Einstein Bros, University City

The ride to Einstein Bros Bagels in University City on Regents Rd (close to where I work) was cold and windy. Going to the bagel shop was okay because the wind was at my back for most of the way. But the ride back was slow with the wind in my face.

The bagel was good. I got the apple cinnamon. It had a bit too much apple and not enough crunchy cinnamon sugar so I'm only giving this shop four stars out of five.

Route and stats are below.

Blue Box Bagels & Brew, Sorrento Valley

My ride to Blue Box Bagels & Brew was a simple out-and-back along the coast. The ride was fun and went on some new roads for me thanks to the Komoot app.

I had a cranberry bagel, and even though it was a bit dry (I got there after noon and they were closing in about an hour so I didn't expect it to be fresh), it was quite delicious. Now that Einstein Bros doesn't make cranberry bagels anymore, I'm officially naming this the Best Cranberry Bagel in San Diego.

Blue Box Bagels is a small shop in an industrial park with no outdoor seating. Hopefully they'll expand in the future to a nicer shop to go along with their delicious bagels.

Einstein Bros Bagels, Bernardo Heights Pkwy, Rancho Bernardo

My ride to Einstein Bros Bagels in Rancho Bernardo was good but cold (60 degrees is cold in San Diego!). I let the Komoot app pick most of the route and it did a good job. In one case, I had to go between two dead-end streets on a steep foot path but I was able to just barely get up it in 3rd gear.

I decided to get an apple cinnamon bagel (with sugary apples on top) and it was delicious. After a long ride, the Einstein Bros Gourmet bagels really hit the spot.

Stats and route are below.

I ♥ Bagels, Oceanside Blvd

I don't know why the two I Blood Pump Bagels shops in Oceanside get such good ratings on Google Maps (4.4 and 4.5 out of 5!). I'm very underwhelmed by the bagels. The one I had on this ride was dry and not very tasty. The table was dirty. And I had to wash it down with Diet Pepsi instead of Coke Zero. Maybe I should start calling it "I !♥ Bagels".

The ride was good. It was only 22 miles and I didn't run into any bike snobs that wanted to race me.

And my electric bike worked beautifully. I rode home on the same route I used to take with my non-electric bike when I lived in Oceanside. The three big hills on the route that used to just about kill me on my regular road bike were a breeze with the e-bike even on ECO mode.

Einstein Bros Bagels, Del Mar Heights Rd, San Diego

My ride to Einstein Bros Bagels on Del Mar Heights Rd in Carmel Valley was fun but cold. On the 101 along the coast, I passed a cyclist in full biking gear; I was going about 25 mph to his 22 mph. He then pedaled hard for about a half mile to almost catch up to me. Once he got close, I kicked the power up from ECO all the way to TURBO and pulled away from him at about 28-29 mph and didn't see him again. I love my e-bike for getting rid of the bike snobs that want to race me.

The bagel at Einstein Bros was delicious, as usual. However, I overheard a horrible rumor that they've discontinued the cranberry bagel which is one of my three favorites (along with blueberry and chocolate chip). I hope it isn't true. But if it is, maybe I'll try the apple cinnamon.

The route and stats are below. For the first 20 miles on the way to Einstein Bros, I averaged 20.8 mph which is really fast for me. Unfortunately, I can't count it as an official time because I ran a few miles above ECO mode to get rid of the pesky cyclist who wanted to race.

Garden State Bagels, Encinitas

My ride to Garden State Bagels was short and fun, and the bagel was good too. I got lucky with the chocolate chip bagel because they had come out of the oven recently so it was still hot, chewy and delicious. However, when they cooled down, they weren't as good (as Amelia confirmed with the bagel I brought home for her). Hence, four stars out of five.

My front tire was losing quite a bit of pressure during the week, and I was happy that it lasted the whole ride after pumping it up right before I left. However, on Tuesday morning it had gone completely flat so I finally had to change the tube after more than two years of riding.

I ♥ Bagels, Vista Way

My ride to I ♥ Bagels on Vista Way in Oceanside was good but the bagel shop experience wasn't so great resulting in only a 2 star rating. First off, the server got my order wrong and then messed up my change (the meal was $3.60, I gave her a $20, and she gave me back $3.60 in change!). Then it took at least 5 minutes to sort is all out and get me the correct change. Then the bagel was a dry and not very tasty. Lastly, the only outdoor seating was in the sun looking out at a parking lot--not very pleasant.

But it was still a good ride.

Einstein Bros, Oceanside

I did the same ride as Top of the Bagel a few weeks earlier but stopped at Einstein Bros Bagels in Oceanside instead. The bagel was really good, as usual. This the bagel shop that Calvin and I usually stopped at on the mornings of our Sunday morning hikes in San Diego.

The ride was good, especially the eight miles or so along the bike trail on the northern side of Oceanside. I'd like to find more trails like this one.

Map and stats are below.

New York Bagels & Cafe, Rancho Bernardo

My ride to New York Bagels & Cafe in Rancho Bernardo was fairly uneventful. With the combination of waking up early and the daylight savings time fall-back gain of an hour, I left at about 8 am and was back around 11 am. The bagels were good but not great, and they only have Pepsi products so I probably won't be going back.

I passed several cyclists along the way and none of them chased me to try to keep up which was nice. I made sure to go past them about 5 mph faster so they wouldn't even think about trying to race me. I'm still loving my e-bike. Even in ECO mode, I can pedal fast enough so that I'm rarely going the same speed as other cyclists.

The route and stats are below.

Einstein Bros Bagels, Encinitas

The Einstein Bros Bagels in Encinitas is only 6 miles from my house but I took a ride along the coast to make it a 19 mile ride. The ride was good and the bagel was excellent but I'm only giving this Einstein Bros shop four out of five stars because the the service is always very slow at this location.

