A year on the ebike and I wouldn't go back to a non ebike now

A year and more has passed since I converted to an ebike and apart from when it was out of action twice due to faults I never felt the need to revert back to a non assist. Things I've learnt over the last year of ebiking have been ,1, its a bit more expensive to maintain but if you can do the most of it yourself it's not so bad, and 2, you have to be very careful when washing to make sure you don't  direct too strong a water jet at the motor, and 3, plan your route well with not too many high fences or gates to lift over as the present ebikes are bloody heavy!
The plus sides are you still can give yourself a good hard workout with the benefit of covering the ground 50% faster with climbs no longer being long and boring, in fact they're actually interesting now with the added challenge of seeking out steeper ones every time you're out! Another point worth mentioning is that it actually becomes slightly boring biking with a non ebiker unless they're really fit as the pace is considerably slower on the climbs than normal!!

This morning Barrie and I did our final Glentress trip for 2019 and took the traditional photo at the mast to round off a great mornings biking in unseasonably warm weather.

Christmas Day saw us do the climb to the top of Allermuir in the Pentlands which has also become a tradition and a wee bottle of Glenfiddich helped to keep the throat clear for the long trip home!

To anyone reading this have a Guid New Year and aw the best for 2020

It's the shortest day this weekend , roll on more daylight!

From 3 inches of snow last weekend to having to remove my skull cap this weekend, there's never a dull moment in the weather in Scotland!

We did have a bit of ice to contend with last Monday however and we were coping fine with it until....

Barrie took his eye of the ball for a fraction of a second and down he went, his pride was the only thing damaged luckily!

I did a solo ride on Friday and managed to clean the climb to the top of Castlelaw in as good weather as you could wish for in the depth of winter

Today it was an early start at Glentress and over 22 miles biked with just over 3500 feet of climbing in great conditions, next week sees the days beginning to lengthen though it'll be a week or two till we notice much difference and the weather could get worse as well! Fingers crossed!!! 

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Ebikes prove their worth in the snow....

We eventually reached the hut about half amile short of the mast on the black route at Glentress this morning in the first real snow of the winter for us. It's true ti say we'd have been twice the time reaching the hut on conventional bikes, the going was quite tough in the soft wet snow but the ebikes coped well with the conditions.

The mast was reached without too much blood, sweat or tears and just the occasional off on a patch of ice!

The descent was fun as the snow got less deep as we came down, but still bitterly cold

The sun even came out as we came further down  to make a good finish to a great mornings ride.

Somehow or other I've managed over 100 miles of off road riding this week in some pretty rubbish weather, probably because of both Barrie and Dougie being on holiday and being available to bike with them, the conditions are pretty poor at present, with a greasy covering of mud on many of the trails,,,,roll on Spring and hopefully drier weather! 

Stormy weather ahead this week, how will the ebike cope?

With temperatures starting off last week well under freezing point and then rising through the week until it was relatively mild you have to wonder on the effect this has on an ebikes battery. According to what I read on the Internet, the battery should be stored off the bike neither too warm or too cold, so you're left to estimate yourself what's best, I personally usually store it in the garage which is stone built and houses the central heating unit so I wouldn't think it'll ever get too cold and at the same time, hopefully never too hot! When out on the bike in under freezing point conditions it stated that the battery should be kept "warmish" with a cover of some sort so now I'm looking for a pair of pyjamas for an ebike battery.......

The start of the week with patches of ice here and there, this one was at least visible unlike another one that I came off on!

By the middle of the week things were wet and muddy again as the temperature rose

A visit to Glentress on Saturday morning and Barrie regained his courage do do a jump after his injury a couple of weeks ago, but this time he made sure he kept a firm hold of the handlebars!

Who knows what this week holds with gales and rain some days and even the chance of snow midweek....and the search goes on for something to keep my battery warm in winter!

When you're out on your ebike and the temperature drops to -11C

It was at this point on Saturday morning about 7.45am just as Barrie and I were crossing the River Tweed near Cardrona that we noticed our Garmins were giving a temperature reading of -11C. Now we knew it was cold, our fingers and the fact that icicles were nearly forming on our noses told us that, but -11C, we weren't too sure how the ebikes would handle it that cold

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The climb up the Southern Upland Way was hard going on the frozen grass and I had to use a higher assistance mode than Barrie with the result my battery seemed to be eating power bars faster than him, or was it the extreme cold that was doing it?

We eventually reached the mast where we decided against returning to Peebles via Gypsy Glen as that would have meant more climbing in lower gears and potentially more battery power, so we did the slightly longer but easier return route.

The descent from the mast is steep and fast and must involve more or less no battery power for almost 2 miles, when we got back to the cars at Peebles my battery was almost empty, but a great mornings biking even if it was bitterly cold early on!