Rental of touring bikes and e-bikes

With power assistance, I easily did a 70 km ride, including a couple of mountain ascents. A friend who is maybe 25 years younger than I am, and much fitter, suggested that we visit a temple and catch the late cherry blossoms on the other side of the mountains N of Kyoto City. He knew that I was interested in trying an e-bike and suggested renting one from Peter at Adventours. I used his Trek e-MTB. On the way to the first mountain ascent, we went over a hill where the gradient was as much as 25%. By then, I had got to understand the mechanical gear change, now I had to use power assistance: just press a button. It felt strange to so easily overtake him, and with so little effort. I seemed to wait for a long time at the top. At the bottom of the first long climb up to Hanase Pass, he urged me to go on ahead, so I did. I had heard that the road up was popular with cyclists, and this proved true as I overtook about two dozen riders who were making their way up under their own power. At the top, I only had to wait about three minutes for my superfit companion. The descent was a lot of fun, and then the road levelled out a bit as we passed through some quaint farming villages. Getting to the temple, Joshoko-ji was much easier than I imagined it would be. On the way we passed plenty of flowering cherries and other blossom trees that were still in bloom. The weeping cherry at Joshoko-ji had been pruned and, apparently was not as magnificent as it was a couple of years ago. It still looked good to me. The temple itself was also very interesting, well worth the JPY 400 entrance fee. Lunch proved to be a bit of a problem because the few restaurants require booking. They can accommodate a few casual guests, but they soon run out of food. Never mind, we got food from a convenience store and enjoyed lunch outdoors on the store's picnic table. After Hanase, where I had sometimes used Turbo Mode on the steep hairpins, because I was concerned about enough battery left for the mountain pass back to the city, I tried not to use power assistance. The bicycle was easy enough to pedal on flat roads and gentle slopes. It had power to spare for the climb up Kiyomi Pass. We were lucky with the weather and I enjoyed a great day out. It was my first long ride on an e-bike, which really extended my range and eased me over the mountains that stand between Kyoto and the countryside.