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).