Still very quiet around here

[rollerball]

G'day all, I've been looking in from time to time but have been very busy with the work I've had to do to complete my new house and haven't been able to post. 

The builders handed over the house back in November of last year but it was more or less bare inside and I've been working more or less solidly since last July doing a host of jobs to make it liveable in. Even now I'm sleeping on an inflatable bed because almost all of the stuff I kept from my old house is still in storage.

But that's now coming to an end with the completion of a new cloaks cupboard this weekend that will signify the end of the construction work, just in time for me to be able to start on the garden etc in the spring - if it stops raining. The whole of Europe has been getting incessant rain for weeks and our runway is still unflyable as it's still too wet and soft.

I'm due to take delivery of a new e-bike on Monday. It's a twin 1000W motor job that can get up to about 35mph without pedal assistance as it has a hand throttle. Although lots of people are starting to buy them, France is one of the few countries in which such bikes are legal. Here we have a category called Speedbikes which are treated a bit like mopeds. You have to register and insure them and wear a helmet and gloves while riding them and must stick to roads unless you're riding off-road in the wild. You can't take them on cycle tracks where there are slower pedal and electric bikes.

I'm looking forward to getting it and I'm thinking of starting a second Youtube channel (my present one covers ultralight aircraft and drones) targetting older riders with the aim of getting more people off their sofas and out exercising in the open air in their later years. I'll keep you posted.

Off now to do a bit of painting...

[bhk]

It is quiet, Roger.
I stick my head in each morning when having my first cuppa coffee, just to see if anyone's posted.

Good to read that your home-building is nearing the end....that'll be a celebration when all is done and you're back to normal.

Okay on the e-bike. They are popular here and the bicycle shop in Yamba hires them out. Our next-door neighbour has one and enjoys using it. At least she's wary enough to not charge the bloody Li battery overnight in her garage, A bloke died in Sydney last week from such a battery fire.
I'll never own one and certainly will never own an electric car; they will cause a whole pile of problems when their batteries need to be replaced and the old ones disposed of.

Take care up there!

[Tom Constantine]

Good Morning gentlemen. I stop by most days, but it has been slow and I haven't had anything to say. It is a quiet life here in the Northeast US in Winter. Spring is coming, the sub-freezing temperatures are slowly going away and the semi-annual cruise is a month away. Fort Lauderdaye - Tenerife - Cadiz - Lisbon - Vigo - Southampton and a couple days in London.

I've been playing a bit with the new flight sim. Being "as real as it gets" by flying a PA-18 from a local airfield and never getting more than 90 minutes away from home. As close to actual VFR flying as I will ever get. Most of the time, though, I am devouring lightweight detective novels, thanks to a Kindle reader. I can no longer read real paper books without bright light.

I'm glad to know a few of us are still on the right side of the grass.
Keep smiling! - Tom

[bhk]

Good to see that you're still enjoying life, Tom.
Enjoy your cruise.

[rollerball]

Aha, so there you are! Good to hear from you both.

I'm looking forward to the spring too Tom. It's been a long, wet winter and it's great to see some brightening skies at last, especially after I've been working indoors on the house for so long. But I'm now nearly finished leaving just 'finishing' stuff to do, like the wood trims around the door frames (they're called 'baguettes' here in France, the same word as for the long loaves), areas of tiling in the kitchen and utility room, stuff like that. But at least everything's now useable.

I'm going to try to get more flying in this year - a lot more - as I did hardly any last year and aircraft need to be flown. The runway is still much too wet though for now, which is much later than usual and the downside is that the aircraft still have to be insured even though they're not being flown. Hopefully it'll happen soon though as temperatures are beginning to warm up - 18 degrees C forecast within the next few days.

The new bike is stunning. With two 1000W motors it's very quick and takes off like a scalded cat on the throttle if you're not careful. My first test ride was a bit scary to be honest - but fun scary if you know what I mean. I've had a motorbike licence since I was young but haven't ridden for years and it'll be a week or so at least before I get used again to whizzing along on two wheels. So far I've only had it up to 40 kmh and there's still a bit more to go

The other problem is that now I've got to get around to furnishing the house, making a start on the exterior and garden as well as flying my aircraft and riding my bike. I don't know where all the time is going to come from

Very best wishes to everyone.

[sgtmajor]

Ahh....haven't been in here for a while either....but sure is good to see some dear friends and know everyone is doing okay. It's been crazy busy since last September.... Huge remodel of our home, which was interrupted by our handicapped daughter having a bad fall in her group home and spending the next 4 months in a hospital/nursing facility. The remodel was finished middle of November, right before Thanksgiving, however, driving back and forth to see our daughter everyday slowed getting the house back together. Daughter is in a new home as about two weeks ago...she's very happy and doing well and we JUST got our house put back together this past week.

As far as flying goes....OH MY!!! Got into VR flying last year and will never look back. Something about the 3D flying world has taken my simming to a new level... I've never been happier. Like you Tom...my flights are not too long anymore....a couple hours tops....but with a new computer and the goggles I'm very pleased and can't seem to get enough anymore....has just been hard to find the time.

