Yesterday my bike group started their ride East of Gilroy at the Mendoza ranch entrance to Harvey Bear County Park. This is 12 miles from my house so I decided to take my e-bike to the start. Google Maps predicted 1 hour and 24 minutes for that ride, which seemed like an overestimate to me, plus I figured I’d be faster with electric assist. Fortunately, I left plenty of time, because it ended up taking 1 hour and 21 minutes. I think this was because the climb up Roop Road to Mendoza Ranch was slow, and I didn’t want to use too high a level of assist, I needed to save my battery for the trip back: I’d be riding from Mendoza Ranch back to our lunch place in town, about 11.5 miles, and this would be against the wind.

The main part of the ride was up in the hills, out to the end of Gilroy Hot Springs Road and back, and then two other out-and-backs further south on Jamison Road and Canada Road. I headed back before the last regroup. I needed a head start since the group would be driving the last 11.5 miles from the parking lot while I’d be riding. I put the assist in its highest setting and ended up beating them by just a few minutes to the lunch stop, draining my battery almost dry in the process. When I got home I had 3% of my battery life left. That’s cutting it kind of close. It wouldn’t have mattered too much if I’d run out, I’d have just pedaled the rest of the way manually, which isn’t bad on flat roads, just slower. This turned out to be a four-hour and ten-minute ride, a little long but enjoyable on a nice day.