Its HOT

Summer has arrived in DC and we're going through a mini heatwave. If you're not sweating off 10 lbs you're getting caught in thunderstorms.

I've passed the 1,500 mile mark commute wise.

The brakes (that I've never been all that happy with) are getting down to the wear line. I did a little searching on the various forums and the Kool-Stop brand got some love. So I ordered a pair of these. So far I've replaced the fronts (didn't want to replace both in case I screwed something up) and they're working quite well.

More tire issues and an update

So, I've traveled just over 1,200 miles since buying the bike and for the most part its been fairly painless. I recently had another issue with tires; this time the front got a flat about 2 miles from work on Friday. I pushed the bike to Galaxy Cycles, who repaired. Unfortunately, just like the back tire the repair didn't hold for whatever reason and it was flat again about a mile into the ride home. Galaxy were their normal cool selves and fixed it again for no charge.

My gut is, probably like most things, EasyHyrbrid skimped (for lack of a better word) on certain items in order to keep the bike within a certain price point range. Its not that the tires are cheap, just not the absolute best you can get. And that's fine. I guess I really can't complain about getting an average of 1,000 miles out of them.

An update

Its been a while. Between some travel and allergies/sickness there's not too terribly much to report until this week.

Another flat, and a tough one at that. Right around Dupont Circle on my evening commute the back tire started feeling "slushy". Looked down and low and behold I was getting a flat. Wasn't sure if it had been going down slowly or if I had just hit something so I broke out the CO2 pump and refilled.

Yup, it was a hole alright. Close to the stem at at the rim of the bike.

One of the nice things about where I got the flat is there is a bike shop not too far away, The Bike Rack on Q Street. So off I went, pushing the Prox the 5 or 6 blocks to the store.

Have the say the folks were very nice, and 30 minutes and $25 later I was back on the street. Unfortunately the patch lasted all of about 3 blocks. I managed to push it back to the store just before they closed and they took another crack at it (and were very apologetic). 10 minutes later I'm back on the street. 6 blocks later another flat. Unfortunately the place was closed for the evening so I pushed the last 9 blocks home.

Essentially the issue was that the hole in the inner-tube was likely too close to the stem, and the hole in the tire next to the rim was causing too much pressure on the inner-tube. Had I been able to get back to the shop I would have ordered a new tire/tube.  Can't blame the Bike Rack, they did good work for what was asked, and tried to fix it a second time (and I would have gone back for the new tire had it not closed).

So, back home ordered a new inner-tube and tire off of Amazon. Would fix it myself except they won't arrive for a few days and Friday is "Bike to Work" day, which I wan't to take part in.

The Wee Lass has jury duty today so I'm working from home. During lunch I ended up taking the bike to BicycleSPACE in Chinatown (simply because its the closest shop to the house). Just got the call that its finished and I'll be picking it up later.

Its a thorn...

... in my back tire. That was the diagnosis on the flat in the back. By lunch time the tire was completely down. Since I would be nervous removing the back wheel of a normal bike to find and fix a flat at home on the weekend I basically bit the bullet and got it fixed in town. There are a three bike shops within walking distance of the office: one that caters to "serious bikers" (i.e. prepare to pay a lot), one that didn't have the greatest reviews on Google Plus, and then there was Griffin Cycles. Gave them a buzz, took the bike over, and 4 hours and 26 dollars later the bike is fixed.

Breaks and a slow leak

Tinkered with the breaks a little more and now the back break feels great, so knock on wood I have that issue licked for the time being.

There's a new issue though. I recently purchased a bike pump as I was noticing, after a month or so of riding, that the back was feeling a little low. I filled up at the local gas station and both the back and the front were down to 35 psi (the tire says keep between 40 and 60). Bike pump arrived and now I check on Sunday evenings the tire pressure and top up if needed. Last night when I attached the pump the gauge read ~20 psi, which was a little worrisome. I inflated to 60 and thought nothing of it. This morning as I'm getting the bike out the front door I give the back tire a squeeze and it feels mushier than I thought it should. Out comes the bike pump and low and behold its below 40 again. Back up to 60 I go and I'm on my way.

