Do you PanMass too?

 

No, I’m not that into cycling. My real passion is backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. So cycling is for when I’m not skiing.

 

How do you like your Aeroad? I ride a Propel SL and a Trance 29. I will go with Canyon when I upgrade

 

Beautiful plan. I hope you don't burst from koy when you get the car.

Did you remember to measure the trunk for the bike, and bring a cloth to put the bike on?

 

Any road bike with its front tire removed fits in almost any vehicle with rear seats that can fold down.
And with the drivetrain up, a road bike is quite clean.

 

Success:
https://strava.app.link/5giSwcLYGzb

 

Stage 1 complete!

There might be some cheating on Stage 2

 

Easier said than done. The dealer had warned me that although USAA is good with its members it is not so good with dealers.
And indeed USAA said this morning it had not received the packet plus had no idea who I am then after an hour and a half of calls and faxes and … oh, whew, all set now!

 

Why all the bike pics?! We want to see the car, dammit!!

 

Does my bike jersey match the car color?

 

Fantastic! Congratulations, and what a unique way to take delivery!

 

The GOM was really thrown off by my drive home, displaying over 280 miles of range AFTER driving 45 miles!
This was because of a net descent of about a thousand feet. (After the mirror image ascent on the bike ride there.) If the GOM were especially sophisticated, then it would know that this is not geographically sustainable as a quick calculation shows that to continue this rate over the supposedly remaining range I would need to end up at about six thousand feet below sea level!
(And yes, I’m charging to 100% since my Friday Saturday road trip is on and I want to be sure I’m all set with via Level 1 just in case the L2 installation on Thursday isn’t successful.)

 

Very glad I stuck with the base sound system as the storage area below the main cargo area is perfect for storing jack, iron, rhino inflator, puncture repair kit, and probably other upcoming emergency items.

 

Tiguan spare tire definitely takes up a lot of space but skis still fit in the center pass through and climbing skins fit nicely in the wheel.
All weather mats are impressively solid, although the stock carpeted mats seemed surprisingly thin when I removed them.

 

This is such a cool idea for taking delivery! Love it! Your Canyon looks beautiful, but those are definitely not climbing wheels. I have an aero setup myself as well with 65mm deep wheels 😅, and the same 11s Ultegra Di2 drivetrain. Have you tried SPD-SL? Always wondered how Speedplay compares.

Oh, and you need a PM on that gorgeous bike!

Beautiful i4! I love the shadowline/laser headlight/Portimao Blue combo!

 

I also learned that those are definitely not descending wheels either -- at least with big cross winds and lots of speed!
Otherwise though, I'm glad that I chose the Aeroad over the Ultimate ... even though the categories are blurring with aero bikes becoming lighter and lightweight climbing bikes becoming more aero. Interesting info here:

Aerodynamics vs. Weight: What's the Tipping Point for Pro and Amateur Cyclists?

Aerodynamics Specialists and Engineers explain the gradient tipping point between aerodynamics and weight for pro and amateur cyclists.

bikerumor.com

Where I live is also kind of confusing because I'm pretty much smack dab in the middle of the Pioneer Valley, so all my rides start off really flat. On this particular ride, out of the ~46 total miles, the first ~12 miles were on a bike path, following an old railroad grade. The Aeroad just hauls on that kind of terrain ... instead of feeling like you're hitting a brick wall after a certain point, it just keeps going faster and faster. (But hopefully not until you stop paying attention and crash into a literal brick wall!) And even when I was at elevation, the climbs alternate with rolling terrain and false flats, where the Aeroad was FAST!
But on one ascent, I was struggling to maintain even just 5mph ... and even worse, that is the hill that I always look forward to when driving, because a passing lane briefly opens up so I can get ahead of all the people going under the 55mph I've been stuck behind for a long time.
Another change was that I'd always noticed a substantial bike lane on the highway, but never noticed that it's only in the other direction, whoops! One of these days(/years) I'll have to bike out to the Berkshires but take a more bike-friendly route when I'm not in such a rush. (Navigation was also especially easy since both the dealer and I are located just a couple blocks from the same highway.)

Pedals, this is my only bike with Speedplay and my other four clipless setups are regular SPD (or knockoffs thereof).
I got Speedplay back in 2007, a year after we moved out here away from the Boston area, since I had been using my mtn bike shoes for my first road bike (Klein Q Quantum 105), which I'd bought used a few years earlier. Back then we had a local bike fitting guru, and he loved Speedplay pedals for the wide range of adjustability in the cleats. Given that my mtn bike shoes back then were cheap, old, and kinda floppy, the Speedplay pedals combined with a stiff carbon shoe = huge highly noticeable improvement. But a couple years later when I bought a newer mtn bike and upgraded my mtn bike shoes, eh, hard to tell that much of the difference.

