Something has come over me. A transformation of sorts. I think I like driving.

I did something I had never done before. I drove my car to…nowhere. That’s right, I took a journey just for the sake of because I like driving this car so much. The Polestar 2 has converted me, and it’s really fun.

Driving in the Dark

One of the features I wanted from the additional Pilot pack was the Pixel LED headlights. A lot of Polestar 2’s had shipped without them, instead fitted with “Pilot Lite” due to global chip shortages, but luckily mine is fully loaded. The edges of the headlight beams are squared instead of rounded and the full beam can be automatically activated by the car whenever there are no other cars on the road. Not only that, but the headlights can turn off one side at time to provide adequate light for driving while not blinding other road users. The automatic controls work well and mean there’s one less thing to worry about when driving at night. You’re not going to accidentally drive around with your high beams on either.

Part of the Pilot pack is adaptive cruise control and lane control (Pilot Assist) which maintains your speed when the road is clear and brakes when the car in front slows down, It can also steer to keep you within lanes. The steering works quite well, although I find the car brakes a little too harshly when trying to maintain distance with the car in front. As a result I suspect it isn’t the most efficient way of driving on the motorway.

I use one-pedal-driving (OPD) most of the time in urban environments, then switch it off for easier coasting on the motorway. If you’re not familiar with the concept, OPD allows you to drive the car with one pedal as the name suggests, accelerating as you put your foot down and applying regenerative braking as you lift your foot up. It makes for a really smooth driving experience but it’s a little weird at first. I find I rarely have to use the brake pedal in normal driving conditions.

One of the particularly odd experiences is with automatic emergency braking. A few times when I’ve tried to park a bit too close to the house (to avoid nosing onto the footpath) and the Polestar has voted against it and slammed the brakes. It’s nice to know the function works to stop you accidentally hitting a low barrier but it can be dramatic. I thought I had bumped something but it was just the sudden braking.

Journey Planning

Whilst some have described the Google Maps battery estimates as pessimistic, they have been relatively accurate in our journeys to date. Before I’d driven an EV, the route planning aspect was a little bit daunting as I didn’t really understand how public charging was organised. The Polestar 2 makes it a complete breeze and suggests suitable stops along the way without allowing the car to drop to a critical level of battery. Interestingly it’s faster to do several short stops than a longer one as the car charges fastest between 20 and 80%. Forcing the last 20% into the battery takes much longer and is harder on it. I never seriously contemplated driving to conferences myself, but now it seems much more manageable with a comfortable car.

Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten about my bike. I’m still trying to improve my VanMoof S3.

No more squeak!

From early on in my VanMoofing, the brakes were a little bit frustrating. They had a tendency to be overly squeaky although did work well. I hadn’t thought much about the braking until I saw a post about a series of improvements to make the day to day experience of the bike more pleasant. One was seat post suspension given the lack of other suspension on the bike for increased ride comfort. The next upgrade was perforated brake rotors. The theory is that the perforated rotors dissipate heat more efficiently, allow water and braking dust to drain, and are a little lighter. I’ve replaced the rotors with Tektro ones and replaced the worn brake pads too. VanMoof has some good instructional videos on how to take the wheels off and how to replace brake pads. A few of the steps are a bit of a faff, but in general it’s easily enough done.

I am still struggling on with the VanMoof X3 repair. The screw/bolt heads are easily stripped but I’ve had success with the screw extractor and drill approach. Some of the screws are difficult to access too, tucked away in recesses in the frame. It doesn’t make for easy access but I’ll get there eventually. I can see why bike shops charge so much for working with VanMoof e-bikes.

The Place to Be

As miserable as it can be on a day like today, there’s nowhere better on a sunny day with a clear sky. We took a walk through the Barbican to pick up fish and chips and sat out on the Hoe. Plymouth was packed and the atmosphere was closer to the Algarve than Devon.

Aurora Borealis? At this time of year?

I didn’t have my camera with me but I managed to snap the aurora whilst at a friend’s house in Walkhampton. Even a handheld phone was enough to get a glimpse of the spectacle. Unfortunately when I made it back to Plymouth there was too much light pollution to get a decent one.