Post by Dave on Mar 7, 2021 16:01:22 GMT
Galmpton Creek & Greenaway Cycle Ride 7th March 2021
They say you should grow old gracefully and I can agree with that, but there have been a few things I have learnt about getting older. One is a cross country race is now out of the question and also a 100yard sprint at full pace. Gone are the days when I could boost I was the under 11 year old South Devon one hundred yard sprint champion.
As a kid growing up on Buckland me and my mates would visit the local tip and try and find old bike parts to build ourselves a bike we could go out on rides together and we sure had a great deal of fun. But as an adult I never owned a bike until six years ago when I bought myself a brand new one, never had one of them before.
I seldom rode my bike from my home address; instead I would put in the car and take it to cycle paths along old railway lines etc as they are mostly flat with no hills. One such ride from Plymouth to Tavistock along the old Plym Valley line was a good thirty mile plus ride.
I decided last week to look into buying an Ebike but after seeing just how much a decent one cost I looked at other alternatives. I talked with a few companies who do Ebike conversions but once again decided it was more than I wanted to spend, so the next step was too look at what conversion kits were on the market.
Like everything in life you get what you pay for and the cheaper ones simply did not interest me as I wanted quality at an affordable price and a system I knew I would be able to fit onto my bike. Like so often these days the kit I choose was in an out of the basket for a number of days before I finally clicked BUY.
It came the next day and I started the build, on the whole it went OK but as it was a universal kit I had to adapt a few things to get it fitted to my bike. My lightweight bike was now a heavy monster and I just prayed and hoped it would be as good as I was expecting.
I have never been on an Ebike so did not know what to expect, but was the days of me having to push my bike up most hills really over? All I will say there are times when you bought something and could not be happier with it, this Ebike kit has changed my bike for the better.
I went for a test ride yesterday but did not have the pedal assist system set up properly but I did not know that at the time until I watched some more videos on Ebikes. This morning after much effort I was able to move the controller bag to where I had wanted to put it but failed at the first attempt yesterday and also reset up the pedal assist system.
What a difference today’s ride was from yesterday with the bike now working as it should, how nice was it to be able to go where I went with no fear of any hill I might encounter. I have cycled to both paces before on different days in the past and knew the hills I would have to conquer, to do both on ride was in the past always a no no.
Looking forward now to many more rides from my own doorstep, they will have to be as It is now no longer possible to just undo the quick release bolts on the front wheel and put the bike in the car.