I also recently switched my Canyon Endurace from the Speedplay pedals I initially set it up with last year to SPD pedals no, with my mtn bike shoes, so that I could move the Speedplay pedals over to the Aeroad. But as part of that, I swapped the Endurace tires from the stock 30cc slicks to 32cc semislicks to expand its gravel range now I have the Aeroad for road-only rides. The Endurace as originally set up was reasonably efficient for road (plus super comfy on rough pavement) and solid on good gravel -- but now with the 32cc semislick tires, I used it on easy singletrack the other day!

PM, although I fit the profile of the kind of guy who would be into that, I use up all my athletic analytical focus on backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering, so for riding, I just want to ... ride!
(I even just have a 2017 Garmin Fenix 5x strapped to the cockpit, and that's it!)

 

No respect from EJ Pass NJ!
(And in case you're wondering why someone in Mass has the NJ version, it was a lot less expensive something like two decades, and somehow I've never gotten around to switching over to the Mass version, even though I might get some sort of discount on the Mass Pike, I think?)

 

Hilarious. I have the same issue. Although I live in NY, we had NJ Ezpass for a very long time because it was less expensive. Had to go with the 4 Series option.

 

Yep, I also chose 4 Series (instead of other) since it certainly looks like that for the purposes of toll booth cameras.

 

Hey, congrats on getting your car! And big props for the ride!

I’m sure you’ll love it as I have been the past few days. What’s taken the longest (but only a couple days) is adjusting to the accelerator/brake pedal tuning and getting it into muscle memory. Almost there.

 

Hey, congrats on getting your car! And big props for the ride!

I’m sure you’ll love it as I have been the past few days. What’s taken the longest (but only a couple days) is adjusting to the accelerator/brake pedal tuning and getting it into muscle memory. Almost there.

Congrats to you too on your new i4!

I found the adjustment to be ... well, really no adjustment at all. The Adaptive D setting is almost kind of eerie in usually getting it right when it take my foot off the accelerator to decide whether to coast or instead apply regen/recup braking. Initially I thought that I had set adaptive cruise control on by mistake, it was so perfectly slowing down in front of the vehicles ahead of me as they slowed down, without any input from me!

 

Glad this electrician is charging by the job and not by the hour: turned out to be more complicated than anyone expected!

I studied the house blueprints then took all sorts of measurements to confirm that a wire could take a straight shot from the very top of the ceiling in my basement ski workshop near the panel to the garage.
Turns out that I was ... very close to being right!

Took the electrician the entire day plus half a day with a colleague to finally (finally!) poke a finder wire through.
They were essentially playing Marco Polo, taking to each other their cell phones, trying to determine their positions relative to each other, while drilling and making other noises. All sorts of other complications with joists and the hvac system.

One will return tomorrow to complete the installation, while I'm off at the start of My Big Road Trip, which -- if all goes well (big IF!) should result in some spectacular pictures for Saturday.

 

Unpacking now from my two-day roadtrip. Everything went well, including two DCFC sessions, one public L2, and one overnight L1.
Pictures of the car are spectacular.
Might not be posting them though until late this coming week, since I have to catch up family matters and then work, plus fly out for a biz trip Mon-Wed.
They will be worth the wait though!

 

Just so you know, @Jonathan S., you owe us, now! PICTURES!

 

Patience! Will be worth the wait, I promise.

But at what rate of interest does my debt accumulate during the wait?
That's actually why this will take awhile, since first for work I have to finish up a description of what I believe is the correct conceptual approach to that in the context of FIFRA data compensation and then I have to fly out tomorrow to testify in a hearing on that same topic in the context of financial gain from environmental regulatory control violations.
Meanwhile though, I will tease with a picture of a bug-covered windshield after the 550-mile road trip from 9am Fr to 9pm Sa, with many non-driving adventures in-between.
(Although don't worry, the windshield is now clean!)

 

So the pictures are edited and compiled.
I had been hoping to write the text during this flight but alas I have work to finish.
I did take a picture at the airport but didn’t catch any planes in the background:

 

So the pictures are edited and compiled.
I had been hoping to write the text during this flight but alas I have work to finish.
I did take a picture at the airport but didn’t catch any planes in the background:

View attachment 28615

Do you guys really leave your cars like this and not get dings from jerks opening their doors? I get anxiety parking my car right up to the curb in an extra wide corner spot. I've been in the car in person and seen some careless people swing their doors where if I had not parked as far away as possible, they would've dinged my car. Even then, some of those times, they would've dinged it anyways if I hadn't been there giving them dirty looks.

