Planet Męcikał

Męcikalski's diary, day T minus 3.

After such a long time, we can now say this with complete honesty:

A gravel bike is not designed for off-road riding.

I don't really know what it's for. It's possible, of course. I'm not sure if it's possible at my age and with a lifestyle that involves staring at a monitor for 10 hours a day, but it's possible.

Maybe my friends are getting old, maybe bike manufacturers need to start finding ways to squeeze in new (old) equipment, but riding a 40mm tire over roots or sand is like fight club. So I declare it's time for MTB. From here I'll add that gravel starts for me after 38 millimeters. Below that is the all-road type of road and it's a great invention. Especially for people in mental retirement.

The enthusiasm for this discovery is incredible and can be seen below. A bit like a child who finds a book under the Christmas tree.

It takes us about 2 days to find the bikes. I put a post on my Instagram and wait for sponsors to respond and send me offers of cooperation. My cooperations (except for ABUS, to which I am extremely grateful for the helmet) work very well. So people who want to exchange bikes for money as part of the cooperation contact us. We find two, almost identical ones. Anyone who knows Sylwia's approach to mountain bikers knows that there can only be one choice:

Merida Big Nein (or something like that).

The best thing is that both bikes work perfectly, and they cost as much as a mid-range gravel wheel set (without tires). Of course, as someone who hasn't ridden an MTB in 10 years, I don't know if they work as they should, but the gears change without a problem, the brake stops, and the shock absorber flexes. And the wheels are big. Good enough.

Męcikalski's diary, day T0.

Our bodies do what they can to protect themselves from mountain biking. A few days before my arrival, I have all my wisdom teeth removed at once, so that when I pedal, I mainly feel the throbbing of my jaw. Sylwia decides to fall down the stairs immediately after arrival in such a way that an African buttock grows on her back. This does nothing but cause additional pain.

If anyone is interested in what an African buttock looks like from hitting a tile, I invite you to join the group of patrons of this channel. Also leave a thumbs up and a sub. The colors that it consists of are a bit like a sunset in the vicinity of Rytel.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+1.

In Męcikale, time flies differently. One week here is like one afternoon on Earth in Warsaw. We've been here for one full day, and it seems like we left home many years ago. Paradoxically, despite the slower passing of time, I'm haunted by the feeling that at any moment I could get a call from HR asking if it's not time to retire. You ask what to do when it gets dark an hour and a half before you leave work? For example, you can sit and wait for death, staring at the wall.

In order not to lose the dog in the dark, you have to sneak out of work for a walk. A reasonable option, it would seem, would be to get up earlier, but anyone who has been to Męcikale knows that this is not feasible. There were cases of people who got up in the morning, turned on the computer at 7:59, closed their eyes for a moment and opened them in terror around noon.

The biggest attraction of the day is checking where the floating island is on the lake. To our surprise, it is on a different side than usual. We experience this all evening.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+2.

To break out of the endless pattern (which has never happened before, because according to Warsaw time, we've only been here for two days) we go for a bike ride after work - in the dark! It's Christmas Eve, so they let me out early enough that for a moment I can even see where we're going. We go out in civilian clothes, thanks to which I'm warm from start to finish (about 15 km away, or an hour). Warm in the 90% parts of my body, because after all, SPDs on my feet...

The change in the comfort of moving around the Tuchola Forest with a 2.25 tire held by an air shock absorber can be compared to changing from our Traffic, which managed to get to its destination half the time, to a Skoda, which never failed in anything. Even when it didn't fit into the underground garage with bikes on the roof.

It is worth adding here that during my first ride something did not quite fit. I once had an MTB (which I probably rode 50 marathons on), a full-size with Fox in the back, Reba in the front and wheels as small as those in current communion bikes, but it was somehow different. After returning, I remembered that the biggest cheats in the cycling world are tire manufacturers, especially when they write about the recommended pressure. So let's say that inflating according to the marking "Air pressure: 2.4-4.1bar" was not the best idea. When the question about the pressure for these tires is thrown into ChataGPT, it says that it is more like 1.5bar... and it is right.

But we know that it's not really about MTB. Because MTB isn't cooler than gravel, and gravel isn't cooler than road... although probably anything is cooler than fatbike. It's just about something new. It's cool to do new things. If I had to ride a Merida everywhere and the harder I pedaled it, it started going louder instead of faster, I'd probably become a runner.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+3.

Staring at the wall and wondering whether retirement or death will come first is not a bad job, but it is stressful. I have been working full-time (and sometimes even part-time) for over 15 years. Is there another person like that in the IT industry in this country? I don't know. So I would be extremely sad if I didn't live to see retirement. I have a feeling that my industry buddies would chip in for an epitaph saying: "here lies Maciek - a sucker".

I’m considering getting out on my bike again. The question that someone once asked on Strava keeps popping into my head: “is it enjoyable?” This question has been coming up regularly over the years, on many rides. If I were reading myself, I’d know that in this case it’s not. 

This is a similar text to the one that has been popping into my head during EVERY winter ride for about 10 years. Except that it's not true. Of course: riding in winter in summer shoes is not particularly comfortable and despite the first 20 minutes, to my annual surprise, seeming quite OK this time, it never is. The feet slowly go through alternating phases of discomfort, pain, lack of numbness and a few other phases. If you think that it is impossible to lose feeling in your feet and feel pain at the same time - I invite you to ride a bike.

