Been a week, actually quite a good one for the most part. Some good and some bad, but while the good has been pretty nice the bad hasn’t been that bad just annoying.
Bike
The bike has been working really well since I worked out how to stop the power issues, it has gone off once or twice – in 8-10 rides as opposed to 20-40 times a ride. And I have done some quite interesting rides, not sure on my average distance but it must be up around 18-24mi, two days of ~30mi and a couple of over 20mi. My Google Fit is refusing to accurately track my rides and I keep forgetting to zero the tripometer that is built into the bike’s controls. I may switch away from Google Fit and either us ethe Samsung system that comes with my smart watch, though I don’t like how it interacts with Google Fit that I use to actually collate all the results and which doesn’t work brilliantly on my non-Samsung phone (might work better on the Nokia than the Xaiomi, not actually tried it yet), or use one of the apps that other people seem to use like Strava (which I have tried and didn’t like) or the thing built in to OS maps (which I don’t find very intuitive and that takes over the map even when I am trying to work out where to go mid ride… I will have to experiment.
I finally have had my dropper fitted, it’s not perfect due to me seat tube being about 0.5cm too long, I might well modify the seat tube at some point – especially once the bike is outside of it’s warranty period. (It means that the saddle naturally is about 1/2cm too high and my dropper post doesn’t have any way to adjust the travel down by that half centimetre.) For now I just need to manage or drop the saddle a tiny amount when it comes up to the top. It less forceful than my old one (on the old bike), has less travel (125mm). But is much smoother and can be pushed down much easier allowing me to drop it to get on the bike – especially useful if trying to mount up when on steep terrain. All I need to sort out now is a decent rear mudguard that I can fit that doesn’t rely on being attached to my seat post – I have some ideas but it comes down to cost… so I’ll have to wait until at least Tuesday. Tredz owe me money (for things that they said they’d pay for (repairs) that they haven’t and that they’re oddly reticent to actually talk to me about) – Tredz review coming soon.
And finally producing my side-by-side water bottle holder, the bike unlike all my previous bikes doesn’t come with any water bottle bushings, instead it uses a MRS (Multi Rail System?), basically a long slot going down the top of the down tube. I’d imaging that it has some sort of advantage over having (at least) two sets of discrete bushings that normal bikes have, but frankly all I can tell is that you have to buy additional expensive (£10) nuts and bolts to attach anything to the down tube, and there isn’t space for two bottle cages/bottles on the MRS. So as I have said in a prior post I plan on making my own.
To do that I have been using Rhino 3D – a 3D modelling program to design a part that I can make (or have made) out of aluminium that will allow me to fit two bottles side-by-side. I’m on design MKIV, but don’t have enough cardboard to make the prototypes – might have to see if Lyndon (at work) has some boxes lying around that I can half-inch… (I would ask my boss too ofc.) At this point I’m wishing that I had a (or had access to) a 3D printer or CNC router – neither of which would be cheap, and the CNC router requires significant space – and lets be fair while I can think of a couple of things I’d want to prototype beyond this, I don’t really have the ideas that require that sort of workshop – and yes I can pay people to do the work for me, there are any number of 3D printing or CNC routing services online, it’s expensive and slow, €150 for my part which would take at least 28 days (and that was the cheapest quote I actually got).
My level of fitness doesn’t seem to be improving much though I am losing weight slowly, I’m not sure if the lack of fitness increase is down to the short amount of time I have been riding the e-bike, my expectations or due to taking hormones that inhibit muscle growth (Trans-women on long term hormonal replacement have considerably lower muscle mass than males who are not on hormonal replacement) I don’t consider myself a trans-woman and am taking the hormones for a different reason (though I did start taking them for that reason), they still have the same effects. I’m effectively the opposite of an athlete who takes testosterone to build muscle.
I have done some interesting rides though, going places I have never been before, and covering distances that until I bought an electric bike would have been if not impossible certainly incredibly unlikely. Yes as a much younger person I have gone further, but I was a lot fitter in those days (incredible though that seems to me) and most of those long rides were road only (even if I was riding an MTB). Many of the rides I am riding now are at least partially (or even mostly) off road. However my posterior has suffered a little and I have even had to resort to Shammy Butt’r, something that I always thought sounded pretty disgusting – it is, but when I have a large sore spot on my arse due to the saddle rubbing, means I can still go out with the dog. I have switched saddle since then replacing my old square profile saddle (that I have been riding on for years) with the more rounded profile one that came with the eBike and my arse is healing.
And last night I did a ride that was mostly off piste so to speak following a route that I had long wanted to follow, up the lane that comes out the back of Wharfe (the village) and goes up onto the tops, I don’t think it is named, but I have done if in both directions (up and down) with the dog several times and I love it, it appears to be made for cycling but is officially only a footpath. So I cycled it anyway… was fun, not so easy going up it, would be better (in parts) going down, which I will do eventually. I did injure my ankle when the back wheel having come unstuck from a large lump of rock dropped the pedal on all 30kg onto my ankle, bleeding quite a bit and very painful – not looking forward to washing it with water (I have cleaned it with a swab and it’s got antiseptic cream on it) which always seem to hurt more than the initial injury.
And then coming off the hill in the gloaming I chased a hare for about 1/4 of a mile (silly bugger wouldn’t go sideways). So I still feel sorry for that. I met him some way off the bottom of the map on the hill down from Souerthwaite Farm. It was dark and he was scared, but I went slowly, but I still feel needlessly cruel. 🙁
Writing: Done very little as my creative juices have been occupied making 3D things or too tried from all the riding I have been doing.