ebikes are awesome!
It's been a month since Britt and I bought our Priority Embark ebikes. Verdict: YAYAYAYAY!
In this month, I have ridden mine 172 miles! The longest ride was ~25 miles: a bunch of errands, followed by a long ride up a dirt road into the mountains for a picnic, and then back home. But I also rode 6 miles each way to a doctor's office twice, as well as lots and lots of shorter rides: to the library, to go running along the river or at the high school track, to the farmers market, to the grocery store, to the recycle station...basically everywhere I would otherwise have to drive.
I'm a lot more comfortable with the throttle-style gearshift for the continuously variable transmission now. Also, it's become second nature to turn up the motor assist going up hills, and turn it down on the flatter terrain. I rarely ride with the assist off completely, but I pretty much always strive for the combination of gearing and assist that means that I pedal against a little-but-not-a-lot-of resistance. This works out to being in eco or tour mode most of the time, with sport mode for hills and turbo mode for steep hills; I have only actually tracked my mileage after one battery charge, and that gave me 48 miles on the charge, woohoo! (I am trying to charge only to 80-90%, because that is better for long battery life, and I don't run the battery down completely because I want to be able to get home up the hill with some assist, so I suppose if I charged it all the way and ran it down all the way I'd get even more mileage.)
I bought some cheap (in both senses of the word) panniers, and they look ridiculous, but they work well for the purpose I require, that is, to carry groceries, empty bottles, and so on.
Look, I can carry a vase of flowers! (I bungeed the vase against the rack so it would stay vertical and not spill any water.) There is also a large bag of bok choi in there, behind the mail I just picked up from our mailbox, and two six-packs underneath. In the other pannier is my u-lock and the rest of my farmers market veggies and fruit.
This last photo also shows my mirror, which is so useful that now I keep looking at the space where the mirror should be but isn't on my mountain bike, as well as the cheesy little bell the city was giving away for free during Clean Commute Week last month. Today I installed what will hopefully be my last bit of extra bike gear, a handlebar-mounted water bottle cage, because it's been really hot and I've been getting thirsty while biking around town doing my errands.
If this were a real blogger's review, I'd probably talk about the belt drive, or the motor, or other technical stuff. But you know what? I don't actually notice any of these things. I just notice that I can get on my bike, and haul stuff around, and ride places, and not get overly sweaty or tired despite the hills and the heat - but also that I feel like I'm still getting some exercise. I bought this bike to fulfill a specific purpose, and it does so unobtrusively and awesomely, and this makes me happy!
Originally posted on my primary journal at https://ilanarama.dreamwidth.org/174330.html; please comment there. OpenID and anonymous comments are welcome.
In this month, I have ridden mine 172 miles! The longest ride was ~25 miles: a bunch of errands, followed by a long ride up a dirt road into the mountains for a picnic, and then back home. But I also rode 6 miles each way to a doctor's office twice, as well as lots and lots of shorter rides: to the library, to go running along the river or at the high school track, to the farmers market, to the grocery store, to the recycle station...basically everywhere I would otherwise have to drive.
I'm a lot more comfortable with the throttle-style gearshift for the continuously variable transmission now. Also, it's become second nature to turn up the motor assist going up hills, and turn it down on the flatter terrain. I rarely ride with the assist off completely, but I pretty much always strive for the combination of gearing and assist that means that I pedal against a little-but-not-a-lot-of resistance. This works out to being in eco or tour mode most of the time, with sport mode for hills and turbo mode for steep hills; I have only actually tracked my mileage after one battery charge, and that gave me 48 miles on the charge, woohoo! (I am trying to charge only to 80-90%, because that is better for long battery life, and I don't run the battery down completely because I want to be able to get home up the hill with some assist, so I suppose if I charged it all the way and ran it down all the way I'd get even more mileage.)
I bought some cheap (in both senses of the word) panniers, and they look ridiculous, but they work well for the purpose I require, that is, to carry groceries, empty bottles, and so on.
Look, I can carry a vase of flowers! (I bungeed the vase against the rack so it would stay vertical and not spill any water.) There is also a large bag of bok choi in there, behind the mail I just picked up from our mailbox, and two six-packs underneath. In the other pannier is my u-lock and the rest of my farmers market veggies and fruit.
This last photo also shows my mirror, which is so useful that now I keep looking at the space where the mirror should be but isn't on my mountain bike, as well as the cheesy little bell the city was giving away for free during Clean Commute Week last month. Today I installed what will hopefully be my last bit of extra bike gear, a handlebar-mounted water bottle cage, because it's been really hot and I've been getting thirsty while biking around town doing my errands.
If this were a real blogger's review, I'd probably talk about the belt drive, or the motor, or other technical stuff. But you know what? I don't actually notice any of these things. I just notice that I can get on my bike, and haul stuff around, and ride places, and not get overly sweaty or tired despite the hills and the heat - but also that I feel like I'm still getting some exercise. I bought this bike to fulfill a specific purpose, and it does so unobtrusively and awesomely, and this makes me happy!
Originally posted on my primary journal at https://ilanarama.dreamwidth.org/174330.html; please comment there. OpenID and anonymous comments are welcome.