A Pioneer Press article recently featured a passage with a rider review of the EcoBike Vatavio:
Joshua Foss, of Northeast Minneapolis, uses an EcoBike e-bike on a roughly one-mile commute to his office.
“It’s the bee’s knees,” he said. “I can hop on the bike while wearing decent clothes, and I do not have to worry about breaking a sweat.”
His EcoBike model is the kind that folds, too, so he can stash it in the back of his Smart Car hatchback if necessary.
“But honestly, for anything within a three- to four-mile radius, I don’t even think about hopping in my car,” he said. “I want to ride my bike.”
“There are times when I’m Bluetoothing on a conference call while riding past people in their bike gear,” he said. “They all do goofy double-takes because it does not look like I should go that fast. They know something is up. Those are the moments that are cool.”
To read the whole article, visit TwinCities.com
David Perlman has written a beautiful article in Orion Magazine on how commuting by bike gives him a little slice of transcendance. Although we often promote bicycle commuting for reasons like health, finances, and environmental kindness, it’s nice to hear that some people also find poetry in their bike commuting experiences.
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance of Oregon has put together a guide to designing a combo commute, which entails biking part of the way and riding the bus or train part of the way. The article gives lots of tips to make combo commuting safer and easier.
If you’re new to owning an electric bike, you might be concerned about bike theft. What kind of lock should I get? Where should I lock my bike up? How can I protect my shiny, new investment?
Consistent with our last post, the popularity of commuter cycling is growing due to cash concerns. Recent research indicates that some people are turning to loans to buy high quality commuter bikes, including electric bikes. This gives people a more economical alternative to transportation, even if they don’t have cash in hand.
The New York Times has uncovered the average *actual* cost of owning a car — taking into account the cost of the vehicle, insurance, registration fees, and the host of other sneaking expenses. And this cost is nothing to sneer at: $8,758 per vehicle for the year 2007. Wow!
Representative Wayne Krieger of Salem is the chief architect of House Bill 3008, which would require every bicycle owner in Oregon to pay a mandatory $54 registration fee, and then renew it every other year for the same fee.
Hat Tip to Fritz at Commute by Bike for posting on the availability of commuter checks for those who commute by bike to work. This program allows the employer to give a pre-tax salary deduction to help offset the costs of bicycles, equipment and accessories, and bike storage. Fritz reports:
