Headwinds suck, part 2.
34:27
16.8 average
9.64 miles
28.4 max

Headwinds suck
Had a problem with the gps on the way in, so no stats for that. Felt slow, though.
On the way home, there was a serious headwind. Felt like every bit of pollen found its way into my eye at around 30 miles an hour. Was painful and hard to see. Hope I don't have to start paying attention to the pollen count before I decide to ride the bike.
We've also entered the time of year in Virginia when we may or may not get a rain shower every afternoon. Not looking forward to my first drenching, but I know it's coming.

Ride home:
39.51
14.5 average
9.66 miles
max speed 28mph

Beautiful day for a ride - started off a bit cool and a little damp, but didn't rain on me, so I was happy.
Folks often worry about how folks treat bicyclists. By and large, folks are quite polite. The ride home had only my second encounter with a rude driver. Some dude driving an old ugly American gas guzzler decided to give me a long honk while passing. Clearly we make different life decisions. Ah well.

Had a glitch on the way in - the battery decided to display no charge status when I was about 2/3 of the ride done. Still seemed to be giving a boost, but it definitely wasn't happy. No problem after charging it and re-attaching it to the bike.

The new office seems to be slightly closer than the old one - that's cool. Took slightly longer to get there, but that's probably just because I'm out of shape.

Glad to have gotten a ride in - going to be rainy and nasty for the rest of the week, it looks like.
Oh, and discovered that the bike shop at the work end of the ride sells and services my bike, so that's good news.

42:43 minutes commuting
13.7 mph average
28.3 mph max
9.73 miles

And for the return trip:42:51
13.9 mph average
29.3 mph max
9.94 miles

Been a cold winter so far, and it's not over yet. However, we are having one nice day here in the middle of February, so I rode in. Really been missing riding the bike. Thanks to my Dad for getting me a nice balaclava - that made the ride much more pleasant. Need to get some long riding pants though - shorts aren't so good unless it's nicer out. I could definitely tell I'm more out of shape than when last I rode. I'm ok with that, though. Looking forward to the coming spring.
My GPS app on my iPhone learned a new trick in the interim - it now tells me how far I've gone and how fast I'm going every minute. That's fine as long as I'm not stopped at a light :)

37:15 ride time
15.7 mph average
9.75 miles
30.6 mph max

Fall keeps giving me a few more chances to ride, so I'm doing my best to take advantage of it.
Pleasant ride in this morning. The combination of wet roads (rain yesterday) and leaves made me a bit nervous about a wheel going out from under me. Other than that, nothing too exciting to report about the ride in.

Vital stats:
36 minutes
15.8 mph average
9.67 miles (took a longer route to avoid mud)
30.5 mph max

It's not that I've quit writing about my commuting. I just don't like cold weather. Or the rain. Between the two, and after-work obligations, I fear I may be done riding until spring. We'll see. I sure do miss it.

One of our favorite clients, Balducci's, sent us lunch today to thank us for an update to their site. You can now order from their catering department on line for either delivery or in-store pickup. Judging by the sample they sent us, the food is awesome. Certainly working on the update and reading about all the yummy food has made everyone here hungry!

First, my ride home last night. When I hooked up the battery, it turned out it hadn't charged. So, I had a mostly depleted battery for the ride home. So, relatively tough ride last night. At least the weather was nice. Bit of troubleshooting of the charger this morning turns up the fact it was set for 220v, not 110. Now it's working.
Lovely morning for a ride. Huge number of cars on the road, but most of them were nice enough to leave some shoulder room, so I am certain I got to work faster by riding than driving.
Had a close call on the way in, though I was kind of expecting it. Traffic was very slow on a main road, and someone had stopped to let some traffic turn. One guy went, and the car right behind him ran the stop sign and went through the gap. I'd expected to him to see me and wait, but no. So, hard on the brakes to avoid hitting him. Glad the Valencia+ has great brakes!
The other interesting thing this morning was encountering another bike commuter at a stop light. We had a short chat, which was cool. He'd had a couple close calls with dogs and a truck just that morning. So, I must be getting lucky on my commutes, maybe. I felt compelled to admit I was cheating with the electric assist. Strange how I felt a little guilty for having it. Not guilty enough to not use it to maximum benefit however!
The other interesting thing is how even with the assist, I have a hard time not pushing up hills as hard as I can. Not sure exactly why that is, but I just don't take it easy while riding except down hill. Greg LeMond is quoted as saying "It never gets easier, you just go faster." I agree.

