Yesterday was the first official bike trip to town of the year. I did it on a freakishly warm afternoon in early February but that was just because I was bored of winter. This morning I actually wanted to do a couple of things in town and decided to take the bike.
The cattlegate is something over five miles from the Lair by long winding road. I cheat and take the Jeep there and unload the bike. From the gate it’s almost exactly two and a half bumpy miles to pavement. From there it’s maybe another mile and a half to the start of what few stores there are. A pleasant ride, weather permitting. End to end, including an idle detour to see what’s down this road here, nine and a half miles on the clock.
Of course the bike did most of the work but I’m getting better at using the gearing and pedals to get better range out of the battery. At first, back in August/September, I couldn’t go more than 20 miles on a charge but even with dirt road friction and hills it’s probably half again better than that now.
Very nice Joel, I’m glad the ebike is working out well. From the photos, it looks like you had nice weather for the ride. Winter still wants to play here. It’s been snowing on and off all morning.
So in a pinch it appears like your bike could easily make the full round trip?
Looks like, yeah. Last year I confirmed that I could make the round trip using an alternate, shorter but much worse route but now I’m thinking I could do it on the main ‘road.’
” probably half again better than that now.” So, maybe 30 miles if it’s all on pavement?
Isn’t that usually called a cattle-guard?
No, I meant 30 miles on home roads. On pavement it would be substantially better.
Cattle guard, cattle gate. Either works.
Is that one of the cattle guards the democrats wanted to unionize, several years ago?