Like the forlorn Cycling and Food categories, for example. For the former, it doesn’t help that I’m also no longer actively involved with bicycles as a hobby. A couple years ago, when I first moved to my San Jose condo, I did invest and build a titanium No. 22 Little Wing fixed gear bicycle. I thought I would benefit with a 2-wheel mode of transportation in the downtown and urban location. I rode the bike a total of approximately 5 times. The reason behind going with a fixed gear and not a conventional geared road bike, like any other intelligible human would pick, was purely based out of emotion and nostalgia. My best cycling days were back in college, in the midst of the fixed gear hype. I didn’t catch the memo that fixed gears are no longer relevant or popular. I’m interested to see if the trend will ever have a resurgence in the near future, but it is currently a small figment of its past glory.

Surprisingly, an idea to ride in San Francisco spontaneously spawned and I wanted to keep to my word. So I purposely cancelled my precious weekend sleep-in time on Saturday, dusted off my bike, and took the BART up to the city with a buddy. This was the first time in a while I threw my leg over the bike, and the first time in a very long while that I participated in a ride of a sizable magnitude.

We got off the Embarcadero station and rode along the Piers up to the Golden Gate Bridge, through the bluffs, and down into Ocean Beach in the Sunset district to meet up with the rest of the party.

The next stop was The Taco Shop at Underdog’s for a much needed lunch break. I first ate a Carne Asada burrito, decided it wasn’t enough food, and then ordered a mixed shell Baja Fish taco. Bueno.

The ride continued back to the Battery, up to Embarcadero again, down Market to the MASHSF shop in the Castro district, and then back to the Embarcadero BART station. While at MASH, I copped this killer fake Supreme fanny pack.

As if riding a fixed gear bicycle with no brakes and tackling a fair amount of beefy hill climbs and descents wasn’t foolish enough, I was woefully underdressed with a tank top and sock-less Vans. There were moments when I felt cold, but that was not my main concern. It was after… when I realized the back of my shoulders and arms were devastated by the mostly cloud-shrouded sun. I’m usually extraordinarily vigilant about my sun exposure, but I definitely slipped this time and paid the price dearly. I can’t even sleep on my back from the pain of the sunburn. Oh well, the ride was worth it and I hope to repeat it again, but with better preparation. San Francisco is too scenic to ignore.

As alluded to in my previous post, I have a high-energy dog that happens to excel naturally at following my lead. Couple that with a huge regional park with miles and miles of open trails at my disposal, and you can see what I’m trying to synthesize out of this.

In addition to losing the desire to exert effort into pedaling, I’m far less liberated these days and gained a heightened sense of self preservation, so downhill mountain biking is now out of the question.

To fully capitalize on how much of a pansy I’ve become, I turned my attention towards Electric Bicycles, which as a whole is a hot commodity and growing in popularity at a rapid pace. The technology is still new, so there is obviously significant markup. I didn’t want to buy a $6000 E-Bike from a major manufacturer, that would most likely be underpowered due to regulated restrictions on power.

I’m also too lazy to go the DIY route and piece together my own E-Bike. So I gave my boy Kenji at Area Cycles a quick call, and sure enough, he was able to hook me up with just what I needed: A new Felt DD30 Fat Tire Bike that would be dropped off to an E-Bike specialty shop, Empowered Cycles, for a 1000W Bafang BBSHD mid-drive retrofit.

Pictured with my daily driver Chevrolet Volt. I’ve unknowingly turned into some kind of Electric Hippie, yet you could have heard me spouting off criticisms of their “neutering” just a few months ago. The fact that both the bike and car are blue was inadvertent as well. I swear. The DD30 only comes in Blue.

The large 52V Panasonic battery is housed inside here. Charges easily and is removable.

A look at the Bafang mid-drive motor:

Plenty of sensors all around to compute braking and pedal assistance.

A view of the handlebars with the color display.

Thumb throttle is on the left side.

I didn’t get the chance to ride it much yet, but 1000W is a great power level. Anything less is weak. I skipped over those crowdfunded, low-powered junks like Sondor because they just lure you in with Marketing.

It’s quite a feeling being able to climb up a large hill without even breaking a sweat. The plan is to use this bike to run my dog around while I can chill out and enjoy the scenery. Might also break it out for the occasional burrito run down the neighborhood.

While the idea of an electric motorcycle has its perks and benefits, they are not enough to displace a good old fashioned motorcycle. At least not yet, anyway. An electric bicycle, on the other hand, is far more useful and interesting in my opinion. As a package, it just makes more sense.

The Audi e-bike Wörthersee features a synchronous permanent magnet motor that outputs 3 hp, and carries a 48-volt .53 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. The e-bike tips the scale at 46 lbs (21 kg), and is quite heavy in comparison to bicycles. But practicality wise, the weight is still very usable ( not to mention there are downhill bicycles that weigh as much). The recharge time is approximately 5 hours, and you can remove the battery pack separately to charge.