The other day, I was parked in a charging spot near a Starbucks, practically touching the curb, and some jerk manages to park on the line next to me. I had a sinking feeling, so I decided to run back to the car and come back for my order. I stood between our cars, and this guy swings the door as wide as possible; I caught it with my hand, and gave him **** for it, but I doubt he cares. Another time, I was in my car, parked at a charging stop. Some guy in a work van pulls up next to me, and proceeds to walk back and forth to his car, grabbing screw drivers, hammers, power tools, centimeters from my car. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't been in the car looking at him, he would've hit it. I elected to move and charge elsewhere else.

People just don't care about other people's property

 

I try to park in an emptier location usually but this airport parking lot is pretty full and the lines are tight up against each other. Only other choice would have been to park at a lot with a shuttle and that might have been just as tight.
Or maybe the newly opened parking garage but that could be more of the same.
(This is BDL so the pictured parking lot is almost free even though it’s a trivially short walk to the terminal.)

 

I try to park in an emptier location usually but this airport parking lot is pretty full and the lines are tight up against each other. Only other choice would have been to park at a lot with a shuttle and that might have been just as tight.
Or maybe the newly opened parking garage but that could be more of the same.
(This is BDL so the pictured parking lot is almost free even though it’s a trivially short walk to the terminal.)

When I fly out of DIA, I use Canopy Airport Parking and their valet service. Yes, it costs more, but the 10-15% extra is worth it for me. Plus, they charge it.

 

Sitting in my Chicago hotel room while I learn that my testimony probably won’t start until after lunch. So taking a brief break from work to start off with a teaser of my road trip report …

This was going to be a tightly scripted road trip of 550 miles from Friday 9am to Saturday 9pm, with various adventuring in between. Even with my Audi A6 Allroad I might have needed to stop to refuel, especially since I replaced the OEM tires Michelin CrossClimate2, which I love but also take a noticeable rolling resistance hit. So this was a big experiment to see if my i4 M50, which I’d taken delivery of only on Wednesday, would be suitable for such a road trip, especially with the sparse DCFC charging network in northern VT & NH. (The irony is that I live only a coupe blocks from a DCFC, which of course is no help.)

I also had a report due Friday, but I sent off a draft Thursday night that I thought should be close to final. Sure enough, I received an email from the client Friday morning with only a minor edit, whew.

But just when I was about to drive our daughter to school to start off my road trip, I suffered a complete and catastrophic electronics failure.

Was it firmware, software, hardware? Who knows. All I knew was that no fixes were working.

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about my … laptop.

Sure it was over six years old. But also sure seemed to be running just fine. I’ve always replaced my laptops whenever they started to get kind of wonky, but this failure gave me no warnings signs whatsoever. Moreover, the laptop prior to that had totally failed eventually, so I didn’t have a back-up.

I grabbed my wife’s old laptop as I headed out the door, but that is so slow as to be barely functional, which she doesn’t mind since she does everything on her phone and tablet. With hindsight, I should have grabbed our daughter’s laptop, which although just a ~$100 cheapo thing is surprisingly competent, and she doesn’t need it much given her phone, tablet, and school Chromebook (which being a typical 7th grader she often uses simultaneously). But I was thinking some sort of restore option would get my laptop working to some extent.

Still thinking in terms of optimizing microefficiencies, after dropping her off at school (specially, Amherst Regional Middle School, search on news to read about the latest developments!), instead of backtracking into town, I started off on my road drop, stopping at a Staples along the way (in Greenfield MA)

Two guys tried to help me, but they didn’t know anything more than I did. Their computer tech guy, let’s call him Chris (since that’s his name), was arriving in about an hour and a half. They spoke highly of his abilities. If nothing else, he would be able to transfer my hard drive to a new computer.

Meanwhile, I called some local computer specialists, but they weren’t available, and although they tried to help me over the phone, all the usual recover screens just weren’t appearing.

Finally, Chris arrived. My savoir! Unfortunately, what Chris knew about computers was how to sell them. Actually, he mainly knew how to sell useless protection packages. And he seemed to have a standard sell protocol from which he didn’t deviate. Like he was programmed by some sort of algorithm, but a distant ancestor of ChatGPT. I all but flat-out said that I wanted to throw money at this problem to make it go away: buy a new laptop, whatever the most powerful model IN STOCK and that would still fit in my laptop case, then retrieve my files. Instead he first started showing me all these cheap models. I was so tempted to tell him how that compares to my hourly billing rate for the work I needed to finish up RIGHT NOW.

