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Final reminder about Paris 1st Oct / Car Free Day!


Paddylaz

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Riding at 30 km/h on Paris streets at night trying to catch up with the guys was very thrilling and a bit scaring to be honest as i am not used to ride so fast :facepalm:. An amazing adventure and my adrenaline was sky high:w00t2:. Also riding on the louvre , along the siene river and all those awesome places our French friends showed us on a beautiful Paris night was special and very exiting for me :efeeec645d:. An overload of new incredible experiences .  I confess i could not contain my enthusiasm. I was having an eucgasm in the euc nirvana.:dribble:

And to conclude meep , we participated on the biguest euc meeting in the world in the car free day in Paris . How cool is that  mate :thumbup::clap3:

 

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1 hour ago, Luiz said:

Riding at 30 km/h on Paris streets at night trying to catch up with the guys was very thrilling and a bit scaring to be honest as i am not used to ride so fast :facepalm:. An amazing adventure and my adrenaline was sky high:w00t2:. Also riding on the louvre , along the siene river and all those awesome places our French friends showed us on a beautiful Paris night was special and very exiting for me :efeeec645d:. An overload of new incredible experiences .  I confess i could not contain my enthusiasm. I was having an eucgasm in the euc nirvana.:dribble:

And to conclude meep , we participated on the biguest euc meeting in the world in the car free day in Paris . How cool is that  mate :thumbup::clap3:

 

Could not have said it better.:efeeec645d::efeeec645d::efeeec645d:

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On 10/3/2017 at 12:14 AM, Michael Vu said:

I'm always blown away by the large number of EUC riders Paris has. Look forward to the day when we can have similar large group rides here in America.

Remember we had a grand total of 3 riders in Toledo a few weeks back!:) Believe me that was a record! Interested ....when are you going to post your video of our ride? It

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Some photos and story from the Monday (2.10.) ride with @Tilmann. My phone battery died towards the end and something got screwed with the logging, so I have no exact numbers, but I pretty sure I got my ACM 1300Wh to 85km range (80kg rider)! [What the wheel shows in Wheellog.] New record (75km before)!  Slower riding and Paris magic do that:efeeec645d:

--

So, here we go.

We went out to Versailles by car and planned to follow more or less a track by the very helpful @OliG of Gyroroue Shop fame (GY-RO-ROUE-SHOP! GY-RO-ROUE-SHOP!) back to Paris. That guy has over 200 tracks logged, and was very helpful with route suggestions! Thank you, Oli! :efeeb35c09: Wouldn't have seen half the sights without you.

See here for the track: https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=16481153

Here's the route that came out in the end. The pins are the start (left) and end (right, blocks the last part of the route from view, it's straight down south).

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Not too many photos, we were riding after all:efee6b18f3: Had we stopped for every photo opportunity, we stil would no be finished.

To the side of Versailles Palace, in the park. Can you spot the wheels?

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Don't they look nice? (Photo by @Tilmann)

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And that's it for the park. Tilmann has a lot of videos, so maybe you'll see more of this later.

After going around the lake in the park, our route went through Versailles itself, and two nice forest parks. And then, coming up some incline, fantastic views of Paris. Much more impressive and spatial in real life than in photos!

Some views from different vantage points. (This one is by Tilmann)

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Panorama a bit further down the hills.

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What a view!

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Happy new Monster owner.

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Happy me.

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We went further down the hill and through some pretty nice residential areas with fantastic views and gardens. The entrance to the bridge over the Seine took some time to find (turns out it is pedestrian only, no cars), and it was closed. But there were nice gardens underneath, and great views of La Defense and the Eiffel Tower.

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One bridge further brought us over the river. La Defense in the background, this was our tentative goal. Nice colors and textures here.

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We went through the Bois de Boulogne (a nice park with lakes and everything) and had a little lemon cake break there. Weather was getting sunny now (it was cloudy but dry before). Awesome! No photos though.

After curving through the city streets and around some road construction, we were at La Defense.

Modern arch to the one side.  (Photo by Tilmann)

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Historic arch in the distance to the other side, and some wheels enjoying the scenery:efee8319ab: (photo by Tilmann)

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Unfortunately it was getting late, and @Tilmann's legs needed a rest from the unfamiliar new Monster (2nd day of riding it!). Also, a non-wheeling girlfriend (and the car) was waiting for him in Versailles. And off to the trains he went (on quite the odyssey, as it would be seen later).

I continued alone to the well-known La Defense zone between the skyscrapers. A fantastic place for wheeling! Ramps gentle and steep, big smooth wide open spaces, steps to jump down, just wonderful for simply enjoying the riding! I did, for one and a half hours! And nobody cared, not the pedestrians, not the machine gun police guys, nobody.

Some pictures from there.

On the way in, some great depth layers with the construction and different architectural styles. It just looks like from a futuristic videogame or something (again, better in real life).

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Loving this oldschool futuristic style, though some people may just think it looks worn and old. The cable is for charging my phone, as it was getting long in the tooth. USB ports on a wheel are a must-have feature for me now. World's biggest power bank, automatically with you on every wheel trip.

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Panorama.

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Some further in, on the central axis. Nice purple tiles on this fountain (purple Monster is best Monster btw!). Grande Arche right there.

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Panorama.

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ACM and arch.

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Panos are great!

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Right behind the Arch, a nice straight wooden walkway perfect for wheel speeding and listening to the sound of tire going over the floor boards. Closed!!!!! My ACM cried a bit, I believe. :efee8319ab:

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So I followed the pedestrian area to its end to the side of the walkway.

Other end of the walkway.