Vital Stats:
34 minutes
16.6 mph average
9.49 miles
27.2 max speed

Today was Columbus day, and since the feds had the day off, traffic was really light. Would have been a really fast ride in had I not caught the end of every major traffic light and had to wait. Ah well. The weather was about perfect, so that was nice. The Bike Lane finally came through with a second charger for me, so I was able to bring it to work and charge the battery once I got here. Meant I used the full assist all the way in, which was fun.
Vital Stats:
38 minutes
14.5 mph average
9.33 miles
30.1 max

Went for an afternoon ride at Wakefield Park. Wow, the mountain bike trails there are awesome! Felt very different to get on my '90s era Specialized mountain bike after getting so used to the Trek Valencia+. Fun, though. I understand they have mountain bike races at Wakefield, too. That would be fun to watch, maybe someday participate in.
Also got on the Cross County Connector trail. That's a very nice bit of work by our Fairfax Parks Authority, I have to say. I'm looking forward to riding that from end to end someday.

I use my Valencia+ for commuting to work. The ride distance varies, but it's usually between 9 and 10 miles. There are days when it's faster to commute by bike than drive.

Definitely change:
Stores stocking any of the Ride+ bikes should definitely have at least one extra charger in stock. I'm guessing a decent number of folks buying a Ride+ bike will be commuting with it and want the charger at work.
Rear light should be an LED if it isn't and blink. It should also be on whenever the system is powered on.
Publicly available information about what the latest firmware for the Ride+ system is, and what was added or fixed in each revision
There's a bug in the software which occurs at speeds around 30 mph. It manifests as a vibration from the rear hub and the console showing that it's sending power to the motor.
The whole look of the bike is great, especially all the black that's used. However, there are some odd parts which are silver or chromed. Having everything be black would be so much better.

Nice to have:
A slightly larger battery would be good - I use just over half the juice getting to work on most days.
The front light isn't great - it lets motorists know you're there, but it's not so good for illuminating where you're going.
The assist console has really small numbers for everything but speed on the display. Most of them are impossible to read when riding.
The battery on the rack is ok, but since this is a fairly custom bike in so many other ways, could we get the battery in a different shape and mounted lower and more centrally?
The regeneration while braking is really cool; I wish I had a button to just do max regeneration while the button is pressed when I'm coasting up to a light.
Unless Bionx is going to be re-manufacturing the battery unit, having the battery and the electronics all in one unit is going to be pretty wasteful when it comes time to get a new battery. Could the batteries be replaceable separate from the electronics, like laptop computers?

Dream:
I wish there was an option for the classic thumb shifters. I'm pretty good about remembering what gear I'm in, but sometimes I forget. With the assist console in the proper place, it covers up the gear display. With thumb shifters you could always feel what gear you were in. Apparently Shimano has decided I'm in a minority worth ignoring, however.
I fancy myself a hacker, including hardware. It'd be really nice to have some way to get data out of the system, like power used and regenerated. In other words, make the whole thing open to hacking. This would definitely encourage more folks to use it, in the long run.

Bike was in the ship Monday, and yesterday it was raining, so today's the first day back on the bike.
Either I was using the battery a lot harder than normal this morning or it had less of a charge due to the cooler weather. Nut sure which. Either way, I really need a charger at work. I actually pedaled a while on regeneration mode just to get more of a charge in for the ride home. Think I have enough left in so I won't deplete the battery before the big hills near the end of my ride. Good thing the wife is going to be waiting on me for dinner!

Vital stats:
37 minutes
14.8 mph average
9.3 miles
28.6 mph max

Forgot to mention this in another post...
With the magnets and that large hub, I've actually gotten the Valencia+ to trigger the sensor at a light. Of course, when I figured out that worked, I also managed to stop all the traffic on a pretty busy road during rush hour, just so I could ride across. Felt a little guilty, but also pretty powerful!

