Upper 40s on West Old LaHonda, down to 44 and really wet on Skyline. Leg warmers and base layers were an excellent choice today!Nothing is playing out quite as expected these days. Kevin’s knee is still bothering him so I talked him into riding his e-bike on the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride again. This time the full distance, no skipping the West Old LaHonda section. And I was thinking, maybe trying to chase down an ebike might help me get up Kings faster! OK, I was actually dreading it, but still…
But even with 350 extra watts as his disposal, Kevin wasn’t making tracks up Kings this morning. In fact, by the time I got to the park entrance, I had to pull up lame and circle back to find him. Looking at Strava, it was exactly a minute before I came up to speed again. And from there on, I was still having to hold myself back for the slower guy on the e-bike. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, right? But maybe if your knee is giving you issues, sometimes it’s not that you can’t deliver “power” but maybe any rotation at all is an issue.
I’m really looking forward to Kevin being healthy again and challenging me on the climbs. Despite all the crazy stuff going on in my life, the health issues, the stress, it just seems like my body wants to climb again. Fast. I mean, not fast compared to really fast people, but fast enough not to be thinking I’m slow anymore.
As for the range of Kevin’s e-bike, after Sunday’s determination that it can’t quite make it to the coast and back, well, it’s not quite ready, with a gimpy knee anyway, for the full 31.4 miles of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride either. But close! Kevin lost power almost exactly 1 mile from home, and very much exactly, precisely, at the very top of Jefferson, just as it heads downhill to home. Could not have timed a loss of power any better than that!
Another week gone by without a post? Another week gone by and we STILL don’t have a permit to resume work at our new location down the street. This is getting a bit tiresome. Hopefully tomorrow morning we’ll hear from the city that we’re good to go. It’s time to get things ready to move! It’s time to stop paying rent on two different places. It’s time to stop feeling like the world’s just gone kind of mad and I’m spinning my wheels.
Speaking of spinning wheels. Both Tuesday and Thursday’s rides were shortened versions, lopping off West Old LaHonda because Kevin’s knees were in a bad place. So today, like last Sunday, we planned another ride with me on my regular 100% human-powered bike and Kevin on his e-bike. A bit more challenging route; up Old LaHonda, out 84 all the way to the coast, and back Tunitas. Could his bike do it?
I think it could have, if he hadn’t wanted to push the bike harder into the headwind on the way out to the coast. His bike has a high-quality 350 watt Bosch motor with 500 watt/hour battery. 4 power modes. Eco, Tour, Sport & Turbo. As you head up the power levels, you get… more power. Duh. But you also deplete the battery more quickly. Normally Kevin keeps it in “Tour” mode but heading out to the coast, he was using “Sport” to try and keep the speed up and get out of the wind. I didn’t know that at the time. He probably wouldn’t have been tempted to do that if we hadn’t come across another cyclist that he felt like he had to catch up to and pass.
So we’re at the bottom of Tunitas, before the real climb begins, and it says it’s got a range of 8 miles left. Well, that’s fine, the climb from there is only 7! Except that’s 8 miles of riding on kinda-rolling terrain. As we rode up the hill, he’d call out the reduction in miles, and we’re thinking, wishfully thinking, maybe it’s ultra-conservative and has more left in the battery than it shows. 1 mile of battery power left it says. About half a mile later, it says 0. Oh. That’s not a good sign. And a minute or two after that… she’s gone.
Thankfully this happened within visual range of the “grassy knoll” where the grade slackens greatly. Kevin was able to pedal on his own, with some assist from me, and we made our way to the top. On the way we tried to leave messages for my wife to see if she could meet us at the bottom of Kings with the battery from her own e-bike. It’s only 5 miles home from there, but with some climbing, and Kevin’s gimpy knee, riding a 55 pound e-bike without power wasn’t in the cards.
I’m pretty sure that, if Kevin’s knee wasn’t so bad, the bike would have made it just fine. And might have made it if he wasn’t pushing it pretty hard for 7 miles into the wind.