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A bit further on, the pedestrian zone ended, and I turned around. It was getting late and I wanted to get to the urban360 Store. Originally the plan was to visit, but far too late now. But still, a good next destination and a nice window to admire.

More photo stops on the way back. Also enjoying the wheeling opportunities this place offers (a lot of parkour guys seemed to agree with me on that).

ACM in front of the arch.

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Other direction. Original arch in the distance.

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Again, further towards the city.

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One last look back.

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And a last look forwards. You could spend an entire day riding around and enjoying this area alone. An mten3 seems perfect for that.

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It was getting dark quite fast now, and I made my way back through the Bois de Boulogne, where I followed the little trails around the lakes until the wheel's battery was low enough (I was planning to come home beeping and tiltbacking, or not at all:efeebb3acc:).

And then, through the streets to the Seine. Last photo of the day, on the bridge, where some curious Wechat wheelers wanted to know what my ride had been (the answer: still riding:efeeec645d:). No phone battery (needed it to navigate my way back) or enough light after that.

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I then followed the path along the Seine waters, enjoying the lights and views, weaving through the tons of joggers and looking at the brightly lit boats, to Notre Dame Cathedral. From there it was over the river to the 360 Store. A few minutes before it, after exiting Les Halles, my phone completely died from lack of battery. After restarting it 3 times, emergency charging it by wheel, and cruising around in circles, trying to find the store, after 45 minutes I gave up (started to rain too). Oh well, I tried, and it was 9:30 pm and I still needed to get home and eat.

And then on the way back, at the river, the wheel started to battery-beep. A little earlier than expected. 5km earlier. :efee6b18f3: Uh oh.

So I took the shortest route back (had planned a little detour further along the river). The rumors that I had to push or carry the beeping wheel for a km or two are completely... true:efee612b4b: But towards the end, thanks to a little downwards incline, I could ride the last part and arrived at our restaurant at 10:30. On the very last curb, the ACM tiltbacked so hard I had a non-gracious step off right in front of our table. But I was there, the battery empty (really, really empty) and the kitchen still open. Everything wonderful!

85km, over 10 hours, unmeasurable enjoyment:efeeec645d:

(Also not pictured: a last 1 hour ride in the rain at 1 in the night, to get the last out of Paris. So much fun there!)

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What an awesome adventure this might have been meep. :shock2: 85 km in one ride is hardcore mate .  I reckon i will need another unicycle with bigger batteries if i want to ride with you next time . :D

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Thanks, @Luiz!

And it really isn't that long. We started at 12, it ended 10 hours later, with lots of breaks and slow riding. So it could easily have been 120 km or more on a day like this. I only stopped for time and battery constraints.

Also, at 30 km/h average and cold temperatures and some counter winds, after 2 hours my 1300Wh are gone. So I could do with 4 times that and it would still be not exaggerated.

Would love to ride with you again - long or short, doesn't matter:)

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@meepmeepmayer it was a pleasure to share some wheel tracks with you. Happy you enjoyed it. Great report. Next time you can try the 100 km one  

I’m waiting for the big rando that you will organize in your city ?.  Be sure some french wheelers will come with me. 

 

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@meepmeepmayer

What an awesome post Simon, you must have had such fun. Thanks for posting so that we can vicariously enjoy your ride with you. I wish I had been with you and Luiz for the Sunday afternoon jaunt but i really needed a charge (and a sleep). 

Paris really is a superb place to ride around, helped of course by the lovely french riders. I might be trying London tomorrow so i will see how accepting the police are ... 

@Hansolo

Thanks for the extra videos, lots to watch :)

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14 hours ago, OliG said:

I’m waiting for the big rando that you will organize in your city ?.  Be sure some french wheelers will come with me. 

I'd love to, but I can't invite people and then they might possibly molested by the police. Germany ...:barf:

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I totaly understand you meep . Paris is one of the few places in the world where you can ride an euc with peace of mind . I understand you had an ACM confiscated with no hopes of geting it back .

When i ride here i am always concerned as there was a guy fined for driving a motorized veicle without insurance while riding his euc in Wales.

I joined the London electric unicycle group and there is a meeting today . Neon said they have not had any problems with police yet but i will see how it goes today.

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I never had a wheel confiscated or problems with the police, one time I went by some police guys in the night but they were distracted (looking for someone) and didn't care (or realized what it is) about the wheel.

But a bigger group in the middle of the city might attract attention, and that's not the thing I want to get people into. Even if they just let us go on.

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Im sure I was speaking to someone in Paris who was from Germany who had one taken, just can't recall who it was now. It's my worst nightmare but I can't see it happening here tho thankfully. There was a sign up in Hyde Park yesterday saying that you could get a £60 ticket for cycling in areas which were not for bikes. We did inadvertently enter an area were we weren't supposed to wheel and just got told politlty that we "can't do that here". 

There was a police alert yesterday after a car hit a few pedestrians in London and the main road to the south of the park was closed to cars both ends. This is usually one of the busiest roads in London. As it was traffic free I rolled down the middle of it on my way back to the tube station, no one complained and there were police all over the place. :)

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Hi nute and meep . Had the most insane ride in London today with Neon , Joe joe , Simon and Ray . Lots of fun but not without incidents . We were told not to ride in the hide park and Neon had an enconter with the police riding fast on the pavent with a can of beer in his hand  . Luckly he got away with just a warning . 

Big thanks to the guys for taking me arround London  . 

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On 10/6/2017 at 9:12 AM, Rehab1 said:

Remember we had a grand total of 3 riders in Toledo a few weeks back!:) Believe me that was a record! Interested ....when are you going to post your video of our ride? It

My computer crashed and in the process of getting a new one. I will have it up though sometime later. :)

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