How was your 2018? Mileage, significant events....

[Over50]

I started this thread last year and we saw some really amazing mileage totals and interesting year-end recaps. Hoping to gather some more stories, totals, goals met (?) for 2018.

https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/how-was-your-2017-mileage-significant-events.15699/

For me, I fell short of goals and well short of 2017's mileage totals. We started home shopping in early summer and closed and moved between Sept and Oct. Closing on a new home and moving pretty much killed my commuting for a while. In 2017 I commuted around 60 days and for 2018 a measly 37. On the bright side, my knee hurts less than it did at the end of last year.

My significant events were trading the R&M Charger with the Nuvinci for the Charger GX with a Rohloff. Also deliveries of the Tern GSD and Vektron (the Vektron mostly for the wife). Thanks to the Vektron, I did log significantly more miles with the wife vs 2017 (so she did a lot more in 2018 vs 2017). One goal we didn't meet was getting out to some rail trails for some weekend getaways. That kind of fell by the wayside due to the move but I'm hopeful that 2019 will allow us to visit some of these. I hope to get a few more days of casual riding and grocery runs before year-end. But my 2018 is shaping up like this (first e-bike purchase was end of 2016 and prior to that I was just a weekend casual cyclist using my regular bikes for grocery runs, rides with the wife etc):

 

[Feliz]

Gosh, I don't have charts and graphs just odometers to add up but I did 4000 km + or - 100.

 

[christob]

I'm still banking on miles yet to come in the next 15 days... I'm trying to meet a goal (which I set earlier in the fall, when I realized there was a slim chance it might be achievable) of 4,000 biked miles (6,437km) by Dec. 31. (I also set another goal at the same time, of reaching 100 office commutes -- that one has just been satisfied, and I'm sitting at 103 commutes with 8 or 9 office days remaining.)
As this is my only bike, and my first year (a partial one) biking, I have no prior goals to compare, or earlier stats to measure against. (Other than one stat: a total lack of any consistent exercise in the years leading up to this bike's purchase

I think I'll make it to 4,000 miles by New Year's Eve, but only just barely, and only if we don't have more wash-out days like the last 72 hours! (Though I managed to rack up 48 soggy, cold miles this weekend just because of that arbitrary goal!) I'll pop back in with a proper year-end recap, on January 1...

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

4,000 biked miles (

4000 miles in a year for a guy who had not ridden bikes for 15+ years is an amazing number!

That kind of fell by the wayside due to the move but I'm hopeful that 2019 will allow us to visit some of these.

Same here. I think I barely made it 5000 miles this year. Work has gotten too intense and occupies most of my mental energy and compounded by Chicago's winters, the last few weeks have seen very low miles.

Looking forward to a more active 2019.

 

[DWN]

2018 - 4425 miles. In the year fighting Metastatic Melanoma and Kidney Cancer. The bikes help keep me going physically, mentally and spiritually.

 

[Alaskan]

After a "widow maker" heart attack in 2017, I was in cardiac rehab in January. I needed to find a cardio exercise plan going forward, one I could stick with. After talking to a friend and much research here on this forum and several test riding excursions, I ordered my first ebike, a Riese & Muller Nevo Nuvinci GH, in late January and then bought a Cube Touring Hybrid Exc 500 on ebay a week later, mostly for the spare battery,

I surprised myself by putting 1,100 miles on the Cube during the two months it took before the Nevo actually was delivered. By then the ebike had become my preferred mode of transportation, driving my car only when it rained, or I needed to transport something bulky and heavy. Then the Nevo arrived and I started riding even more taking many rides with my wife who took to the bikes like a fish to water. So now I was getting more fit and Nancy and I had a new, fun activity we could enjoy together.

I got a call from the good folks at San Diego Fly Rides, letting me know about a bike that had come available that could be a good fit for me. It was a brand new Riese & Muller Homage Rohllof HS (high speed) with the Fox suspension upgrade. Given how much I was riding, it seemed to make sense to go for it. That bike arrived on July 8 and was a thrill to ride, another leap forward in comfort, control and biking pleasure. I finished the month of July with 1060 miles.

