirting the Gaash golf course and making our way to Cafe Buono where we stopped to quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger. The place was more than half empty! Obviously many others had followed the example of our missing regulars! What a pity. After our stop we made our way, via Rishpon, back to home base having covered 30 kilometres of very pleasant (and faster than usual) cycling. Please, a message to all of you regulars who didn't pitch up because of the weather forecast.....Never mind the weather as long as we're together. Good company more than makes up for adverse weather condition!!!

Ride Report - Jan. 30, 2010 - Local Ride - by Merrill

Home Patch Ride - 30.01.10

"It was a dark and stormy night. There was a feeling of dread in the air. Suddenly a shot rang out and a blood curdling scream was heard"... ooops, wrong story!

It was a quite warm and slightly overcast as about 15 of us gathered in Ra'anana for our Shabbat ride. A big welcome to Mario, who joined us for the first time. (Unfortunately, we did seem to lose him in Kfar Saba, just as we were completing our ride.) A short discussion was held to see which route would offer us passage through these troubling times of sticky mud, deep puddles and sand. It was decided that we would head out in an Easterly direction via Moshav Givat Chen. With no exact route in mind, David led us through a few sandy patches and on through Hod Hasharon.

We took the pathways between Hod Hasharon and the Yarkon Junction, veering into the fields to avoid deep mud and water. I discovered the following equation:
PLASTIC IRRIGATION PIPES + WET MUDDY TIRES = SLIPPERY FALLS

See , there is no age limit on learning new things. We rode around there for a while and then decided to cross over the main road and look for more rider-friendly terrain. Along the way, we rode across some streams and it was quite nice to get our feet wet and lose some of the heavy mud on our tires. We rode along the pathways of the 40 road towards the Kfar Saba Industrial Area and discovered that it is possible to ride off-road all the way to the new G Mall.

From here we took the scenic route through the Kfar Saba Park and were pleasantly surprised at what a large and pretty park it is. We then pedaled off to Cup A Joe, where we once more received pleasant service and tasty sustenance.

From here, we allowed the Kfar Saba residents to pedal off homeward and the rest of us made our way back to Ra'anana, “ tired, but happy. Shaul was very lucky to still have a car, as he had forgotten his door wide open in his excitement to start the ride. Luckily the car and its contents came to no harm. Have a nice week and looking forward to seeing everybody down south next Saturday.

Ride Report - Jan. 23, 2010 - Local Ride - by John

Home Patch Ride - 23.1.10

One dozen riders met at our usual place and off we went along Ahuza Street making our way to "Dina's route". Somehow or other a few of us took a wrong turn along the way, but landed up overlooking the Mediterranean from an excellent vantage point. It was an interesting detour , but in the summer this route will become extremely sandy!

Thanks to the invention of the cellular phone the split group was soon reunited and we made our way to the Western lookout point in the Sharon Coast Nature reserve. This is always a good place to make a short stop and have a quick snack. The view from this point is amazing. It should not be too long before the rare black iris makes it's annual appearance and hopefully we'll be there again to see (and photograph) this rare species. From there, we made our way through the reserve, skirting the Gaash golf course and riding on to Yaqum where we waited a short while for David who had a chain problem.

Then it was off to Spingo for our usual "breakfast" stop. The recent rains have made for some nice muddy patches (no one fell today!) and also resulted in firming many of the sandy tracks that are heavy going in the summer months.

All in all we covered +/- 40 kilometres in near perfect weather conditions and the company was, as usual, more than just good!

Ride Report - Jan. 16, 2010 - Burgata to the sea and back! - by John

Nahal Alexander Ride - 16.01.10

The route: FromBurgata to the sea and back along the banks of the Alexander River. +/- 40 kms. This was a nice easy route. No uphills and very little mud.
Participants: 23
Weather: We couldn't have asked for better. Not too hot and little or no wind.
Incidents! Beora managed to sample what little mud there was by falling in it but came out none the worse for wear and Daniel took a tumble because a deep rut that he was unable to avoid. He too, emerged without any after effects.
At the beach Megan gave a lesson to some on how to make flat stones hop across the surface of the sea.
Summary: All of us had a great time and spme of us ended up at the branch of Aroma just North of Beit Lid Junction for some light refreshments.