Last night there was a brief rain shower right before I got home. Between the headwind and the threat of rain, I managed to pretty much completely deplete the battery on the ride home, too. I think I can tell the difference in the boost the system gives based on the level of charge, too. Also, having riden for 10 days, that makes 200 miles on the bike, and 4 gallons of gas saved (again that Prius working against me!).
Looks like I might be doing the same thing tonight, as well.
Ride in was remarkable only in the lack of cars. I was actually worried that riding would not be faster than driving today. However, there were enough cars waiting at lights, and I caught a key light just right, so it was a wash, I think.

Vital stats:
34 minutes
16.5 mph average
9.33 miles
29.9 mph max.

Nice ride in today. Definitely faster than driving; I passed a lot of cars waiting for lights today. I finally figured out why driving has become so much worse - there are a lot of drivers taking the same back roads I am because the Beltway is so bad while they put in the HOT lanes. I sure hope the traffic dies down some once they're done with constructions.
Had a guy in a great big SUV decide I didn't exist today. He just moseyed across the access road I was riding down so he could wait for traffic and pull onto the main road. I know he saw me, and just decided he'd idle across and block the entire access road. Rude.
Have to say, though, almost all the drivers I encounter on my commute are quite polite. Let's hope that trend continues.

Started the track recorder late today, so some of these numbers are incorrect.
32 minutes
17 mph average
8.98 miles
31.1 mph max.

Drove yesterday and today. Yesterday it was around 50 degrees when I left home; definitely too cold for me. Last night it took me so long to get home my wife was upset I hadn't called to say I was going to be late. Ironically, I left at the normal time! It just took that much longer to drive.
Today I have a get together after work, and the roads I ride on are too dark to really ride on at the hour I'm expecting to be heading home. Just hope I can ride the rest of the week.

Serious headwind on the way in today. Battery might be more than half drained - should make getting home interesting.
Discovered something new about the assist system - I think it makes a noise when it's drained but off. Gentle reminder to recharge it, I guess. If so, that's cool.
Rode the bike over to a friend's house yesterday, and ended up coming back after dark, and so got to use the lighting system. Works well enough, though the headlight does seem designed more for being seen than illuminating your path.

Vital stats from this morning:
37 minutes
15 mph average
9.32 miles (came in the back gate)
max speed 31.4 mph

This is the eighth day of riding my bike to work. Rained lots of yesterday, so the world was pretty wet today. Made me glad to have those fenders, actually. Worked from home yesterday, and drove the day before that.
Tried to take it a little easier on the way in today. Forget which, but some famous bicyclist said "Riding never gets easier, you just get faster."

Vital stats for the ride in:
37 minutes
15.6 mpg average
9.67 miles
31.9 mph max

OK, coming up with a new title for every day is becoming tough, already.
Anyway, passed another guy on a bike last night. Not sure he even knew I was behind him at the stop light, then had to wait for a break in the traffic to pass him. And feel guilty. Ah well.
Went by the Post Office on the way home last night, had to mail something to Kim's son. Hi! Was kinda odd walking around in the place with the bike shoes on - sounded like a horse or something.

Ride in today was ok, felt slow. Might have used more than half the battery, so I may not have an assist all the way home tonight. Made some good time in places because folks managed to leave me some room on the shoulder. Nothing else too interesting to report, however.

Vital stats:
34 minutes
16.4 mph avg
9.49 miles
32 mph max

Drove in to work Friday at the urging of my wife. That meant, of the previous two weeks, I'd rode to work half of the days, totaling 100 miles, and saving about 2 gallons of gas. That number would have been ever so much more impressive if my car weren't a Prius.

Monday morning was a decent ride in - started cool and foggy, but warmed up fast enough. Tried an alternate route which involved a park trail, but as expected, the paved parts were very bumpy, and the unpaved parts were bone jarring. All in all, it really cut my speed down. Pretty enough, but I don't think I'll be using that way again.

Vital stats:
40 minutes
averaged 15 mph
10.1 miles
max speed: 30.3 mph