Green Machine
100 kW
Kind of a tangent...but a group of es'ers are planning a ride this Sunday over the golden gate bridge...and i started thinking the last time i rode over the golden gate bridge (last week) it was during one of the only thunderstorms i truly remember in the bay area and i was on the bridge on my new bmc powered electric bike..a bike built to ride in the sand by ilia here on es.
Anyway when i rolled up to the marin side of the bridge i thought the storm had died down enough to make the trek into the city where i could get home to hot shower and bed....i was homesick and it is really storming this night. Also i was kind of spurring myself to do the wrong thing and do something i had never done before on my brand new adventure-inspiring bike. I should have sensed the trouble when i hit the blue button at the access gate to the bikeway and they didnt buzz me in. Then i did something i never did before, i hit the red emergency "i need help" bridge jumper button...i couldnt just stand there in the rain with my motor just getting wet and frigid. The bridge patrol guy through the loud speaker said it was windy and it was hailing on the bridge. I told him look at my tires..i got snow tires for certain i will be ok. It had been hailing and i was pretty sure the worst was behind me and the ground was glazed with hail remnants that seemed a lot like little pieces of shiny ice...that in my mind was the biggest threat...slipping and falling kind of thing that is absolutely the worst thing that will happen i thought. And i did in fact have real snowtires on this bike..just look at them. The guy asked me something like did i have a place i could go...i yelled "no". In fact i was determined..I had no place to go but home..i had already drank enough booze. The guy buzzed me and the buzzer sounded as the gate opened and suddenly i was free again ebiking across the bridge and finally heading for home but in challenging conditions . I hooted and hollered in a ebike war cry as i entered the vortex of the bridge. At first i hit full speed but had to slow down because the rain was hitting my face like needles. At mid bridge (highest point since bridge is arched) i found myself in 2 inches deep of ice from the accumulated hail and it looked like snow. The week before everyone had talked about snow possible hitting SF...and here i was in something that looked a hail of a lot like snow. Thank god i just bought this giant sand/snow bike with big fat snowbike tires. how clever i thought. This bike is only 2 weeks old..and who would have thought that the time in my life that i would really need those big awesome tires was upon me already. I thought i was going to have to wait for armegedon or the second coming and all of a sudden i was riding my snow bike through ice in treacherous life-defying slip-inspiring conditons. The bike left these giant tread marks and my treads were the sole marks on the usually busy pedestrian walkway of the golden gate bridge. I felt like singing..like what can go wrong..i got plenty of amp hours and i am dressed warm and with rain repellant gear. I thought i was on top of the world...and did i mention i was pretty high (i think about 1000 feet) and i was riding home from my favorite bar. But then these wicked winds hit me..the hardest winds i have ever felt on a bicycle... especially as i approached the towers they wanted to blow me over and blow me this way and that way. At one point i was full speed on the throttle and leaned over a little sideways and the bike was only going around 10mph (normally i would be doing 30 at full throttle) .Later i found out there was a tornado warning in SF and out in the ocean there was those tidal funnels or whatever you call them. Going around the towers this wind got really crazy and funky swirling about and slamming into me..at one point i thought i felt my front end raise (i got this giant front rack that was acting like a wing). This was night time by the way and there is this thunder, lightning, rain and hail..which i had counted on...but now there is this enormous wind that i start thinking is going to blow me off the walkway into traffic or worst yet over the bridge into stormy waters below...yikes i started to get scared but i couldnt stop...i was hooked to the thrill of being on this this adventure with this monster bike. And when you find yourself in the middle of a bridge there aint no stopping. Anyway i got to the other side of the bridge and reached to hit the blue button and before i even touched it the buzzer went off and the gate opened...the guy squaked something but i wasnt in the mind frame to comprehend..i felt my knees trembling a bit ...and amazing once i got into the city the storm i felt was not near as severe. I had a comparatively safe and quiet ride home through the streets of SF. I got home and man did that hot shower feel good..the adrenaline i felt that night had to be top 5 in my life...and im a pilot. i think that is why ebiking has replaced flying for me...ebike riding is flying. And that weird night last week i was flying alright.
That night i thought "i have to write this story down" and never got around to it...thinking of crossing the gg bridge again inspired me to write down that story before i forget it. (just kidding will never forget..that night was just surreal i hope i explained enough)...but I wasnt really scared...i always knew my bmc powered pugsley would steer me through the storm, over the brige, across the city and back to my baby alright.