I would like to say that you are looking forward to the end of the ride, but that is also not true. It only gets worse after that – fingers grow under the influence of heat, but nails stay the same size. In IT we call this lack of compatibility. Interestingly, exactly 3 years ago I wrote the same thing, when we were riding in Męcikała in winter. Incredible. 

So I answered the question of whether it was pleasant and bought shoes. Some mid-range Shimanoch. If I had ordered them abroad, they would have been even more mid-range, but my feet would have fallen off by the time they arrived. After all, I had little time for it, about 10 years. It turns out that for 500 PLN you can ride for 3 or 4 hours in temperatures close to zero with a smile on your face. Why did it take me so long? I don't know.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+4.

I really like the animals in the area. I'm almost certain that they watch me closely when I leave the house with my camera. That day I meet a fox, a wolf, a few roe deer and a dozen or so deer. The best photo I manage to take is this:

In the distance, you can see a group of deer crossing my path. This is still an infinitely many times better photo than the one I took when aiming at the wolf. I must admit that I am meeting him for the first time and I am extremely surprised by this meeting. It takes place about a kilometer from the village. Our eyes meet. The gaze of the forest Alpha male and the village Sigma (me) meet for a good few minutes. For an observer from the side, our exchange of glances probably lasts only two seconds, but in our situation, it drags on forever. The wolf runs away, I grab the camera and with a 200mm focal length, automatically selected exposure (thank you, auto mode in rx100) at 1/60sec I take perfectly blurred treetops (because of winter gloves plus a bicycle). You will probably say that it is a village dog, not a wolf, but I know what I am talking about. I have read many audiobooks about wolves, so I can imagine them well (because, you know, there are no pictures in audiobooks). By the way, I highly recommend the book "Tale of Wolves and Other Animals".

The photo is of course not a problem. We are in the 21st century. I can generate everything using the ubiquitous artificial intelligence. With access to such advanced technologies, we are lost – I just wrote in Photoshop: "add a wolf, a fox and 5 deer" – to be fair:

I used to get nervous, but now I approach the issue of photos differently. Probably every photo I take (and probably you too) has already been taken by someone else, better. The pleasure of taking photos should be the feeling of taking them and the memory that later appears when I randomly select a photo on my phone screen one day. The story of meeting a wolf will be even funnier if it starts with smudged sticks than with a well-aimed animal (especially when you don't have a 2-kilo lens on your back).

Męcikalski's diary, day T+5.

We have a tradition of going to Asia in the fall. We didn't make it this year, but I promised Sylwia that we would visit Taiwan for a while. I'm not sure if that's what she meant. She mentioned something later that it was about China. But that doesn't make sense, because China lies on the other side of the Męcikał and are probably 50 km away from Taiwan.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+6.

We are running out of available hobbies. Sylwia, in order to fight boredom (or to find new friends), decides to start feeding birds and observing with binoculars 24 hours a day. The garbage truck will not come for the mixed waste for another month, and until then I do not foresee any better attractions in the area.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+7.

I'm still not sure whether I could ride MTB in the Tuchola Forest National Park forever, or whether I'll die of boredom. It's surprisingly small, but it has a disproportionate number of forest roads. Riding a fat tire over roots is like racing along the Tour de France to the route leading towards Roubaix. With the slight difference that in the field the perceived speed may be high, but when viewed from the side, you're moving only slightly faster than a runner. On asphalt, it's similar, only the subjective feeling of not moving increases.

Especially since when I looked at my crankset I saw a 32T chainring. Very cool – good thing I read a few books on stoicism.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+8.

Mud starts falling from the air. The weather in the area is always surprising. In the space of an hour, there can be a snowstorm, a downpour, and a blue sky. Likewise, in an hour, it can rain four times. Especially when we are going for a walk with the dog. The more I look at my bike after returning, the more I remember why I decided to stop riding in such weather.

Męcikalski's diary, day T+9

To stop the aging process, we went to the beach. It was only about 2 hours in one direction. There was no beach, because the sea reached the cliffs. There was wind, big waves and piercing cold. We came back. We have a better beach in Swornegacie - that's how it is said. Bunkers we also have better – original, guerrilla. And relatively close to the town of Laska – but combo!

Męcikal's Diary, Day T+10

Racuch starts to get unhealthily excited when he sees any human. It doesn't happen very often. I'm not even sure if it happens once a day. We're slowly starting to do the same. I'm almost certain that a deer or a hare is a more common sight for us than a human. We've been here for so long, I wonder what's happening in civilization. Has a cure for cancer been discovered yet? Has the nature of the fundamental laws of the universe been fully explored? Has quantum mechanics been reconciled with the theory of relativity?

Męcikal's Diary, Day T+11

Finally, some decent snow has fallen. If MTB seemed to make sense before, now it definitely does. If we didn't move before, now we don't move even more. Strava clearly says that my evening run has a better pace here than a ride in the forest.

Męcikal's Diary, Day T+11

Interestingly, the snow is still there. Just like Sylwia. The Icons' grip is very good until you hit a rut. Then you turn, but the bike doesn't, and the roads diverge.

Męcikal's Diary, Day T+12

I'm starting to wonder if I had such a bike (only expensive, because of course - the capital) in Warsaw, I would ride it. I'm almost certain that I wouldn't, but the shadow of a doubt remains and probably won't leave me alone. Just in case, I'll end here.