Well my Optibike has become my preferred mode of around town transportation. I’ve been using it to commute to a volunteer gig that I just started, to meetings related to that gig, for errands, and just for fun.
And I feel much better for it. Not only am I getting exercise, but getting out into the fresh air and sun and doing a little sight seeing is a great pick me up. Additionally being able to travel on the bike at, or near, the same speed as the traffic around me gives me far more control of my situation than when riding my other bikes at far slower speeds.
OK but what about the weightloss. My approach at the beginning is to build up a base level of fitness to position myself to do rides of greater distance (time) or intensity. But at the moment I’m being kind to myself and getting everything moving again. Once I feel that I’ve got a solid base then I’ll start weighing myself on a regular basis and sharing those and other numbers on this blog.
In building this base one of the immediate benefits of the Optibike is the ability to work on improving my ability to maintain a good cadence to spin vs. pushing the cranks around. No surprise but this is most evident in the hills. I can ride pretty much where I want while maintaining a cadence between 94 and 102 RPM. This works well for me and I can feel that the Motorized Bottom Bracket is pretty happy at this pace too. If I was trying this at my current level of (un) fitness on my road or mountain bike I’d really be struggling. But I can already feel a difference in my ability to spin the cranks.
The more I ride my Optibike the more I appreciate the approach and design. As an example the other day I was headed to a meeting and decided to take the route with the most elevation change. I haven’t worked out the elevation gain yet but its pretty substantial. I was able to maintain about 18 MPH on the climb up while maintaining a cadence of 98 RPM. On the decent my max speed was a little over 43 MPH. The Optibike was very stable throughout soaking up the bumps along the way.
Time for another ride!
Jim M.