Roger - The wife and I got into the e-bike scene about 3 years ago....doesn't sound like they are quite as fancy as yours (smile)....but we really do enjoy the ride. They call ours Class "B" bikes....no throttle, you have to pedal....but has 4 settings of assist. Eco, Tour, Sport and Turbo. In Turbo on flat ground you can reach speeds of 22mph (35kmh) but we usually keep them in Eco most of the time to extend the battery life. (Recharge about every 3-4 days) We have 3 different courses from the house, all pretty much the same length 17.5 to 24 miles. (28.16 - 38.62 Km) Last year was our worst year with the remodel of the house and our daughter falling....but we still have covered a little over 4000 miles (6,400 Km) over the past 3.5 years.

Cheers,

[rollerball]

Steve, very sorry to hear about your misadventures and pleased for you and your family that things seem to be working out again, especially for your daughter. It must have been a worrying time for you all.

I may be wrong, but I think that the more powerful dual motor e-bikes like mine only came onto the scene in the last year or so. The attraction for me is twofold - range and power. The area around where I live is very hilly - some quite steep actually - and because of that I was discouraged from using my old e-bike because I found that although going down was great fun, pedalling back up again even with battery assistance was too gruelling. Plus it was limited on power - 250W and max speed 25 kmh at which speed the motor cut out. Plus you had to pedal for the motor to cut in anyway with only 3 levels of power assistance.

The range of the new bike is slated at 80 km without pedalling at all and over 100 km with pedalling so more than enough either way for my needs. I have to say though, I think that calling it a 'bike' is stretching it really as it looks and performs more like a moped or small motor cycle. But so far I love it and have had it up to 50 kmh (30 mph) which is a hoot for this old coot I did a video yesterday which I've nearly finished editing and I'll put a link up when I've uploaded it.





I bet you're relieved to have finished your house remodelling. I'm sure that like me you found your life turned upside down when you lost the comforts of home that you'd been used to and that you appreciate them even more when you start to get them back again. I've certainly found that and am over the moon with my new house even though I've got a bit still to do and I have a lot of stuff in storage.

Take care everyone and stay well. And be sure to make the best of every day. After my scare it's what I try to do.

[rollerball]

Here's the video of the bike ride I did yesterday. Some of the sound was affected by wind noise and I expected that, so have already ordered some remote mics for my Go-Pros.

[sgtmajor]

Now THAT's an E-Bike!!!! (smile) Good looking bike Roger and loved the ride through the French countryside!!! It would be WONDERFUL to ride in such a beautiful spot without traffic etc. You're right....it does look like you have some pretty good hills....we have more of just inclines I suppose. I usually keep my bike on the lowest assist mode (ECO) however, my wife will bump hers up to Tour...even sport mode sometimes. Both bikes have the exact same Bosch motor & battery.....but my bike is heavier, as I am so on a full charge it shows I can do distance of about 120 kilometers where as my wife will show 168 kilometers range. Of course...that's on flat ground I suppose....but riding, I usually plug the bikes back in around the 80-90 kilometers mark....and a few times, I have completely depleted the battery....but hate doing that as the last kilometer is a pretty nice incline. (smile) I also see you have quite the electronics setup. (smile) My wife and I both have Garmin GPS units....mine is older (from my previous bike)....but my wife has a newer unit which I have also installed a Garmin radar on the back of her bike so it will show vehicles and give an audible alert to vehicles approaching from the rear. (I usually lead in front and she follows behind) I also got us Sena bike helmets with built in communication so we can visit while we ride. On my bike I have a mount for my phone in which I can run an app called Trail Link, or Map My Ride....but I usually don't use it as my GPS stores my ride and data for later. Before I retired a couple years ago, I did allow my phone to connect to my helmet, just in case someone needed to contact me while riding and on the few occasions I did use that feature it worked very well....the caller couldn't even tell I was on the bike. Again...many thanks for the tour....the wind noise wasn't too bad until you picked up that blistering speed. (smile) But Truly did enjoy the ride!! Many Thanks Again!!

Cheers,

[rollerball]

Wow, those are fantastic range figures Steve. I guess that with your legislation you have to pedal for the motors to cut in, am I right? It's difficult keeping up with how the rules change from country to country and in the US, from state to state from what I can gather from Youtube.

I haven't got that much of an electronics setup on mine. The central screen is attached to the bike and shows speed, pedal assist level etc etc and all I've added is my phone running Waze (for now - I'll look for something more appropriate later) and a GoPro. For the video I also had a second chest-mounted GoPro which gave the view of the handlebars.

I doubt I'll add anything else as the traffic levels aren't high here and I'll just wear a fluorescent waistcoat to aid visibility. Also don't forget that cycling is very popular here (Tour de France and all that) and there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of cyclists all over France so awareness of other drivers is pretty high.

