busybee fluffy rambles

The ebike has been working great!

But it’s gotten super rainy, and it’s not always great to ride in this weather.

Also having an empty carport has turned my house into a theft target, and I’ve been locked in a battle with a dude who is absolutely determined to steal the bike at this point.

One of my ideals had been to go with an older shitbox car with a stick shift, and I happened to be checking Craigslist on my monthly search for a stickshift shitbox, and came across a 2008 Corolla which seemed to be in good shape, and which is basically the same innards and platform as the 2006 Matrix I loved so much.

Earlier today the seller was free and so we met up and I gave it a test drive, and I ended up buying it, somewhat impulsively but, hey, it wouldn’t be the worst car purchase decision I’ve made in the last few years…

Just as I thought, a stickshift is a lot more fun to drive, and doesn’t fill me with as much anxiety as a car that tries to do everything for me and makes me feel like I’m not in control. It’s a super basic car by today’s standards; no blind-spot monitoring, no automatic headlights, no backup camera. Heck, it still has its factory stereo which only has a 6-CD changer and no aux input. (The seller threw in his Bluetooth-to-FM converter thing.) There’s also a bunch of little things that need to be sorted out (I’ll probably be taking it to my neighborhood mechanic tomorrow to see what work they recommend). It’s also beige (which looks surprisingly nice compared to today’s bland sea of black/white/grey boringness) and the paint is peeling and it’s been in a few fender benders. It’s not much of a looker, and it doesn’t really need to be.

I ended up ordering a CarPlay head unit since I do want in-dash navigation and better music integration and such, and also since the car only came with a single key and no door remote I ordered some remotes (which are apparently very easy to program yourself) and found a local locksmith who will duplicate and program the key for not too much.

Anyway. I still wish I hadn’t gotten rid of the Mazda3 when I did, but overall this feels like the right spot for me: a car that I don’t feel guilty about not-driving, and which doesn’t make me so anxious to drive.

The ebike arrived yesterday and I was able to assemble it super quickly. The Lectric XPress 750 ships almost fully-assembled, and all you have to do is unbox it, attach the front wheel, and connect whatever addons it came with. I wasn’t able to install the upgraded comfort seat because the factory seat was attached super tightly (what the hell kind of torque wrench did they use for it?!) but the mirrors and pannier were pretty easy to install, as was the holster for the accordion-style folding lock. The front fender was a bit annoying too, but just because of my own body issues and not because of anything wrong with the fender itself.

Adjusting the handlebars is also really easy, with a nice quick release mechanism for the adjustment.

Today I took it for its initial ride to do some light grocery shopping. Here are my observations:

• The pedal assist ramps up super quickly, with level 1 being not quite enough and level 2 being like “omg wtf is happeninnggggggggg.” For funs I also put it up all the way to level 5 and like, at that point might as well just use the throttle
• The throttle also kicks in super fast
• The lock is nice and compact but it’s a little janky to actually use on the bicycle parking at Safeway, and I think I’d rather have a cable U-lock
• The included pannier is a really awkward size that’s not quite big enough for the particular groceries I bought, and I’ll probably want to get a proper grocery pannier instead.

On this initial ride I mostly had an okay time, but I did have an issue where I needed to turn right onto a street, and a huge pickup truck stopped for me to let me go, even though I didn’t want to, and then he got annoyed that I wasn’t going right away. So I turned, and then he was stuck behind me for a block, and then I had to turn left, and instead of waiting 10 seconds for me to turn left, he passed me (illegally and dangerously) on the right. If only he’d treated me like regular vehicular traffic instead of trying to be overly courteous it wouldn’t have been a problem!

As far as panniers go, Lectric does sell a few different grocery panniers, but they’re meant for their cargo bike and require running boards, and also fit four grocery bags. I don’t need that much! I just want room for a single standard-sized grocery bag. Sometimes I’ll also have a case of soda and that I can just strap to the cargo rack. If anyone knows of any decent cheap panniers I’d be much obliged for any pointers. I did find this one on Amazon which looks pretty okay and is certainly a decent price, at least, but, y'know. Would rather buy elsewhere.