Interesting Ride
I had a dental appointment yesterday afternoon so I ebiked from work to there, about 4 miles through town. I did this once before but this was the first time I had the ebrake working, and I used it a lot going down the big hills and stopping at lots of lights. Worked out really well.
I found I could filter up on the right by the traffic stopped at a light, and then accelerate out ahead of them and have very little traffic to contend with most of the time. Efficiency was unusually high, consuming 2 amp hours for 4 miles.
At the dental office I brought the bike inside and plugged it in (they are very pro bicycle and I had arranged this before). I was concerned about the now extra long home commute from there, about 17 miles, and with more climbing than usual. The charger I brought was one of the 4 amp hour aluminum cased units and by the time I was leaving the voltage was very near cutoff so it replaced most of the charge I had used to get there.
So now I had to go back by work and up, up, up. Four miles to get back to work, and 13 miles to home. I didn't plan to stop at work, but chose to go that way because it is a good route and very familiar and has very few stops and little cross traffic. I could choose another route, but it would save less than 10% of the distance and would add many stops and significant traffic areas (though it could cut way down on the vertical component of the ride).
The trip was uneventful (the way we like it), and a bit longer than the usual commute, but the weather was beautiful and the bike performed perfectly. It climbed up the full height of the long grade next to work that I usually start out halfway up on, and easily made it home on the charge. In fact I didn't need to charge at the dental office at all, the total consumption was 15.5 amp hours from work to dentist to home, and the total distance was 21.6 miles. So even if I had not charged the 20 amp hour pack would have been adequate.
On this trip home I was making good time down the windy part of the ride in the hills, doing just under 30 because of the gradient, and a motorcycle came up behind me. He followed me down the hill, I was following two cars so there was no reasonable way to go any faster, and that is a 25mph road so 30 is very comfortable and a little faster than some folks want to go on that curvy road. We talked at the light at the bottom and he was very impressed with the hubmotor, he had figured that out from following me, he could probably see it pretty well on the tight corners. The Borg works very well on that road, it really goes about as fast as you want to go, fast enough to have fun, not quite fast enough to race the really agressive drivers, it is about the right speed for safety as not too many folks need to pass me.
This morning going up that part of the road two motorcycles were vying to get past me. They had to work a bit to do it, and they were able to, but you could see they were pushing pretty hard on the corners and their real speed advantage was peaking the speed way up in the straight sections. My speed up that hill is fairly constant, I don't slow much for the corners but keep a nice steady pace up the hill. Quite frequently cars are content to follow me up and not even try to pass.
I got a 24mm combination wrench for the rear axle nuts recently, and that sure works better than even the big crescent wrench that I usually use. It is a little heavy to carry on the bike, but again it is much lighter than the adjustable wrench. I find if I can get the nuts just a little bit tighter the NordLocks seem to work and even with lots of regen they don't loosen. Still I want to check them every day so a good wrench is necessary. Regen is hard on the axle tightness, but this combination seems to work.