I'm looking forward to receiving the remote mics for my GoPros so I can make videos without the sound being screwed up. I got back from visiting a friend about half an hour ago from testing his car battery with my jump pack (he now knows that his battery is toast as I told him it would be). We checked my bike's tyre pressures while I was there and pumped them up as they were much too low. I touched over 58 kmh on the way back and the bike felt much more stable. I wasn't videoing but if I had been you'd never have heard my voice for the wind noise

Best wishes,

Roger

[sgtmajor]

You're absolutely correct Roger about having to peddle for the motors. We have 3 classes of e-bikes here in the U.S.

Class A e-bikes are pedal-assist only, with no throttle, and have a maximum assisted speed of 20 mph.
Class B e-bikes have both pedal and throttle options.
Class A and B e-bikes are allowed to ride on most bicycle lanes and trails.
Class A and B e-bikes have more limits on where they can be ridden than Class C e-bikes.
Class C e-bikes are pedal-assist only, with no throttle, and a maximum assisted speed of 28 mph.

Our bikes are Class A bikes, as we actually purchased them for enjoyment and excercise. There are miles and miles of bike trails here in the U.S., although my wife and I have pretty much stayed to just the city for now.....hopefully this summer we will venture out more. One trail I've always wanted to ride in the U.S. is called the KATY trail. Here's more info: bikekatytrail.com/
When I was working, I use to take my bike (Non-electric) with me when I traveled to different cities, as there was always a bike route somewhere close. One of the hotels I stayed at in Fresno, CA. had a bike route that ran directly past the back door of the hotel...VERY convenient. The wife and I keep talking about riding the Yosemite bike route...but not sure if we ever will. WAY too many tourists for me. (smile) But it would be scenic, so who knows. We do enjoy our rides....the rainy season is starting to wind up here in California, and I see next week looks very promising to getting back on the trail once again. The snow is starting to disappear from the mountains to the North and East of us...and the hills are bright green from all the water we've received. Soon the California poppies will be in full bloom which is always beautiful, however, shortly after that, the heat picks up and everything turns to brown for the rest of the year. (smile)

Cheers,

[rollerball]

Hi Steve, we're just on the brink of spring. We've had some lovely warm, sunny days but just when we think we've turned the corner it turns cold and wet again, like today. I've now finished all the long term project work on and in my house so I'm looking forward to being able to get involved in more pleasurable activities. Like flying of which I've been able to do very little for the past couple of years. And now also riding my new bike.

I gave myself a bit of a shock yesterday by going off road for the first time. I'd planned to do it in a very gentle way to get the feel of things but in fact I got more than I bargained for. Here's what I wrote on my blog about it

www.micro-trike.co.uk/wordpress/gulp/

This morning I received the pair of little remote mics that I ordered a couple of weeks ago that I can use with my phone and my GoPros. I had to go over to the airfield to get the GoPro adapter that I'd left in my aircraft and have just done my first run using one between the showers on my bike. It worked a treat so I'm looking forward to using them to make videos of my bike rides. It'll be fun, especially when the spring really does hit this part of France.

Best wishes to everyone

[sgtmajor]

Sounds like you had quite the exciting adventure!! (smile) I too have had a few of those over the years...however, it's been quite a few years now. A couple years back, my wife and I were out for an early morning ride. It gets quite warm here in the summer months so we like to start our ride just before day break. In one of the neighborhoods not far from our home, (thankfully) There was a couple of cars parked along the curb in front of a home. As I was navigating around the cars, the garage door opened and two little French Bulldogs came bolting out....one which was directly in front of me before I even saw the little fella. Well...I contacted the poor dog broadside (Thank goodness I didn't hurt him) however, it toppled me to the ground. You know...at my age, I just don't jump up as quickly as I use to. (smile) We returned home and I went to the doctor's office as I was sure I had broken my wrist. Fortunately, it was only a bad sprain, however, it seemed to take months for me to heal. I can't imagine how long it would have been if I had ACTUALLY damaged something. The good part of the ordeal...we were not traveling very fast...around 14mph (22kph) and I was thankful I was wearing a helmet. I think my pride was more damaged than I was physically...Why couldn't it have been a VERY LARGE dog instead of just a poor little bulldog? (a rather small one at that....Smile)

Cheers,

[rollerball]

Steve better than having a large Pittie with sharp teeth come hurtling out and start chasing you at high speed up the street

[nige]

I look in most days but haven't posted anything for yonks as not much has happened worth posting, however, as the subject of two wheels has arisen I thought I might add my bit. When I lived in London I bought a bicycle and did quite a bit of riding on it, including going in the London to Brighton bike ride, along with 30,000 other riders. When I came back to Australia in 1994 for some reason it got put into the back of the garage and forgotten about. Recently, I thought I would haul it out and restore it. I knew it was probably a good bike as all the cycle parts were French or Italian. On a whim I Googled the maker, C.N.C., and found that it is a fairly rare collectors item! This link thevelocollective.com/vintage-gem-1982-c-n-c-special/ will take you to a bike virtually identical to mine. I am now inspired to restore the bike as best I can and take it for the occasional gentle perambulate, as befits my current age and state of minor decrepitude.