Sunday, February 08, 2004

My other car is a hybrid electric bicycle

Here’s how I try to get around as much as possible. I ride a hybrid pedal/electric bicycle. It’s great for short trips and going downtown, provided I can find a place to lock it up securely.

The bike itself is a BikeE AT, a recumbent bike made by a now defunct Oregon company. It has an air suspension for the rear wheel. The seating position is almost exactly like sitting behind the wheel of a car, you sit nearly upright, with great visibility and comfort since you don’t have to bend your neck and back.

The electric conversion was done by Ecospeed, which is only a couple miles away from my house. The motor drives through the 21-speed geartrain of the bike, and you can use the pedals and motor independently or together. I find I can cruise upwards of 30 mph using both, and the range of the batteries is about 10 miles, more if I use it sparingly. The biggest advantage of the motor however, is on hills. Recumbents don’t have the advantage of being able to stand up on the pedals and using your weight for power while hill-climbing, so you end up climbing the hill in one of the lowest gears. Kicking the motor in will just flatten out the hill, almost like it wasn’t even there. Top speed is well over 40 mph during sprints of a mile or so, especially if I have the fairing mounted.

But it’s still kinda fun to blow by the “spandex boyz” on their $3500+ ultralightweight carbon-fiber racing bikes and then watch them disappear in the mirror, pedalling like mad and falling further behind…

OK, so I’m evil ;-)

- Bob Woods