So I decided it was time to be all “trendy” and what-not and jump on the hybrid band wagon. I thought if I was going to go green, I should go all the way. So I’m trading in the Mooseknuckler-mobile for the car pictured above. No it doesn’t get good gas mileage because there isn’t any fucking gas.
I was a bit skeptic of jumping on the Ebike thing. Even after testing them in downtown Denver during the US launch. Riding through traffic at 30 mph was a giggle, but I had a hard time justifying a bike that I had to charge. And I still do.
As a bike, the Turbo essentially sucks. It’s heavy, stiff and you pretty much have to run it with the mirror attached and look like a big dork doing it. If you pedal the thing without the pedal assist on, it is a bitch. Not to mention the fact that it looks fast, but it you wouldn’t make it around the block under your own power.
But as a car…
This thing fucking rocks.
This past Sunday, I commuted to work and decided to take the direct route. There weren’t a lot of cars on the road. I just put it in Turbo mode and cranked, running right down Telegraph to Red Cliffs Drive and then down the Boulevard. I made it to work in 15 minutes. If I had driven the old Mooseknuckler-mobile, it would have taken me 15 minutes.
After a few days of riding the Turbo, I had to increase its storage capacity so I stole the Surly Nice Rack off of the Crazy Blue Bike and swapped it over. After attaching a pannier and a grocery bag pannier, there isn’t much of a reason I will ever need to pay for gas to get around town. Actually, I think the only reason I will ever drive a car in SG is to take my mountain bike to a trailhead…
Does it do groceries?
I think we can all agree that fewer cars are better. I’ve been commuting by bike for a long time (Yes, Prattipus we all know that I haven’t always been 100% consistent and that there was a good chunk of 2011 that I didn’t even ride bikes, at all, but you know what, you live three blocks away and I’ve seen you drive…) and there are always situations that don’t give you enough time to get to where you need to be on a bike. The Turbo more or less solves this problem.
The other day my dad rang me asking if I could bring back a service manual I had borrowed as he was working on his car. Previously this would have meant a car trip or an hour round trip by bike. I grabbed the Turbo. I was at my Dad’s house in 15 minutes, hung out for a bit and then sped to work in another 15 minutes. Problem solved. I would have saved maybe 10 minutes by driving a car. 10 minutes is not worth driving for.
So, no I don’t think eBikes are the way of the future, for bicycles. Keep your bike, pedal it as often as you want, but get rid of the car and use a pedal assist bike for any of your day to day journeys. There really isn’t a down side.
Now unleash the heckling…
P. L. and R.
Heckle…