Audi is packing in a ton of over-the-top features like a social media integration and other gimmicky nonsense. But the drivetrain features are what really show the potential: a rider can choose between six different modes, varying from Pure, Pedelec, eGrip, Wheelie, Power Wheelie, and Balanced Wheelie. The “Pure” mode is your standard human-power, non-assisted mode. In “Pedelec” mode, the electric motor assists the rider while he or she pedals and can reach speeds up to 50 mph. The average range in the mode is between 31-44 miles per charge. In “eGrip” mode, the e-bike becomes more like a motorcycle with a twist grip throttle.

The most interesting modes are of course the 3 Wheelie choices. The Audi e-bike Wörthersee can actually help a rider induce a wheelie with the electric motor in the “Power Wheelie” mode, while “Balancing Wheelie” utilizes gyro technology similar to a Segway, and maintains a wheelie at its balance point indifferent of speed.

The e-bike is essentially the ultimate urban commuter. I hope this comes to the market soon and isn’t ludicrously expensive. Make sure to check out this video of Julien Dupont putting the bike through its paces.

With cycling, it takes more work to “start”. I have to gear up, check my bike, and figure out a route. And since it’s not very fun to pedal around on your own, syncing up with other people comes into the equation. This usually becomes far more tedious than it should be, and really dampens the whole experience. For me, since I’m relatively lazy and inpatient, obtaining results quick is important. As for running, all I have to do is put a leash on my dog (who is always ready, no organizing required here), put on my shoes, and go out the door.

I bought these Free Run+ 2’s a couple weeks ago, and they have been amazing. I think one of the reasons why I was previously put off by running is because I never had proper shoes.

There is a ~0.3 miles long street near my house which is in a commercial district that I continually run up and down on. It’s fairly ghetto, but has minimal traffic which allows me to run with my dog off-leash. A tired dog is a happy dog:

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m abandoning cycling or anything like that – simply commenting a new trend. If the stars align and a ride comes together one day, I will always be down to ride.

Hopefully in the future I can take up swimming next. I think that is the ultimate form of exercise, it has the best of both the running and cycling worlds: easy to get going (assuming you have a pool nearby) and water provides an easier environment for joints. In the time being, I just need to keep up running on a weekly basis. Which is what I’ve said before about bike rides, but I think this expectation will be easier to meet.

While I may not be as particular about bicycles as I once was, it will always be something I do. I don’t know exactly when my metabolism is going to slow down, or whatever, but when it does, this is my way of making sure I have a contingency in place. I don’t hit gym and don’t like running… hence why I ride a bike for exercise (although I would take up swimming if that was more feasible). As for what to actually ride, the arrangement I have now works out nicely. I just borrow my Dad’s road bike when I need it, usually to ride home from work. I aim for at least once a week… yet this target is realistically closer to once every 2 weeks.

On each of these rides, I try to reduce my times. This week, I discovered the effectiveness an impetus can have on pace. I was at work longer than planned, and with the already early-setting of the sun, it became a bid for light. When riding next to cars, I’m not too fond of riding at night, especially during this season when there can be a half hour to an hour gap of darkness before the street lamps come on. I didn’t push myself over the limit or anything, but was able to maintain a more consistent pace and covered the 20 mile Northbound trek in 50 minutes. I haven’t ridden Southbound yet, but it should be noticeably quicker in that direction since there’s little headwind and 2 major hill climbs become downhills.

Anyway, my goal is to keep my time around the 50 minutes to an hour range or better… and of course to ride more often.

Even though that day was particularly hot and sunny, I wanted to ride. For better or worse, I typically don’t let the weather stop me. My neighbor came through and was down to ride as well, because I doubt anyone else would have been. Gotta give this guy credit, not only is he constantly on his bike (whereas I’m on mine once a week if I’m lucky), but he’s been riding the same old Fuji conversion fixed gear for years now. Even though I led the majority of this ride, he kept up no problem which is impressive, given that I was on a road bike.

One thing is for certain, we were both completely fried by the end of this ride. We rode mostly the same route as before into Livermore, but backtracked and went the same way back so we wouldn’t have to ride down a freeway again…

Although the temperatures were already high, Livermore is a valley so it was truly oven-like. The total ride into and around Livermore and back was around 50 miles.

The ride back home was brutal with all the headwind. Granted I’m out of shape and all that, but I usually recover from rides relatively quickly… not this time. I more than likely got heat stroke (gangster) because I felt absolutely fatigued and had a headache when I returned home. I could barely stand at one point and had to lie down and fell right asleep. Inconveniently, even though I was starving on the ride back, I almost completely lost my appetite right when I had a meal in front of me.

