Tag: bikes

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I eBiked to Work!

I last biked to work in… 2007!?!? It’s been a while. I had this plan to try to bike to work this fall, when the weather is a bit cooler, but then Matt loaned me an ebike and I was like “Damn, I could ride this to work!” And so I did… twice!

I should point out that a few years ago I was like “Eh, there is no way I could ever bike to work. Too dangerous! I’ve seen how people drive because I drive to work with them every day.” (To be clear, they are in other cars, not mine.) Riding up Burleigh to 124th street seemed like a suicide mission at the time, but I’ve learned a lot since then. We’ve also moved our office at work so I am biking to a different location.

But the thing is, I was thinking the way car people think, and the easiest/best route by car is probably not the best route by bike. Last summer I started riding the Menomonee Line of the Oak Leaf Trail and one day I realized I almost rode to work! I was about 1.5 miles from the office, and with just 6 months of riding on roads I was like “Hey, I can make it another 1.5 miles on the road… even if it’s Hampton.” And I was right.

So with the ebike assisting me I made the journey to work. The first time I got there in about 25 minutes. I was amazed! It typically takes me 15 minutes to drive to work. (I’d say between 12 and 18 minutes depending on traffic, and 15 to 22 on the way home when traffic is worse.) I had estimated about 45-50 minutes on my old Trek, and there are some killer hills, but with the ebike it was fast as hell. (My original ebike estimate was 30-35 minutes.)

But it’s not just about speed and time. Getting to work by bike is just… better. I’m outside, I’m getting exercise, I’m not sitting in traffic, I am not tempted to look at my phone at a stoplight. I am fully engaged in my surroundings and what is around me. I am watching and seeing everything.

My first trip was along the Oak Leaf Trail and it’s awesome. My second trip I had to avoid it because the river flooded and parts of the trail were closed, so I tried a very “road heavy” route and while not ideal, I did just fine. I’m actually looking forward to exploring all sorts of different routes over time if I keep riding to work.

And yeah, I would love to keep doing this! I need to get my own ebike, and a few other things (backpacks suck, need panniers) and I can see myself riding to work a lot honestly.

My typical mornings for the past 16 months have been: get up early, go for a ride (usually 30 to 60 minutes) then shower, get ready, drive to work. But what if I get up, do whatever, shower, get ready, and then ride to work? I’d get close to (or more than) an hour of riding per day, and not be driving. I know Wisconsin isn’t the best place for year-round bike commuting, and I’m sure I will still drive many days, but I’d love to give commuting to work by bike a try.

See Also: My #BikeNite post I just started riding to work. What’s your best advice for a newbie bike commuter?

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I Rode an eBike!

Disclaimer! I did ride a DIY ebike inside Bucketworks at the first BarCampMilwaukee in 2006… and haven’t ridden one since. Until now.

Matt loaned me his ebike while my Trek is in the shop and it’s been very interesting, and… a lot of fun! Honestly I would have never considered owning an ebike but now I find myself doing a lot of research and figuring out if I can get one. (I mean when I will get one.)

This post will mostly be about my experience riding Matt’s ebike for the first time. (It’s a Ride1Up LMT’D V1 from 2023, btw.)

Dana dropped me off at Matt’s house and he gave me a quick overview of the bike, and I rode two miles home. I used the pedal assist at level 1, and hit the throttle a few times. I was flying. It was wild. I got home pretty quick.

The next day I went for three rides to get a feel for things. Oh, the first thing I should note is that the heel of my left foot hit the (beefy!) kickstand a few times. I think the pedal are bit narrower than my Trek, which also has a skinny little kickstand, so it was just a matter of moving my foot a little and it hasn’t really happened since then.

Okay, first ride! I rode 5 miles, one of my normal routes (well, half of it) and it’s a heavy bike, my speed was a little under my normal pace, which should be expected. But overall riding it with no motor was doable, just a little slower. I really wanted to see what riding an ebike with just my legs powering it would be like.

