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!

Trying out flats to try and regain my confidence

After my big off I lost a fair bit of confidence in my ability to get a foot down when things get a bit tricky, so in an effort to counter this I've bought a pair of flats to see if this will help.So far I've not invested in a pair of matching shoes relying instead on an old pair of tatty trainers to do the job. I've not had an occasion to really find out if they'll do the business yet, but who knows, it might happen on the next ride!

A slight covering of snow when I was out on Monday, just look at that sky!

A great view from the top of Capelaw of the Pentland Skyline

In contrast yesterday could only be described as DREICH!!

A strong wind and rain the whole way round the Winter Loop!

A bit of illegal wild flower snaffling today! I like to think I'm saving them from probable global warming for future generations to view in my garden!!

The Strathpuffer from a support crew perspective

Dougie's been training for the Strathpuffer 24 hour race which is held in mid winter near Strathpeffer in the north of Scotland ever since he entered at the beginning of July 2018. This is rated in the top 10 endurance mtb races in the world and he entered the solo category which meant a bit of help during the race was more or less essential whether it be help to keep the bike wheels turning, having food read when he passed or merely to offer encouragement throughout the race. Dylan and I offered to be pit crew and while it hardly rates with formula one expertise it is quite important especially for a soloist.We probably weren't the most professional pit crew there as we were fast asleep two times when he came round but  our excuse was it was so cold outside the van, nearly -9C, that sitting waiting for his next visit in the middle of a very long night in a comfy heated van, it was quite difficult to avoid grabbing forty winks!

A break in the journey north near Newtonmore and a Highland Cow made out of metal shakes its head in disbelief  about the conditions that Dougie's going to be racing in.

After arriving at the race venue the next step was to pick a suitable spot on the fire road on the first climb as our pit stop, so this was deemed about as good as it was going to get, all the plum spots had alread been occupied by earlier arrivals

They're off and Dougie is in there somewhere in the 400 odd starters in the different categories, solo, pairs, quads, and u16 school teams made up of 8 riders.

Dougie's first lap completed in glorious sunshine but the temperature remained below freezing throughout the day, the course itself was reckoned to be one of the hardest ever with ice from start to finish a constant hazard.

The final descent before dibbing at the time check at the bottom of the course before the next lap was started.

An essential addition to any pit crew is a good source of external heat and Dylan had brought his trusty fire pit with him as well as what remained of his upgraded house bathroom as fuel!

Some of the racers pits were decorated with flashing fairy lights, ours was pretty basic in comparison!

2.30am, it was going to be a long, long night, daylight wouldn't be till around 8.30 am

Dougie finishes his final lap and I nearly missed it with the camera, numerous crashes, a very sore body but a fantastic achievement, 24 hours of virtually non stop pedalling on a treacherous icy track competing against some of the top endurance bikers in Britain and a few from abroad.

Proudly wearing his Strathpuffer T shirt, (and probably freezing as well now) along side his pit crew  more sensibly dressed in about 10 layers of clothing!! A tremendous result for Dougie, 10th out of 123 solo riders with 19 laps on what was considered to be one of the toughest Puffer races ever, is this the start of an endurance race career? He wouldn't commit to that yesterday but in a few days time......who knows!!!

How far, how much climbing and how long will my ebike battery last?

Barrie's been keen ever since I got the ebike to see how much we could get out the battery, or actually to see if he could manage to drain it completely and make me cycle a very heavy bicycle with no electrical assistance. So on Saturday morning we set off to discover if it could manage to do the climb to the top of Glentress then cycle to Innerleithen, bike up to Minch Moor and round the cross country track there and return to Peebles on a single 500W battery.
My theory was if I did as much possible in the lowest mode (eco) I'd manage to preserve as much life as possible and avoid the dreaded un-assist bike back to the car!

One of the steepest climbs at Glentress and I scooted ahead to save time and power and enjoyed seeing Barrie struggle up on manual power!

Time for a quick worried looking selfie at the mast at the top of Glentress and I was 2 bars out of 5 energy bars down on the ebike display!

Most of the trip to Innerleithen was downhill so very little battery energy was used up on the journey, this was a luxurious country house we biked past which has been converted into a retreat for the ultra rich. Don't think we'll be spending a holiday here somehow....

Another enjoyable moment for me watching Barrie struggle up another steep climb, this time on the way up to Minch Moor!

We reached the summit at Innerleithe and I was down to 2 bars left on the display but at least on the descent back down I wouldn't  use too much ebike energy up so by the time we got back down for the ride along the side of the River Tweed to Peebles I still had one bar left and felt confident enough to enjoy the final 6 miles into a headwind on a higher assistance mode! 

We managed nearly 35 miles and over 4000 feet of climbing with probably about another 5ish miles left in the battery, an interesting experiment and good to know what the ebike's capable of. 

He's back!!! Clive's return to mountain biking......

We began to think Clive had gone into hibernation or had forgotten how to ride his bike but like the phoenix he's come back to climb the hills again! Admittedly he's been busy with work these last few months and the weather's not been the best either, but it was good to get out in the hills with him today and I think he even surprised himself with how well he did considering his recent lack of biking, it'll only be a matter of time till he's wanting to add on additional bits to our weekend rides!

Look... he's already photo bombed me in this picture!!