By the time I get to work I have to pop up a curb, which I do gently, and it feels like the curb is hitting the rim. Not good. When I'm up in the office I give the back tire a squeeze. Its mushy again. And when I put my weight on the seat and get a good look at the tire it looks like its not fully inflated.

I fear I have a slow leak somewhere. Not fun. Luckily there's a bike maintenance area that includes a tire pump just as you get on the Capital Crescent Trail so (assuming the equipment works) I should be able to fill up on the way home. Finding and patching the tire, however, is going to be more of an issue. I'm dreading taking off the back wheel since I have to worry about power and electronic cables.  I may just punt and take it to the local bike shop here in Bethesda and have them work on it.

Brakes

Still having issues with the back brakes. About once a week I needed to restring the brake caliper so that the brakes would engage. Today I decided to take a more detailed look to see if I could figure out the cause. When I removed the right brake pad I noticed the problem: the pad only covered half the rim (I should have noticed this right away as the inner half the rim was "clean" while the outer had buildup of road gunk). Only half of the pad was getting any work, and it was grinding down faster because of it.

I fiddled with the pad and got it set where it should be, rewired the caliper and all is well for the moment. Since now the bottom half of the pad that wasn't getting used is now the primary contact with the hub I expect to continue to have this issue until its ground down to the level of the top half.

I'm also going to look at replacing the back caliper brakes with a disk brake. The Path+ I rented over the summer had them, as do some of the more recent Capital Bike Share bikes.

The weather has been fantastic the last couple of days. Hopefully spring is here to stay.

"Bicyclists: Still Terrible"

I had an interesting interaction today that reminded me of this Washington Free Beacon article (and this one, and this one too). During my morning commute I cross Rhode Island Ave on R street ( which has a bike lane). Now, I tend to be pretty conservative when riding the bike, especially when I'm on roads / bike lanes; I don't pass anyone going slower unless the road itself is empty, at which point I'll swing wide into the road and pass. For the most part, I'll be content to follow the pack in front of me. I also tend to obey things like stop lights (a rarity among bicyclists I've found).

So this morning when crossing RI Ave the are a number of bikers just ahead of me. One, on a road bike (I'd like to think it was a super-douchy fixed gear job, but I'm probably projecting) is a good 3 or 4 feet right of the bike line, and going substantially slower. One of the nice things about pedal assist is its pretty damn torquey; you can get up to speed quickly. So I pass this guy (lets call him the Ginger Prick); again, he's a good 3 to 4 feet out of the lane. Next stop sign I stop (there are a couple of people in front of me) and pulls aside and proclaims "YOU KNOW THAT'S CONSIDERED BAD ETIQUETTE."

What is, staying in the bike lane and going past someone way outside of the bike lane who is creeping along?

He then cuts in front of me he proceeds to squeeze pass the next two people in front of him who were -- unlike he -- actually in the biking lane, while cars are passing on the left, and then promptly blows through two red lights.

Apparently biker etiquette is don't, under any circumstances, pass the Ginger Prick. Live and learn.

I spoke too soon

The crap hit the preverbal fan weather-wise here in DC and I haven't biked in almost 2 weeks. Ice and snow are the issue. The temperatures have never really gotten above freezing so the Capital Crescent Trail is mostly (I assume) an ice-rink.

An update and some stats

I'm getting close to a month of riding and everything is going fairly well so far. The seat cushion I bought has been very helpful, but I lost it during one of the rides so I had to purchase a new one. I'll make sure it has a tighter fit.

I was noticed I was more hunched over riding the Prox than I had been with the rental bike, and I was starting to feel it a bit in my lower back. It never occurred to me that I could adjust the height of the handlebars. So I finally did and its made a world of difference.

