2020-03-12

Back Country

One of the reasons I love being on a bike is the pace. I’m never in a hurry on a bike as it’s already a step up from walking and I really do enjoy experiencing the environment I’m in. Slow is fine with me! My current route is really two parts. The blacktop has me riding at about 14 to 17mph and it’s a nice ride. But my favorite part of the ride, by far, is the gravel portion which is a narrow road with trees right up to the edges. At 9 to 12mph I’m really relaxed and enjoying the slow flow of trees around me and the ground under me. I’m a walker on a bike!

Enjoying that slow pace also means that I’ll get better range off of each charge which is a nice bonus. On Tuesday I set out on a ride intending to add an additional 6.7 mile loop to my usual 32 miles. It was a fantastic ride! The new loop is about 4 miles of really nice gravel and a couple miles of pavement. The total ride was just short of 39 miles. On Wednesday I thought I’d try extending that loop around Perry Lake and that didn’t work out because Perry Lake is a private neighborhood with a gated entrance! I rode on up to HWY T then turned around and returned to my new loop ending up with my longest ride yet, 44 miles and 3.5 hours. That extra bit had the steepest hills I’ve ridden on the Rover with a grade at about 15%, maybe a bit more. Total elevation on the ride was 3,145. No problem getting up those hills using about 600 watts and peddling fairly hard in the granny gear. No way I’d do it without moderate peddling. Average speed around 12.5mph for the full ride and 40% battery capacity remaining.

Having a chance to explore around Madison and surrounding counties has been a fantastic experience. I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be back on a bike. One note about my riding style, as much as possible I’m keeping to lower PAS levels 1 and 2 in part because I’m riding the bike and not driving it. At the end of the day I want to put in as close to 100% of my own effort and I think that’s more likely at those lower PAS levels. There might come a time when my knees are not healthy enough to pedal as much as I am now and then I’ll use the electric assist more but until that time I really enjoy putting forth the effort.

Lastly, just to point out and emphasize the amazing efficiency of the bicycle and electric bike, I’m riding 30 miles on about a nickel’s worth of electricity and my own effort which amounts to about 1,000 calories of food each ride. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Mileage for the two days:
3/10 38.9
3/11 44.2

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