30.04.2023 Audi "bus" driver can't afford a Tesla?

 ~o~

 Sunday 30th 2C/35F. Clear and bright sunshine again. I am torn between riding every day. Thereby [hopefully] more rapidly increasing my cycling fitness. Or having a rest day to recover. More riding, for longer, risks saddle soreness and possibly knee pain.

 The wind is a bit lighter today. The headwinds I am generating, by my increased forwards velocity, were totally unexpected. Even with a crosswind it feels just like a headwind. The effect of a tailwind is merely to increase my speed. So it still feels like a headwind! 🙄

 I was cruising uphill at 40kph/25mph yesterday with a tailwind. 25mph would have been well beyond my capacity on the trike under most circumstances. Not even for a few hundred yards. My Sigma Cadence computer has died. So I can't monitor my speed directly. Though I could use the phone app. I am not sure how accurately it measures short term speed. I could ride around the ~3 mile [rural] block on both machines to check. Individually of course. 

 It would be interesting to see if the e-bike has spoilt me. From the drudgery of only using my own power. Or, rather, lack of it these days. I just haven't done enough cycling recently to remain as fit as I once was. 

 The e-bike is certainly demanding of my input but in a completely different way. I am acutely aware of my pedal revs or cadence, As I try to protect my knees from damage. I know from long experience that I must spin the pedals or suffer pain on and off the trike.  So I have my cadence showing on the Nyon screen in enlarged figures. 90rpm, or above, is my target.

 On yesterday's ride my average power output was 84W. I did a quick check with an online cycling watts calculator. This shows I would be cycling at 20kph while purely manual pedaling on my trike weighing 20kg. My own weight set at 75kg. 20kph = 12mph. [Using 0.62 as kph to mph conversion factor] My average speed on the e-bike was 26kph or 16mph. Not a huge increase but far kinder to this aging bod. The Bosch motor claims to have provided 3 TIMES more power than I did. 76% : 26%. Using 87% Sport mode and the rest in Tour mode.

 I was neither breathless nor in physical pain throughout yesterday's ride. Yet it always feels as if I am working quite hard. Because I am usually pedaling hard and fast. While on the trike I would be breathless and my legs would hurt on every climb. I can't whistle and cycle at the same time. Because I am always on the edge of breathlessness. Simply because that is how hard I ride on the trike. Not from poor fitness or bad health.

 I very rarely ride slowly. Or even stop pedaling. Nor try to avoid discomfort by crawling uphill. Riding hard, from the off, is a habit I learned as a teenager. I can no longer make myself ride slowly. Not until I am too tired [exhausted] after a long ride. Then I simply cannot ride any faster than a crawl. Not even to save myself from a pack of hounds!

 9.00 I managed to drag myself out for a walk. There was a cold north-westerly wind. Eyes watering and hands in pockets, cold. Birds singing invisibly from trees now fledged in sunlit leaves. The Sunday traffic was very light. Except for an Audi "minibus." The driver floored the accelerator and screamed past me. With a crackle from the exhausts as he slowed for the next blind corner. 

 Poor sod. Spent it all on those "optional extras." Now he can't afford a Tesla? I have been seeing a number of all black, Model S Teslas, with matt black wheels. They look amazing as stealth dragsters. I have been overtaken by several Teslas. Their acceleration is phenomenal! The number of electric cars on Danish roads continues to rise.   

 Arla must be really desperate to stop sales of organic milk. First they asked the farmers to stop producing it. [This was in the Danish news only recently] Now they are going straight for the customer. How? By super-gluing the carton closure. 

 No ordinary human, without tools, can now open an Arla, organic, milk carton. I needed a little more milk for morning coffee. By the time I had the new carton open the milk in the pan had boiled over! I even used the tine of a fork and still couldn't open the damned carton! The "ordinary" milk cartons have a plastic screw top. The organic cartons are entirely glued together.

 Having recovered from milk carton opening, I felt strong enough for a test ride on the trike. I was already breathless by the time I reached the road! This was after only 200 yards of potholed, gravel drive. The trike felt as if it were weightless and made of reeds. So flexible, I was surprised the pedals didn't hit the chain stays. The brakes were absolute crap. The gear change even worse!