When I was about a quarter mile from my house, I saw that the average speed was 20.0 mph which I really want to hit on one of my rides. Unfortunately, even though I pedaled as hard as I could at the end, my final average speed was only 19.9 mph. Oh well, it gives me something to shoot for on my future rides.

Top of the Bagel, Carlsbad

I had an enjoyable ride to Top of the Bagel in Carlsbad, going along the San Luis River bike trail (the northern part of the ride on the route map below) which is nice because it's about 7 miles long with smooth pavement and no stops. The bagels at Top of the Bagel were really good. I'm only giving it 4 stars though because they only had Pepsi products. The chocolate chip bagels were dairy free so it's another good choice besides Einstein Bros Bagels in Carlsbad.

Sidny's Bagels and Deli, Rancho Bernardo

My bagel ride to Sidny's Bagels & Deli was a rare ride in the wet because San Diego has a thunder storm the previous night. Fortunately, the roads were mostly just damp and I only went through a few puddles.

I was disappointed by the bagels at Sidny's. They focus more on the deli part: the bagels were in small bins on the back wall, while the main display was filled with meats and cheeses for the deli sandwiches. The bagel wasn't very fresh, not very chewy on the inside, and didn't have a lot of taste. Washing it down with only Pepsi products didn't help. So I only give this bagel shop 2 of 5 stars.

The ride home through Camino Del Sur was nice--good roads with nice bike lanes and not too hilly. My single 500 Wh battery lasted the full 44 miles without trouble (I still had one bar left at the end of the ride). And I had no troubles with shifting quickly into 10th gear--not one chain drop. The chain guard nut is working perfectly.

Route and stats are below.

Joshua Tree Ride

I didn't get a bagel on this ride, so it's not an official Bagel Ride, but I did ride 70 miles through Joshua Tree on my e-bike.

I used my battery for the first 40 miles, including the long uphill climb at the beginning of the park. But for the last 30 miles, I turned off my battery for most of the time, including the uphill climb for the last 5 miles (see elevation below). I ended up using only 3 of 5 bars on my 500 Wh battery (I never needed my spare 400 Wh battery that I carried for the whole trip).

Here are the stats:

• Distance: 70.3 miles
• Avg speed:  16.0 mph
• Riding time:  4 hr, 41 min
• Total ascent:  4,125 ft

And here are some pictures from the ride.

Bonus Ride: Einstein Bros, Santee

In preparation for a 70-80 mile ride through Joshua Tree next weekend, I rode 80 miles on Sunday to the Einstein Bros Bagels in Santee. The first 50 miles were fine, but the last 30 were a bit tough even with the e-bike. Four-and-a-half hours on a bike is just too long!

It didn't help that there was a huge hill at 28 miles and another decent sized one around 45 miles (see below). Going downhill on the other side was quite fun. I got up to 40 mph.

I'm giving this bagel shop five stars because the bagel was really good. Maybe it was because I was quite hungry after riding 40 miles. Or maybe it was because I got the limited pumpkin walnut bagel. The sugar-walnut mixture on the top fell off when I cut the bagel. But I sprinkled it on top of the cheese and it was quite delicious. (I felt like Bryce Dallas Howard in the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror when I was taking a picture of my bagel.)

The route made a nice loop through Esondido, Poway, Santee, Miramar Air Force Base (where I saw some of the air show with fighter jets and helicopters), Rancho Sante Fe (where quite a few $2-6 million homes were for sale), Encinitas and then back to Carlsbad.

For some reason, the Komoot on-line site is showing the stats in kilometers instead of miles even though I have miles selected in settings and the other graphs are in miles. The conversion to English units is below.

total distance:  79.5 miles -- average speed:  17.2 mph -- total ascent:  5085 feet

Chain Problem Fixed!

Before the ride, I replaced the stock lock nut holding on the front sprocket with a Miranda E-Chainguard Nut (ordered from amazon.co.uk and it only took four days to get here). It worked beautifully! I changed into 10th gear about twenty or so times throughout the ride and the chain didn't fall off once. The Chainguard nut has extra metal beyond the nut as shown, and it works great at preventing the chain from falling off. And it still fits underneath my chain cover which I left on (keeps my socks or long pants clean in case they rub against the chain area).

Busy Bee's Bagel Bakery, La Jolla

I took a 56-mile ride to Busy Bee's Bagel Bakery to test out the range of my new battery. It lost power at 52.8 miles so now I know that I have a range of about 88 miles with both batteries. The bagels at Busy Bee's were quite good and reminded me of the ones at I Heart Bagels in Oceanside. They only had diet Coke (no Coke Zero) and no refills but the place was nice so I give it four stars (mostly because of the bagels, plus they did have a bathroom and self-serve water that I used to fill up my water bottle for the ride back).

Chain Problems

This was also my first ride with my new chain, sprocket and cassette. I thought changing those would fix the problem of the chain coming off the front sprocket but it happened again 10 miles into the ride. It was a pain to fix because of the chain guard but the master link on the new chain made it easier. While I was at the bagel shop, I googled the problem and found others have had the same issue with the Trek XM700+. Some people have found that they can replace the sprocket lock ring with the E-Chainguard Nut from Miranda which is the part used on the Trek Powerfly 7. I ordered the part today from amazon-UK and it should be here on Thursday.

Komoot Problems

I also had a problem with the Komoot app.  I retraced my route for about a mile through La Jolla and it didn't alert me to my turn even though I was traveling the other way on the route. It seems to get confused if you're on the route twice. I'll have to pay attention to this next time I retrace my route. Otherwise, the app is working great at telling me the directions as I ride.