The e-bike goes to Glentress....an experiment in duration for all concerned!.

It had to be done and the sooner the better! Down to Glentress with Barrie and Dougie on Saturday morning to see how I'd fare and how the bike and the battery would fare with a few thousand feet of hard climbing at the main trail centre in Scotland. Barrie was desperate to use up as much of my battery power as possible so I'd struggle back to the cars with no electrical assistance on a bike that was twice as heavy as a normal mountain bike and Dougie was just Dougie, wanting to do as much biking as possible in his training for the Strathpuffer!

First up was the climb up Janets Brae and I wanted to see how far I could go on the Brosch emtb setting. I've always toiled on this long fire road climb before and couldn't believe how easy it was, so easy in fact I was able to speed ahead and film the two of them panting their way up, usually I'd have been well behind

Dougie treated us to a bit of skill riding the two skinny logs with Barrie willing him to fall off!

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After going up then back down again and my battery power diminishing we eventually came to the top of the infamous Spooky Wood. It would be mostly downhill from here on and just as well as I was down to one bar left on my battery when we'd finished.

The final result was nearly 3500 feet of climbing, two pretty tired bikers on non e-bikes and me barely breaking sweat on my e-bike. A good mornings ride and interesting to see how much the battery could manage on a hard trip (as well as seeing how Barrie and Dougie coped alongside the e-bike)!

The e-bike's opened up a new chapter in my mountain biking life!

Leaving Barrie toiling in my wake at the start of the climb up Black Hill, something I've not managed to do since he came back after a year out after rupturing both achilles!

Still climbing up Black Hill and the sun was rising, Barrie was still behind and I was marvelling at the power in my e-bikes electric motor!

After Black Hill I managed to convince Barrie we might as well do the summit of Hare Hill, and to his credit he agreed, again it was a breeze on Ernie the e-bike!

Time for a quick photo at the summit of Hare Hill before a hairy descent back down through the heather to the Howe and home for coffee!

I cant believe I can now do nearly 30 miles and over 2600 feet of climbing without really breaking sweat but at the same time enjoying every minute of the trip, I can now go out for a really tough ride and not worry about coming home dead due to putting too much pressure on my old body, I've even plucked up the courage to tell my other half that I'd bought the e-bike and strange to say she took it remarkably calmly, I reckon she's got something up her sleeve that she fancies....as long as it's not an e-bike I'll consider it fair game!

The ebike lives up to all I’d read about them

After numerous let downs I eventually managed to take possession of my much waited for ebike last Tuesday, it was smuggled home and hidden in the garage under a cover so that my other half wouldn’t go nuts too son about (her words) “squandering money” ! A solo couple of runs on Wednesday and again on Thursday when I cleaned two climbs I’d never managed before convinced me I’d made a good move, didn’t really take much to convince me mind.

The top of Castlelaw on Thursday after doing a climb I’d never managed before!

Dougie took this picture of me and Ernie the ebike up the Pentlands this morning 

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Time drags when you're waiting on a new bike......

I ordered an ebike a week past Thursday, as mentioned previously I've been struggling to keep up with my younger and increasingly fitter riding buddies, so to avoid suffering a heart attack and ruining everyones bike ride I bit the bullet and after much(?) research did the fateful deed. Once you start to look into the subject of ebikes it becomes more and more complicated and the ones with everything from long travel to silent, lighter motors need a lottery win to finance them. Eventually I settled on a 2018 Trek Powerfly 7FS, £1300 cheaper than a 2019 model the only difference being the position of the battery and the fact there was one available in my size made it even more attractive. Not maybe the bike to be careering crazily downhill through the trees on but my main concern is climbing up steep trails and still being able to talk at the top (and even waiting on my fellow riders!) The bike was in the Alpine Bike shop in Aberdeen and was to be brought down by courier to a local bike shop in Edinburgh in a couple of days or so (they said after taking my deposit). After five or so days I phoned them up to be told it'll be here tomorrow (to me that meant they'd post it tomorrow as they'd messed up). Got a phone call on Friday to say the bike is now in Edinburgh all set up for you, tubeless etc. but they've sent the wrong keys with it, we'll have to wait till the correct keys are sent down from Aberdeen, it's the weekend of course so that's another day or two to wait......

I just hope all this waiting is worth while, I could be in my grave before the bloody thing arrives!