Nice 40-mile ride

I had a plan for quite a ride today, starting at 7am. Recently I had my annual physical, and the doctor ordered some blood tests, for which I have to go to the clinic 5 miles away "npo," fasting. Also I wanted to deliver something to Campbell, 19 miles away. So the plan was to start at 7, give the blood, have breakfast, and ride on to Campbell.

Well, the temperature at 7am was 35f, which made me rethink. Come to find out Marian needed to have a blood sample taken also, so we drove together to the clinic, gave up our red cells, and drove home for breakfast. When a reasonable (55f) temperature arrived at 9am, I set out on the ride to Campbell.

I had charged up the BionX battery beforehand, and I am happy to say that a ride of 40 miles (well, alright, 39.6 miles) used up only 5 of the 8 bars in the battery-state indicator. That's using assist level 2 about half the time, and level 1 the other half. There's plenty of juice for the 20-mile round trip to the gym on Wednesday. I think. We'll see.

This was a ride along familiar roads: Foothill Expressway, Homestead, Stelling, Prospect, Campbell.The streets, even busy ones like Campbell Avenue, were very quiet. There were many colorful Maple and Pistache trees along the streets. The sky was brilliantly clear; it was one of those winter days when cold Pacific air blows in from the Gulf of Alaska and makes every detail of the Bay Area hills stand out in glittering detail. Here is a view from Cupertino, east toward the Mt. Hamilton Observatory which is over 30 miles (50k) away.

Here are the exact pixels from the middle of that picture.

If I had started riding toward those so-clear little domes, it would have taken four hours to reach them, or 90 minutes to drive it.

I had stopped to take pictures of the Mary Avenue Bike Bridge. This new bridge was built in 2009 to give easy foot and bike access over I-280. It's a very nice cable-stayed bridge. Today I noticed the sun eclipsed by the north pylon:

At the south end of the bridge is a charming bronze sculpture of california quails, overlooked by an ominous red-tailed hawk.

Longer Legs - maybe

It has been cold. Well, cold for California. Chilly, damp, gray mornings, or the last couple of days, clear frosty mornings. I don't like to ride in the cold. I have a pair of leggings that I bought 15 years ago. I wore them often when I was commuting by bike, but haven't had them on in two years at least. This week I've been jogging, either on the street or driving to the gym and jogging on the treadmill, which is terminally boring even with an iPod loaded with podcasts (Skeptic's Guide, Geologic, Security Now ... my jogging companions.)

But the bike—when I finally get back on it—should be better. Last week when the rain started, I did what I said I'd do the first rainy spell. I took the back wheel off the bike (no easy job) and took it up to the local bike shop service department along with the 11-32 freehub.

Wait. The back story is that when I was restoring the bike, I assumed that when I motorized it, it would still be using the same rear cluster, so I ordered the new front chain rings in about 10% smaller sizes than the old. But then it turned out that the BionX hub only supports a freewheel not a modern freehub, and further, that the freewheel BionX supplied was an 8-speed with a smallest gear of 14 teeth.

I described this back in June, noting that I had managed to obtain a freewheel with 11-32 gearing. But I hadn't installed it.

The reason I didn't install it is that I couldn't. I tried at one point to get the existing freewheel off, but they are notoriously difficult and I couldn't manage it. (The freewheel threads onto the hub, or in this case onto the motor casing, in such a direction that your pedaling torque tightens it.) Then I took the bike back to Joe Robinson for another reason and asked him to try to replace it. He returned it saying he had not been able to get the thing off either.

There matters rested for a couple of months, but the setup wasn't satisfactory; on a downhill I couldn't spin past 30mph, maybe 31. I used to be able to pedal past 40mph on a suitable slope.

So, OK, on this rainy day I removed the wheel and took it and the new freewheel up to the bike store and at the service counter I started saying, I want to replace this, the guy who sold it to me couldn't get it off. Before I'd finished that sentence, the mechanic, without a word, picked up the wheel and walked away to the back of the shop, where he slapped a tool into a vise, dropped the wheel on it, gave a mighty heave, and spun the freewheel off. He was back at the counter in less than a minute. He dabbed a little grease onto the threads, spun the new freewheel into place, and said, "OK?"

OK, indeed. I took it home and reinstalled the wheel, and the bike's been sitting in the garage since, waiting for better weather or more motivation.

New grip shifts

I had wanted to replace the old shifters during the restoration. I bought a left-right pair of eight-speed Grip Shifts from Easy Racers when I picked up the frame. I forget the reason just now, but due to some issue, I retained the old left-hand (front) shifter but installed the right-side one.

