Electric Bike Fitness

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  • Bruce’s Recent Doctor Visit

    Hi Everyone,

    Real interesting news this week from Optibike. Check the website if you haven’t seen it yet. I visited my doctor yesterday and she was happy to see the continued weight loss. My blood pressure was the real news. Just before starting the program, my BP had shot up to 160/100. Way too high!!! My doc got it down enough to get me started on the Optibike program but still wanted more improvement. Yesterday, it was 126/70!!!!! We were pretty excited. It has not been that low in some time. I can’t wait to see  my weight and BP  30 days from now.

  • Progress from Bruce

    Hi Everyone,

    How is everyone doing? Life has been going well. I think I have lost about 10 pounds so far and at the moment riding for about 45 minutes every weeknight and an hour Saturday and Sunday. These are mimimums. I defintely need to find some folks to ride with.  The community that I live in has a club the usually rides down to the coast on Sundays.  With regular riding, I am finding that I am sleeping better and handling events at work much better. My biggest problem is  buying clothing in smaller sizes.  Have gone from a 44 to a 40  inch waist. Getting many positive comments from family and friends.

    Will be visiting my doctor tomorrow. Stay tuned.

  • Back to riding and a record of 44.51 mph (downhill of course)

    Crazy Bikers
    Crazy Bikers

    This Saturday morning woke up around 6:30 a.m. and went to this organized 25 mile ride around Berkeley Lake with  a group from TheBicycleWheel.net bike shop near my house. Notice the ominous sky above us. Yes it did pour 10 miles into the ride. Since it was my first ride on that route with this group I followed the guys ahead of me (only 2 by that time) and 9 miles later we were back at the shop (a total of 19 miles for the day).  That is when I realized that the guys I followed were not doing the full ride. Oh well…

    Anyway – there is a small dam at Berkeley Lake and the road goes below it. That is where I hit my newest speed record on my Optibike – 44.51 mph. Exhilarating!

  • My first ride home from work 22+ miles

    RIde from work Oct 21 2009
    Distance and altitude from Atlanta to Duluth

    Today I feel a little invincible… kind of like Rocky on his first movie after going up the stairs in Philadelphia… I attained my goal to ride in normal Atlanta traffic from work to my home in about 1:20. I’m still in one piece and tomorrow morning I will ride back to pick up my car.

    I’ve been  unable to ride since last week due to rain and a wave of polar temperatures that made my weekend ride impossible. I finally bought some “ski” clothes (they looked the same as bike jerseys and their price was up there too), a balaclava (isn’t that like the greek pastry?) and a bright yellow fleece vest… where I left them? Of course inside my car at work…. so tomorrow morning I will have to fight 40’s and 50’s to get to work with my regular bike clothes and a wind breaker. I’m pretty sure I’ll be up to the right body temperature within the 1st mile out of my home. Wish me luck!

  • Optibike rider tells CNN about his health success with his Optibike.

    What a great story.  Keith is the Optibike rider who joined us on a conference call a few months back to share his weight loss success using his Optibike that he rides with his wife Mary (who has her own bike!)

    Check out the CNN. com story here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/electric.bicycles/index.html

    Congrats for the inspirational story Keith! Way to go!

    Craig Taber

    Optibike

  • Maybe My Cats Will Commute In a Burley

    What the heck is up with the adventure commuting. OK so Craig takes his dog for a ride and its an “adventure”. I’m thinking that I should start commuting with my cats. Get me a Burley and throw the cats in and go for a spin. I could even put another battery or two in there to extend the ride and obvious enjoyment.

    I’ve got some off-road that I can hit on the way to my volunteer gig, and few hills to get yelled at for cheating, or was that yelling I heard about animal endangerment? Then there is the sight of a few cats doing everything in their power to escape the confines of the Burley. Or are they just enjoying the “adventure”. If they do escape herding them back in the Burley is sure to help me lose a few pounds. Now that would be an “adventure” or a more likely a very bad idea. I guess that’s one of the differences between cats and dogs.

    So maybe I’ll just go ride. {Seriously I really love and take care of my cats and would never do such a thing. The neighbor’s cat who thinks she lives here and eats the food, that’s another story}

    In any case it has been a crazy few weeks. I have to admit that today was the first ride I’ve had in about two weeks. I love riding but the “convenience” of the car can quickly take over when time seems to be an issue. But an objective view shows that riding the bike in this town is almost always faster, well if its an Optibike.