August saw forest fires in eastern Washington and British Columbia with east winds blowing the smoke across the mountains, making our air quality inferior to that of Bejing. That kept me off the bike for two weeks. At the beginning of September, the family and I flew north to Alaska to bring out charter yacht back to Bellingham Washington, our winter port. We took two weeks to make this transit, having a great time with no bike riding.

According to my Nyon and Bosch ebike connect, as of yesterday, I have ridden 5,244 miles since February with a total elevation gain/loss of 187,000 feet. I am hoping to make 6,000 miles in my first full year on an ebike, ending in February.

When I read all the comments from newbies and experienced riders here on this forum, saying they rode more often and much further than expected with their new ebikes. I never realized how true that would be for me. I have lost 30 pounds and regained the spring in my step, restored my wind and am now more fit than I have been in 25 years. I feel so fortunate to have stumbled across this life changing technology.

I never could have imagined back in January, how much of an ebike fanatic I would become.

 

[christob]

4000 miles in a year for a guy who had not ridden bikes for 15+ years is an amazing number!

Therein lies the real power of a pedal-assist ebike, at least in my case! Getting me into a regimen of repeatable exercise (or at least movement, off the couch and outdoors exponentially more than before) in an actually enjoyable way, pain-free, with a ramp-up-at-your-own-pace feature built right in. There's an argument, sure, that the many available gears of a traditional bike could offer a similar experience... but I was never interested in trying to test that approach based on memories of that biking 25 years ago.

I've never considered taking up biking on a manual bike, after my 20's. Knowing myself reasonably well, I'd only have elected to take it on if I was already starting out in pretty decent shape. And as "pretty decent shape" seldom described my late 20's through this year, biking (or other sustained exercise) just never happened. As out of shape and overweight as I was this March, I'd never have the necessary motivation or discipline to power through that initial, painful, often frustrating, basically unenjoyable phase of building up to sustained biking (which I vividly recalled from my short stints with biking back in my early 20's.)

But the ebike was exactly the tool to ease me into it, letting me build up stamina gradually, along with leg strength and more endurance, etc., far more easily and (critically for me) enjoyably, in my experience. While avoiding the miseries of barely being able to complete even short rides; running out of steam after a few miles; having to walk the bike up even modest hills, etc. I relied frequently and heavily on more Assist in the early months -- but didn't care at all -- it kept me on the bike, exposed consistently to the fun aspects of biking -- which only made me want to do it more often! A positive feedback loop for transformational change if ever there was one.

I couldn't be happier with how this bike has in fact transformed a big part of my life, and how it remains enjoyable and fun.
I'd never have imagined in my wildest dreams, a day when I would willingly be biking in winter, let alone seeking even MORE winter miles, and narrowing in on a 4,000 cumulative miles goal!

 

[6zfshdb]

In the past, I've averaged around 2000 mi. in a season on my conventional MTB's. I rode 2021 mi. in 2017. So far in 2018, my first year with an e-bike, I've barely made 1000. I had hoped to double my miles with the new bike but the 2018 weather here in the northeast US has been just awful! Locally, we set the record for the wettest year ever back in September! I don't mind riding in occasional light rain or drizzle but I draw the line with downpours!

 

[indianajo]

I've wanted electric assist for high wind days and long excursions for 2 years. After 14 months of buying, installing, and being stranded by garbage, I received and installed a good battery & hub motor in October. I've only done one 20+ mile trip, that ran the battery down to red light, and a lot of 4 mile trips in town that I only use the electricity to make stale green lights on 5 lane cross streets. The direct drive slows me down when I pedal; a 15 mile RT to a concert last Sunday I only averaged 5 mph. But if the wind picks up to 28 mph as it did once in December, I've got electric assist from Reddy Kilowatt. Hurrah, no more 5.7 hour ordeals like the one end of September where I pedaled against a 15 mph wind in the hot sun. My pulse was over 150 for almost that entire time, leaving out a 10 minute break I took in a park. Exhausted me; working that hard is no fun. I need 3.5 hour pedal powered trips twice a week, plus 3 more 30 minute aerobic sessions in a week, to keep my heart in shape. But 5.7 hours is too much. Maybe next year I can take a 60 mile RT excursion to Madison or Seymour to a concert! Without bruising my hips.

