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| Rest stop selfies |
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| Rest stop selfies |
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| Reid and his boys. Isaac and Joseph rode more than 30. Not sure exactly how far. |
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| Micah painted my nails. I think they match the BikeMS colors quite well. |
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| Traditional before shot |
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| Ready to ride |
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| At the start line |
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| Posing with the lemon shorts. |
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| The 30 mile club at the finish line |
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| The loyal support crew |
I went to heaven this past weekend. I rode an eBike.
Matthew wasn't going to come to BikeMS this year. He had band and he had already missed a bunch of band for the International Science Fair. So we were planning on him being home and taking care of dogs (Chewy and Zoey). That was ok with me because I was going to ride his road bike, the red bike I handed down to him when I got my mountain bike. Then, at the last minute, his band teacher gave him permission to miss the parade. Good news -- I was so glad that he was going to make it. Bad news -- I was now going to have to ride a mountain bike. I had ridden a mountain bike on BikeMS once before. It wasn't bad but I was much younger then and in better shape.
We quickly found a place for the dogs to be and loaded the bikes.
Driving through Sardine canyon I was reminded of the beauty of Cache county. I told Bill we should look into moving up here. He reminded me of the cold. I didn't really think it would be bad until we got to Lisa's house and stepped out of the car. It was cold. It was the end of June and it was cold. Yep. Logan will have to be a vacation spot for us :-)
This year I noticed a lot of "I Ride With MS" jerseys. Is that because there are eBikes now or do we have better treatments or are there a lot less riders and a larger percentage are people with MS? I don't know.
I have decided that I am too out of shape to ride a mountain bike anymore. The first leg of the day was quiet. I slowly pedaled and the rest of the team slowly got further and further away until I thought it was only me and Bill. People kept passing us by. I seemed to be standing still. It was bizarre. By the time we were almost to the first rest stop I had determined that I would have to turn around and go back. I just wasn't able to keep up and I didn't feel like I could go on. Was it the bike? Was it age or being out of shape? I don't know. I just was really struggling. At the first rest stop I told Reid that I was going to head back. He offered to let me ride his electric bike. I couldn't believe it. He was actually going to trade his electric bike for my massive super heavy mountain bike. Incredibly, even after knowing all the details, he was still willing to trade. I've never ridden an eBike. I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. I don't think I'll ever ride BikeMS without an electric bike ever again.
It was Heavenly.
For the most part I just rode with it on Eco, the lowest setting. That was enough though. Even just a little boost made all the difference. Suddenly I was energized. I could go on.
Between rest stop one and two there is the infamous Killer Hill. I was excited to get to the hill and cruise up the hill on the eBike. When I got there I geared all the way down and was able to tackle the hill with only Eco mode. That was beautiful. We were still way behind the main group of the team. Bill and I ended up biking with Emily Lara. She was really struggling. When she came to the hill she just got off her bike and started walking up. I decided to bike back down and let her ride the eBike up the hill. When I got to her I suddenly had a very selfish thought. I didn't want to give up the eBike. I did though. The problem was that she was too short for the bike. We would have to adjust it. We walked to the top of the hill where Bill was. He had tools to adjust the seat. At that point though EL didn't want to use the eBike. When we got to rest stop two I again offered the eBike. She seemed offended though and upset that I kept offering so I finally stopped offering. I offered the bike to Lisa too. She had injured her knee earlier in the week. She turned it down too. Fine with me. I was loving the bike. And Reid seemed ok with the mountain bike. We were just about to decide to complete the 43 mile route when Annalisa reminded me that she and Matthew were going to mow a lawn when we got back. So we decided to turn back and just do 30. Marianne was really sad. She had her electric bike and she really wanted to do lunch in Lewiston. I didn't think Lisa could keep up with me and M on our electric bikes though, especially with a bad knee. So we ended up heading back and only doing 30. We were so glad we did. Marianne's battery died and even with the wonderfulness of the eBike we still had sore bums, hands and shoulders. Thirty miles was plenty.
And that was that. I have been researching eBikes ever since :-)
