Ruthern Flamel

264

Rumble Fumble Tumble Time

Silly looking map. Met a friend at the local mall and took the wheel because I didn’t want to waste the gas and battle for parking. It was super busy! Made me a little anxious but it was fun. Had to double back some of the route because my fender fell off lmao. It’s just held on with magnets. I snapped all the clips while learning to ride - guess I should put 2 more on.

First 2 days of commuting with the wheel! I could def get used to this! I end up spending at minimum 27 mins in traffic lately so I’m more than happy to spend that time on the wheel instead of burning gas where it’s almost $2 CAD per litre and only $0.32 to charge it.
The 33 km Ride is an estimate, as I forgot to hit “start” when I actually left work - I really would have loved to see what that map would have looked like hahaha, I’m sure there will be times where I will do it again. It was +29 with unsatisfactory wind, and lots of humidity. I actually had to sit and take a break after the ride because the heat was making me super woozy. My partner had to carry the wheel up the stairs for me - haven’t felt that bad from the heat in a long time. I had all my protective gear on, and after that I think I’m going to invest in some stand alone torso armour.
My wheel has the PERFECT place to hide at work! You have to be really specific with the angle you put it in at for it to stay upright while turned off, but if i mess it up my garbage can is the perfect height to support the fender.

33.3 km/hr and little to no wobbles!!!! If I got wobbles they were very slight and easy to fix. I took out just a tiny bit of air from my tire. There was also little to no wind today which was quite the treat so that probably played a part.
Tested my route to work. There’s one trail crossing that has a blind corner - cars just love flying down it (it’s a massive hill too) so that was fun almost getting smooshed. Other than that not too long of a go, took a wrong turn - but that’s why you test the route before you actually go to work hahaha. I think I used about 13% there and back? Not sure. I just know it was at 50% and I plugged it in for 10 mins before leaving just in case.
Had my first experience with dogs and it’s so strange how some of them don’t mind the wheel and others just go ape-shit. So interesting! But dogs are cute and people always stop to stare at me while walking their dogs so I get a chance to look at them 🥰🥰 I miss my late pupper…
Looking forward to taking this in to work, weather is looking warm Thursday so that might be my first day commuting with it.

The V really does make a difference! No wobbles until after 30.7 km/hr! On groomed gravel trails…. Didn’t get much of a chance to try on pavement as the one stretch we had today was super bumpy so I didn’t know if I was getting wobbles from the speed or because I was hitting a bunch of invisible bumps that I couldn’t prepare for (did someone send that pavement to a hockey game and teach it the wave??? Because that’s what I felt like I was on but 10x worse). I also put my feet further forward on the pedals and my feet and calves didn’t get tired anywhere near as fast which was a super nice treat.
Once I get a chance to try again on pavement I’ll see if decreasing tire pressure a tiny bit might help.
Warm day today and I was too tired to check my shock pressure when I came back so I’ll do so tomorrow or before my next ride.

Hey everyone! How do you prevent speed wobbles?? Right now I’m just chalking it up to the fact I’m not gripping the EUC well enough with my legs. Once I get over 26.5 km/h I experience them.
All the reading I’m doing is saying:
-to get swoll legs (I’m working on it!)
-the stock tire that comes with the s18 is prone to wobble by default
-keep the shock stiff (I bumped mine up to 220/100 psi to account for the big effects the cold wind/temps seem to have on it)
-decrease tire pressure to decrease the twitch response in the EUC (I’ll do this later I just can’t give enough pull on the valve stem with my noodle arms to attach my chunky pump 😅)
I mostly ride on pavement and pea gravel/groomed gravel trails. Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

The photos didn’t upload in order lol, the second photo and fourth photo are the same ride. I found an e-scooter person to ride with!! That second one was our first outing together! We were supposed to go out for another ride the next day but it was much too windy - they were at least 39km/h winds (Not gusts) and when your wheel is as much as 1/3 your weight that wind is…challenging (I want to go straight and I don’t lol and I REALLY gotta counter lean hahaha), I can’t imagine riding something like the Monster that’s 100lbs….that’s more than half my body weight. Once we have a break in the weather we’re going to go ride point pleasant park together. I need to see if my headlamp will fit on my helmet, as it’s pretty darn dark when I’m not by streetlights.
I brought my wheel to my best friend’s house, we had to go get some cake fixings from the store so she jogged and I rode the EUC beside her. It was fun talking with people in the store who saw my wheel and got curious. Maybe I inspired some people to do some research. My bestie said she really wanted to try it on a less windy day so that’s exciting! If only the rain would end…
I was testing my shock and it is indeed effected by cold weather. My shock gets weak after about 40 minutes in temps colder than 10 C. Once I warm it back up the shock goes back to feeling how it should.
My hand mirror should be arriving in the mail tomorrow! And with that I have all my gear to commute! Once I have a sunny Sunday or Saturday morning I’ll go and trial the route with all my stuff.