 

[Dionigi]

For the last 4 years we have spent the winter months is Santa Cruz, without a car only using traditional bikes, a Globe with a 7speed Nexus IGH and my wife a specialized fitness bike. They worked great until last year our daughter bought a house about 4 miles from ours but 1200’ higher elevation. Since we turned 70 the elevation difference was more than we wanted to conquer on a regular basis. So after some research we selected a Nevo GH NuVinci for me and a small frame version, 26” wheels for Lynn. WOW what a great fitness and fun investment. They arrived mid February and by mid April we had 1200 miles on the bikes. At the end of April the bikes were shipped back to Pittsburgh and unfortunately the small bike was damaged in shipment. The bike was repaired and we added another 1400 miles during the summer and fall. Now to make life easier and remove the hassle and expense of shipping the bikes across country every year we order two more Nevo(is the plural Nevi ?). The 26” version is identical and the GH was upgraded to the GX Rohloff version. We hope this winter to be more adventurous and plan longer overnight treks.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

A little over 2000 miles since I got the Crosscurrent S in January. I was on track for something closer to 3000 until the hurricane hit in September. Since then, what with being displaced (restoration is coming along, but never as fast as we'd like, thank you very much), I've only done around 250 miles. Still, that's 2000 more miles than any time since 1991 when I got very sick. So I'm really happy with the increased exercise and mobility! Looking forward to rolling through 2019!

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Well, given my limited season and the fact that high summer is typically spent backpacking or cowering from fires I still managed to ride a little over 5000 miles. Two great 12-day bike tours (one from Olympia, WA to Crescent City, CA and the other a grand loop through the San Juans, Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island, and the Olympic Peninsula) and several S24O trips as well.

 

[christob]

My 2018 recap...
I had hoped to finish out the last few days of 2018 with a few more office commutes and some leisure rides -- Winter has not yet become frigid or snowy -- but a cold/flu bug struck late last week and has left me pretty wiped, missing out on the final 4 days. I'm hoping I'll feel sufficiently well enough that I can make a ride on New Year's Day, to set the tone for 2019!

I'll skip a mechanical recap (detailed in another thread) of the various issues my Cafe bike had this year -- the issues were fully resolved by the manufacturer this summer, and it has been happy, smooth sailing ever since.

March 2 delivery of bike: I was 49, 6'2", 303lbs, quite out of shape, and had not ridden a bike consistently in at least 20 years.

My 2018 by the numbers:
4,032 miles -- total biked miles for the year (6,488km)
1,161 miles -- car miles eliminated by biking to work
600.2 miles -- highest monthly total (Jul.)
403.2 miles -- average monthly mileage
305 days ----- days of bike ownership
180 days ----- days with biking more than 1 mile
109 ---------- office commutes made
95.8 miles --- average weekly miles (of all weeks with biking)
55 pounds ---- weight lost
53 pounds ---- weight of bike with battery
51.4 miles --- longest single-day total
38 days ------ mileage exceeded 30
27.8 miles --- highest average daily miles of any month (Sept.)
23 days ------ greatest number of biking days in any month (Jul.)
22.4 miles --- average daily miles (of all days biked more than 1 mile)
17 ----------- highest number of office commutes in any month (Oct.)
1 ------------ number of falls/crashes (late in the game at mile 3,961)
0 ------------ number of flats (fingers crossed!)