After 5 miles I stopped, decided to do a second ride, switched on the Pedal Assist at level 1 and it was like WOW, this feels good. I was able to go my normal speed (my normal Trek bike speed) and a bit faster. And most importantly, pedaling was easier.

But now I have to talk about “cheating”… I was worried that riding an ebike would be cheating. As in, one of the main reasons I ride is to get exercise, and if the motor is doing the work instead of my legs, am I exercising anymore? Well, first of all there are no rules, so there’s no cheating. Second of all, it’s still exercise. In fact people have told me it might even be more exercise, because people who ride ebikes tend to ride more… more minutes and more miles.

So the thing about the motor is that it assists you. It is called Pedal Assist after all. I took hills that would have had me slowing to a crawl (climb?) with relative ease. It was still work, I still pedaled like heck, but I didn’t feel like I was completely running myself down. Which is good. Especially with my knee…

Yeah, my knee occasionally acts up. I’ve canceled rides because of it. Earlier this year I was doing physical therapy for it. It’s actually difficult for me to go up a flight of stairs, so you know… maybe an ebike with pedal assist is something that will ensure I can keep riding.

And finally after the two rides I did a third ride where this time I used the throttle, cranked up the pedal assist level, and let it rip. It was sort of too easy (cheating? LOL) if my primary goal was to get exercise, as I felt like I was letting the bike do all the work.

Okay, that was Day 1. (Day 0 was just riding home from Matt’s of course.)

I’ll have a more comprehensive look at the tests I did on the second day in another post. Stay Tuned!

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800 Miles / 24 Sick

Bike

Bike

Sometimes I make plans, and sometimes they work out. Sometimes I set goals and sometimes I attain them. And then there are the other times…

Map

Last week I did a little test ride to see how it would be biking down to Riverwest and back. See, I usually ride in the morning. Like, around 7am on most days. My idea was that while the Riverwest 24 was going on I’d bike down there at 7am, hang out, maybe do a lap or two, then head home. Solid plan. But alas…

I should also mention that I had a goal of biking 1,000 miles this year. in 2024 (the year I started trying to ride daily) I did a little over 600 miles. Things like work travel and getting sick make it difficult some months, but I did what I could.

I also did a few group rides in the last 9 months, mostly with the Scrappy Hour gang and I enjoyed the Santa Rampage ride quite a bit. So yeah, RW24…

See, I knew about the Riverwest 24 for quite a while. When I was at the museum 7 years ago I worked with people who did it. Hell, I’ve known some of the organizers and volunteers and riders for the past 20 or 30 years. But between 2013 and 2019 I spent every last weekend in July at Maker Faire Detroit racing tiny electric cars.

The funny thing is, the Power Racing Series and Riverwest 24 have a lot in common. They are both more about community and creativity than they are about racing and going fast and winning…

So I really wanted to check out RW24 this year. And then, on the Tuesday before the weekend I started to not feel well. I mean, I got sick. I had to get into work early Tues, Wed, & Thurs because of online streaming/training I was doing all day for those days. I got through it, but by Thursday night I was beat. I stayed home Friday to rest up and try to recover, and by Friday night I felt, well… sort of okay.

I went to bed Friday with the idea that if I woke up Saturday feeling good I would hit up RW24. Well, Saturday I had zero energy, and I hit the couch, and just could not move. Then it rained, and I gave up.

And then, I hit up the old Internet. I consumed the media from the event. I watched and listened to Riverwest Radio, I tried to see photos and video clips of the ride, I did what I could to experience it without being there. And I learned a lot.

A few days before the weekend a friend of mine said “If it’s your first time do a night lap and a day lap, as they are totally different vibes!” and another friend said “Psst! I could get you on a team!” and yet another said “My husband will be there riding a tandem bike on his own if you want to do a lap with him.”

Because the thing is, just like Power Racing was about camaraderie and having fun, Riverwest 24 is about community and the people. Sure, there are bikes and laps and keeping track, but that matters less.

Map

Here’s a normal ride for me. I did 10 miles today, since I haven’t ridden in a week. I just tool around Tosa, Milwaukee, and the surrounding area, typically not getting further than a few miles from my house, but I may start to change these patterns and go farther in whatever direction.

