Ride Leader !

Yes, it’s official; I am a Bicycle Network Ride Leader. Ride 1 is scheduled for the 11th December.

After being given the appropriate access on the Ride with GPS website, I have scheduled my first ride – of course, a ride with a recumbent focus. The details can be found in the Bicycle Network Events calendar and you can RSVP there if you would like to join us. I couldn’t find a neat way in WordPress to share but the calendar can be found here :

https://ridewithgps.com/organizations/2014-bicycle-network-tasmania/events

I will report back later – let’s see if anyone turns up !!

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Riding the Plains

Riding continues and the rains seem to have backed off for a little while. After the wettest October for several years, November has been slightly drier! The weather has also warmed up and we are seeing temps climbing into the low 20Cs occasionally. This makes things much nicer. Of course, it is Spring and it is windy and that won’t change for some time – wind is just a fact of life.

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Last post I included a picture of water across the road just before the Woolmers Bridge over the Macquarie River. This weeks picture is of the damage to the surface that became visible when the water level receded. Looks very neat and precise so I assume there has already been work to smooth out the rough edges and turn it into something easy to patch.

One good thing; access to the footpath on the left has improved as gravel was washed into a large gap that had appeared before the concrete path starts. That’s a hole the inside wheel of the trike found every time; I had been thinking about taking a shovel along to fix it. Didn’t bother in the end as the next rain would wash the gravel out again. For the immediate future it is fixed!

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I have been riding Ernie quite a bit, enjoying the difference between riding on 2 wheels and 3. The power supplied by a hub motor (or this hub motor) in pedalec mode (ie no throttle) is quite different to the way a mid-drive works. I have yet to really understand how to get the best out of it.

Power tapers off when riding above 25-26kph no matter what assist level you select. I guess this makes the bike legal but that’s just a bit boring and I was interested to see how much I can influence this. So I gradually upped the speed limit in the controller (via a menu in the display). After trying settings of 30 then 40 kph, I ended up setting the limit to the top level of 72kph and set off eagerly hoping to get a frightening amount of power. Disappointment, the power continues to rapidly taper off above 25 kph and so the bike remains street legal. Is the controller not working properly? Will think about this some more.

I found a guy on YouTube who explains each and every setting for the controller and will note down all that he says and see what mine is set to do. Some things I had better not change as they are motor characteristics that, if changed, will make things not work or maybe even break !!

Cadence has a big impact on the mid-drive. In each assist level, the faster you pedal the less power is supplied. I am playing with cadence as I ride Ernie and it is starting to seem that it is a balance between speed and cadence that affects power delivery. Gearing down and hill climbing and I can get a hefty delivery of over 400 watts at level 5 but maintain top gear up the same hill and it won’t go much over 300w. It’s interesting. Not that I want to use that much power, I just want to find out what it can do and be sure I am riding within its capabilities.

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There’s something odd happening. All around the Norfolk Plains road signs are falling down or canting over. I am wondering if the water-logging of the soils means the wind can move the signs – so the Council then has to come along and lay them down until they can be re-set. Or are some people having fun pulling the loosened signs over. Maybe, in the above case, it’s no longer a Neighbourhood Watch area.

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We had a public holiday last Monday. This meant that the vehicular traffic on Illawarra Road would be less than normal – so I decided to ride over to Perth. Here is the video:

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Targets and Goals

My main challenge to self is to complete 5,000 kilometers in 2021.

Currently the total is 4,472 so it looks promising with 7 weeks to go.

I would like to ride either to or from the Edge of The World next March. In order to do that I have to be able to pack, erect and overnight in a one-person tent! So there is a goal to take at least one overnight camp before the end of the year – to see if I can still manage it. Should be OK – since the weather warmed and I have visited a Bowen Therapist, my shoulders /arms are much improved and I am quietly hopeful!

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’til next time ………………………………..