Is pedal assist even fair? How a long time bike commuter found himself on the dark side.
One sweet Litespeed!
I’ve been a long time bike commuter.
Since I got this Litespeed Appalachian from my good buddy Steve, I’ve put over 50,000 miles on it with varying commutes. Nope, not a typo. I’ve replaced pretty much every part on it at least twice, crashed it into a tree breaking my back and ribs, raced it in a few Grasshoppers even.
When I moved to San Rafael from Berkeley a couple of years ago, I was faced with a dilemma. The lack of mass transit to the East Bay, especially at 5 am, was shocking to me. Looking at a bridge that didn’t allow bikes, I tried a few options, including a bike/bus/train option to Oakland and then a bike/train/bike home option through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge. None of that was very sustainable, though, and I settled into a routine of driving over the bridge, parking in Richmond, and riding in 10 miles on mostly bike path, then reversing course.
When the bike path over the bridge opened in November 2019, it was super exciting. I tried riding the Litespeed to and from work, but it was close to 4 hours of pedaling a day, mostly in the dark. As much as I like riding my bike, it was really really hard to do that day in and day out. Yet I was hating the drive with the stress and traffic, and all the miles stacking up on my car was frustrating the hell out of me.
While I consider myself pretty open-minded, there was a part of me that still felt like riding an e-bike was cheating, or lazy. But I read articles like this one that made me start thinking about it more as a car substitute, or some kind of hybrid solution. And I’m not as concerned about what people think of me nowadays, I just want to be happy and fulfilled.
I picked up the Allant 8S Plus new from Trek Berkeley Dec 1. I Really like Treks’ support of #morekidsonbikes, NICA in general, and the Berkeley store is super professional. I wanted a warranty and a place that would be able to deal with any issues I had. I wasn’t so sure that would be true if I bought a motor kit or another bargain solution.
A couple of months in now, and I have close to 1000 miles on it now, averaging 160- 210 miles a week from Terra Linda to West Oakland.
Takeaways!
I wouldn’t go back to a road bike style commuter now. 27 x 2.3 tires are amazing, especially in the dark with holes, bumps, and much higher speeds of the ebike. Big fenders are awesome this winter in drizzle and the unfortunate shower or two. Disc brakes are so much better than cantis on road bikes. Built-in lighting is cool, way safer and brighter. I have to dim the lights when I ride towards other riders or walkers on the Bay Trail. Very intuitive controls. I can carry as much stuff as I can fit in two Ortlieb BackRollers, often 30- 40 lbs worth of gear without slowing down. All the decisions I used to make about not bringing this to work, or having bigger slower tires, are entirely moot. It’s a game-changer not to be crushed by the traffic-created headwind climb every morning over the bridge and the climb out of Terra Linda. I usually keep the pedal assist on Tour or the second level, which has a 35-mile range on one battery. I keep another charger at work.
Some fun with numbers
Costs
at 56 cents a mile plus bridge toll, I save 36.8 dollars a day compared to driving. At that rate, it’ll take me less than a year for the bike to pay for itself. To be fair, there’s normal bike wear and tear, maybe more with the higher torque and speed, but I haven’t seen any of those costs yet. Also, I’m sure electricity is costing a few cents a day.
Time
I’m averaging 80 minutes each way compared to 110 with a pedal bike, so I’m finding myself with an extra hour a day. I get home 5-10 minutes earlier than when I rode 10 miles from West Oakland to Richmond, where I parked the car, put the bike in the car, and drove home over the bridge with traffic.
Fitness
I average 70 TSS each way, so still a very respectable 140 TSS day. That’s about my limit to do day after day sustainably and not just spoon food into my mouth and go to sleep. About 1600 KJ a day recorded optically by the Garmin Fenix, I’m slowly dropping weight again, mostly riding around at 200 watts average but close to tripling my usual training time for the week will do that for you! I found this controversial study to be surprisingly accurate.
Fun- these things are a blast. The weight is well distributed with the battery and motor down low, and balance out the heavy panniers really well. With the bigger tires, they handle surprisingly well, which is good at the higher speeds. The speed is really addictive, and the sensation is if I was on a pure race bike, incredibly fit, no panniers full of stuff, and twenty years younger.
Rent a bike, try it out. You might just find ebiking the right long-range commuting solution for you!
