E Ride

I went out on a bike ride today with Mark. He had his e-bike and I had mine. You may recall that I've been borrowing Mark's bike since last Spring. I put a good 600 miles on it.

Today the course took us downtown, down into Peaceful Valley, out on the Bloomsday course to George Wright Cemetery, onto a great paved trail high above the river back to Doomsday Hill and then work our way back to the house through the neighborhoods.

Mark was complaining that his bike wasn't acting right, surging to high speed whenever he peddled. Just before we got to the cemetery, his bike died. There was no power from the battery.

Mark had to ride it all the way to the house under human power. The worst part was Doomsday Hill. I tried to pull him up the hill, but it didn't work.

So, he got a really good work out for the day. Good thing he's in pretty good shape. That would have killed me.

E-bikes are heavy.

Epilogue: It appears that Mark’s battery may be toast. He charged it overnight and got nothing. He is investigating what to do next. He’s hoping it may be as simple as a blown fuse on the battery. A new battery is about 600 bucks.

Another casualty of the ride was my bike helmet. I took it off while waiting for Mark to climb Doomsday Hill. I got home and realized I didn’t have it on my head.

I drove back but it was nowhere to be found.