14.07.2023 91km and selling a kidney on eBay.

 ~o~

 Friday 14th 11C/52F [at 6am] Bright with hardly any wind at the moment. 15C/60F at 7am. Possibility of isolated showers. It looks like a nice day for ride. 

The guyed, Tommerup Mast [near Brylle] is 327m [1027'] high from the base. It can be seen over a wide area.

 My new/old pine cupboard has a twisted door. Probably a warp from being brought indoors to warmer, drier air. I shall have to clamp it twisted the opposite way. To [hopefully] make it straight. 

 I now plan to have a high level, heat pump unit on the front wall of the kitchen. This can share warm air with the bathroom and entrance hall. As well as warming the kitchen of course. Whether it can warm the entire house. With the internal doors open. Is (cough) open to doubt.

 The [rear] entrance door needs to be replaced. I made it myself. Probably 20 years ago. From heavy, tongued and grooved floorboard. It shrinks and expands all the time. Making sealing against the frame all but impossible. The door is low and wide and impossible to change. So I will have to order one made to measure. 

 Or make a new one myself. Sealing against drafts is the problem. I'd like to bring in some daylight to the hall. Preferably with a tall, narrow "arrow slit" window for security. The hall presently has to rely on borrowed light through the fully glazed, internal doors. Painting the hall white helped here.

7.30 Time for a walk.

8.45 18C/65F. Back from my walk and morning coffee over. Now I have to choose a goal for today's e-bike ride. There is a "discount" window manufacturer's showroom 42km/26 miles away. Where I might get some inspiration and free advice about a replacement entrance door. 

 A pleasant ride. With which I am mostly familiar. I shall avoid the city by swinging well south of it. Yet not adding much to the overall distance. Avoiding main roads as much as possible too. I rode the same way quite recently but went much too far into the city. 

 This time I [twice] passed though a major sand and gravel quarry area. With many lakes filling the landscape from earlier excavations. Here I stopped for lunch. Two bread rolls and an apple juice. While seated on a very uncomfortable memorial bench to a local personality.

  I reached my goal and had a  nice chat with the lady salesperson. While I looked around at the doors and windows on display. Now I just have to sell a kidney on eBay and a new door can be mine. 

 15.30 22C/72F 91km/56 miles. Changed to the second battery when the first dropped to 25%. Average speed 25km/hr. 50% Tour and 49% Sport mode. With a little Turbo towards the end. As I grew tired on the local hills. I had used Tour mode a lot on the outward journey with a slanting tail wind. 

 Coming back was mostly into the wind. So Sport mode was far more useful. The various modes provide power assistance at a specified percentage of the rider's measured input. So speed and effort are directly related to the rider's strength and wind conditions. An e-bike is not even remotely an electric motorcycle. The ride back was a perfect example. Of a headwind and my becoming steadily more tired. I am usually pedaling hard even in Sport mode.

 Had I stayed in Tour mode my average speed would have dropped drastically. The bike would need more and more of my own effort. As my remaining strength steadily reduced. I just wish that the range was at least double what it is in Sport mode. Carrying the spare battery usually gets me home with masses of reserve charge. 

 I should really be more trusting and stay in Sport mode for most of the time. For its [more] effortless speed. The problem is a very real fear. [Range anxiety!] That I will not get safely home on the second battery. The idea of having to ride such a heavy machine without power is daunting. 

 Sometimes, after a stop involving the removal of the Nyon head, I forget to set the Mode. Trying to pedal away from a standstill, without any power assistance, is an exercise in futility! The Nyon resets the power assistance to Off on removal. It is an added [premium] security measure against theft. Though I always lock the bike. Usually to something immovable with the hefty ABUS U-lock.

 It is amusing to think back to my early training rides up and down in the drive. I was sticking strictly to Eco mode to avoid going too fast! Trying to turn in the width of the drive was hair raising in Tour mode. It felt too fierce and I'd go wide. The idea of using Sport or Turbo mode was beyond my wildest imagination. Now I see Sport mode as standard. With Tour only really useful with a tailwind or downhill. 

 Choosing Eco mode is like riding with two flat tires and no power at all. Probably with the brakes dragging as well. So I, quite literally, never use it. Tour mode demands more power from me than Sport. So it tires me more quickly. It becomes completely pointless to work so hard on a longer ride.

 These mode choices are mostly to do with my demand for higher speeds. Which, quite naturally, reduce the time duration of my rides. Shorter duration means less effort and fewer missed meals. It also reduces saddle soreness. Which I am increasingly beginning to believe. Has more to do with folded padding between myself and the saddle. Rather than direct, sit bone soreness. 

 Pausing to stretch the "racing" shorts often cures the discomfort temporarily. Which is probably due to a build up of moisture from sweating too. Moisture increases friction. Which naturally occurs over a period of hours in the saddle. I have never tried any of the racing shorts, padding creams. It occurs to me that I could do a change of shorts on the return journey. If only to prove the friction hypothesis.

21.30 I made fish fingers and chips for dinner. No pictures? I was half way through eating it before I realised. By then it was much too late!😋

~o~