An E-Bike Success Story - Me

A University of Colorado at Boulder electric bike study has been making the rounds lately:

The New York Times - The Surprising Health Benefits of an Electric Bike

Treehugger/Lloyd Alter - Let's stop bashing the e-bikes; they are still better than driving.

It's had me reminiscing. My first legitimate e-bike was a Currie EZip Trailz.

I loved that thing!

Let's rewind a bit. Back around the time I was forty things were not going so well. I weighed about 275. I had high blood pressure in a big way. I traveled a lot and I ate out a lot and I did not exercise. One day the dog got out and I thought I would die after chasing her for less than half of a block.

About that time, Best Buy figured out they should not be in the electric bike business and they had some great close-outs. The EZip dropped down to $150, and I bought it. And I loved it!

My commute to and from work became my favorite time of the day. Instead commuting straight down Indiana with all of the other lemmings in our shiny metal boxes I became a Roger De Coster hooligan wannabe flying down back streets and back alleys and past parks at a blazing 14 miles per hour!

[To be fair, it was a really crappy e-bike. It had two really heavy batteries (with very little power) mounted on the back. It had a geared and brushed motor (that howled like a banshee) also mounted on the back. And it had really weak spokes. If you combine that combo with a heavy guy sitting toward the back, you might have a problem. I kept tightening spokes on the rear wheel until one day I tried going up a curb and demolished the rear wheel. I ordered a new rear wheel, but someone broke in and stole the bike before the wheel arrived, snagit!]

FrankenHuffy 2.1

 

Along the way, I found myself enjoying life a little more and losing a little weight. So I built myself a scary electric Frankenbike and kept riding. And I started using a regular (non-electric) bike for shorter trips. A few years ago, I joined the National Bike Challenge. The NBC did not count miles ridden on an e-bike back then (they do now for pedelecs) so I started commuting on a non-electric bicycle.

Fast forward to now. The past few days have been record-breakingly hot and extremely windy. And I have ridden my bike to work. I am now at a point where I am not winded when I get there. Where I don't feel the need* for an e-bike. I weigh about 240 these days. (That number would be even lower, but I have not become a give-up-the-donuts-success-story yet.) The blood pressure is under control.

I bike about 45 miles per week, climb lots of stairs, and walk about 8 miles per week.

And the revolution started with a highly enjoyable (but very poor quality) e-bike I picked up off the discount rack.

May you find that thing that kicks off your revolution for a healthier self and a healthier planet.

As always, thank you for reading!

* I do feel the need for an electric cargo bike to help me say no to the truck and to the gas pump, but that's another blog entry or ten.

Guns, Cars, Bikes - Sudden Death, a Proposal and a Prize



(This appears to be another chapter in my effort to alienate all West Texans)

 

The Nobel Peace Prize. Hmmm...

 

In my thoughts lately, peace has been taking a beating. I've developed a Lubbock barometer for it. Each day I look at two local news sources to see the list of car-based injuries/deaths and the number of gun-based injuries/deaths. It's a morbid thing, but it has become a very rare news day when one or the other does not appear. It's incredibly rare for both to take the day off.

 

Peace. I have been here long enough to know that suddenly losing a loved one destroys a person's peace for a very long time. Some people never recover from it. (We lost my older brother suddenly one year and seven days ago. I have known little peace since that day.)

 

If you pay attention to sudden deaths, you'll find that guns and cars are major contributors.

 

In non-local news, two stories have been ringing a bell for me this week.

 

The first one (the proposal) was pointed out to me (once again) by Lloyd Alter on Treehugger. Lloyd sent me to an Alissa Walker (on Gizmodo) article simply titled Ban Cars. Both articles are eye-opening and definitely worth a read. Some staggering numbers and concepts come to life with these articles: 1.3 million people die each year as a result of automobile collisions. Another 200,000 die each year from complications caused by air pollution. These numbers don't even take into effect the number of people who suffer life-changing injuries in non-fatal crashes.

 

 

Here in the wide-open Southwest, the thought of living without an automobile is a staggering concept for most of us, but it is hard to argue with most of the ideas presented here.

 

(Now for the prize)

 

My wife sent me an article from the BBC about some Italians who are promoting a Nobel Peace Prize candidate - the bicycle.

 



BBC News: Bicycle 'should win the Nobel Peace Prize'

 

The article describes the bicycle as an "instrument of peace" that does not cause wars, reduces pollution and road casualties, and promotes child and social development. No wonder I love riding a bike!

 

Check it out here

 

Find it here

 

Ban cars? Give a prize to the bicycle? Yep, I know it's all crazy talk.

 

May talk of craziness lead to more peace and health.

 

More interesting reading on the impact of the automobile - It's time for a bigger recall of a seriously defective product : The Car.

 

Some interesting reading on the impact of gun deaths - Visualizing gun deaths: Comparing the U.S. to the rest of the world

Green Revolution - Kick-Aspirational PB and J

Find the shirt here

I love words.

But I am generally not crazy about new buzzwords and catchphrases. Words like synergy and paradigm shift, literally, and Bruh...eek! The literary equivalents of the tramp stamp.

But I picked up on a new buzzword this week - aspirational, and I like it. My wife came home from a heated discussion with a board member and relayed the discussion to me, and that word popped up. The board member kept telling her that she is too aspirational, that she needs to scale back instead of reaching outward and upward. I hate to admit it, but my mind wandered from the conversation a bit (Sorry, Dear!) as I digested the word in its adjective form.

