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(UPDATE 10/01/09: I moved to South Carolina in July 2008 and sold it to my friend, he was 20 pounds lighter and it worked much better for him. F-ma still works. I have much more "m")
I bought and electric scooter/bicycle for riding to work instead of my old touring bike. I was getting sweaty riding to work in the cool hours of the morning in this spring no matter how (reasonably) slow I rode. During the summer it would get worse. I always toyed with the idea of a moped, but I was intrigued by the idea of going electric. The bike I choose was about the losest cost that would be adequate. If I compare its performance against myself on the bicycle the are nearly the same, with the edge going to the e-Bike.
It can go 25-20 miles on a charge and is limited to 20mph although I reached 23MPH down a hill. It takes my only 16 minutes to get to work, compared with 20 when I bicylce or 10 with the car. Not bad. Charging at night only costs a few pennies. I can leave my Geo Metro at home that my wife can use in place of the Durango to save more gas money.
The e-Bike is and Extreme XB-500. It has most of the amenities of a scooter such as blinkers, lights, brake light, dual mirrors etc and looks nice. It has enough storage space under the seat for my bike helmet or my Lunch and NEC Handheld PC. I put my briefcase on end between my feet when commuting to work.
The quality was so-so as the rear rack needed some fixing right out of the box. The speedometer was in KmPH which I got used to quickly, but it didn't have an odometer so I added a bike odometer which gets me MPH and trip features.
On 07/07/07 I added a home made windshield I made from Lucite and aluminum stock. It turned out pretty well if I must say so myself!
Take a look!
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Oct 1, 2009