At the start of this year, I'd never have bet good money that I'd be biking regularly in 2018, let alone this much. I'd also never have bet that December 2018 would rise to "third place" in terms of total monthly miles biked... the idea that I'd continue biking into early winter would simply never have crossed my mind a year ago! I'm still intent on losing more weight and getting into better shape; maybe another 30 pounds, and 2019 might see me actually visiting a gym...!

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, happy 2019 of many enjoyable miles beneath your tires!

 

[Alaskan]

My 2018 recap...
I had hoped to finish out the last few days of 2018 with a few more office commutes and some leisure rides -- Winter has not yet become frigid or snowy -- but a cold/flu bug struck late last week and has left me pretty wiped, missing out on the final 4 days. I'm hoping I'll feel sufficiently well enough that I can make a ride on New Year's Day, to set the tone for 2019!

I'll skip a mechanical recap (detailed in another thread) of the various issues my Cafe bike had this year -- the issues were fully resolved by the manufacturer this summer, and it has been happy, smooth sailing ever since.

March 2 delivery of bike: I was 49, 6'2", 303lbs, quite out of shape, and had not ridden a bike consistently in at least 20 years.

My 2018 by the numbers:
4,032 miles -- total biked miles for the year (6,488km)
1,161 miles -- car miles eliminated by biking to work
600.2 miles -- highest monthly total (Jul.)
403.2 miles -- average monthly mileage
305 days ----- days of bike ownership
180 days ----- days with biking more than 1 mile
109 ---------- office commutes made
95.8 miles --- average weekly miles (of all weeks with biking)
55 pounds ---- weight lost
53 pounds ---- weight of bike with battery
51.4 miles --- longest single-day total
38 days ------ mileage exceeded 30
27.8 miles --- highest average daily miles of any month (Sept.)
23 days ------ greatest number of biking days in any month (Jul.)
22.4 miles --- average daily miles (of all days biked more than 1 mile)
17 ----------- highest number of office commutes in any month (Oct.)
1 ------------ number of falls/crashes (late in the game at mile 3,961)
0 ------------ number of flats (fingers crossed!)

At the start of this year, I'd never have bet good money that I'd be biking regularly in 2018, let alone this much. I'd also never have bet that December 2018 would rise to "third place" in terms of total monthly miles biked... the idea that I'd continue biking into early winter would simply never have crossed my mind a year ago! I'm still intent on losing more weight and getting into better shape; maybe another 30 pounds, and 2019 might see me actually visiting a gym...!

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, happy 2019 of many enjoyable miles beneath your tires!

Impressive and inspiring. Fantastic work/play. You are a great example of the passion and benefits that riding an ebike can achieve.

I bought my first ebike to sustain a good cardio exercise program after competing cardiac rehab, following a "wdowmaker", left anterior decending, heart attack in August of 2017. I took delivery on my first bike on February 10 and started riding the next day. I never suspected the degree to which riding a bike would become my principal means of transportation.

I haven't lost the impressive weight you did but I started a bit lighter at 238 lbs. I am 6'1' tall and celebrated my 68th birthday in October. I am semi retired and work mostly out of a home office now so I did not do any commuting.

Using your format here are my numbers. I had to guestimate the first month as I added the Nyon in mid March which is when precise data recording began. Looking back, I am more surprised than anyone at what I have done on my bike this past year.

If someone had told me on New Years Eve that this was in my future I would have laughed.

May 2019 bring health, happiness and peace to everyone in this forum and to the world.

My 2018 by the numbers:
5,457 miles -- total biked miles for the year (8,782km)
1,060 miles -- highest monthly total (July)
519 miles -----average monthly mileage
324 days ----- days of bike ownership – I started riding on 2/10/18
196 days ----- days with biking more than 1 mile
136 miles ---- average weekly miles (of all weeks with biking)
32 pounds ---- weight lost
71 pounds ---- weight of bike with battery,lock,tools,tube,etc.
66 miles ---- longest single-day total
49 days ------ mileage exceeded 30
35.3 miles --- highest average daily miles of any month (July)
30 days ------ greatest number of biking days in any month (July)
27.8 miles --- average daily miles (of all days biked more than 1 mile)

3 ------------ number of falls/crashes)
1 ------------ number of flats

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Well, here we are on the last day of the year and the rain and sleet have stopped and the temps snuck over freezing... one last quick 20 mile swoop down around the spot where the Mohawk and Hudson rivers meet, and then back along the Erie Canal path.

