On Friday, February 8, 2019 at 11:15:31 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 5:23:11 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 4:51:02 PM UTC-8, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-06 18:02, jbeattie wrote:
On Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 5:04:48 PM UTC-8, Mark J. wrote:
Stopped at the LBS on the way home today, to look at a Trek gravel
bike in person. There are a lot of unpaved roads here in the
Willamette Valley as well as in the mountains around it.

It was nice, certainly drool-worthy in the
I'm-not-really-serious-yet-about-buying sort of way.

There were lots of attachment points for use on long, hot summer
rides that don't go by a 7-Eleven.

I like the wider bars (they looked wider than the 46's I have on
my Domane, but maybe they were the same). Hydraulic disks (see our
latest RBR discussion, heh), nice wide tires.

THEN

when I was talking about fender mounts, the guy mentions putting
fenders on a "Domane +" E-bike, so I go take a look at that.

It's a full carbon fast road bike with a electric assist. Forgive
me, RBR, for I have sinned and coveted this bike. I'm going to try
hard to wait until at least 70 before getting one, partly 'cause I
fear the decline into potatohood that it could spark, but I was
tempted. Having another 100-200W in one's pocket would be
something.

Mark J.

The Bike Gallery (Trek) shop downtown also has one of the Orbea Gain
series.
https://www.orbea.com/us-en/ebikes/r...ain-m20-usa-19
Orbea also has a groovy gravel e-assist:
https://www.orbea.com/us-en/ebikes/r...ain-m21-usa-19
Also available in aluminum, although I'm not a 1X fan. The stealth
e-assist bike is becoming really popular. Muzi's Bianchi is
beautiful. Some of the e-assists aren't that stealthy. The
Cannondale Synapse looks like a pregnant guppy. I'd get a full-on
eBike if I lived somewhere like Vancouver and commuted to downtown --
beat the traffic over the bridge and fly into town. It's kind of
like cheating.


It is. Might as well get the real deal then, zero to 60mph in 3.4 seconds:

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...if5oi1tjpg.jpg

Neat, but you get stuck in traffic, at least in Oregon where lane-sharing is NOT legal. In California you can split the lanes on your eMotorcycle which, BTW, scares the hell out of visitors -- like me. I don't remember it being legal when I lived there.

Around here, you could take the bike lanes/paths and beat the traffic. Come over the I-205 bridge from Vancouver (where living is cheaper) and take bike paths and lanes almost all the way downtown PDX. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...dge_aerial.jpg (I-205 bridge between Oregon and Washington -- bike line up the middle). Watch for trucks, though: https://pcdn.columbian.com/wp-conten...YAAJtQx_1.jpeg


But for my current short commute and weekend riding,
yes, going electric would move me one step closer to the potato
abyss.


A buddy is trying to convince me to retrofit my bikes with electric like
he did. I keep telling him "When I am 85. Maybe. Or maybe not".

The hardest part of growing old is learning to be slow and happy. I've got the slow part down, but happy is eluding me. I may have to get a stealth e-assist bike to get happy. Or medication. We'll see.

-- Jay Beattie.

Just had another lane-splitter seriously injured this morning on the news.. The problem is that you're not supposed to lane split more than 15 mph faster than the adjacent traffic and NO ONE does that. The traffic will be stopped and the motorcycles will be splitting lanes at 60+ mph. Then some knucklehead who is in the HOV without permission will decide that the lane next to him is going 1/100th mph faster and will pull over without looking. SMASH - and another one bites the dust.

I'm surprised they don't die on a daily basis. The practice seems crazy to me.

-- Jay Beattie.