Hi all, just a quick story from Friday. Made me smile telling it so I wanted to share!
Michelle had the day off on Friday, so while I was in the office, she was getting some chores and errands done. One of the chores was to wash the car. We have a VW Tiguan a small SUV.
Now unlike big towns, we don’t have an automatic carwash. The kind when you sit, and roll through, starting dirty and coming out clean.
Nope, we have the old school plug in quarters and do it by had thing. Its about 3 miles north of me.
Just before the world closed, Michelle and I had made the decision to downsize to one car. We just have had very few reasons to keep two, and with a regularly scheduled maintenance being quoted at between $1200 -$3000 (Volvos aint cheap) it just wasn’t worth it. So sell it we did. Its been 4 months and there has not been a need for a second car. Well, until Friday….
She took off and I was at my desk when she called and said she needs more money. The car was covered in soap and it took more that she though to finish the wash. Hell I hadn’t been to one of these since high school, I had no idea what they would cost. Woulda thought by now they took debit cards instead of quarters…
OK let’s recap. I am at work, we don’t have a second car. She is three miles, and 2 decent hill climbs from me, and, the biggest issue, there was an UGLY headwind between her and I. It would taken be at least half an hour of hard pedaling to get there….
Then it hit me.
She has a RadPowerBike, an ebike. This one has 4 levels of assist, Each one giving more power assist to the pedaler.
I could hop and Rad and be there like the wind!
I grabbed the money, ratcheted up the assist to maximum, put my foot on the pedal to start and…
Folks that think almost took off without me! At that level I was gonna fly!
I got on and used those mountainstroh legs to pedal hard and Rad reached down and pushed me faster than I could believe. I was heading into the wind doing at least 20 mph! It was a kick in the pants!
I could feel the big goofy grin on my face as I got the car wash, Michelle was laughing when I pulled up and said, “Me and Rad are speedy!!!”
It took me maybe 5 minutes longer than it would have with a car, but HALF the time of a pedal only bike!
I gave her a kiss and headed back to work! I was back before anyone knew I was gone!
I have met many riders of ‘real’ bikes who think people riding ebikes are cheating. (I’ve never really understood what the competition is that they are cheating on though….”
I think all miles are good miles. Anything that gets someone out and pedaling is a good thing!
Plus, that sucker is just plain fun! I have more than enough bikes now, so I won’t be adding an ebike to the stable, but if you ever get a chance to ride one, take it!
I was like the wind!!
