2020-01-15
One Hour Adventure
Today’s ride was a pretty fantastic one hour adventure. 1 hour and 11 minutes to be exact. I’d mentioned to my friend Russ a week or so ago that I was thinking of exploring County Rd 219 but was a bit reluctant. My primary concern with this particular route would just be lack of cell service and the unknown dog factor. Being the great friend that he is he offered to ride along on his motorcycle and it was an excellent ride. Much faster and a bit more difficult that my usual ride of 217 to town which is mostly flat and all paved.
We did 20 miles, 10 miles each way. The plan was to ride to Womack which would have been 25 miles round trip but my battery was at 55% so we turned around just 2.5 miles short of the planned turn-around. This was super hilly terrain. It started with pavement, then went to gravel for about 30% of the ride. I was riding much faster than my normal speed since Russ was there on his motorcycle. Average speed today was 17.1 mph with an elevation gain of 1,300 feet.
So, really hilly, lots of gravel and increased speed all add up to the funnest, most adventurous ride yet. This felt much more like mountain biking. To be clear, it was a road and not a trail, but due to recent storms some of this gravel was rougher than the a normal gravel road.
By comparison my usual ride is fairly flat, recently paved and is very casual at about 14 mph using pedal assist 2.
After the ride I did an additional 2 miles to a nearby lake south of our place and then the mile to my cabin for a total of 23.4 miles for the day. Battery was at 20% so I probably could have done another mile or two. Given the speed of the ride, the gravel road and hilly route I’d say that range is excellent. Were I to do the ride using pedal assist 2 at 14 mph I’d likely have a range of 35 miles. Total miles on the bike now at just over 300!
There’s nothing better than a dirty bike after a fun ride!
A last note, at the increased speed of today’s ride the bike handled very well on the rougher terrain and hills. Also, after today’s ride I’ve decided to stick with knobby tires.
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