Not too long after I started riding the new setup, that right-hand shift knob started to slip. Under the pressure of my awesome right hand, its rubber grip began to slip. It would pull away from the mechanism and I'd push it back in place.

This became increasingly annoying so I decided to replace it yet again. I went to local bike stores and looked at the shifters being used on modern mountain bikes. Some wouldn't work for my bike, for example because the shifter was integrated with the brake lever, and I need to keep my separate brake levers. Others looked rather cheap. Actually the nicest-looking grip shift is the one made by Shimano as part of their Nexus system. Unfortunately, the Nexus is an internally-geared hub. If I were setting up a new, non-electric, recumbent, the Nexus hub and related parts would make a very nice installation. But the center of my rear wheel is taken up by the BionX motor, and it seemed very likely that the Nexus shifter would not be compatible with my external 8-speed derailleur.

What I settled on was the SRAM "centera" twist-grip. It has a longer grip that looks well-bonded to the mechanism. It also has a somewhat toy-like gear indicator but otherwise its quality seems good for a plastic part.

I ordered a pair of shifters from Amazon; they arrived yesterday and I installed them this morning. Here is the right one in place,

...and here is the left one.

Happily the installation lacked drama. Installing cables often results in operatic drama and high-pitched swearing fits, but not this time. The nearest it came to that was when I was trying to fit the old, longer cable to the rear. The one that came with the new shifter was juuuuuust a few inches too short.

This meant threading the old cable tip down through the core of the shifter. And of course, one wire didn't want to go, wanted to spiral back and jam. I fired up my old soldering iron and soldered the tip to hold the wires together. Then it went. And the adjustment wasn't hard either, and it shifts smoothly: tick-clunk, tick-clunk.

Of course the indicator reads "backward" with 8 being the lowest gear and 1, the highest. But that's always been true because the derailleur works backward, pulling toward the higher gears.

An interrupted ride

Yesterday, Monday, it was chilly and damp when I went out to pick up the paper. There was a little rain Sunday and although the forecast was for dry, I decided I didn't want to ride in this weather. So I drove to the gym and jogged 40 minutes on a treadmill. Ironically, by the time I left the gym it was a bright, sunny day and I felt bad about not riding. So today, Tuesday, which would by plan be a jogging day, I went for a ride instead. Toward the end of the ride, something rather odd happened.

Rancho San Antonio Park

I opted to ride a moderate route, south on Foothill boulevard to Rancho San Antonio County Park. The attraction there for me is that on a hill at the entry, model airplane hobbyists are usually to be found flying their creations. Indeed today there were several men flying not regular planes but model autogyros.

I watched for a bit and wasted a lot of pixels trying to catch the little machines in the air.

Strange Incident

A couple of miles from home, crossing through an intersection, I became aware of something wrong with the vision in my right eye. I pulled over as soon as I could. My first thought was a visual migraine, something I get once a year or so, but this was not at all the same. A visual migraine is a scintillating transparent arc that starts in the center of the visual field and gradually expands outward, lasting typically 30 minutes until it works its way out of my peripheral vision.

What I saw now was quite different. First, it was only in my right eye, not both. And second, it was an irregular, opaque, pink arc that had appeared in the upper left of the field.

Later I worked out the perfect description: put your right hand against your brow as if you were saluting. Now, curl your forefinger down to make a half circle obstructing the inner part of your right eye. That's what it was like, except the pink blotch had no texture or shape. It could have been painted on the inside of my glasses. The bright autumn sky and trees and road were all clear except where the pink blob was.

Second thought: retinal detachment. Agh! I called home but Marian was out. So I cranked up the assist level to 3 and pedalled home, looking up as much as possible out of some notion that gravity might settle a retinal tear.

In fact, the pink blob thinned and disappeared in about ten minutes and was gone when I reached the house. Nevertheless, I hurriedly changed to street clothes and drove to the Palo Alto Clinic where, eventually, my eyes were dilated and examined. All OK; no signs of tears or separations, no swellings or other indications of a constricted blood supply. (And I had not had the common symptoms of retinal damage: lots of floaters and odd flashes.)

So, no problems found—and no diagnosis. Might have been an anomolous migraine. Anyway, an early end to the ride.

Aaaaaand - we're back.

Returned home from a six-week tour of Germany late on Monday the 12th. On Wednesday, Joe Robinson stopped by the house (and isn't that some kind of service?) with the new battery and my old console.

Just to recap, I pretty much ruined my BionX battery pack, but they accepted it as a warranty fix. Also I'd turned in the little console computer because a light touch on the throttle lever, or just road vibration, would make its screen blank out.

Joe said that BionX had sent back the same console, saying they didn't find anything wrong with it. Well, that was a communication failure on one of our parts, but it doesn't matter because as Joe was installing it on the handlebar... it blanked out on him.