The back break is still very mushy, and gets looser and looser by the day. I've had to restring the cable break a number of times on the back calipers, but after a few days of riding the back brake becomes almost useless. I'm probably doing something wrong; I'll have to do a little research into setting up brakes. It looks like the frame is set up to use disk brakes, so I may investigate upgrading to those sometime in the future.

Some stats: 

Since January the 19th I've done 16 round trips with the Prox, saving ~$122 (assuming I would have metroed instead) or ~$100 assuming I would have metroed to work and rental biked home) and have traveled ~360 miles.

Some new gear

I'm not used to actually maintaining a bike so its time I started purchasing some items:

• In case of flats: Genuine Innovations G2628 Ultraflate Plus Tire Inflator and XLC Tire Repair Patch Kit.
• A nice case to sit on the back rack (the rack is a little smaller than a "normal" bike): Axiom Robson LX Trunk Bag (with neat fold-down panniers).
• Black soft gel relief bike saddle seat cushion pad cover (because when compared to the rental bike seats, the one on the Prox leave certain body parts numb).

Error 13

Back on the Metro today due to an Error 13. Essentially on the computer screen everything goes black and you see "13". Now, Hybrid Pedals told me that you sometimes see an Error 5, which is when communication between various components gets disrupted. I'd seen this a couple of times and usually you just flick the brakes quickly and it goes away. Not so this time. Each time I'd flick the brakes the computer would reset, all would seem well for a pedal or two, then back to Error 13. I didn't have much time to futz with stuff at that moment so I pedaled back around the block, put the bike back in the house then hustled off to the Metro.

While at work I did a little googling and it turns out Error 13 is also a communications issue. Apparently the grommets connecting the various electrical wires to the computer can come lose. When I got home I checked tightened them up and took the bike out. Still errors. I then pulled the computer screen off (its removable) and looked at the contacts. There was an oily, vasaline like substance over a couple of the contacts. Cleaned those up and the problem went away. Back on the bike tomorrow.

First couple of weeks with the bike

So I've owned and ridden the Neo Prox for a couple of weeks now (save a couple of weather days) and here's my initial impressions:

The Bike:

• Overall great, but there's a lot to get used to. My muscle memory is based on the Capital Bike Share bikes, which are frickin' tanks (as they should be).  While the Prox is nicely built its just not the same as the rental bike build wise. Those things can take a lot of punishment. Since I just plunked down a wad of money for this bike and am responsible for its care and maintenance I'm not so cavalier when riding it as I could have been on the rental bike.
• The smaller wheels and slightly smaller handlebars means it feels a little more like turning a razor scooter than a bike at times.
• I miss the cruise control on the Path+ (more on that below).
• Because of the design (lower frame, longer handlebar stem that breaks into two) I can feel more flex in the handlebars. Its still pretty solid, and I'm not really worried that I'll do any damage, but what little flex there is takes a little getting used to.
• Brakes are a little mushy.
• Can get too and from work on a single charge.

A little more about this last point. For the first couple of days I was using standard pedal assist as I rode through town on the way to work, and then switching to full throttle control while on the Capital Crescent Trail, much like I did during last summer's test.  On the way home I use standard pedal assist all the way back. In this configuration I get the blinking battery symbol about a half a mile from home, indicating that I'm about out of power. So the battery has been just covering the round trip.

Unfortunately, unlike the Path+ I was using last summer the Prox doesn't have cruise control, which means I have to hold the throttle open the entire half an hour or so that I'm riding. Well, the weather has been especially cold lately andI'm cutting down on the blood circulation to my thumb and index finger when holding throttle open. Even though I have gloves on these fingers go numb in this weather pretty quickly. So lately I've switched from going full throttle to using a higher level of pedal assist on the Capital Crescent Trail; I no longer am holding the throttle, plus the constant pedaling keeps the blood flowing and the body warm & I still get to work without being a sweaty mess. In this configuration I've been doing the round trip and still have a bar or two left on the battery meter.