Double the distance and probably the time. Didn’t realize my watch wasn’t tracking until I turned around to go home hahahaha! Great 20km ride, practised going at higher speeds (26 is the fastest I can comfortably go, any thing faster I get wobbles - even with doing slalom turns. Better do more squats and adductor work) mix of groomed gravel and paved trails.
Anyone notice a different in the S18’s shock in cooler temp? When I started the shock was nice and stiff but by the time I got back it was super squishy…BUT when I got home, warmed it up and checked my chambers I was still where I started in the positive chamber, but lost 20 psi in my negative chamber (can’t find a leak - but I can’t exactly check for one when I’m riding it which seems to be when I lose psi). I’ll take it out again and see if I can find a pattern with the “leak”.

The big boss let us out at noon in lieu of the Easter weekend. It’s forecasted to rain the entire time but because of his generosity I was able to get out and snag a ride! I did 2 laps around a local provincial trail, and then went off to the bike path I’d use when I start commuting. I explored that route a bit and had a great encounter. While putting along at 15-18 km I saw an e-scooter person approaching me. We finger-gunned each other and then as we got closer gave each other a high five. The lady who was walking her dog behind the scooter person was like “🤩🤩 did you coordinate that?” It was so much fun. If the forecast changes I’ll go explore the rest of the route I’d take that’s closer to work - where I’ll start really messing around with traffic. Today I dipped my toes in it a little bit (riding on the street and using my hand signals) and it wasn’t bad. A few very confused motorists but no honking hahaha
If you were the e-scooter guy in Halifax on Chain of Lakes trail around 2pm HMU!!! Let’s ride!

All I can say is YA-WOOOO!
did my first groomed-gravel trail today and it was great, and also did my first bumpy trail and it was so fun. It was paved but tree roots were growing under it so it was basically like looking at bubble-wrap but made of pavement lol it was so fun! Once I get a camera I’ll have to go back and do it again so you can laugh along with me. Only had one fall when I was transitioning from gravel to wet grass. I think if i didn’t slow down to talk to someone I would have been fine hahaha. After all that I feel ultra confident leaving the running track behind until I want to try new skills on the EUC. Now it’s nestled in my apartment ready to go for cheeky after-work rides! Chance of rain for a few hours this evening, and rain every day except Wednesday (my 12 hour work days 😥 ). I’d go back out and explore trails in my neighborhood, but I do need to do a bit of work on a brief I’m giving on April 20th about transgender health care in the Canadian Armed Forces. Looking forward to that 🤩✨🤩!

Day 4, errand day!!
Went back to the running track to warm up, tighten my turns and practise stopping at a faster pace and it was a success! I figured out what was making my push-starts so iffy and now that I’ve addressed that it’s like night and day!! It’s like that episode of Spongebob where Patrick is helping him with his driver test and he’s like “BIG TOE” ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kcNC9Q_qG0Y )when Spongebob wants to floor it. I also changed my ride mode from intermediate to expert and now the EUC feels weightless in comparison, def more helpful for starting I find.
I made it out to the small bike path but it did start to rain about 1/4 through the errand so we weren’t able to explore the other half of the trail (blue in the photo is where we went, red was where we missed due to weather). I never had so many people say hi to me before while out and about as I have today! Now that I have the start down I’m super excited to go and explore more trails and just get out!! It’ll rain tomorrow but for now it seems like Monday will be clear - just a bit cloudy.
Once I deal with some car troubles I’ll invest in a camera (thinking GoPro hero 9 let me know your thoughts/preferences below if you’d like) so I can make videos like you guys! I’d love to share my local area with you all just like you guys do. It’s fascinating seeing how different the landscapes are.