Anyway when i rolled up to the marin side of the bridge i thought the storm had died down enough to make the trek into the city where i could get home to hot shower and bed....i was homesick and it is really storming this night. Also i was kind of spurring myself to do the wrong thing and do something i had never done before on my brand new adventure-inspiring bike. I should have sensed the trouble when i hit the blue button at the access gate to the bikeway and they didnt buzz me in. Then i did something i never did before, i hit the red emergency "i need help" bridge jumper button...i couldnt just stand there in the rain with my motor just getting wet and frigid. The bridge patrol guy through the loud speaker said it was windy and it was hailing on the bridge. I told him look at my tires..i got snow tires for certain i will be ok. It had been hailing and i was pretty sure the worst was behind me and the ground was glazed with hail remnants that seemed a lot like little pieces of shiny ice...that in my mind was the biggest threat...slipping and falling kind of thing that is absolutely the worst thing that will happen i thought. And i did in fact have real snowtires on this bike..just look at them. The guy asked me something like did i have a place i could go...i yelled "no". In fact i was determined..I had no place to go but home..i had already drank enough booze. The guy buzzed me and the buzzer sounded as the gate opened and suddenly i was free again ebiking across the bridge and finally heading for home but in challenging conditions . I hooted and hollered in a ebike war cry as i entered the vortex of the bridge. At first i hit full speed but had to slow down because the rain was hitting my face like needles. At mid bridge (highest point since bridge is arched) i found myself in 2 inches deep of ice from the accumulated hail and it looked like snow. The week before everyone had talked about snow possible hitting SF...and here i was in something that looked a hail of a lot like snow. Thank god i just bought this giant sand/snow bike with big fat snowbike tires. how clever i thought. This bike is only 2 weeks old..and who would have thought that the time in my life that i would really need those big awesome tires was upon me already. I thought i was going to have to wait for armegedon or the second coming and all of a sudden i was riding my snow bike through ice in treacherous life-defying slip-inspiring conditons. The bike left these giant tread marks and my treads were the sole marks on the usually busy pedestrian walkway of the golden gate bridge. I felt like singing..like what can go wrong..i got plenty of amp hours and i am dressed warm and with rain repellant gear. I thought i was on top of the world...and did i mention i was pretty high (i think about 1000 feet) and i was riding home from my favorite bar. But then these wicked winds hit me..the hardest winds i have ever felt on a bicycle... especially as i approached the towers they wanted to blow me over and blow me this way and that way. At one point i was full speed on the throttle and leaned over a little sideways and the bike was only going around 10mph (normally i would be doing 30 at full throttle) .Later i found out there was a tornado warning in SF and out in the ocean there was those tidal funnels or whatever you call them. Going around the towers this wind got really crazy and funky swirling about and slamming into me..at one point i thought i felt my front end raise (i got this giant front rack that was acting like a wing). This was night time by the way and there is this thunder, lightning, rain and hail..which i had counted on...but now there is this enormous wind that i start thinking is going to blow me off the walkway into traffic or worst yet over the bridge into stormy waters below...yikes i started to get scared but i couldnt stop...i was hooked to the thrill of being on this this adventure with this monster bike. And when you find yourself in the middle of a bridge there aint no stopping. Anyway i got to the other side of the bridge and reached to hit the blue button and before i even touched it the buzzer went off and the gate opened...the guy squaked something but i wasnt in the mind frame to comprehend..i felt my knees trembling a bit ...and amazing once i got into the city the storm i felt was not near as severe. I had a comparatively safe and quiet ride home through the streets of SF. I got home and man did that hot shower feel good..the adrenaline i felt that night had to be top 5 in my life...and im a pilot. i think that is why ebiking has replaced flying for me...ebike riding is flying. And that weird night last week i was flying alright.
That night i thought "i have to write this story down" and never got around to it...thinking of crossing the gg bridge again inspired me to write down that story before i forget it. (just kidding will never forget..that night was just surreal i hope i explained enough)...but I wasnt really scared...i always knew my bmc powered pugsley would steer me through the storm, over the brige, across the city and back to my baby alright.
I have been over that bridge 100s of times but that was before I was into ebikes and some years ago. I did not realize they regulated foot & bike traffic 
