I recently took the plunge and bought my first new bicycle since eighth grade.
Electric.
Though many consider electric bicycles “cheating” (when they zip past regular bikes on a trail), I had many reasons for venturing into this new category of cycles.
- In October-ish, my office is moving from 7.2 miles one-way to 11.4 miles one-way. The difference in my regular bicycling commute will be roughly another 40 minutes out of my day. A commute on this bike is close to the time of driving. And with the typically bad traffic along the new route, the electric bike might actually be faster!
- Every time I ride the electric bike rather than drive, I’m preventing a significant amount of pollution. (I plan to ride as many days as I can.)
- It’s still exercise… the motor won’t go unless you are pedaling. (It’s a “pedal assist” bike.) Even though it doesn’t provide as much exercise as a commute on my road bike, I am still getting way more exercise than I would be behind the wheel of my small automobile.
- It’s a lot cheaper to charge the battery than pay for gas (once you factor out the cost of the bike).
- Upkeep expenses will be undoubtedly less than for any of our cars.
- It can only go 20 miles per hour, so it’s pretty safe.
- 50% of the bikes sold in Belgium are electric (source). They must know something.
- Ironically, the frame color is very similar to that of my road bike, which I had custom painted a million years ago.
- It was a super good deal, via Performance Bicycles – like less than half of what most electric bikes go for.
- It’s fun.