    — With the bike parking is a snap. No cost, no tickets, no looking for a spot, no walking from the parking spot that I hope to find.
    — With the bike I get exercise.
    — With the bike I see and experience my commute.
    — With the bike I meet and talk to a variety of people who I wouldn’t otherwise have the pleasure of meeting.
    — With the bike I just have a better day.

    So the bike is cheaper to run, faster, more fun, healthier, more sociable, and makes the day better. Especially without the cats.

    Welcome Bruce! Eric you are an animal…

  • A Wet Day in Atlanta – 1st Office/DR commute done

    Our company’s disaster recovery site happens to be 6.5 miles from my house and as always I volunteered to go. This morning the day started with a continous sheet of rain and nevertheless I went ahead and rode to work. 

    I was totally unprepared to spend the day with all my clothes totally wet, but what the heck – I just put on a wind breaker and bit the bullet. I was so soaked when I made it about 15 minutes later that I took off my sneakers and socks. I improvised and found that the socks do dry up if you put them next to the exhaust of a laser printer. The sneakers – that was something else…. they are still soaking wet… I also found out how warm and toasty mouse pads are – thus allowing my shirt to dry up quite fast. Got lucky in the afternoon and went home when the rain stopped for a while.

    Add 13 more miles to my running total… 133 so far….

  • Introduction

    Hello Everyone,

    Bruce is finally onboard and excited about my new adventure. Don’t know if you know much about me, so here goes. I am a 62 year old guy who lives in Laguna Hills, Ca. When I say hills I mean HILLS!!!!!!! So when I bought a less powerful electric bike, I found that I was looking for more. Optibike gave me that solution. Have been riding for a few months while waiting for doctor approval and have had some great experiences. Stay tuned.

    I want to thank Team Duke for the great riding gear and their words of encouragement. Craig and the rest of the staff have been  great supporters. Congratulations to Kenny Fuller who just set a new record in the “hour record”. He rode 27.5 miles in an hour setting a new record in the 60+ age group. Great job, Kenny!!!!!! Back real soon.

  • 19 days since arrival and 120 miles later…

    Weight is now stable at about 294 (am I building muscle?) … I’m making sure I do about 3 hours+ per week.. next goal is achieve 50 mile in a day (two rides) that means about 3 hours in a single day… is it doable? Yes!

    This past week I had 3 rides – counting the Silver Comet, Cycleworks ride on Wednesday and today’s ride from the house to Duluth, Peachtree Corners and Berkeley Lake which was very pleasant and had a couple of yipee! downhills while in the beautiful area of Berkeley Lake. I now have the bike computer working and there is so much information now being provided, but without pulse / altimeter data. Thinking of a Garmin 605 or a Sigma Rox 9.0 – any suggestions?

    I have now started pimpin’ the bike with a water bottle, a bell and a little seat bag to carry my ID and my phone. I did purchase the commuter pack – but I will keep that off until I do the real deal of commuting to work on my bike.  Next purchase will be the bike rack and  a bike stand – not in that order though.  The updated computer might be a little later – say when I reach 280… in a month?

    One last thing – waked up early Saturday to go on another organized ride – and before leaving the house I checked the bike’s charge level –  and bummer! – I forgot to make sure the charging switch was set to the proper position when I last thought I was charging the bike… thus no charge – no ride…. oh well – time to keep reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown…

  • 24 miles on a weekday?

    Cycleworks_2009Oct07
    Wednesday evening ride length and altitude

    This is getting interesting. On Saturday after my 29.4 mile ride and feast I reached 294 lbs. Then I took it easy Sunday with another steak & potatoes dinner and by this Wednesday morning I went back to 296. That gave me the desire to find a ride today no matter where. During the day I called a few  bike shops to confirm if they had a ride. I’m glad I did since the Roswell ride I wanted to do was cancelled. But I found a bike shop around my house that was going for a 20+ mile ride at 6 p.m. I escaped from work a little early (5:11 p.m.) and was able to make it by 5:45 p.m. in Duluth. I felt like Clark Kent changing my work clothes to my biking blue super hero suit. My new riding buddies were worried that I wouldn’t be able to catch up – but I was able to keep up and even pass the peloton leader a few times while going up hill….. I still had the solid red light when I decided to call it a day. I’m now home, refreshed and…. surprise…. not even hungry…. and back to 294 lbs…  I will take it easy tonight with dinner and try to keep up with good nutrition to see if I go below 290 by this weekend.