Finally we settled on the store’s most powerful model that wasn’t a gaming laptop too big for my briefcase. It was still surprisingly cheap. I would have been happy to pay 2x the amount. But then he tried to sell insurance on it. I don’t think he understood when I tried to explain to him the concept of self-insurance on such small amounts.

I spent some time setting up the new laptop, which generally went well, except Carbonite couldn’t transfer everything, even then or subsequently. I eventually sprang for the $99 hard drive option, which is arriving today. Meanwhile I’ve been downloading selected projected folders.

Sent off my final signed report and got back on the road, about four hours behind schedule.

Picture is of the parking lot, when I had been about to toss my old laptop in the i4 cargo area, but then realized it was so worthless that I might as well take it back into the store to recycle, just like I did at my local Staples a few years ago for all those old massive CRT monitors I still had in the attic. (Oddly enough, one of the projects I’ve been working on lately is what happens those old CRT monitors are “recycled”!)

Temperature was now almost 90 degrees, kind of ironic given the upcoming activities.

[And don't worry, the picture:text ratio will improve in future posts, just as the road trip will improve!]

 

So good to be back on the interstate with both a fully functioning laptop and a fully functioning car!

Here’s the first leg of the trip:

Jshefftz Consulting to Sugarbush Resort

I chose to skin/ski here since it wasn’t too far out of my way and I knew the snow was still good, both because of recent reports and the resort had even somehow still been open the prior weekend, a new record for there.

Special bonus was the L2 charging in the parking lot. Special bonus points for free. Given my four-hour laptop-induced delay, I couldn’t stay for long, but every little bit helps for giving me more flexibility along the upcoming route.

I love how my car talks to my watch!

I don’t think anyone is checking now:

Monster moguls!

 

First on this leg of the journey, another delay to make the day even longer -- SUV had taken out a utility pole!

I probably needed to charge in order to reach my friend’s family vacation house Friday night, and I especially needed to charge for Saturday morning’s drive. I remembered that my friend had a Model Y since last year for one of the ski mountaineering races I organized he had included in his Strava post a picture of the rapidly declining SOC when temps in the early morning valley inversions dropped to about negative 20F.

So the prior weekend I had checked his garage for the location of his L2 home charger. Hmm, couldn’t find it. Emailed him. No, that house doesn’t have one. Huh? I’ll have to ask him about that in person. I suspect the answer is that it’s not worth bothering, since the drive from his main residence isn’t all that long, and the usual trailhead has a two public L2 chargers. But I would be going to a different location, so no charging during the day on Saturday.

I had three options. The first was so close to Sugarbush that I would arrive at my friend’s place with a low SOC. The other two were further along the way. The first of those two has a 2.4 rating on PlugShare – yes, lower than EA! But it was directly on the rural highway, so might as well stop there first, then continue to the next DCFC if unsuccessful.

Drove through what seemed to be the center of the small rural town, with various all-night gas stations lit up so that you could see them from outerspace. The DCFC though was outside of town, and the convenience store was already closed at 9:30 on a Friday night. Fortunately I had brought some food just in case.

Tried the app, but wouldn’t work. Perhaps because I had only one bar, ugh. Screen said to use your EVgo card. Hmm, I had signed up for every possible app back in February. Did I have that card? Let’s see, yes, here’s a card. Oh no, that’s ChargePoint. Yipes, will have to drive to the next DCFC but … oh wait, here it, success!

So proud of my first DCFC session!
Fortunately, although the time cut into my sleep, I still had plenty of work to keep me occupied on my (new) laptop.

 

Finally went to sleep at 1am, but my adventuring the following morning would not benefit from a “dawn patrol” start so no big loss.

Plugged into an outdoor outlet for a little bit of overnight gain, which would give me some desirable charging flexibility for Saturday.

Good morning!

We are good to go, both the i4 and I!
(But the really good pictures will have to wait until later today or tomorrow -- everything until now by contrast has been just a tease...)

 

We interrupt this i4 trip report with a picture from downtown Chicago of a rather intriguingly wrapped C8:

 

Still in Chicago another night on biz, but back to the road trip ...


Line 'em up, because it's opening day, just before the opening bell (symbolic, not actual) at 9:00am!

Here we go:

Oh yeah:

(The next batch of pics will be really good, even better than you might expect...)