Nearly drained the e-bike battery twice now

Out last Friday with Dougie who's fitness is at a peak these days, he suggested a route that was going to be a hard one on a normal day let alone a day like last Friday when it was blowing a gale! Well at least I was electrically assisted!

The last lung bursting climb for Dougie up the aptly named "Puke Hill" though he did manage to avoid the indignity of puking when he made to the top, where I was smugly awaiting him having the assistance of the e-bike to combat both the hill and the gale force head wind, which incidentally seemed to be a head wind most of the way round!

On arrival back home I was down to the final bar on the battery display, I reckon I probably had about 5 miles in eco mode still left but it was still a relief to get back with e-power!

Sunday morning and we were off again with a 7am  start from Innerleithen bound for first of all the summit of Minch Moor and then along the Southern Upland Way to the Three Brethren which stand high above the Tweed valley. This time Barrie joined Dougie and 

me and most of the first 10 miles was in thick mist.

As if on cue the sun broke through the mist as we arrived at the 3 Brethren and after the obligatory photos we set off down the tracks to Yair

One of the highlights was filming Dougie crossing the partially finished bridge over a stream, he was subjected to loud shouts of encouragement to fall off complete with bike but annoyingly made it over unscathed!

The finale to the climb up the notorious zig zags was Dougie celebrating a clear victory over Barrie who claimed a bad chest cold as an excuse (he'll never live this picture down!)

We arrived back at the cars at Innerleithen with me down once again to the final bar on the e-bike display and this time |I doubt if there was much more than a couple of miles left in the battery, I like to think of it as a well judged ride!!

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The ebike takes on the Kirk Road climb

None of us has ever managed the Kirk Road climb without a bit of hike a bike at some point in the climb so I was interested to see how the ebike (and myself) would get on. The track from the main road is an easy peddle to begin with but ramps up quite steep further on.

This section was still pretty easy going but the real challenge wasn't far away!

This was where the ebike came into its own, climbing up here was relatively easy and Barrie and Clive were forced to get off and push,

Barrie was the first to appear over the final tricky little climb and had to admit that when it comes to climbing an ebike takes a bit of beating. Another interesting discovery today was that the battery seemed to have a lot more reserve in it with the higher temperatures we experienced today compared to the sub zero temperatures of the last few weeks, we covered 28.5 miles today with a fair bit of climbing and I reckon with careful management I could have coaxed at least another 20 miles out of it.....roll on the summer! 

Just how easy was that with the ebike?

From sticky mucky tracks

to steep grassy climbs to the top of Capelaw Hill, the ebike takes them all in its stride!

Leaving Barrie toiling behind on the hard climb up the Goat Track in the Pentland Hills this morning, the roles are reversed now!

Up Allermuir Hill as well on a cracking crisp winters morning

  

Finishing off with the steep descent into bright sunshine on the descent from Black Hill!

A reversal of roles now that I'm riding an ebike, not so long ago I lagged behind and Barrie had to wait on me, now its the other way round ....and boy, am I enjoying it!!

A short blast of winter, then back to normal....

The week started with hard frost and no wind in our neck of the woods while other parts of Britain suffered heavy snowfall. This photo was taken on Monday and the air was crystal clear.

Harris the Great Dane who I'd met 2 days before with his owner, a gentle giant if ever there was one

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By Friday there was snow on the Pentlands and the ebike comes into its own on snowy tracks with the wider tyres and the ability to do a climb at speed and slacken off when needed, Dougie and I did a loop in great conditions, dry snow and brick hard underneath.

Today Sunday and the cold spell is nearly over so out with Clive and Barrie to have some fun in the snow. Clive used his old bike with ice spiker tyres but to be honest they weren't really needed as there were only a few patches of bare ice about

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The ice was even thick enough on Threapmuir Reservoir to indulge in a bit of "biking on ice", there's no danger of drowning as the water depth is only 9 inches maximum at this part.Already the clouds were gathering and by the time we got home it had gone from heavy snow showers to drizzly rain. Who knows what next week will bring weather wise!