Ride Report - Sat. April 24, 2021 - Local Ride Report -  By Talia

Twelve riders set off from Ra’anana at 7am at a brisk pace with Uri at the helm. The route was a circular one – north through Batzra, west through Tel Itzhak, south along the railway line to Rishpon and Kfar Shmeriyahu, and then east again back into Ra’ananana.

The ride took us past the boutique shops of Rishpon and the Holocaust Research Center (Masua) in Tel Yitzhak. We also rode past the picturesque lake of ‘Maa’gan Shira’, as well as ‘Horshat Ha Nun Mem (Ha’Ekaliptus)’, which in English means Grove of the N.M. (or Eucalyptus Grove). This historical site once housed the N.M. army base, which had been built unnoticed amongst the densely growing Eucalyptus trees and used to secretly store ammunition during Israel’s War of Independence.

A detour was necessary due to an unexpected pond in a tunnel that we had planned to ride through. Uri had gallantly volunteered to test the waters, but after coming to a halt half-way across and wading back through knee-high water, he led us elsewhere. There were also a few sandy patches, which were mainly rideable but left us as breathless as deflated balloons. On the positive side, there were lots of downhills and no really tough climbs.

The goal of the ride was to beat the heat, which we did commendably, getting home before the ‘sharav’ started. There was no granola break, but I soon discovered that a snack tastes as good in the car as it does in the forest, and you don’t have to share it with the flies.

To conclude, it was a fast and extremely enjoyable ride of approximately 28 kilometers, with lovely scenery and great company as usual.

Ride Report - Sat. April 17, 2021 - Horshim Ride Report -  By Arik

רכיבה ביער חורשים

נפגשנו בשבע כי היה צפי לשרב
ואורי הזהיר שהמסלול לא מורכב
יש עליות די תלולות אך הוא אינו מכיר עד תום...
אברהם מגיע... ויוצאים לדרך, למרות החום

סינגל קצרצר אך מורכב למדי
"לחימום הקנה" וחימום הגוף בוודאי
וזהו, רוכבים כאן בכיף
עליות וירידות... כן זה די מעייף

מגיעים ל"נירית" ועוקפים מסביב
דרך "מתן" לתצפית... מראה די מרהיב
חוצים את ירחיב ועולים בפניה
וזהו, אנחנו שוב בחניה

ועכשיו מתלבטים, להמשיך או לחזור
חמישעשר קילומטר, זה מעט כדי לספור
מאידך הקושי והחברה עייפים
ורק בבית רוצים להמשיך את הכיופים

אז בסיכום, הדרך הייתה יפה ומוצלחת מאד
קצת קשה אבל היה בה טעם של עוד
אז על ההשקעה וההובלה לאורי רוב תודות על הכול
נתראה בשבוע הבא עם מרץ גדול

Ride Report - Sat. April 3, 2021 - Local Ride Report -  By Raphi

דוח רכיבה 3 באפריל 2021
קבוצת הרכיבה היום כללה 12 רוכבים בהובלת אורי סער. הדרך שנבחרה הייתה לכיוון אפולוניה - הרצליה וחזרה . במהלך הרכיבה פגשנו (פעמיים) קבוצת רוכבים ותיקי סייקלניקס ששׂמחנו לראות שגם חלק מהם עברו לרכוב על אופניים חשמליים, כאן אנה מצאה הזדמנות לשׂוחח עם גבי בהונגרית. בדרך חזרה כשהגענו לכיכר הלוויתן שאלתי אם גם הפעם נבחר לרכוב צפונה בשביל העפר המקביל לכביש, מסתבר שהחברה עברו את המבחן בהצלחה, ודחו את רעיון העיוועים הזה. פעם אחת הספיקה לנו, למדנו. ככלל המסלול היה נוח, דרכי העפר מהודקים, מזג אוויר מתאים לפעילות ספורטיבית, וחברה מצויינת.

Ride Report - Sat. March. 27, 2021 - Local ride -  By Ted

A Pessach Odyssey

Ride Report - Sat. March. 20, 2021 - Yarkon ride -  By Shaike

Click HERE for the Yarkon ride Report in PDF format
(editors note: in order to preserve the images and formatting that Shaike used to create this report, I would be doing a disservice to mess with it so you can click the link to open the PDF file for viewing.)

