triangletom
Active member
A few Saturdays ago, I ventured to central North Carolina to join the local ADVrider crew for lunch as part of the confusingly named "Eastern Nc Advrider Dinner" thread. I took my trusty BMW CE-04 along - a quirky urban electric scooter (and the most fun I’ve had on two wheels).
While the trip was only 138 miles of backroads (an absurd amount for any GS owner), that's a fair journey on a scoot that only averages 62 miles of range in this environment. This trip includes:
Leg 1: Chapel Hill to Pittsboro
18 miles, 38 minutes riding, 19 minutes charging
This particular morning came just after our 16th wedding anniversary, so my wife followed in the cage so we could brunch together.
When traveling with an EV, I'll often plan my charging stops at places where I can simultaneously enjoy a great meal so that I can kill two birds with one stone - as well as support the businesses that support my ability to get around. Accordingly, today's destination was "Cafe Root Cellar" in Pittsboro, a brunch place often lauded as one of the best in the state, which has two EV chargers up front.
Between us and brunch is UNC Chapel Hill - the first public university in the United States. The campus is quiet: there are more fans of the original Versys design than people milling about at 8 am on a Saturday. Riding past campus, I jump on US Route 15/501, which alternates between an expressway and a surface road.
After pulling into the Root Cellar parking lot, I see that my plans are dashed, as they are not open on Saturday mornings. I hopped into Google Maps to find a plan B, and there it was: a small Cafe at a Bed & Breakfast, aptly named “Small Cafe B and B.”
The food here was spectacular, particularly today’s special: Burek.
It's a traditional Serbian meat pie, or more specifically, baked phyllo dough stuffed with pork sausage, spinach, potato, caramelized onions, peppers, shredded sheep's milk cheese, garlicky yogurt, and in this case, topped with herb salad.
A burek is typically served for breakfast and made its way to Serbia via Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. Many variations exist depending on where you are - The Turks have "Börek", Sephardic Jews have "bourekas", and Tunisians have "brik". The only consistent thing is that it's phyllo dough stuffed with savory goodness.
I never turn down Turkish Coffee when available, and this place delivered. Eventually, though, if I were going to make it in time for the ADVrider lunch and the route I had in mind, I would have to head out. Unfortunately, while leaving out the back entrance onto East St, I had the closest call yet on my scooter.
East St is a busy road. Back when I lived out here 20 years ago, it was known as Highway 64, but that road has since bypassed downtown. I knew there would only be a brief moment in time where the gap was big enough to make a left out of here, so I scooted as far down the gravel driveway as I could. Unfortunately, in doing so, my sight lines were significantly blocked by the two cars that were parked to my left. I looked at the gaps between the trees and the cars, and tried to count how many cars I saw entering and exiting the gaps so that I would know when the gap was close enough to enter.
After waiting 5 minutes for it to be clear, I pulled out of the gravel driveway. As I did so, I glanced leftwards and saw a Toyota pickup barreling toward me, 4-6 feet away. I instinctively yanked the throttle to get the hell out of the way and made a graceful left turn, thankful that the CE-04 has plenty of get up and go, particularly at speeds under 35mph.
I was practically shaking afterward. I thought a lot about this situation for the rest of the day. I had suffered a perception error, but how did I miss that pick-up truck? Could I have handled the situation better? Would it have been better or worse if I had made a right-hand turn instead? Even in hindsight, I don’t know the answers to these questions. I know I was thankful to be ATGATT, including an airbag jacket.
Since I couldn’t charge during breakfast, I headed to the playfully decorated Chatham Beverage District to top off on my way to Robbins. I arrived there with an estimated 66% of battery and an estimated 44 miles of range, with 38 miles to my next charging stop. My routing software, ABRP, suggested that I charge up to 93% so that I roll into my next stop with 20% of spare capacity, so that’s what I aimed for.
The district has a unique history: once the site of one of the largest flower farms on the East Coast, it became the site of a failed aluminum research facility, then a bio-fuels production facility, and eventually a consortium of meaderies, breweries, and distilleries. It also hosts the local farmers market, places to walk around and picnic, and a couple of free EV charging stations.
Charging from 66% to 93% took 19 minutes. The CE-04 isn’t the fastest charging bike out there (see Energica!), but also not the slowest. Content with the state of charge, I set the BMW navigation mode to “Winding route” and headed southwest toward Robbins.