The Commute:

• The weather's been cold as hell, but the nice thing about biking is I really don't notice it. As long as its not raining cold really isn't that bad.
• I'm consistently hitting just over an hour for the commute. Maybe 5 minutes longer on average than the walk/metro method.

As for the weather my gear is nothing really fancy. My helmet seems to keep my head warm enough, and as for clothes I basically layer up: T-shirt, shirt/sweater, fleece (I have a couple of Old Navy fleeces that were cheap and warm), this cycling jacket in yellow (nowhere near as fancy as the cycling jackets you find in stores, basically a thin wind breaker with some pockets; from China; cheap and effective when worn over the fleece) and these gloves (also from China, also cheap and effective). 

First time on the metro in a while...

Even when I was using the rental bike I rarely missed a bike home due to weather. Cold I can deal with; rain I can deal with; cold + rain I can sort of deal with (a couple of times I was foolish enough to think I could beat the imminent rain only to get caught on the trail in a cold-ass downpour. Would rather have not been there but it wasn't the end of the world). Snow and ice, however, I'll skip. 

Side Story: Believe it or not Montgomery County does a good job of cleaning the Capital Crescent Trail of snow. Considering the roadways should be their major focus the fact they get to it at all is kind of amazing. I discovered this in December when we got the first snowfall of the season. It was a Friday and the office was closed early to give everyone a fighting chance to get home at a reasonable hour. The roads didn't look too bad, so I hopped on the rental bike and told myself that if the trail looked bad I'd turn around and take the Metro. Low and behold the trail looked to be in pretty good shape, good enough to ride on gingerly. So I pressed on, completely forgetting that the trail leaves Montgomery County and enters the District at some point. Well, that point is where the clean trail stopped and the cross-country-skiing-perfect trail began. Again, I really can't complain. Considering the District has a hard enough time to plow the roads most of the time the Capital Crescent Trail should be very low on their "to clean" list. I had to push the bike the last couple of miles until I hit Georgetown. Not fun.

Anyway, due to the weather the last two days have put me back on the Metro.

I finally purchase an eBike

Even if the Path+ was too expensive and I ended up not buying it I still kept my eye on the state of eBikes in case something that was cheaper (but not a price of crap) came along. When talking with the Hybrid Pedal guys about bikes I had mentioned the issues with the Path+ (size and price being the biggest) and they had recommended looking at smaller (20 inch wheel) "city bikes," specifically the Easy Motion Neo Prox.

One of the resources I would check into from time to time was Electronic Bike Review and their review for the Easy Motion Neo Prox was very favorable.

The recurring theme of smaller bikes in general is that they're usually full of compromises. Either they're underpowered or their quality isn't as good, but the Prox looked like it was a solid bike that could get the job done. Considering it was about $700 less than the Path+ also helped.

Figuring I needed a pretty good economic case in hand to convince the Wee Lass (and, frankly, myself) that I wasn't dropping $1,700 on a fancy toy I whipped up a quick analysis of what I spend on commuting to and from work.

Assuming that I commute 5 days a week for 48 weeks a year my metro costs, assuming that I took it to and from work, come out to $1,824 annually. But, this hasn't been the norm in the last 6 months, so I looked at best and worse case scenarios metroing in the morning and rental biking it home. Best case scenario assumed I could do the entire trip with both legs under half an hour, so no incurring any additional fees. This knocked my commuting expenses down to $987 annually ($912 metro + $75 annual rental bike fee). Worst case scenario assumed that I went over the half-an-hour grace period on one leg every trip ($1.50 per trip). This brought my annual commuting expense to $1,347. So the payback on the price of the bike was anywhere between 1 to 2 years, depending on how you looked at it.

