solarbird | gotta go fast

Anna and I went to check out the new wetlands park down by Sammamish (a bunch of photos here) and it was really nice despite not being really grown-in yet. That’ll take a little while, since they’re going full-native-plantings on it, but it’s good, I like it. Particularly the elevated pathways that let you get out onto the peninsula between Swamp Creek and the Sammamish River.

But we stayed kind of longer than I thought we would, and since I wanted to bike to Bothell (the next town over) to buy some items I can’t get at either closer grocery and get home before it got dark, I turned on the electric assist and leaned in a bit.

Normally I don’t use the assist on this trial at all, right? But I was realising that I was pretty high up the gears and something felt a little different, and looked down to see that I was going over 20mph, which means all the assist had turned itself off, as it’s supposed to do at or around 20mph on a Class 1 ebike.

And now I know what that feels like. I think it ramps down intelligently starting at like 19.5mph. It felt very smooth. (And I’m using miles because that’s what the rules here are written in.)

I think that’s maybe the fastest I’ve gone on a mild incline. I’ve gone faster certainly downhill, but this was flat to very slightly uphill, so I’m pretty pleased with myself over that. And I was certainly surprised.

Anyway, I got to Bothell and then got back home well before dark, even if some lights were turning on, and the frozen coldpack I’d thrown into the insulated bag on the way out showed no signs of melt at all, which is really as I’d expected but it’s still nice to have it play out.

Then I got home and made another iteration of my newest object design, which is printing out now. It’s another accessory for the vertical project mounting system, but I’ll post about that later.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.