PureGin.org

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that we've been down to a single car for the last month or so. Last weekend, after a good deal of discussion, we bought a new vehicle: an electric bike. The goal is for this to replace one car for my 4 times per week 20km each-way commute, thus saving 80-120Kg CO2e per month over taking my 2004 Golf TDI (the numbers are from this article). So, we made the trip to Victoria to Scooter Underground.

Last Wednesday was my first commute in to work in Nanaimo on my new Ezee Forte electric bike. It was simultaneously great and a bit of a disaster.

Great because it felt wonderful to be out riding to work - it was a beautiful day, and most of the 20K trip is via pretty quiet, scenic roads. It was a small disaster because in my optimism I discounted the warnings about the battery capacity taking some time to build up to its supposed 50km average range. So I got about 1/3 of the way to work and had to get myself up the big hill at the end on my own power. Which wasn't so bad, except that I was rather late, late, late. Ugh.

The bike itself felt very solid, though much heavier than I'm used to - the last bike I rode was a mid-range, old-school Italian road bike, adapted to city commuting.

The Forte's Shimano 8 speed in-hub shifting is easy, positive, and smooth, and made getting up and around the various hills and byways much more pleasant. The front wheel disk brake were fantastic - a huge improvement over the last century technology I was used to, especially stopping on a steep downhill with a heavy pack full of textbooks. The built-in LED lightset made me feel much more visible, and it was great to have all of the feedback about velocity, elapsed time and KM covered provided by the supplied Velo cycle computer. Everything from the kick stand to the rear carrier feels solid, high quality, and carefully assembled.

So far, the electrics seem very well designed and implemented. Cables are heavy duty, wrapped, zap-strapped, sealed with silcone grease. There's feedback on the charge/load state of the battery system via three LEDs (red/yellow/green). The throttle control is intuitive, smooth, and (so far) strain-free to use.

Now for the beefs: As I said, this is not a light bike. Although the frame is aluminium alloy, many components (handlebars, seat post) are good old heavy steel. I found the saddle rather uncomfortable, this probably being a case of one-size-fits none. The pedals are of the clunky plastic variety. I'll probably invest in some cleats and decent pedals.

Another design quirk is the location of the key (yes, there is a key to turn on the electrics). It's located so that if you have a largish key ring, and your left foot turns in on the pedal, you might potentially clip the keys with your foot. Could be a huge nuisance if you manage to snap your key or break the switch.

And the big question is still: just how good is the battery? And how rugged will the electrics be when/if I'm on a regular commuting schedule of 40km per day? I'll report on this and the progress of my current commute as I clock more kilometers.