Ride Report - Sat. March. 13, 2021 - Netanya ride -  By Anna

It was a lovely, leisurely ride of about 37-38 km which depends on whose measurement was accepted. Uri led us on a new route that was crisscrossing some of our well known passes. It was mostly on dry land till we got to a "lake/mud" crossing. A generous noble man put down some material for her lady to cross over the obstacle the rest of us beforehand were well mudded. However we dried up while waiting for Uri as he had to navigate Sami back to the nature reserve, where we had a short break to recover his bag. In Nathania, back to our starting point we passed through beautiful public gardens with bike lanes but because of the nice weather the gardens were very crowded with people standing and walking on the bike lanes.

All the bikers, 17, returned together to the parking lot. Most unusual…..

Thanks again Uri.

Ride Report - Sat. March. 6, 2021 - Local Ride -  By

Coming soon

Ride Report - Sat. Feb. 27, 2021 - Pora Reserve Ride Report -  By Ted

I thought that these two rides in the south one week after the previous were two sides of the same coin so this is a joint report about two magnificent consecutive rides down south.

Both rides included a little over a dozen riders and started in cold temperatures and ended in perfect sunny weather.

The earlier ride which began in Kibbutz Dorot was mainly singles and traversed from west to east and the later ride which began in the Pura Reserve moved from east to west and kibbutz ruhama was the extreme point in both rides.

The Dorot ride also included patches of wide open spaces and wooded hill climbs whereas the Pura ride was in wide open range with slight undulating hills often covered in wheat stretching N,S,E.W.

The Pura ride was dominated by the Ruhama Badlands (see the aerial phot) which provided us to do some ups n downs on wide trails with an occasional touch of mud. In both rides we stopped for a snack in shaded points and the photos clearly show that the riders were in their element.

I could continue with more details but perhaps the best story is told by the photos. Enjoy and thanks to Uri for a sterling job or is it a shekel?

2-3 km less of the Ride of Hope (Galgalei Tikva) - by Anna

Ride Report - Sat. Feb. 20, 2021 - The Ride of the Four Parks -  By Anna

On the 20th of February, 11 of us showed up for the ride in Ra'anana, and we were promised a safe dry ride. At the beginning it was a bit chilly but by the time we got to our 1st station in Kfar Saba we managed to warm up.

I don't know how that I managed to lose the group in the park, but as this is my "home ground" I got back to the riders in Hod Hasharon before the 2nd park. In Hod Hasharon we were introduced to a most unusual house/museum with a collection of articles from a long forgotten time. After our visit to the house we headed to Herzliya through Givat Hen where the ground wasn't so dry and I manage to fall into a nice puddle. Our photographer complained that I got up much too quick so he missed the real action.

In Givat Hen we got to a cross road where we had to decide how to carry on as some of the riders wanted to go on the trail parallel to 531 so they went off. However Uri had his route towards the next park and only four of us carried on to the park in Herzliya. The 4th park was in Raanana but we didn't go in. Uri and Yael rode up to their car, Rafi rode home to Kfar Saba and I rode to our sweet home in Raanana.

Lovely ride, thank you Uri.

Ride Report - Sat. Dec. 26, 2020 - Netanya Ride Report -  By Anna

20 riders turned out for our Saturday ride. It was very cold when we arrived at the parking lot. I waited inside the car with 3 layers on to keep myself warm up till our leader announced "off we go". It started up on dry land with a bit of ups and downs towards Bait Aharon. The problems started when we headed towards Nahal Alexander. Did we see mud!? That glorious mud even "invited" Ingrid to roll into it. I hope that she has already recovered and her bike is back to its sparkling colour. I just biked through all the puddles getting mighty dirty from head to toe. We stopped next to the bridge over the river watching turtles and ducks and finally singing for Rafi " היום יום הולדת..". On the way back we encountered a locked gate that forced us to change direction. When Uri warned us about a deep slope I lowered my seat, just in case, however the seat wouldn't spring back to its original height and it slowed down my riding. After the mud dried up on us a strong wind from the east sprinkled us with sand. After about 27 km we got back with great spirit to the cars.

Many thanks from us to Uri for the excellent new route.