Oh, I also rode over 800 miles this year. I should be able to hit that 1,000 miles easily. I still need to fix my bike, the front fork is not great, and I have an idea to make it more silly, which is always fun.

Being sick totally sucked. I hate it. I seem to get sick about twice a year, and when I do it makes me not able to bike or do other things and I don’t like that. Not a fan.

If I have any complaint about Riverwest 24 it’s that I experienced a lot of it via Instagram stories and Facebook reels, which are ephemeral. They are temporary things in a walled garden, which are lost to time. I guess life is like that sometimes, and hey, there’s always next year, they say.

So I will plan for next year, I will be there, barring any unforeseen circumstances of course.

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Scrappy Hour Ride – June 2025

It’s been a while since I did the Scrappy Hour Bike Ride… February!? Yeah, I missed March due to knee pain, April due to work travel, and May due to fun travel.

So Matt messaged me about it last week and I had completely forgot! I was also not happy with the heat, but I was in. Let’s do it!

I did invite three other riders, none of whom could make it, but all asked for a reminder next time.

So from Tosa it was me, Matt, and Brian, who is one of the organizers of Scrappy Hour… Cool!

Brian is a lot of fun to ride with… we got going and a few blocks in he waved to some women on the sidewalk. I wondered if he knew them, but he sort of chuckled.

And this continued… He waved to kids, adults, and whoever else was out and about. It was actually pretty cool. I tend to be head-down when I ride on my own but seeing him wave to everyone was neat.

This time we rode to the steps behind the Marcus Performing Arts Center. We ride to a different location each month. For us riding from Tosa that usually means downhill there and uphill back. I’m getting better at uphill though…

I once again had the Kids Camera Instant Print (get your own!) and shot some photos, which you see here!

Matt told me a lot about his riding and how to properly do stats by looking at watts generated instead of just miles and hours (which I do now). Maybe I’ll try to measure watts for 2026.

Did I mention it was hot? It was way too hot. I’ve learned that one water bottle is not enough for a hot day.

I still think I’m the oldest person on these rides… I’m guessing I’m twice the age of some of the riders, but it’s all cool… we all ride bikes!

Maybe we’ll see you time! The Scrappy Hour ride is the last Sunday of the month. Right now if you want to find out about rides check out Scrappy Hour MKE on Instagram. There is also mailing list. (Email scrappyhourmke@gmail.com to get added!)

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milesBiked – A Bar Graph Generator

In a previous post titled Miles Biked (so far)… I talked about generating bar graphs to show how many miles I biked. And in the post before that I suggested you Share Your Code. So this post is the logical conclusion.

You can find milesBiked on Codeberg, a community-led platform that offers Git hosting and other services for free and open source projects. Codeberg is a non-profit organization based in Berlin, Germany, that respects privacy, supports the commons and celebrates creativity.

When I posted about blogNag – A Blog Post Reminder I decided I should try to do more to share the code I write. It’s not amazing, it’s not worthy of praise, but it’s code that works for me, solves a problem, and others might be able to use it to learn from. In the age of AI, LLMs, and “vibe coding” I think this is important.

In a world where so many applications are subscription-based, or the free version has limitation that can only be unlocked by paying, releasing free software and open source software to the world can be seen as an act of resistance… or rebellion, even.

Code given freely is a gift to the world. I expect no remuneration for the code I share. Save it for larger projects with more impact. I donate to a number of larger software projects that I use all the time. Inkscape, OpenSCAD, CryptPad, and others… Tools I use almost daily that have allowed me to escape restrictive commercial software. Send your money where it will help the most.

Right, so I learned a bit about Matplotlib and used my basic Python skills to write about 25 lines of code… but I stand on the shoulders of giants. Those who created Python, who documented it, the Matplotlib authors, and the people who wrote articles, blog posts, forum posts, and tutorials with example code that made it all very easy for me.

Good software isn’t created in a void… and it’s not created by telling a machine what you want your code to do. It’s created by people like you. Let’s all work together to make a better world.