No electric bikes in the race, of course!
I used my ebike to take a quick look at the bike race today and thought I'd watch them go through Richmond Park. It showed what ideal personal transport the ebike is.
By car it would have been a nightmare, closed roads, diversions and all. Hardly worth bothering, in fact, you'd just have been sitting in your car for hours in order to get a 20 second glimpse of the riders. Buses all diverted and the train stations too far from the best parts of the course.
But by ebike, knowing the riders would pass through Richmond Park at about 11.55, I slung my cameras in my backpack, all 8 kilos of them, and a monopod in my saddle bag and left my house, about 5 miles from Richmond Gate at 11am. Police were waving cyclists past at all the road blocks, so it was quicker getting to the park than usual on a Sunday!
I'd covered a couple of miles of the route in the park and was settled in about 10 minutes before they arrived. A lovely atmosphere and very adroitly policed and organised. I thought of torching and looting the Comet store on my way over but I felt it would spoil the tone
I did a few pix, one of which you can see here and took a gentle ride down the Thames towpath and on to home. I was in for lunch before 1pm. It struck me the sheer freedom the ebike gives. Cycling un-powered round my quite hilly area with several kilos of gear on your back and in the saddlebags is a sweaty business. On the ebike, it's comfortable and relaxed. You sail past traffic, can cover quite long distances, yet in the park your bike doesn't even disturb the deer.
It's the bearest thing I can imagine to a magic carpet. Here's the pic - they aren't half determined!
I used my ebike to take a quick look at the bike race today and thought I'd watch them go through Richmond Park. It showed what ideal personal transport the ebike is.
By car it would have been a nightmare, closed roads, diversions and all. Hardly worth bothering, in fact, you'd just have been sitting in your car for hours in order to get a 20 second glimpse of the riders. Buses all diverted and the train stations too far from the best parts of the course.
But by ebike, knowing the riders would pass through Richmond Park at about 11.55, I slung my cameras in my backpack, all 8 kilos of them, and a monopod in my saddle bag and left my house, about 5 miles from Richmond Gate at 11am. Police were waving cyclists past at all the road blocks, so it was quicker getting to the park than usual on a Sunday!
I'd covered a couple of miles of the route in the park and was settled in about 10 minutes before they arrived. A lovely atmosphere and very adroitly policed and organised. I thought of torching and looting the Comet store on my way over but I felt it would spoil the tone
I did a few pix, one of which you can see here and took a gentle ride down the Thames towpath and on to home. I was in for lunch before 1pm. It struck me the sheer freedom the ebike gives. Cycling un-powered round my quite hilly area with several kilos of gear on your back and in the saddlebags is a sweaty business. On the ebike, it's comfortable and relaxed. You sail past traffic, can cover quite long distances, yet in the park your bike doesn't even disturb the deer.
It's the bearest thing I can imagine to a magic carpet. Here's the pic - they aren't half determined!