 I panted desperately around the block for 4.4km. At an average of 20.3kph on the phone app. It felt as if I was crawling. My chest was aching from the first sprint up to walking pace. I was almost nauseous at times. Every bump and stone threw the trike around like a traffic hump. I was so bent forwards it felt as if the handlebars were on the front wheel hub. How could I possibly have ridden this unlikely contraption for more than a few km/miles? And, actually enjoyed it!

 I'll have a rest and then ride round the block on the e-bike. Which mode shall I choose to make it fair?  Eco? With its 60% motor assistance. Eco more or less makes up for dragging all that extra weight around. It doesn't feel as if it helps very much. So I have simply stopped using it.

 No assistance at all? That might actually be interesting. If I could manage the whole 4.4km on the heavy machine. I could take off the panniers and spare battery. Give myself a fighting chance. 😳 

 The four modes provide these levels of Bosch motor assistance respectively:
 Eco 60%, Tour 140%, Sport 240% and Turbo 340%.

Tour mode gives a very noticeable boost when first turning the pedals after a pause. Though I usually use Sport mode to pull away quickly from a standstill. It provides smooth, extra assistance and smooth acceleration. As I raise myself. Then, using the dropper post, raise the saddle to full riding height. 

  My rear derailleur gear selection has become subconsciously automatic. As my speed, the headwind and the incline change constantly. My lower target of 90rpm decides my gear. The MTB style gear levers, under the right grip, are very comfortable and easy to use. Upward gears change with a bang. Just like racing bikes. Easing off on pedal pressure should reduce the shock during the actual chain movement onto a smaller sprocket. There is only one chainwheel.  

 I have learned to ignore the effect on range [or speed?] due to the weight of the bike and the stuff I carry. I normally carry both ABUS Granite locks. Just to have them available. The longer U-lock can fix the bike to some metalwork. The short one only locks one wheel. I have carried only a short ABUS U-lock for years on the trikes. I lock the Q/R front wheel to the frame. 

 On the e-bike I can lock both wheels and still anchor it to some street furniture. The trikes are too bulky to do more than lock one rear wheel to some ironwork. Which leaves the Q/R front wheel as a potential target. If I lock the front wheel to a bike stand then a thief can take the whole trike. Then just find another standard 700C front HP wheel. There may even be one, unprotected, in the same bike stand. 

 Trike test ride around the block: 4.18km at 24kph in 10m29s. Constantly breathless. Trying hard. Graph above right.

 Two further rides around the block: Now on the e-bike: The Tour mode ride measured only on the road. To avoid the slow ride along the drive as I did in Eco: 

Eco mode: Breathless, as I rode as hard as I could. Maintaining 90rpm minimum cadence as much as possible. It felt faster than on the trike but was very hard work. Requiring lots of gear changes to keep up my momentum and cadence.

Tour mode: Borderline breathless. It felt very much faster and needed much less effort. ~90rpm.

Separate stats unavailable. Both the phone and the Nyon ran two rides into each other as one ride. I shall have to shut them down between rides. the The rural block is an undulating triangle of quiet lanes on two sides. The peak is at a sharp left turn in a village. Followed by a downhill run to the main road. Then slightly uphill back home. I cruised the last two hundred meters on the Tour mode ride to allow several cars to overtake. This is clearly seen in the trace.

 16.15 12C/53F. I have just returned from a shopping ride to the village. It was almost too cold for fingerless mitts. I used Tour mode to match the tailwind. Sport mode into the headwind coming home. I could not believe how one Ortlieb pannier swallowed my full shopping bag! This has never happened before. I always had to separate the items and stow them individually. 

 Even the large Outboard bag, on the trike, was limited by its smaller top opening. Than the base area of the bag. The Ortlieb panniers open fully and are slightly tapered towards the bottom. The slippery lining is far more user friendly for loading. 

 I have also discovered a better way to deal with the closing straps. Though the hidden buckles still tease me. Patience is required to connect both cross straps before tightening. I have to develop a routine for each new bag or bags. Then I can shop on autopilot. The hidden buckles have some security value when the bike is parked outside the shops.

 My old fashioned saddlebags are limited, by size, to carrying a pencil case and a spare eraser. The cotton went mouldy in the bike shed. So I had to weather them in sunshine to get rid of it. This seemed to work.

Taking of sunshine: Yet another day of free heat from the greenhouse and now the balcony. It was 28C/83F in both. 

 Sunday dinner was.. 🥁...  fried chicken and mushrooms, with chips and peas in a Bisto sauce. 😋

~o~