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Sunday 12th 0C/31F. A light frost with spots of frozen rain or hail. Bright, but the sky is completely veiled by thin cloud. Rain and wintry showers forecast for this afternoon. I was going to get up earlier but fell asleep until 7.30. My lower back is aching more than usual. I must have a walk. Then it's back to earning my 2-wheeler [stabilizer free] cycling proficiency badge.
8.40. Stove lit. Walkies. Just to the lanes. Nothing of note to report. Other than an e-biker in a high vis jacket which matched my new helmet. Impossible to miss. Or ignore. Even when drunk, senile and/or using a mobile phone. As they do.
9.45. 2C/36F. Getting ready for another training session on the e-bike. I need trousers which slide on [and off] the Brooks Cambium saddle. Without bagging and catching on the saddle. I may need to wear a pair of racing "bibs" until I become proficient and getting on and off the high saddle. [In a hurry!] Bibs are racing shorts with attached braces. My ordinary racing shorts are old, loose and baggy. So are even worse than old, fleece trousers.
11.00 39F. I had to come back in. I am freezing! I put the bib shorts braces on the outside of my vest and T-shirt. Then added a fleece jacket on top. For easy braces removal if I needed the toilet. I should have put a jumper on under the braces too! My hands are frozen in the GripGrab spring-autumn gloves. I felt I needed the greater dexterity for the controls. The saddle is now raised as far as I dare. It feels very tall compared with the low slung trike.
I have turned endless circles again. Repeatedly stopping and pulling away. Accelerating in every mode. All to get a feel for the machine's behaviour. Each mode provides different pulling power. As I lift myself back onto the saddle, from a stop, with a downward press on the pedal. The higher modes seem so effortless. 20mph or 32kph is easily within reach in every mode and suitable gears. All this on fairly rough but mostly compact gravel, with potholes. The suspension makes it feel very safe. Pulling out of a tight circle can easily find the limit of adhesion in higher modes! There is heavy camber in many places.
Turning circles, usually in bottom gear, needs power to maintain balance. Each mode provides the motor power for support [balance] but may push the circle wide with too much torque. Trying to ride without any motor power is like ploughing across soft sand. It feels as if the tires are flat. I was surprised by this. Having ridden mostly in ECO yesterday. And decades of cycling by human power alone. ECO feels like human powered when the rider is cycling fit. I could live with ECO but it might begin to seem very tame out on the open road. How can tell until I try?
That said, having to ride home without power, due to a flat battery, is NOT desirable! ECO will get a tired rider home eventually. Without too much drama. I have already used up 10% of the 100% battery charge this morning. It still claims 88km reserve in ECO mode. Each higher power mode can surprise with its acceleration. Depending on the gear chosen of course.
SPORT mode seems like the most willing and thrilling. It takes very little effort to get up to enjoyable speeds. TURBO is best kept for cruising at higher speeds in higher gears. It is difficult to explain but it doesn't have the fierce middle speed acceleration of the SPORT mode. This may be due to the conditions in which I am riding. One hundred yards of rough gravel won't allow the TURBO mode to really stretch its legs. I maxed out at 37kph today. All modes maintain a nice sense of safety in use. It all feels very natural and controllable.
So much to discover and absorb before I find myself in normal traffic. With people wandering about in supermarket car parks. Not to mention other cyclists. Then there is learning curve to anticipate how drivers will judge my approach speed. I can well imagine how many elderly cyclists come to grief. When they climb onto an electric bike. After many decades of crawling along. Usually below 10kph under their own steam. E-bikes require a very different skill set compared to normal cycling.
11.30. I have warmed up [a bit] and am going back out. I'll put on my old workshop duvet jacket and try the thicker gloves too. The padded bib shorts solved the saddle soreness I was getting yesterday. I was blaming the Cambium saddle. It's all about what you wear.
It seems odd but my feet seemed stuck so firmly to the flat pedals. That I thought I was still wearing SPDs. I was actually afraid I could not un-clip in time while turning tight circles. I haven't ridden for well over a decade without SPDs. The only time I didn't was as a one-off experiment. Where I constantly struggled to keep my feet straight and attached to the pedals at higher cadence. [Over 100 pedal RPM].
12.00 I had to come back in again. The wind had really picked up and it felt bitterly cold. I was shivering despite the thick down jacket over fleece. My eyes were streaming so much I was blind to where I was going. Despite wearing my reading glasses to more easily monitor the Kiox display.
It is full overcast now. 20C/69F indoors. After 20 minutes indoors I am still wearing all my outdoor clothes. Including long thermal underwear, a full layer of fleece, the duvet jacket and a hat. I am still shivering. 🥶
13.00 Still fully dressed and only now beginning to feel warmer. Three days of rain or wintry showers ahead. I might try another session before it starts. The radar show it is already raining but isn't. Keeping all my warm clothes on will help.
It started snowing and then became wetter. I dropped the bike on its handlebar again. While trying to turn a tight <3m Ø circle in TURBO mode in a higher gear. I thought it might work without overcooking the exit. It tried to go wider than I had room to turn. I must remember to move to a lower mode when at a standstill. TOUR feels safe at very low speeds in a low gear. While providing enough power to stop me falling inwards in a tight circle.
This is nothing like a throttle on a motorbike. The rider has to jog the pedals forwards to provide any power at all. No power and there is no righting force to keep the bike from falling inwards. I think I should learn to use only the rear brake when turning circles. The front brake is instantly powerful. Perhaps too much on gravel. The rear brake is more gentle and stops the motor the instant it is applied. Did I mention that the bike has rear brake lights? The row of red LEDs brightens with application of the brakes. The lights must remain on by law on a '45' Speed-pedelec.
I have rotated the horn push button around the bars. It was right beside the Mode switch and being pressed accidentally while wearing gloves. It is LOUD!
A tiny bike bell might be kinder to joggers and slower cyclists on bike paths. The horn would probably give them a heart attack! If it suddenly came out of nowhere in a quiet situation! 😧 The horn is more useful to attract the attention of drivers in closed vehicles.
15.30 I soon came back in again as it turned into a blizzard. Yet it didn't settle. Frozen rain continued to drift downwards afterwards but I'd had enough of the cold. The thick gloves lacked the sense of touch required for the push button power and display controls. I had put on my familiar, wraparound, yellow, safety glasses for eye protection from the driving snow. This made the Kiox unreadable. All the carefully coded colours were lost. As were my reading glasses. Without their help the fine detail was lost.
17.20. It has started snowing again and is pitching in places. Though I think it must be quite wet.
Sunday dinner was chips with mushrooms and chicken. There were no edible potatoes. They had gone soft and wrinkly with shoots.
I think the snow turned to rain. I can't see any white out there.
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