While the trip was only 138 miles of backroads (an absurd amount for any GS owner), that's a fair journey on a scoot that only averages 62 miles of range in this environment. This trip includes:
- 4 hours of riding
- 2 hours of charging ($0.86)
Leg 1: Chapel Hill to Pittsboro
18 miles, 38 minutes riding, 19 minutes charging
This particular morning came just after our 16th wedding anniversary, so my wife followed in the cage so we could brunch together.
When traveling with an EV, I'll often plan my charging stops at places where I can simultaneously enjoy a great meal so that I can kill two birds with one stone - as well as support the businesses that support my ability to get around. Accordingly, today's destination was "Cafe Root Cellar" in Pittsboro, a brunch place often lauded as one of the best in the state, which has two EV chargers up front.
Between us and brunch is UNC Chapel Hill - the first public university in the United States. The campus is quiet: there are more fans of the original Versys design than people milling about at 8 am on a Saturday. Riding past campus, I jump on US Route 15/501, which alternates between an expressway and a surface road.
After pulling into the Root Cellar parking lot, I see that my plans are dashed, as they are not open on Saturday mornings. I hopped into Google Maps to find a plan B, and there it was: a small Cafe at a Bed & Breakfast, aptly named “Small Cafe B and B.”
The food here was spectacular, particularly today’s special: Burek.
It's a traditional Serbian meat pie, or more specifically, baked phyllo dough stuffed with pork sausage, spinach, potato, caramelized onions, peppers, shredded sheep's milk cheese, garlicky yogurt, and in this case, topped with herb salad.
A burek is typically served for breakfast and made its way to Serbia via Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. Many variations exist depending on where you are - The Turks have "Börek", Sephardic Jews have "bourekas", and Tunisians have "brik". The only consistent thing is that it's phyllo dough stuffed with savory goodness.
I never turn down Turkish Coffee when available, and this place delivered. Eventually, though, if I were going to make it in time for the ADVrider lunch and the route I had in mind, I would have to head out. Unfortunately, while leaving out the back entrance onto East St, I had the closest call yet on my scooter.
East St is a busy road. Back when I lived out here 20 years ago, it was known as Highway 64, but that road has since bypassed downtown. I knew there would only be a brief moment in time where the gap was big enough to make a left out of here, so I scooted as far down the gravel driveway as I could. Unfortunately, in doing so, my sight lines were significantly blocked by the two cars that were parked to my left. I looked at the gaps between the trees and the cars, and tried to count how many cars I saw entering and exiting the gaps so that I would know when the gap was close enough to enter.
After waiting 5 minutes for it to be clear, I pulled out of the gravel driveway. As I did so, I glanced leftwards and saw a Toyota pickup barreling toward me, 4-6 feet away. I instinctively yanked the throttle to get the hell out of the way and made a graceful left turn, thankful that the CE-04 has plenty of get up and go, particularly at speeds under 35mph.
I was practically shaking afterward. I thought a lot about this situation for the rest of the day. I had suffered a perception error, but how did I miss that pick-up truck? Could I have handled the situation better? Would it have been better or worse if I had made a right-hand turn instead? Even in hindsight, I don’t know the answers to these questions. I know I was thankful to be ATGATT, including an airbag jacket.
Since I couldn’t charge during breakfast, I headed to the playfully decorated Chatham Beverage District to top off on my way to Robbins. I arrived there with an estimated 66% of battery and an estimated 44 miles of range, with 38 miles to my next charging stop. My routing software, ABRP, suggested that I charge up to 93% so that I roll into my next stop with 20% of spare capacity, so that’s what I aimed for.
The district has a unique history: once the site of one of the largest flower farms on the East Coast, it became the site of a failed aluminum research facility, then a bio-fuels production facility, and eventually a consortium of meaderies, breweries, and distilleries. It also hosts the local farmers market, places to walk around and picnic, and a couple of free EV charging stations.
Charging from 66% to 93% took 19 minutes. The CE-04 isn’t the fastest charging bike out there (see Energica!), but also not the slowest. Content with the state of charge, I set the BMW navigation mode to “Winding route” and headed southwest toward Robbins.
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