18.04.2023 Not all U-locks are created equal.

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 Tuesday 18th 36F. A white frost on the grass. Another sunny day is promised. No walk. I rode to my friend's place. 52km round trip. Mostly in Tour and Sport modes. Averaging 27km/h. There was a cross-headwind going and cross-tailwind coming back. Battery charge dropped from 98% to 26%. The higher speed of the e-bike exaggerates wind gusts. I rode home for lunch and a haircut. Adding another 10km for 62km today. The latter on a new battery while the other charged.

 The Bosch Nyon display is a huge [sic] improvement over the Kiox. Though I have yet to set any "screens" with specific data to read during the ride. Nor have I worked out how to plan and transfer routes from the phone yet. The larger screen allows much larger digits. For those, like myself, who need weak reading glasses.

  The colours used for each mode are also very clear on the NYON. Even through my sunglasses. They were washed out on the Kiox. Making Mode selection choice all but invisible. As were the tiny digits to my eyes.

 Two ABUS Granite U-locks. Short and long. The longer Granite weighs in at 1676g and will be much more likely to find a street anchor. The shorter one can secure a front wheel to the frame. BUT NOT the complete bike to an innert object. So the bike could easily be lifted into a van or pick-up.

 Using both locks means carrying 2.45kg everywhere. On an e-bike the extra weight hardly matters. Secure the front wheel and fix the bike to some steel work in the street. This will make a thief work very hard indeed. Or find a much easier target. Just be careful the steel work is not an easy target for bolt cutters. My wife lost her brand new Raleigh by fixing it to a chain link fence in a supermarket car park. How was she to know? The bike wasn't insured.

 Two ABUS U-locks. The Granite weighs 777g. The red one 999g. The Granite costs twice that of the red. Choose one. 

 I have been dragging the red one around on my trike for years. 222g lighter for twice the price? The weight might matter to somebody. I was usually carrying groceries. 222g extra was nothing.

 The Granite lock will be more secure and have better steel. It is also slightly deeper. Increasing the chance of finding an anchor in the street furniture. All these ABUS U-locks have locking on each end of the U-bend. So cutting only one side will NOT allow rotation to free the loop. The thief must cut BOTH legs with an angle grinder. 

 Even though I am fully insured against loss I take security very seriously. Bike theft literally changed my life. I was 17 and a very keen cyclist. I lived on my bike and did lots of miles riding flat out. I loved climbing and would repeat climb the big hills out of town just for the fun of it.

 I left my racing bike unlocked outside the house briefly and it was gone. It was found a couple of weeks later outside a prison in the next town. It had been trashed. The police imagined somebody was late getting back from a weekend of freedom. My bike saved them the cost of the bus or train fare. To spend on booze or drugs.

 A week after my bike was stolen I was deeply depressed and chatting to a neighbour's kid about the theft. I must have walked every street of the city where I lived. Searching for my precious bike. It was hopeless. He talked me into having a menthol cigarette. Just to try. 

 I smoked for the next 20 years. A few weeks of smoking had already ruined my amazing lungs when I got back on a bike. I never recovered a fraction of my ability to climb the huge hills out of town so effortlessly. In fact it became such hard work I never bothered again.

 17.30 12C/53F The greenhouse has been warming the house all afternoon. The sky has turned milky and the sun is now hidden by trees.

 I have trimmed my beard again. It made me look years younger! 16 +/- 60 years!

 Dinner was fish fingers with pasta and peas. I left out the tinned tomatoes. The pasta just doesn't work without the tomatoes! It's awful!

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