Great ride though, would definitely do it again, heat and all.

Great views all around.

At the end of the day, I was able to borrow my Dad’s road bike. Figured since I got movement back in my right arm, it was time to get on a saddle. May not be a mountain bike, but cardio is cardio. The ride back home was fun, even with the constant head wind. Might try to make this into a weekly thing…

I stood at the window staring at the soaked streets in my neighborhood, thinking of alternatives and at the same time getting pissed. For the past who knows how many weeks, I couldn’t get a single ride in. Every week, there would be an intermittent period of rain. I rode the local trail once after a shower (keyword: muddy), and I wasn’t going to do it again. It seems more acceptable if there was heavy raining for the whole week, not just ONE shower a couple days before the weekend. At that point I said screw it, rain or not, I’m riding. Sometimes when you get what you want, you might get more than bargained…

My first option was to borrow my Dad’s road bike and at least get some cardio, but he wouldn’t let me use it. The next plan then was to ride Mission Peak, since it’s primarily fireroad and rain dries up quick there. So that’s what I did. I grabbed a slice of pizza from the fridge and threw it in the microwave for breakfast (horrible idea), and went out.

Overall the climb up to the peak wasn’t bad, got into a steady pace at the top. This was roughly past the half way point… on an “illegal” trail I decided to try, since it was a single track. The one place I cut, I get caught by some lady from the regional park whatever authority, telling me not to do it again.

Then I rode into the clouds and eventually to the peak:

Good enough, this was supposed to be a quick and easy ride, and was going as planned. Now came the descent (into hell).

I was making progress and decided to push it, not paying attention to just how quickly rain dries up there. The gravel covered fireroads were like loose sand. I was flying down a long, steep section, and I felt the bike get a bit weightless. That’s when I knew I was fucked. I was going far, far too fast to save it. I tried applying the brakes, but it was too late, the bike was slipping out from under me. I hit the ground hard and then ended up in a slide for a good 15-20 feet on my back.

As I was sliding down this hill, staring up at the sky, I thought to myself, “Good call on wearing a backpack.” That’s where my optimism ends. I stood up and observed the huge billow of dirt and dust my crash created. It’s at moments like these when the gravity of the situation first starts to sink in, and you feel a sense of hopelessness. My right arm/elbow was the initial point of impact. When I examined my arm, I saw a big hole and picked out a couple of rocks nested inside. Using the adrenaline, and before the blood and pain starts to pour in, I grabbed my bike off the ground and started the hike back down to the parking lot.

To make matters worse, I was still really high up when I crashed, so I had to focus on hustling. It was funny exchanging the usual pleasantries with hikers I passed, as if everything was fine. Eventually I was able to descend the mountain and go to the Hospital. I had to sit in the “Emergency” ward for over 40 minutes before I was admitted, ridiculous. It was infuriating sitting there with blood running down my arm, watching some guy, merry as can be, going in before me. I overheard that guy casually talking about how his arm has some occasional discomfort with the funny bone. You want to see discomfort, take a look at my arm instead.

Total bullshit. The front desk nurses were incompetent trash. I can understand that the norms of a Hospital desensitizes a person to all the pain and suffering that passes through, but it’s a place where sympathy should most crucial, so show some.

After almost 4 hours at the hospital, 80% of which was spent sitting and becoming lightheaded from blood loss, I was out. Better that I went though, I couldn’t have cleaned the wounds as well at home. My nurse, who was thankfully helpful, used a saline wash and then a bristled brush to scrub. It was interesting seeing all the little rocks falling out of my arm. Also had to get a tetanus shot and a couple x-rays.

My elbow the day after, can’t see the deepest part but it’s past muscle.

Amazing I didn’t break any bones, mainly because of the orientation when I landed. The other damages sum up to large cuts and scrapes down my entire right side, bruised palm, bruised rib, and the bone in my arm is bruised. The day after the accident I still went to school, and the soreness all over was pretty monstrous. It’s been a week now. I can’t straighten my elbow, and the wound there doesn’t look a whole lot better… it was dripping out wound juice every day.

I admit, given the speed I was carrying at the fall, I could have ended up in a worser predicament. Believe it or not, the injuries sustained here were not as bad as a previous shit-eating experience… also at Mission Peak, Spring of 2009. I won’t get into the details of that one, but the crash was alarmingly similar. I was hauling ass down this side road and then the front tire POPS. The rest was history (and is now in the form of scars all over my body). So what happens when I decide to ride Mission Peak again, 2 years later? I crash.

After all the pain, best I get out of it is being able to tell this story. What a scam. Oh well, at least the bike came out relatively unscathed, aside from the bars being twisted out of center.