So, here I am in Portland-- I have partaken of many of the required inaugural Portland activities. Drink a microbrew, check. Eat organically grown vegetables, check. Get heavily rained on, check. The only thing that is really left is to buy a bike. Everyone in Portland seems to ride a bike. There are bike lanes everywhere,
and everyone commutes by bike if they can. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration-- only 6.4% of the populace commutes (that's one out of 16 for all you stats lovers out there), but that is the highest of any major city in the U.S. so you can imagine that it feels like a lot when you are here. So, given that I found a great place to live (pictures of my posh new driveway and delightful property-mate forthcoming), I have been agonizing all week on how to deal with my commute (photo at right by Steve Nehl illustrates the situation here nicely). When I drive, it is 9 miles and takes about 25 minutes. If I were to bike, I get to take a shortcut, cutting it down to about 7 miles, but unavoidably involving a climb up a very steep hill (I'd call it a mountain, but people here call it a hill) for the last 2 miles. Seven miles (plus hill) is not a trivial commute for someone who doesn't have a shower in their Schaackmobile. And so I am performing an experiment: today I plunked down A LOT of cash for an extremely fancy ebike. Ebikes are a new category of commuter bike gaining popularity in places where bikes are heavily relied upon for transit (Europe, China, Portland). It requires pedaling (so stop laughing at me too too hard), but has a motor to assist with the pedaling to allow you to go faster, especially uphill, and arrive sweat-free (or sweat-minimal) after a cross-town commute. The pros: I can use bike lanes and short cuts not available to cars in order to circumvent Portland traffic, which is kind of bad. Plus, I don't have to pay for gas, or to park, or to upgrade my insurance to reflect a switch from non-commuter to commuter. Plus, I get SOME exercise (but not too much). The cons: It is NOT cheap. The battery isn't immortal, so it continues to not be cheap in the future. And I will get rained on. A lot. What do you think? As with all other important decisions in my life (for example, t-shirt color for the tour), I want to know what everyone else thinks. Since everyone doesn't read my blog, that might be hard, but if you are reading, please feel free to weigh in on this agonizing issue. To run the experiment, I bought one and it will be delivered to my house tomorrow. I have 7 days to make up my mind, after which point I can no longer return it to receive a full refund. I will be blogging about the experience and posting pictures! To start, this is the one I bought... The Tasman by Kalkhoff. Das right. I have one word on the matter-- eeeeeekkkkkk.
and everyone commutes by bike if they can. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration-- only 6.4% of the populace commutes (that's one out of 16 for all you stats lovers out there), but that is the highest of any major city in the U.S. so you can imagine that it feels like a lot when you are here. So, given that I found a great place to live (pictures of my posh new driveway and delightful property-mate forthcoming), I have been agonizing all week on how to deal with my commute (photo at right by Steve Nehl illustrates the situation here nicely). When I drive, it is 9 miles and takes about 25 minutes. If I were to bike, I get to take a shortcut, cutting it down to about 7 miles, but unavoidably involving a climb up a very steep hill (I'd call it a mountain, but people here call it a hill) for the last 2 miles. Seven miles (plus hill) is not a trivial commute for someone who doesn't have a shower in their Schaackmobile. And so I am performing an experiment: today I plunked down A LOT of cash for an extremely fancy ebike. Ebikes are a new category of commuter bike gaining popularity in places where bikes are heavily relied upon for transit (Europe, China, Portland). It requires pedaling (so stop laughing at me too too hard), but has a motor to assist with the pedaling to allow you to go faster, especially uphill, and arrive sweat-free (or sweat-minimal) after a cross-town commute. The pros: I can use bike lanes and short cuts not available to cars in order to circumvent Portland traffic, which is kind of bad. Plus, I don't have to pay for gas, or to park, or to upgrade my insurance to reflect a switch from non-commuter to commuter. Plus, I get SOME exercise (but not too much). The cons: It is NOT cheap. The battery isn't immortal, so it continues to not be cheap in the future. And I will get rained on. A lot. What do you think? As with all other important decisions in my life (for example, t-shirt color for the tour), I want to know what everyone else thinks. Since everyone doesn't read my blog, that might be hard, but if you are reading, please feel free to weigh in on this agonizing issue. To run the experiment, I bought one and it will be delivered to my house tomorrow. I have 7 days to make up my mind, after which point I can no longer return it to receive a full refund. I will be blogging about the experience and posting pictures! To start, this is the one I bought... The Tasman by Kalkhoff. Das right. I have one word on the matter-- eeeeeekkkkkk.
hello there!!! I think that you should take the bike up and down and up and down that so called hill/mountain. That should help make your decisionf for yo nes pas? Love Mom
ReplyDeleteI love it!!!! Can't wait to hear how it rides.
ReplyDeleteNo follow-up? Did you keep it? Did you return it?!
ReplyDeleteI kept it! And LOVE it! I get made fun all the time by portland bike lovers, but (interestingly) NOT by portland bike commuters-- they think it's awesome!
ReplyDeleteI have a 2009 model Tasman(not the step through, so I don't get laughed at by little girls). I ride it daily here in Providence RI and I think it is the best thing ever. I am even thinking about getting rid of one of the cars.
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