I couldn't have been more pleased. He got a good demo of how just a gentle wiggle of the throttle lever would make the screen go blank. So he took it back to the shop with him.

Friday he stopped by again with a new console. He'd been able to duplicate the problem on another bike, so it definitely wasn't the wiring on my bike (I never thought it was; I was and am sure it's either a cracked circuit board or a bad solder joint) and now the bike was complete again.

Saturday morning I spent some time cleaning and remounting the fairing, which had been gathering dust in the garage all these weeks, then went for a 12-mile, flat ride.

Exactly as I expected and has happened after prior vacations, I've got no lungs and precious little leg. But also, the BionX motor does just what I hoped it'd do: assist level 2 makes it possible to ride at what feels like good speed, even if I'm out of shape. So I will be riding.

I have a plan for a new exercise regime, one to please my cardiologist: MWF do the 40-minute ride to the gym for a short workout; and tuesday and thursday mornings do a 5K jog. That will get me the 5x40-minutes of aerobics per week she wants me to have. (And when I see her and can report doing this program, I will be able to needle her for being a couch spud herself, which she looks like.)

I like the jogging because I can listen to podcasts on the ipod, usually the Skeptic's Guide or the Geologic podcast. One drawback with real cycling (as opposed to jogging or sitting on a stationary bike at the gym) is that it really isn't safe to have the ipod in my ears while doing it.

In aid of this plan I went to the Nike store and bought myself a pair of the almost-barefoot running shoes: a segmented rubber sole with light canvas uppers, they weigh almost nothing and feel good. On Monday and again today (Wednesday the 20th) I stuffed them into a pannier and rode the bike to the gym, as planned. They fit the pannier a lot better than the old running shoes, which by comparison look a lot like feet for the Sta-Puft marshmallow man.

Tuesday I did the jogging as planned. So the quest to recover fitness begins anew.

No bike, no rides, no news

The disaster

About two weeks ago, pursuing another minor rattle, I once more split the case on the BionX battery. At this point, let me tell you something important:

Don't do that!

It is not easy to reassemble the battery case. There is a circuit board that is connected by some quite stiff wires to the actual battery pack and other points. It is supported by two rather flimsy plastic posts. Getting everything lined up while sliding the two halves of the case together is tricky.

While I was struggling with that, somehow I let the bottom of the circuit board make contact with a piece of metal lying on the workbench. There was a FZPTT!! noise and a smell just like the smell that my old Lionel electric train used to make, such is the nostalgic power of odors. Examining the damage I noted that the circuit board had many surface-mount resistors on the back, one of which was now at the center of a half-inch brown stain.

And of course, when I did get it together and back on the bike, the system wouldn't boot up, but just showed an error code on the console.

OK, so Joe at Velolectric was nice as could be about all this, and said he'd do his best to get BionX to treat it at least partially as a warranty issue, although I really don't care, I figure I zorched it and if I get out of this paying no more than the dealer cost of a new battery pack, I'm good.

Bicycle Season Passes

So time has passed while emails, and the battery pack itself, have been tracking back and forth to Toronto, and now, for me, cycling season has expired. This is kind of a bummer because the last two weeks in the Bay Area have been about as ideal for cycling as you could imagine: daytime highs of 75, clear sky, light breeze. Perfect.

Nevertheless, this weekend we leave for three weeks with relatives on the great Puget Sound. When we get back around the 24th I should be able to retrieve the repaired bike and pay my penalty. But then it is time to pack and whoops, off to tour Germany for 6 weeks. (If you like the style, you can follow us through Germany at our travel blog.)

So this blog will be pretty quiet until mid-October. I'll be back to riding then and will be able to report once again (sigh) about regaining fitness after a long layoff.

Welcome ERRC readers!

Wo says the midsummer edition of ERRC Magazine is going out the door tonight, including my article that points to this blog. So: Hi, readers!

For the whole story of the restoration, start with this post. Then keep clicking the "Newer Post" link at the bottom of each item. Or just poke around in the Archive section on the right.

You'll find lots more pictures here than were in the article. Most of the pictures that you see inline, link to larger versions. So click any pic for more detail.

By all means, leave comments! If there are questions, put them in comments. I'll answer any I can in further posts.

Using RSS

I don't post every day, and there will be a long hiatus through August and September. It's a pain to keep checking a blog for new posts and not finding any. If you're internet-savvy you probably know about RSS or Atom feeds, but if you don't, look up "RSS" in the help page for your browser. Basically you put this special link in a bookmark, and your browser will check for updates automatically. When I get around to posting something, you'll know right away.