A busy day, a Juiced bike

So, I had my adventure today. After two months of waiting, my Juiced Rider ODK II was finally ready. It was time to go pick it up and ride it home.

At 2:30, I caught the bus downtown, and took a transfer to a bus that went to Traders Point Mall, the farthest point northwest in the Indianapolis city bus system. Then I called for an Uber to take me on out to the eBoom Electric Bikes shop in Whitestown. When I got there, at about 4:45, I paid the costs of the tuneup and repairs (about $170 in all), and they finished bolting the battery in place. Turned out that they had to get new screws for it; the new battery was from the next year's model of bike, and had switched to a different screw size. Also, the relay from one of the handbrakes to cancel the cruise control was still broken off and dangling, but they were able to electrical tape it into place. Happily, the battery had finished completely charging during the day; apparently it had been shipped partly charged after all. So I strapped the old battery onto the cargo rack, told Google Play Music to cue up "Born to be Wild," and off I went at about 5:30 or so. My plan was to head east to Cost Plus World Market, a nifty foreign and specialty foods, drinks, and furniture shop, and get a little shopping in.

The bike's low center of gravity and huge handlebars took a little getting used to after two years of riding my Trek. (And my Trek also takes getting used to after I've done much riding of the Juiced.) But happily I soon got the knack again.

The ride was a fun trip through Indianapolis's rural outskirts and suburbs. I passed huge fields of corn and other crops, met the occasional cyclist, while nifty music blasted in my ears. I rode down a bike and jogging trail while listening to Deep Purple's "Highway Star," that was fun. I got to see parts of town I'd never seen before, and may very well never see again as I probably won't have any reason to bike that particular route again. At one point, in a suburb, I drove past what looked like an ancient cemetery with a sign up saying do not disturb, it's being restored. Now I kind of wish I'd stopped and taken a closer look at it. I doubt I'd be able to find it on Google Maps.

I got to World Market a little before seven, parched from my ride—but their chilled-drinks cooler was out of order, so they didn't have any cold drinks. So I headed over to a nearby McDonalds, paid $1 for a big Barq's root beer, inhaled it, used the restroom, and headed back to World Market…to discover that the place had closed at seven. Whoops. But no big deal; I can go there again earlier in the day sometime now that I've got my e-wheels.

So I headed on to my next stop, Triton Brewing Company, a nifty place that I'd been to a few times before when my bike had been working with its original battery. It has a convenient power outlet right by the bike rack, so I was able to give the bike a half hour of charging while I had a couple of beers. (I make the joke that the company that makes my bike renamed itself from Juiced Rider to Juiced Bikes…but since I was able to charge up my bike while I drank, I had a juiced bike and a juiced rider!)

After that, I headed down to visit my brother and sister-in-law, who live out by German Church Road. (I blanked out their address in the photo below.) Had a nice chat, then headed on home as it is getting dark. At Post Road, I headed down onto the newly completed segments of the Pennsy Trail to ride it the rest of the way home. It's not officially open to the public yet, but all the segments west of Post are paved, it's easy to navigate around the sawhorses blocking the ends, and it's a safer and nicer path for a bike than going along the busy road. Over the next few months, it should extend all the way out to German Church Road to link up with the segment of Pennsy Trail that starts there and continues east. I'm quite looking forward to being able to visit bro & sis-in-law as easily as just getting on the Pennsy a block east of my house, and getting off it a couple blocks north of theirs.

I got home around 10ish, having ridden 45.1 miles over the course of the day according to Google Maps. And although I had added a half hour of charge time at Triton, nonetheless the battery indicator hadn't even had a single light go out yet. This battery is everything I need it to be in terms of charge time.

Before I put my bike away, I went ahead and mounted the Schwinn detachable front basket I'd ordered in from Amazon. Had to move my headlight, but all in all it worked.  It's going to be handy to have that extra space to carry groceries and stuff. Down the road, I'll look into getting a trailer, but I've pretty much blown my budget for the next little while.

Now the bike is out in the garage, recharging, and I'm up at my computer…also recharging, but in a different way. As I had planned to do, in celebration I opened one of my $10 Dogfish Head 120 Minute beers that I save for very special occasions. It was good. 

I guess that's all I have to report about my adventure today. The whole thing was great fun, and I can't wait to take my bike out on some more longer trips over the next few days before I have to get back to work again.

My tweets

• Thu, 14:41: Currently the only person on my bus wearing a mask. Oh well.
• Thu, 20:29: Two things to look for in a good brewpub: great beer, and a plug in by the bike rack for your electric bike. @ Trit… https://t.co/IDqGHECAk3

Another adventuresome day

So, I rode 39.7 more miles today.

This morning I got up at 9, and at about 10 biked down to Hardees to get breakfast. Had a little difficulty making myself heard at the drive-through, finally had to wait 'til the truck behind me pulled up to trigger the detector so I could place my order too. When I got up to the window, I found the person in the car in front of me had paid for my order. That was nice of her.

At 11:30, after calling to make sure places were open, I sprayed myself all over with SPF 50 sunscreen and hit the road again. Headed down to a nearby Speedway to fill a jug with ice water, then headed north to Michigan and west to the Monon Trail. Technically, you're not supposed to have e-bikes under motor power on that trail south of 96th, but I've never gotten in trouble for it yet, and I think as long as I ride politely and don't hazard anybody else along the way that I probably won't.

Partway up the trail, at 12:30 I stopped at the Half Liter brewpub, formerly known as Bent Rail. Didn't really care much for their selection of beers, as they're mostly Germanic lagers, and no IPA on the menu. Had a smoked lager, it was okay, and was on the way again at 1. I took the Monon farther north than I ever had before, to 116th street, then headed east to stop in at Cost Plus World Market. Got there at about 1:30, picked up a few snacks and stuff, a Terry's dark chocolate orange (which the cashier warned me would melt in a hurry if I wasn't careful), and a six-pack of assorted novelty sodas—two each of Cheerwine, Moxie, and Earp's Original Sarsaparilla. Put the sodas in my front basket, and left a little after 2. As I was leaving, I noticed a Jeep with Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. decals pull into the parking lot. Doing errands for Agent Coulson, were they?

Got to Trader Joe's a little after 2:30. Waited in line outside for 10 or 15 minutes, then got in and did some shopping. Again, I didn't get much stuff, just some snacks and frozen stuff to put in an insulated bag I'd brought with me. (And I chucked in that chocolate orange, too.) Hit the road for home about 3:15.

Just about three miles from home, there was a loud POP. One of the soda bottles in the front basket had gotten jounced around enough that it finally exploded, just like someone had shot the top off it with a six-gun. Really, it's just a little too on-the-nose that it turned out to be one of those Earp's Original Sarsaparillas.

Got home around 4, put the frozen stuff in the freezer, carried the five remaining soda bottles up to my attic to go into the mini-fridge, took the bike out to the garage to charge. And now I'm sitting at my computer relaxing. It was a fun trip, but kind of exhausting, especially since I tried not to let myself just coast on the motor all the time—I made sure to pedal a bunch too, so I would get at least some exercise out of it.

This is just so much fun…I wonder where I'll go next?