Ride Report - Jan. 7, 2010 - Muddy Eastbound Local Ride - By Merrill

Muddy Home Patch Ride to the East - 9.01.10

We could not have asked for a nicer day for a ride! It was crisp when we set out, but quickly turned into a lovely cool and sunny day. We started off a group of seventeen, but we lost a few along the way. We had a few new riders with us and we wish them a BIG welcome and hope they will continue to ride with us. We set out riding through the fields of Givat Chen and unfortunately we encountered a lot of sandy pathways that made riding a bit of a strain and we were forced to walk through some of the deeper areas. From there we continued on through Hod Hasharon towards the Yarkon Source. There was a lot of sticky mud along the way and our bicycles quickly became about 5 kilos heavier.

It was pretty easy to divide the ride into sections, such as follows:
1. Where I threw myself into the bushes in order to avoid falling in the mud.
2. The place I fell going up the incline that David said was impossible to ride up.
3. The lake I went swimming in, when I did not realize that the "puddle" was about 70cm deep.
4. The stinging nettle weeds I landed in when trying to ride up a steep incline.

I took away Ingride's title of always making a "splash"!!

Kudo's to Avram, Megan and Gideon for managing to get themselves up the steep incline and honorable mentions to Frederic and myself for at least trying.

We rode past the Rosh Ha'ayin train station and around Park Afek. We then rode back through Moshav Elishema, through Hod Hasharon to Cafe Joe in Kfar Saba, where we discovered that it is indeed possible to satisfy everyone. John had his shakshuka, Frances and I had our ice cafe barad, Barbara enjoyed her museli, while David, Ingride, Frederic, Megan and Yossi snacked on a variety of tempting sandwiches. The food was good. The service was quick and pleasant and a good time was had by all. It was amusing to see the look on the staff's faces when we walked in - a motley crew, covered in mud, squishing water out of our shoes, with big stupid smiles on our faces.

From here, we let David and Ingride make their short trek home and the rest of us continued on to Ra'anana. The ride was about 40kms total and that is a nice distance, considering the terrain.

Just want to take this opportunity to thank John and David for their ongoing contribution of their time and efforts to Cyclenix. Also want to thank everyone for helping to change my innertube this morning after I "killed" the valve. Another special thank you to Megan for supplying us with superb sound effects!!! Last, but not least, a big thanks to all who rode today and made the day a really fun experience. Hope to see you and your bikes all clean and sparkling next week.

Ride Report - Jan. 2, 2010 - Local Ride - By Frances

First ride of 2010 - Home patch - 2.2.10

Once in a Blue Moon...
The Cyclenix year has started off well: Merril has a new sparkling pink Specialized bike, the ride was great, the weather was perfect, and it was a blue moon for the new year. A blue moon refers to the second full moon in one calendar month. This usually happens every two years or so, but it is only once every 19 years that it occurs on the new year. So, auspicious indeed!

We whizzed off on one of our favourite routes - taking in the Sharon nature reserve, the blue sea view and past Cafe Buono (for the car-loving boys) and on to Spingo. Along the way we had a few bike problems with gears and brakes that misbehaved and a fair share of nasty black, clinging mud. But we soldiered on to enjoy our usual refreshments before heading home. Around 38 km of beautiful scenery on a perfect day, with a wonderful group of people.

Check out these sites

Israeli Police, cyclist rules of the road: Israeli Police, Bike Riding Rules

Beginner's Mountain Bike Info Guide: http://www.romp.org/rides/beginnerguide.html

Bicycle Unit of the Civil Guard (Mishmar Ezrahi),
The Department of Community Affairs and the Civil Guard of the Israeli Police Force in conjunction with the Israel Cyclists' Association call on you to join the Cycling Unit of the Civil Guard.
Volunteer Now . Follow the link for more details .

THE BOTTOM LINE ! :
ALL RIDERS PARTICIPATING IN THE CLUB'S ACTIVITIES MUST ACCEPT THAT THE CLUB CONSISTS OF A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS, FOND OF RIDING IN EACH OTHERS COMPANY, ON THE BASIS OF UNDERSTANDING THAT NO ONE TAKES OR BEARS ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR OTHERS AND EACH IS FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS OWN LIFE, HEALTH AND BELONGINGS.