Luck would have it earlier this month Hybrid Pedals ended up having a sale on the Prox, knocking $200 off of the price which basically sealed the deal.

So that's the story of how I ended up with the bike. My posts going forward will be about using over the next year or so.

At what point will you get to the eBike?

Hold your horses; I'm getting to it.

So all during the summer my routine was metro to work and bike home using the Capital Bike Share bikes and all was good: I'm getting exercise and I'm saving some money. So my next though was "can I cut out the metro altogether?" There were a couple of issues though.

1. The home commute is, on aggregate, downhill. From Bethesda to K Street the elevation drop is roughly 250 to 300 feet. Its no so great that you can coast, but its noticeably harder going to Bethesda than from.
2. There are no showers at our office.

My fear was, even if I could make the trip from home to the office in a reasonable amount of time (lets assume it would take 10 minutes longer due to the elevation change) I'd still arrive a sweaty mess. During my rides home I would basically soak through whatever t-shirt/shirt combination I was wearing, and that was going the easy way. One could only imagine what I'd look like after biking 7 miles uphill.

So this is what got me thinking about the eBike. The theory went "use the motor to assist on the way to work to keep effort, thus sweat, to a minimum on my way to work, ride the bike home normally on the way home." eBikes aren't cheap though and I didn't want to plunk down a lot of coin on something that may not work out. However, if I could rent an eBike for a test run....

This is how I discovered Hybrid Pedals. When searching for "ebike rentals Washington DC" they popped up. So I gave them a ring. It turns out that they used to have a service where they rented Pedego bikes to tourists, but they had recently shuttered that business. "I'm looking to maybe purchase an eBike, but I'd like to test it for a week. Could I possibly rent one of their stock?"

"Absolutely!"

So I headed down to their store, tried out a couple of bikes and ended up renting the Currie Tech iZip E3 Path + for $250 (which could be applied to the purchase price if I wanted to buy it).

That's a mouthful of a name.

For a week I used the Path + to get to and from work and, on the whole, validated the concept. I could get to work in about the same amount of time it takes me to walk/metro, so my morning routine wasn't really affected in any way, and when I arrived at work I wasn't a sweaty mess. As for the bike itself...

Likes:

• I know this is going to sound like a "no-duh" but it felt and handled like a bike. Other than the additional weight of the battery / hub motor it felt no different than riding a normal bike, including when I used to pedal assist at all.
• Speaking of pedal assist: it had it. For those who don't know what that is, the bike senses when you pedal and applies force to assist. There are a number of levels of assist from "helping you just a little when you're starting from a full stop and going up hills" to "the bike's doing 90% of the work." The lower the assist, the farther you can go on a single charge.
• Speaking of range: it was great. According to Currie Tech you should be able to go 25 miles on flatish ground on the highest level of pedal assist or full throttle. Since the ride to work is 11 miles and I never ran that at full throttle the entire way I never came close to exhausting the battery.
• Cruise control. Yes, this sucker had cruise control. If you're running throttle only, once you hit the speed you want you can kick in cruise control and the bike will continue to maintain that speed until you apply the breaks. Holding the throttle open for a long time can start to strain your hand, so this was really appreciated.

Dislikes:

• Weight. Since the motor is in the back wheel and the battery sits directly above it this sucker is back heavy. As I mentioned above it wasn't noticeable when riding, even with the motor turned off, but picking up the bike (which I had to do to go up and down the stairs to my townhouse) was kind of unwieldy.
• Size: this isn't a real complaint of the bike, but of storing the bike in my house. I have no garage, and live in a townhouse with a wife and three kids. Space is at a premium. For the week I had the bike it took up a lot of room in the dining room.
• Price: $2,400. This was a really nice bike, but $2,400 was too rich for my blood.

So as much as I would have loved to have continued using the bike I regretfully returned it and continued with my hybrid metro/rental bike commute.

So why the eBike? Pedaling too good for you?

