Hastings Park, Vancouver (2021-07-26)

 

Took the Rize Liberty (2020) out for a short little ride today and decided to document the trip. I'm finding it difficult to document my trips, as I wear a camelback, helmet, and gloves. My phone is tucked away in my camelback, and so I have to remove my camelback to access my phone, and remove my gloves because the screen wont respond with them on. I'm thinking of getting some sort of sports camera to attach to my Liberty. Anyone out there have some suggestions on a cheap, small, and decent sports camera for this application?

I'm also worried about having someone make off with my stuff, maybe I should enable the LCD lock on my Liberty, any fellow e-bikers use this feature?

Anyways, this trip is to my favorite local spot Hastings Park which hosts the Pacific National Exhibition, Hastings Skatepark, Leeside Skatepark, Pacific Coliseum, Italian Gardens and Japanese Gardens, Empire Bowl, did I miss anything?

Leeside Skate Park

Momiji (Japanese Gardens)

Now I'm known for being extremely critical of our Vancouver Parks Board, but I have to admit, what's been done at Hastings Park is truly amazing. 

I'm hoping to better document Hastings Park in the future.

Let me know what you think.

Mass

Liberty Headlight Bracket Mod

Not sure if this is considered a mod/hack or what have you, but it is what it is, take it or leave it. The stock 2020 Rize Liberty comes with the headlight mounted at the top of the triple tree forks as seen in the picture below.

While this is fine, I was concerned that the frame stops might move, and thought a solution would be to mount the headlight below the frame stops, so that the headlight would hold up the frame stops no matter what.

First I measured what I thought would be the perfect height for the frame stop. On my bike it seemed 3.25 inches down from the bottom of the top triple tree was a good number.

I then removed the headlight 

and it's brackets, and repositioned them below the rubber frame stops.

** This is where the mod/hack comes in**

My headlight seemed to move every time I bumped into it, so when re-assembling the headlight brackets, I added a small nut in between the two bracket halves. I don't know the nut size, only that they were .25 inch in diameter. I'm sure you could use just about anything you wanted that was .25 in in diameter.

As you can see in the following picture, the nut is placed between the two headlight bracket halves, and prevents bending the brackets when tightening.

This is what the bracket looked like before adding the nut

Now you can tighten your headlight, without worrying about bending the bracket, and it wont move. Also if you followed my suggestion by placing the headlight below the frame stops, you wont ever have to worry about smashing your forks against the frame. This is what it looks like now...

Let me know what you think?

Is this a helpful post?

Should I continue documenting future upgrades to my Ebikes?

Rize: Bolt X - Manual

 

For those who have a 2020 Bolt X as well, like we do, here the manual for that...

2020 Bolt X

Rize: Liberty - Manual

 

As many of you may know, I own a Rize Liberty (2020) electric bike. I thought it would be cool to offer others, who also have a Rize Liberty a place to get the PDF manual. I know they have the manual on the Rize website, but it's kind of hidden.

Rize Liberty (2020) Manual

MOD Pizza

I was over on Vancouver Island this past weekend visiting my wife's sister and her husband. It was my sister-in-laws birthday, so a big Birthday shout out to her. Also a big thanks to them for allowing the mainlanders to stay over for a few days.

It was late afternoon and the ladies had gone out to do some shopping, the men were left home to watch the Euro Cup final. As both of us weren't football fans, the game for us was a bit of a snooze fest, so we decided to grab lunch. My brother-in-law, Ryan, suggested we try out MOD Pizza.

I'd never heard of MOD pizza, but Ryan went on to described it as Sub-way style pizza.

Ok it's bad enough that both of us being first generation Italians, aren't into football(soccer).

Second, it's the Euro Cup final, and we're ditching the game to grab pizza?

Then you suggest a Sub-way style pizza?

WhatTheHeck! 

I'm surprised we didn't get shot down by lightning or something.

I know a little something about eating pizza, as I've been to Italy and had authentic Neapolitan style pizza. I've been to many a restaurant and tried all kinds of pizza, and Vancouver has some pretty good places, but come on now, Sub-way style pizza, this can't taste good. Can it?

So we drive (10 minutes) out to Langford, BC which is the first and only Canadian location.

Photo by: THE CABBIE IN THE #YYJ

Photo by: Bill Smithwick

So here I am, and low and behold, I'm at a pizza place that's set up like a subway. 

• You pick your dough (6",11" or 11"thick crust)
• You select your sauce, as many or as few as you want (BBQ Sauce, Garlic Rub, Olive Oil, Pesto, Red Sauce, Spicy Calabrian Chili Red Sauce, White Sauce, No Sauce) 
• You select your cheese, as many or as few as you want (Asiago, Dairy-Free Cheese, Feta, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Ricotta, Sharp Cheddar (Limited Edition), No Cheese) (
• You select your meats, as many or as few as you want (Anchovies, Back Bacon, Bacon, Grilled Chicken, Ground Beef, Mild Sausage, Pepperoni, Salami, Spicy Sausage, Taco-Spiced Sausage (Limited Edition))
• You select your Veggies, Herbs & Good Stuff, as many or as few as you want (Artichokes, Arugula, Basil - Fresh Chopped, Black Olives, Broccoli - Roasted, Cilantro, Corn - Roasted, Garlic - Chopped, Garlic - Roasted, Green Bell Peppers, Jalapenos, Mama Lil's Sweet Hot Peppas, Mushrooms, Oregano, Pineapple, Red Onion, Red Onions - Pickled (Limited Edition), Red Peppers - Roasted, Rosemary - Fresh Chopped, Salt & Pepper, Spinach, Tomatoes - Diced, Tomatoes - Sliced)
• Once your pizza is cooked you can add the following finishing sauces (Balsamic Glaze, BBQ Swirl, Hot Buffalo Sauce, Mike's Hot Honey, Pesto Drizzle, Ranch, Ranchero Sauce (Limited Edition), Red Sauce Dollops, Sri-rancha)

So you can pick as many or as few items as you want, the price of the pizza stays the same with the mini 6" being $10.87, the MOD 11" being $13.87, and the Mega Dough 11" thick crust being $15.87.

My pizza went as follows... Mega Dough with red sauce, oregano, mozzarella, dusting of asiago, salami, peperoni, back bacon, artichoke, tomatoes sliced, green bell pepper, drizzled with hot buffalo sauce.

As you can tell, I jumped around from one area to the other, and the server was totally cool, he laughed at my scattered combination, but gave my creation a final nod of approval, as he placed it in the oven. It took about 10 minutes and the pizza was cooked.

My verdict...

Firstly, you need to do some research online to know your selections. In-store they didn't have labels on any of the offerings, so you would have to point or ask, which could be frustrating if it was busy. 

How do you even judge this? 

Well, is it the best I've had? No

Is it the worst? Far from

I would honestly say it's mountains above a Little Cesare or Domino pizza and that's all I can compare the concept too, in terms of speed.

It's not as good as a specialty Neapolitan style pizza place, and just slightly below a Famouso pizza chain.

However the concept, speed, and price give it a leg up in some areas, if that makes any sense.

Would I go again? Definitely 

The quality was really good, and the infinite amount of toppings, makes it great, specially when your with groups of people with dietary restrictions.

My only let down was they didn't offer Parma cured ham, which is my favorite topping on pizza!

 

Also posting this was a total after thought, and I didn't take any pictures. I would have loved to photograph my pizza because it looked and tasted really good. 

The location was a typical strip mall, with the vibe being sort of skate boarder inspired.

All in all, a cool place to chill with friends and have a good quick bite..