Direct from my Jornada720... keyboard errors included as a demo:
ok, here goes...I'm on a bike trip...an eletric bike trip, or ebike here in Palm Desert...temperature proboably in the mid nineties...I could cheat and pull out my smart phone and double check that...but I want to focus on my J720 which I' ve had for so nany years and done so little with.
So I threw it into a plastic grocery bag along with a bottle of cold water and a small hand pump...all of this placed over the handle bars wrapped up solidly with th4e cable of the bike lock. This adds some weight, maybe 12 l bs to the front fork...with its adjustable fork shocks...it smoothes out the bumps to have that weight there.
I built my ebike in that I took a nice dual suspension bike
(meani9hng it has front and rear shocks so you can go over a curb and really not feel any jarring
) and a purchased a separate torque sensing motor...a mid drive so I can still use the vari9ous gears on the back wheel. And it has very nice sensitive hydralic brakes...to all this I added a 11 amp hour 48 voolt lithiun ion batter pack on the front lower bike frame. Its a great setup...capzble of 25 to 30 miles per charge and travel speeds commonly 20+ miles per hour...I guess 16 to 19 my average.
anyway, its much faster and easier to pedal on. torque sensing is the best, it monitors the force your legs apply to the pedals and augments the power...up to 4 fold...so you speed along and take off quickly...I like the wind in your hair feel similar to riding a motocycle
(which I also have
). The advantage is that you get some exercise and every trip is an adventure, you can fit in or sneak thru all kinds of obstacles, driveways, fe4nced gates, etc. My motorcycle hardly gets u8sed anymore.
Beacuse of the high speeds...one can easily exceed 20 mph...and going downhill easily 30 mpg. it gets a bit scarey above 28 mph in my opinion on a biccycle frame...anyway what I'm getting at..is I wear a motocycle helmet because its like a low speed motorcycle. Years ago I had an old rickety Honda 90 motocylce witha top speed of 35 mpg...the ebike remids me of that and is similarly a lot of fun.
with the old honda 90 trying to go up any kind of hill was one of those "I think I can, I think I can" experiences. withthe ebike you just add your peddling and gear down...the hills melt away.
anyway, I'm on a 20 mile round tripp here today leaving around 10 am, I'm headed to the local cemetery where my folks ar buried and I like to mix a great exercise physically with a grateful visit back to my loved one's final resting place.
this is the same cemetery where Frank Sinatra is buried...along with his mother. You can always find his grave site because there are always a show of flowers around it. Sonny Bono is laid to rest there as well, although I haven't seen his gravesite..I imagine it would not be too close to any trees given how he met his end skiing into one.
I live up in Northern california, mendocino county...redwoods and vineyards...in the past 30 years almost no growth is population...like 1% per year. that's why I'm always amazed at how radily things change in the Desert. One day Ill be riding down a sidewalk thqt ends in a sandy tumble weed lot...6 month later I ride by and a square mile has been transformed into some architectually beautiful facility with a huge parking lot, instant landscaping, all the sidewlks, etc handicapped ramps all served up to perfection.
unlike up north...a more rural setting and loose on planning... if any. But here in the desert everything is incredibly planned out to the nth degree and has to meet a high bar for design, proper location,etc.
Thus, it was today I was hit by a certain irony as I was riding...some months ago there was the begining of a curb bending into a future driveway entrance...at that time partially covered up in wind blown sand. Today I am amazed to find the huge and beautifully designed health care Rehabilitation facility, I mean with all the bells and whistles, like it had been there for years...just like that...it sprung up.
What I find amusing is that it is located across the 4 lane roadway from FOrest Lawn memorial park and also katty corner to the memorial cemetery with Sinatra and all.
My thinking leads me to believe that if a sickly patient ends up there at the rehab center...and heaven sakes alive...it they take a turn for the worse...well...all you gotta do wait for the traffic to calm down and roll that guerney across the road to the resting place of choice. Yu might see it as an Amazon promo...maybe the offer Free shipping in cahoots with the cermetery.
Then there's the far side of th4 cementery...right next to it is a mental hospital/facility...abutting up next to a short wall along all those grave sites. Seems there could be no better place to pick up or relinquish some lost or suffering spirits or ghosts of christmas past...Let's hope there's no cross pollenization going on. Tortured souls vs tortured souls
(no disrespect intended here...I have relatives familiar with both
). Try out some multiple personalities or shed some before you go home. The city planners think of every efficiency possible. Part of the Desert's Grand plan...go figure.
I'm writi ng all this on my jornada 720...whose keyboard I am learning to adapt too...presently sitting in Taco Bell...cool as a cucumber, air conditioned here with a great veiw of Mt San Jacinto out the window , and its neighbor Mt san Gorgonio
( with a smidge of snow at the top some 10,000 ft or so, here on July 8th
).
Jornada...remiinds me of that TV commercial with Carlos Monteblan in which he said "Cordoba" the name of car...way back in the 1960's about the time he was on StarTrek as the diabolical "Kahn". Anyway, just try it...say Koor Doe Bah...then say Joor Nah Dah...cordoba/Jornada...potato/potada. seems sorta cosmic. Monteblan would swoon the viewers with his latino accent as he tempted them to the treat of "real Corinthian leather"...'Core een thee in' leather. Never you mind that no such leather has ever existed...thats right folks...there ain't no frick in fries Corinthian leather, never ever. Which I think when Carlos found out
(probably after he bought one of those CORD_O_BUS
) could be what inevitably led to , yes, you got it...The Wrath of Kahn.!! it wasn't Kirk or the Federation...after all.
but back to Jorn nadas...nada means nothing in spanish, jorn I suspect is to latin root for journey or maybe journal...put it together and what do you have...??? Ill just let you ponder that one a bit...and the true value of todays essay.
I'm going to have to get going soon...as it will heat up to 101 today. To combat thewse temps I wear a light jacket thqat I completely soak in water from the bathroom sink and then put on...serves a sunblocker and built in air conditi9oning. After a few miles it is mostly dried out, but i stay compfy for the whole trip.
I'm a sidewalk bicyclist mostly, for a couple of reasons. The sidewalks in the desert with these huge residential developments stretch on for miles. They are quite wide, and made of concrete, many have curving zig zags right and left, some even slope up and down...little mini roller coasters at 20 mph...and they are away from the automobiles, traffic often traveling at 55mph just a few inches away when you're in the road bike path...which being dark asphalt...is hotter to ride on. Sidewalks have the occasional active water sprinkler spraying which is fun to ride through. On many stretches of sidewalk there are trees which cool shade and you have to duck under lower leaves. Some drop these dark cresent shaped seed pods on the ground...when you ride over them it sounds like popcorn popping in a microwave...recurring every 100 feet or so.
well, there you go ia am getting the hang of thei j720 key board, and putting it to work as a traveling travelog ebike companion. The only downside so far as I can see, is you have to tolerate all my rambling verbiage...and occasional mispelling!