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Roughly 44 km of road riding on my mountain bike in the heat yesterday. Home to Mt Martha and back. I drank two litres of water in three hours, and my nose is sunburnt... :-/

Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia

In other news, I've had an electric-assist bike on loan for several weeks now. I've probably done a few hundred km on it, but its range is limited to about 20 km, so I haven't written any "ride reports" while I've been using it. The bike is styled like a mountain bike but is quite a bit heavier, so you can't really ride it once the battery goes flat - at least not with the hills around here.

The bike uses a 24 volt battery and takes about 6 hours to charge. The motor just freewheels if you go much faster than 20 km/h, so while it helps you climb hills or ride into a strong headwind, it's mostly just dead weight on the flat. To make room for the battery, the frame of the bike is about 20 cm longer than an ordinary mountain bike, so the weight and extra length can also make it a bit of a handful when doing slow turns. It's just something you have to get used to. There is suspension only in the front forks, which means the ride is still pretty rough and the battery tends to rock around. The design is pretty poor in that regard. The front suspension also has a tendency to bounce, which can make steering at high speed a bit unpredictable over rough terrain. All said though, the bike is good fun to ride. I'd just like it a lot more if it was a bit lighter and had rear suspension.

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