E-bike commuting

Well, today is a banner day. Today I rode the full 30.6KM to work from home on my electric-assist bike! I'm very happy. A little tired, but happy. ;-)

The route is pretty good - click here for an overview. It avoids the heaviest traffic areas and is relatively efficient. There might be a few slight optimizations I can do, but I think this is pretty good.

I made it in 1 hour and 20 minutes, which is probably quite slow for "serious" cyclists, but pretty good for me. I'll be improving that time over the summer, I'm sure.

The battery was pretty much 100% drained by the trip. I started out on max assist (level 4 on the BionX system), and then cut it down to level 3 assist at around Stittsville, so I'd have some juice left for the rest of the journey.

The weather was cool and crisp, blue sky and sunny - excellent riding weather.

One thing I'm quite proud of is that I pedaled the entire way - I didn't wimp out and just hold down the throttle and cruise. Good thing I didn't, too -- I certainly wouldn't have had enough battery power to make it.

I'm looking forward to the ride home. It'll be warmer out, so I've brought some cycling shorts with me.

When I was leaving this morning, Laura set me up with a water bottle in a handlebar bag that really saved my bacon. At various points on the trip I got a nice drink of water, which really improved the experience. Thanks, babe!

I consider this trip to be training for my Tour Nortel 70K ride on Sunday. If you've not sponsored me yet, please consider doing so. It's for a good cause and apparently you get tax receipts.

I would have liked to have had a few more training rides, but the schedule just hasn't worked out. So, I'm sure the ride on Sunday will be a real challenge. I'm quite tired after riding under HALF the total kilometers, so I expect to be wiped when I finish on Sunday afternoon.

Whew...
Grant