So... it is a little faster

My ride home from work yesterday was fast. I'm pretty sure it was faster than any previous ride on the same route, at just over 31 minutes.

I checked my average speed for the route and compared it to last year. Most of my rides last year were in the 18-19km/h range. So far, this week, it's 21-23km/h.

So, whatever I said about an e-bike not being faster, I take I take it back. I'm anxious to get back to riding along Ottawa River path where there are almost no stops. Once the Ottawa Locks open for crossing, that'll be my route.

First Ride

I rode to work on the Neo Carbon today and it went well.

Despite how uncomfortable the seat looks, it wasn't bad at all. I do feel like I'm leaning more than on the Allegra, but I don't think it's going to matter for commuting purposes.

The new placement of the year paddle and brake lever work well and don't feel awkward at all. I found a video review of the bike that zoomed in on the right handle bar controls and I can't figure out how they work without hitting each other while mine didn't.

Snapshot from the video review

The downshift paddle that you can't really see in the photo hits the throttle.

The acceleration of this bike is great. I found that I can take off from a stop in the highest gear without any problem. I rode it on the lowest assist setting for nearly the entire ride. I was just starting to break a sweat when I arrived at work. My brain is still stuck in a "go fast" mode, despite the assist.

One little thing I need to get used to is the sensitivity of the sensor that detects when you pedal. When I stop at a light, I usually have the right pedal up and my foot on it. On this bike, it detects the pressure on the pedal and sometimes makes it want to assist and the bike starts to move on its own. I need to remember to keep a hand on a brake to kill the power to the motor.

The weather forecast for this week looks good, so I should be able to ride for the rest of the week. I hope.

Done deal

I walked to the bike shop on Saturday morning to check out the Neo Carbon I was offered as a replacement for the defective Ion; I even took it for a test ride. It didn't take me long to see that getting it as a replacement for the Ion was a no-brainer.

It was a great ride. The seat was more comfortable than I expected, although I suspect I'll still replace it at some point. The pedal assist and throttle control are amazing; way better than the Ion.

I agreed to the swap and they got it ready for me while I waited and enjoyed a coffee.

When I was riding it home, I had some trouble changing gears. The shifter was hitting the throttle control. I had to really force it to shift down. Once I was home, I had a closer look at it. Surely, this wasn't the way it was designed? They had told me at the shop that they tuned it up, and replaced the grips, so I'm guessing parts were removed and put back on and somehow this was overlooked. Anyway, I swapped the order of the brake lever and gear shifter on the handle bar, which made more space for the shifter and that fixed it. I haven't taken it for a test ride, but I'm confident that'll do it.

I also moved my carrier rack from the Allegro to the Neo Carbon without a hitch. The flat carbon look of the rack really goes well with the bike. :)

I'm really anxious to start riding it to work. Seeing as how this is also used, I've got a 60 day warranty to ride the hell out of it to work out any issues.

Bike update

I received a call late yesterday from the bike shop and they left a message asking me to call them back when I had a chance. Because it wasn't a "bike is ready, pick it up" kind of message, I suspected something was wrong.

I called back when I got home. They apologized for the delay in getting back to me and explained that it took them a while to figure out what the problem was.

It turns out that there was a hairline fracture in the motor hub, and it's not repairable. To get a replacement motor would take months. So, he provided me with two options. I can get my money back, or they would exchange the bike for another used bike of better quality at no extra charge.

The bike is the Easy Motion Neo Carbon. It's a very similar style to my current Jamis Allegra 1X.  He said it's in immaculate condition and they're currently selling it for around $2400 (original price ~$4000) He said the original owner had back issues and had to exchange it for a different style.

I looked up details and there appears to be two models, one with front shocks and one without. I'm not sure which one they have. The reviews I've read and watched are all great and I really like the specs on it; it has more gears and features that the ION Commuter. But, it doesn't have a carrier rack and the seat doesn't look too comfortable. I could move the rack from my Jamis over to it, and buy a more comfortable seat so that's not a deal killer for me. This would also let me use my Ibera PakRak bag that is built for the rack. The biggest concern is the frame size. It appears to be designed more for a 5'10" rider and I'm 6'2".

I'll definitely have to take it for a test ride and see how it feels; that will be the deciding factor.

Stranded... part 2

When I left work yesterday, my biked fucked up again. This time I couldn't get it to work, no matter what I tried.

I called the bike shop and explained. He gave me some suggestions, which I had already tried but would try again. I explained that if they didn't work, I wasn't sure how I'd get the bike to their shop to be fixed. He offered to pick it up this morning with their van.

I locked it back up in the bike room at work and took the bus home. This morning, just as promised, he called about 5-10 minutes before arriving at my work and met me out front to load it up. At least he could see that it was definitely non-functional.

Today it's raining, and is supposed to rain all day so I'm not missing out on any biking. I guess that's a plus.

Stranded... temporarily

I've ridden my new bike about 9 or 10 times since I bought it. At least once per ride, usually as I begin to pedal from a stop, there's a feeling like when the chain slips. It lasts a few seconds and then the pedal assist activates and everything is fine. Up until this morning, that's what I thought was happening.

However, this morning when it happened it wouldn't stop happening. I got off the bike to check the chain and it was fine; full contact with the cassette and crank set. But when I turned the crank set by hand the rear hub/cassette spun freely and wouldn't drive the rear wheel at all, as a regular bike would.

I turned off the pedal assist and battery and the same thing happened. The crank set turned without resistance. (imagine a stationary bike) :( I still had 1km to go to get to work. That's not a big deal, but then I wondered how the hell I was going to get this bike to the store where I bought it to get it fixed.

After 5 minutes of walking it, I decided to get back on the bike and see if I could get it working again. I enabled the pedal-assist and slowly tried to pedal to make the pedal assist activate and that made the cassette finally "engage" and drive the wheel, and I was able to pedal as a normal bike again with or without assist.

Once I got to work I sent the store a message on their web site asking if I could drop it off on the way home today. (Assuming it works well enough to get me there, that is) It was a final sale, since it's actually a used bike, but they did give a 60-day warranty on it. They replied saying they would schedule it to be looked at tomorrow if I dropped it off later today.

One other thing, that is more of annoyance to me, is that the computer will not remember the time after being programmed. I tried replacing the battery in it and that didn't help. I was going to live with that but since this new issue popped up I'm going to get that fixed as well.

I hope this is a one-time thing; I really don't need the stress from this.

Not a time saver

I decided at the last minute to ride to work today. The roads were wet, but it wasn't raining or snowing, and there didn't seem to be any of either in the forecast.

Overall, the ride went well. Better than the last one. There were a few snowy patches along the route, but there didn't bother me. In fact, I was attracted to them like a kid... wanting to leave tire tracks. :)

I tried to keep the pedal assist level fairly low this time. During the ride home the last time, the battery indicator would fluctuate wildly when the assist kicked in, particularly on hills. I suspected that was a good indicator of the remaining power in the battery. Despite that, it lasted for the commute. Anyway, this time I stuck with it at 2. There was much less wind this time too, so it (and I) didn't have to work as hard.

The entire ride took longer than Monday morning's ride. ~7 minutes longer. I'm not surprised since I wasn't pushing hard for speed. I had read before that e-bikes won't really save you any time, so there you have it.