So why am I riding an eBike in the first place? In a word: laziness.. and cheapness. Wait, that's at least two words. Let me explain...

I hate exercising.  Well, that's technically not true. What I hate is exercising for the sake of exercising. I cannot go for a run, ride a bike, take a swim or lift any weights simply for the need to getting fit. I find it all terribly boring, thus something I don't continue doing on any regular basis.

On the other hand I don't want to die of a heart attack or diabetes any time soon either. So my solution has always been to make exercise part of something else. For instance when I was single the grocery store was about half a mile away from my apartment so instead of driving to the store I would walk. Always take the stairs over an elevator. Ride a bike when appropriate. My current house is about a half a mile from a metro stop and my work sits on top of the Bethesda metro station, so I walk roughly a mile a day during my daily commute.

This is all well and good, but anyone who rides the Metro knows its not exactly cheap. $3.80 during rush hour each way to be precise, and this is where my cheapness comes in. While $7.60 a day is cheaper than owning and maintaining a second car its still adds up to a nice chunk of change over time.  A few years ago when the Capital Bike Share came to town I grabbed an annual membership for half price via a living social deal (about $40 for a year). Since there were about 4 bike docks within a five minute walk from my house it seemed like something worth trying at that price. I found it to be very handy service and have renewed my membership. During the summer months I experimented with using the bike shares to ride home. Unfortunately the closest bike racks were located at the UDC metro station which required me to still use the metro (thus spend $$$) and the commute would take me down Connecticut Ave during rush hour, which isn't exactly the safest thing to do. You're either on the road pissing off drivers or on the sidewalk pissing off pedestrians.

Thankfully some time in 2014 two things happened: 1) Capital Bike Share expanded into Bethesda and put two bike racks within spitting distance of my office and 2) something bad happened one afternoon in the Bethesda metro. Bad enough that the metro station was closed *and* the fire and rescue trucks completely blocked the bus terminal so all public transportation was hosed, and I had tickets to a Nats game that night so hanging around until all was well wasn't a great option.

"Okay, I have a bike rental membership, I should be able to get to the next stop at Friendship Heights." This is what led me to discover the Capital Crescent Trail. It crosses Woodmont Ave about 3 blocks from my office. Perfect. It got me to Friendship Heights and home in time to catch the first pitch.

This got me to thinking: can I realistically ride home via the trail? The map showed that I could take the trail for roughly 7 mile, at which point I'd be dumped onto K St. in Georgetown. From there it appeared to be only a couple extra miles via bike friendly roads. So, one summer Friday I bailed out of work early and attempted it.

The commute

Needless to say, since I hadn't used the rental bikes to go more than 2 or 3 miles at a clip, let alone 11; that first trip home was brutal. But it did prove it was possible, and cheaper than using the metro.

Capital Bike Share pricing is that any trip less than half an hour is "free." If you have an annual plan ($75) then any trip between 31 and 60 minutes costs $1.50. There are a couple of bike docks right where the trail ends on K street, which is about the halfway point time-wise for the entire commute. During the first few weeks of riding I was clocking about 30 - 40 minutes per leg, so at worst I was paying $3.00 per trip home: a savings of $0.80 a day. This, however, improved pretty quickly as I got used to riding the bike. After about a month I could do Bethesda to K street under half and hour about half the time, and consistently beat half an hour on the K street to home leg. This made my commute home roughly $0.75 a day; a savings of $2.95 a day. Saving money and 11 miles of bike riding exercise a day. Not too shabby...

So what exactly is this?

Yeah, its a stupid blog title name, but I couldn't think of anything better (its a play on "A Year in Provence"... don't ask, it just sort of popped in my head). Essentially I wanted to document a year of using the Easy Motion NEO Prox as my primary mode of transportation to and from work.

I bought mine from Hybrid Pedals of Arlington, Virginia in late January (great folks; if you're looking for an electric bike and you live in the DC area go check them out).