It was warmer this morning and I looked forward to a good bike ride the last 7 miles to work, and opened up a 2-pack of chemical hand warmers and popped them into my ski mittens so they'd be nice and warm by the time I saddled up the bike. As I drove through Tijeras Canyon and came into Albuquerque at the Tramway exit, I noticed how red the sky was, and the old proverb "Red Sky at Morning, Sailor Take Warning" came to mind. That, plus the ham radio reports on the NM Breakfast Club (3.939 MHz, 6:30 - 7:30 daily) included reports of heavy snow in Window Rock, Taos, Farmington, etc, and the lowering sky looked very gloomy to the north.
So I knew I could get in a good ride TO work this morning, but worried about how long it might take to start snowing here in Albuq. So I wimped out and drove all the way to work. The fall on the ice last night didn't help my attitude any, and I know full well I will miss the additional energy today that I always feel when riding the bike even that short distance.
I also noticed my rechargeable battery pack got low last night..... the ham radio on the handlebars started blinking when I tried to transmit which indicates a weak battery, and the GPS popped a low batt warning window too. So I unplugged the external battery PowerPole (tm) connector and let the radio and GPS run on their internal batteries, and they lasted until I got the last mile to the car. I had not charged the pack over the weekend but normally it holds up better than this.... the new color Garmin GPS just may be quite a battery hog. Will try to test it sometime today to see just how much current it draws so I can guesstimate more accurately how long it will last. If I was on my dream long distance bike tour this would have spelled trouble.
I have a "bottle headlight generator" on the rear wheel modified to charge the battery while I ride but it doesn't put out enough power to do much good, so I normally don't engage it since it produces a slight but noticeable drag on the pedaling effort and a mildly irritating whine as the tire spins the generator. I engaged it last night and charged the battery pack the last mile or so, not realizing to myself that it was doing the electronics no good, I was already running on internal batteries and disconnected from the rear battery pack / charging system. I'm seriously looking at hub generators, but have found little information or literature on how much power they put out and whether they're worth the very high price they command ($100 or so plus you get to disassemble your existing wheel or build a brand new one using the hub....)
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