October 30, 2010

Day 304 of Firsts: Ride an Electric Bike

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.  Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.  Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.  ~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green

This was such a cool experience. What's an electric bike? Well, it's a bike you pedal but it gives you a boost from a battery. 

The best way to explain it is you can pedal up a very steep hill effortlessly. Your doing something but you've got help.

Philly Electric Wheels is the only distributor of electric bikes I know of in the area.  The owner, Afshin Kaighobady, lets you give it a try for a free. You can also rent these bikes by the hour, day or weekend.

Check out our little ride. We were coming up a huge hill at the end and didn't break a sweat. (Of course you can break a sweat if you want. Just turn down the "help").







The bike I was riding costs about two-thousand dollars. Still, if you've been thinking about using your car less, you're the outdoor type, and you just want to go greener, this is a great way to go.

Some of the electric bikes have a throttle on them and you can ride them like a motorized scooter. I tried one. It was great until I forgot to let go of the throttle as I was getting off the bike. Oops. Sorry no video. Got a few little bumps and bruises. Driver error.  But what a ride.

The next bike I buy sometime in my life will be an electric bike.

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