Aspire. I know that one. It's the verb that stands somewhere between hoping, longing, and reaching for a positive change or state. I aspire to be carbon-free! Aspiration. I know that one. That's the noun form of the same. I have aspirations of saving the world through blogging. Aspirational. Nothing terribly new, but novel nonetheless. And very useful. I filed it away and thought I might use it sometime.

[Liguistic sidebar: don't confuse aspire with aspirate, a word which has more to do with breathing and exhalation.]

This morning I was reading through a Lloyd Alter article. (I really like Lloyd Alter articles too.) This one was about the problems we have had with marketing climate change and the need for behavior changes. He spoke about our past messages being gloomy and subtractional. <> For some reason, people turn away and look at kittens on social media when they see these messages.

But then Lloyd busted out the a-word on Slide 12. Lloyd writes for Treehugger.com. On TH, the most popular stories tend to be about Tesla. People eat up Tesla stories - save the world with really amazing self indulgence! Yep, the Tesla gives you the option of having a positive (or at least carbon- neutral) impact while wrapping yourself in flashy, luxurious, rock-star excess! The Tesla scores huge on the WIIFM (pronounced whiff-em) scale - What's In It For Me?!!!

While I'd love to think that we can save the world through aspirational altruism, history has proven over and over that people (in general) are selfish and short-sighted. We have to remember that when we tell people why they should give a damn. Our local blood donation center recently saw a drastic increase in donations when the blood donation was tied to the opportunity to win a brand-new car. Wanting to help people in need of blood is one thing, like maybe peanut butter. Wanting a brand new car is something completely different, like maybe grape jelly. Put those things together and you have a really great sandwich combination of altruism and WIIFM.

So, let me prove that I am terrible at marketing with a question:

We are all going to die if we do not make positive changes. What tangible WIIFM will it take for you to donate blood aspire to a carbon-fneutral lifestyle?

May you figure out your price and have it met.

Lubbock on a Bike: A Book, Articles, an NBC Update and the BellaMonster speaks

You never know when you'll get good advice from a prairie dog!

My friend JG has been riding a bike a lot more lately. I'd like to think that it comes from her reading this blog, but I know the real reason - her daughter, the bella monster, has recently learned to ride without training wheels. With this newfound mobility, they've been talking a lot about bike safety/the rules of the road/common sense and common courtesy. And the kid is sharp. She asked her mom why there weren't any designated places for bikes to ride in safety. Her mom pointed out some of our miniscule bike lanes around their neighborhood. (They live near one bike lane that is one block long.) Mom also explained that there are few cyclists in town so the city does not bother to add more lanes. So her daughter asked a simple question, "Wouldn't more people ride if there were more bike lanes?"  This particular kid already has a way of asking questions in a way that implies Duh, isn't this obvious?

Links:
A book recommendation from Jesse over at Just a Car Guy - Roads Were Not Built for Cars. This one looks very interesting. I hope to purchase it soon.

Two more thought-provoking Lloyd Alter article from Treehugger this week - Sign the Pledge: "It's a crash, not an accident." and Bikes are not cars, and infrastructure is better than helmets. Lloyd and the bella monster have a lot in common.

As for me and the National Bike Challenge, I have been stinking it up pretty badly. It's been hot and breezy around here, so I've dusted off the electric bike and I rode it to work three days this week. The ultimate goal is carbon-neutral transport with exercise, and it is pretty darn close. And I still have the energy to accomplish things around the house when I get home. On hot and breezy days on the pedal bike, I take about an hour to recover, and I often lose momentum and opportunity. So, yes, I am still biking, but I am not logging the miles.  The electric bike definitely helps to level the terrain and help with the wind.

Well, I better wrap this up. The Lubbock Downtown Farmers Market beckons and the backyard jungle has swallowed another explorer.

May you pedal one way or another!

Monday Mini-Post: Solar-Powered Bicycle

Ok, I admit it, I am a double slacker today.

Photo from the TH post below

 

Slacker point 1: I have been gearing up for the National Bike Challenge, so I have been trying to ride the conventional bicycle as often as possible. But this morning was a little breezy and the forecast calls for sustained 25mph winds at the end of my work day. And I have a bad case of the Mondays. So I said no to the conventional bike and arm wrestled between the ebike and the non-e pickup. The ebike won. High winds and high temps are the reasons I wanted an ebike. It was a nice ride and I was breathing a little heavily when I arrived at work. I would have been breathing heavier had I ridden the regular bike.

Slacker point 2: I have been working on a solar-powered vehicle post.  While there are definitely limitations at this point in time, I find solar power to be the most logical and promising fuel for transportation, and I follow solar vehicle articles with a gleam in my eye. But I have been dragging my feet on the actual article.

So, here is a Lloyd Alter/Treehugger article about a solar-powered bike that is under development in Copenhagen. The video that accompanies it also gives you a nice little slice of life for bike commutuing in the world's most bike friendly city. The bike itself is a pretty conventional setup outside of the wheels that contain and transmit solar power. Enjoy!

It's a solar-powered electric bicycle. Now we're talking. Again.

May your vehicle fuel itself sustainably!

Tiny Post: The perfect vehicle(s) for tiny house people?

Really, I saw a Lloyd Alter piece on TH that made me want to share my favorite print ad of all time with you: (With a little vaguely artistic license)

 It makes your [tiny] house look bigger.

The article is actually about a tribute ad that promotes bicycling and does so beautifully.

Chained to work.

May small, simple, and effective be your beauty.

The Lloyd Alter Treehugger article: Ad promoting cycling to work looks very familiar