NW FL with a New Lease to Life

[billyk]

4 months and 900 miles, and the fun is just beginning! I am fully retired for 4 years and this is just what I needed and wanted. A few creature comforts to my "Rad Ride" and it's even more desirable.

Just joined. I'm a peddle pusher from way back to the "toe clip days". My biggest problem to the Ebike is riding slow enough to ride next to or with other pure peddle pushers without electron assistance. I can walk maybe 600 yards without starting to hurt. I can ride 24 miles and feel like the wind has blown new life into my legs.

[ncmired]

Greetings, and welcome to the forum!

[73Eldo]

Welcome to the club. Many similar stores here. I may match your 900 miles, I have only been at it again for 3 months and have over 600 so far. I'm not retired, just work in an industry that has been destroyed and isn't showing many signs of returning any time soon. Getting back to biking was just what I needed too, was spending way too much time on the couch getting fatter and depressed.

I can still walk 600 yards if I have to but I know what you are saying about a 24 mile ride and being able to slow down to ride with others when needed. I find when I ride with others that I drop my assist level at least 1 step (on a 1-9 scale) and that gets me a lot closer to them. My rear and hands can now handle about 30-40 miles in one ride but a couple times I have killed the battery and for the first 10 seconds thought no problem I can just pedal home because I'm in better shape now...... nope, may just melt into a puddle and die right here on the path. You start wondering if there was maybe amazon super prime plus where you could get a new fully charged pack delivered right to you on the trail.

I too am from back in the toe clip days, man that seems like such a crazy unsafe piece of tech looking back now eh? What the heck were we thinking literally strapping ourselves into a bike with 23mm wide tires and basically no brakes? Mountain bikes were just coming in when I was drifting out and my mountain bike came with them but I don't think I ever used them. I remember for many years I used the straps from them to hold my frame pump. I thought that was cool because the straps had the bikes brand on em. That bike I put on what I think were called 'mini clips' which were fairly small plastic clips that just barely covered your toe similar to removing the strap from standard ones you just didn't have all that extra material that did nothing. My road bike had the full metal clips and there were times I would actually snug up the straps and wore shoes with the slot in em.

Clipless were around when I was started riding but not cheap. I do remember getting my first set and like many things I didn't start with cheap stuff, I went right for Time pedals since at the time they were the only system that allowed some rotation of your feet. Problem was after buying the pedals I could not afford the Time shoes so I got the Time adapters for the shoes I had, the slot unbolted so you could bolt on a cleat. I think the adapters hung down at least an inch and covered pretty much the whole ball of your foot front to back, you pretty much could not walk in them at all and forget about walking your bike up a hill that was too steep to ride. SPD's came out after I was mostly out but I did get a pair on one of my short lived revivals and still had them for this years return but I did have to buy a new pair of shoes that fit better and were more comfortable.