2823 miles for the year, the weather this month has been lousy and there was that little three days in the hospital thing just before Christmas for another AFib problem... but dinner at our favorite restaurant tonight, and the quest for 3000 miles in 2019 begins. Best to all the team here, let’s go get it.

 

[RabH]

So many inspiring stories here I used to get out and cycle 100 miles + every weekend until April 2014 when I picked up a viral illness that totally floored me for almost 6 months, I had zero energy! The day before I became unwell I had cycled 73 miles and felt just like my normal self, I woke up the next morning for work and didn't feel right but decided to soldier on and made it to work. As the day wore on I was getting weaker and weaker and told my boss I would need to go home.

The next day I saw my doctor and they checked my blood and urine and everything was normal, they said I probably had a viral infection and it would just take time to recover...I was off work until October! I woke up one morning and was surprised to discover some of my energy had returned, within less than 2 weeks my energy levels were almost back to something like normal! In November I started cycling again and by the end of November I managed a 50 miler! The following year I continued cycling but only managed 1550 miles for the year, I just didn't have the stamina I had before the illness!

At the start of 2016 the virus returned, this time I was sidelined for 5 months In the summer of 2016 I was well enough to return to cycling but I just couldn't find the stamina to put the miles in but continued doing short rides, I was still enjoying my cycling but not like before! On to 2017 and I continued the shorter rides and by year end I had covered 1426 miles! At the start of 2018 I was finding it really hard to motivate myself to get out on my bike and put the miles in, I was sort of going through the motions really!

In January I only covered 22 miles, February was better with 118 miles and March was 139 but something was missing! I just wasn't feeling it so that's when I decided to enter the e bike market, I saw the Giant Road E and loved the look of it. I looked at the reviews which were very favourable and decided to treat myself for my 60th birthday! I instantly fell in love with cycling again and was soon stacking up the miles again

April - 309
May - 259
June - 377
July - 370
August - 393
September - 418
October - 261
November - 311
December - 291

Total for the year is 3270 miles and most of them with a smile on my face thanks to an amazing e bike

My standout ride was this one, 152 miles in one day to the home of golf (I'm not a golfer but St Andrews holds a special place in my heart) in Scotland! The weather was kind to me that day, over 10 hours in the saddle so it was very welcome I actually did this same ride in 2012 in the opposite direction and had always wanted to recreate it If it wasn't for the e bike it would never have happened!

 

[Bruce Arnold]

Had something similar in 1991. Flat on my back for 2 months, reduced activity for another 2 months, with occasional relapses since (but never as bad.) For a guy who was used to 10 mile runs and 100 mile rides, it felt like such a catastrophe! Glad you're doing better and enjoying your ebike mobility!

 

[RabH]

Had something similar in 1991. Flat on my back for 2 months, reduced activity for another 2 months, with occasional relapses since (but never as bad.) For a guy who was used to 10 mile runs and 100 mile rides, it felt like such a catastrophe! Glad you're doing better and enjoying your ebike mobility!

Thank you, it really does hit you like a rock! Here's to a healthy and fun 2019 of cycling

 

[Over50]

...I haven't lost the impressive weight you did...
32 pounds ---- weight lost

32 pounds is pretty impressive in my book.

 

[E-Wheels]

Toatal distance for year 2018 was 17,280 km
10,955km analog
6,325km electric
615 hours total ride time
Unfortunately my weight has increased since using the electric
I will have to formulate a strategy to manage this for 2019