A busy day, a Juiced bike
Jul. 3rd, 2020 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterSo, 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.
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.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-04 04:23 pm (UTC)