Still putting back my Opti together and will test ride it this weekend.

Namaste!

Any suggestions?

Tormentor ?

Flash?

Mork from Boulder?

Hey baby Opti, make it back safely

from where you were born

your Daddy is waiting for you

to ride your through rail trails

all the way to ‘Bama

and back to Duluth,

your sweet home….

PS. Update 8/12/2010 – bike is back home but bikeshop became retarded and couldn’t put it back together. I’ll try my best to put her together this weekend and take my super e-bike for a ride.

In any case, two days ago I pulled out the trusty Optibike and cranked out (with the help of the MBB) 25 miles in an hour and five minutes with an average cadence of 84. When peddling I tend to stay between 90 and 100. Strong headwind on the ride out then the joy of the tailwind returning. Lots of juice left so headed up the hill just to extend the ride and enjoy the decent at a touch over 40 MPH without an assist. Just an amazing amount of fun.

Today I did a quick tour of the downtown area to scope out a market then rode the hill the other direction with a decent of 45+. About 15 miles just playing. I’ll go out again in a bit.

While I won’t meet my objectives in the year timeline I certainly will meet them as the year unfolds and couldn’t be happier with the Optibike. Just need to get out there on a regular basis. Let’s see what we can do with the remaining few days then go from there. I’ll be in Boulder at the end of the month and will stop in on the good folks at the factory.

Also a big congratulations to Eric. Amazing stuff.

All systems go for 19 miles using the Fast setting. I’d play leaving each meeting point last and getting to the next point first. Oh, about 30 people wished they had an electric bike during each uphill climb.  They really smiled internally when I had to quit the ride due to a system reset…. but I’ll be back.

Check my ride at the Garmin site . Max Speed: 44.2 mph

1,587 miles to go.

Tale of two belts

I  also have a few more pictures so you can see that both belts were put side by side.

My two belts side by side

Belly stretched belts

The brown belt was bought in Durango, Colorado on December 26, 2001. I think it has been 4 years since I was able to wear that belt.

Watch out Jared!

Sunday morning Atlanta traffic was a little heavy and when the sign flashed 3 lanes closed a few miles ahead I decided to take the long route around downtown via I-285 And you would have thought that at 6:00 am on a Sunday traffic should be nil? Not in my hometown!

Made it to the starting point with a few minutes to spare before the American century ride left. At the moment I decided against going for this 100 mile ride since it has been 5 weeks since my last ride (Atlanta -Athens on April 10-11).  As I age , I have become a little more cautious on how I decide to stress my body. Having re-installed the battery on Friday night and not knowing the current performance characteristics of the internal battery, I decided against experimenting with a probably very painful ride that could have potentially extended over 6 hours on the saddle.  That was a very wise move!

Having a few extra minutes before leaving for the 62 mile ride, I lingered around the Waffle House tent for a simple breakfast of a sausage biscuit and took the preventive measure of taping my exposed fingers (specially the right thumb – or throttle finger).  Left about 7:50 am ( a few minutes before the official start, since some groups already started the ride and there was little organization at the start line). Quite a different animal from the MS150 ride where Atlanta was full of banners, balloons and police escort on Harley’s to cover the riders while going through downtown.

The ride started going through the town of Tyrone, Georgia and the route was well marked until I got through Main St. Noting that my Garmin was not so trustworthy on my previous ride, I decided to check if there were signals of the route and went straight for a couple of blocks until it made no sense. Happily I found a very strange landmark, the front car of a very futuristic looking Disney’s monorail poking at me from the parking lot of a General store. I mentally noted that I should take a picture of it since it was so odd but decided against stopping (while wearing my clip on MTB shoes – sometime stopping is not an option).  I therefore went back to the confusing corner and continued my ride through Georgia’s countryside. The first 20+ miles were uneventful. Every 10 miles we had a pit stop for bio breaks and hydration. At around 26 miles I finally started arriving first to the pit stops. Note, that I’ve been riding at a normal speed of about 18-26 mph aerobically exercising without exertion. Noting that I was riding first – I began riding with the objective of arriving first for my distance group at the finish line. This is where my internal battery decided to quit on me. I quickly switched to the external battery and continued with my ride with no worries since I’ve ridden 50 miles with only the external battery and I only had 36 miles to go.

Then things started to get interesting.  I found the most beautiful  lavender field extending for what it seemed like a couple of miles and a church steeple that made the scene very movie-like. Now I could imagine rolling on my bike through a European campagne scene.  You can find the location of this Georgia euro farm scene here.

Next was the cop. When I turned on the next street, there was a cop on his car with a radar gun. Speed limit was 30 mph and I was going downhill!!!  The thought of getting a speeding ticket on my Optibike started floating around my mind… should I try hitting 40 mph as I passed the cop?  I had to work really hard to not go over 29.83 mph because I didn’t wanted to spend precious minutes getting a speeding ticket.  But it was a noteworthy concept that I latter send on a email to see if Opti was interested in paying a speeding ticket while riding an Opti bike. I’d love to see the print ad with the picture of the extremely big guy (me) as the speeder doing 45 on a 30 mph zone…… I think Craig got the message across on the Opti web site – but with a skinny guy.

As I got closer to the finish line – I started seeing many short distance riders that where doing the 32 mile, 16 mile and 8 mile rides. The look on their eyes was amazingly incredulous as I zipped by them going 25+ mph. I felt like Mario Andretti. I even skipped the last pit stop that was sponsored by my home town bike shop (Suwanee Creek Bicycles).   I was cranking up to 30 mph with a 160+ heart rate on my way to the finish line since I had battery juice to spare.  Riding on fast mode with a moderately high cadence was exhilarating.  When I arrived I went straight to the massage tent area and then my thighs collapsed in pain. I had to be extricated from my bike and hopped like a toad to the massage table.  Amazing what 10 minutes with ice on my thighs did to eliminate the throbbing pain due to a build up of lactic acid. I was able to get on my feet without any pain. Having massage therapist on hand is the greatest perk of riding on a organized bike ride.

62+ miles this past Sunday. 4 lbs to the ether.

1,606 miles still to go in 2010…

Here is the Garmin detailed ride link.

1. Accomplish my 10% body weight challenge with Opti before the deadline next September

2. Reach the Alabama -Georgia line on my bike riding the Silver Comet. June 2010

3. Learn to pedal using clip ons…. (before this year end).

4. Learn to layer warm clothes properly and conquer winter riding.

5. Conquer the fear of night riding.

6. Dabble in Mountain Biking. June – July 2010

7. Ride while at my time sharing adventures this year (Anaheim, San Diego, New Orleans, Destin, FL )

8. Take my grand-kids on bike rides (non powered). Summer 2010

9. Ride to work daily for a week (250 total miles). Want to average at least once a week for the full year (about 2000 total miles). May or June 2010

10. Ride with my wife (need to teach her to use the Opti since she can’t exercise due to her lungs). September 2010.

What do you think my performance has been for this my first year with Optibike?

Your comments are welcomed!

Update 8/5/2010 – due to hardware & vacation issues (and also heat) – the time frames mentioned above have been shifted 60 days.