Over a decade ago, while sitting at work on a hot summer day, I looked out my office at my 2006 Honda Accord EX-L V6 sitting in the hot sun in the parking lot. I commented to my co-worker who sat in the workspace next to time that owning a car was a waste of money. I talked about how they are so expensive that most of us have to take out multi-year loans to buy them. I was paying thousands of dollars a year to insure this thing that I used only during the week and only to commute the
Bhavna commutes five miles roundtrip to her office. This summer, as I watched the price of gasoline almost double, I was happy that we only needed to fill the tank on Bhavna’s car.
I had some medical issues in 2019, right before the global pandemic, which required high-dose steroids for treatment. I gained a little weight. Then the pandemic hit, and after two years of being locked inside, I became so inactive that I gained 25 pounds.
Inspired by Jim Grey's bicycle+camera blog posts blog posts, I attempted to fix the issue this summer. I thought, "It would be great to ride a bicycle to nearby towns, stop for a bite, and maybe photograph some bicycles". So I dusted off my daughter's bicycle and tried to ride around my neighbourhood. I didn’t get too far. My 55-year-old knees are shit. After about ten minutes on the bike, I can barely move them.
Pre-pandemic, I worked from home two days a week. I worked home five days a week when the USA went into its two-year pandemic lockdown in March 2020. I put my car in my garage, and except for the occasional mid-week trip to Source Brewing, it sat in the garage, unused. After the "great re-opening," I continued working remotely1. My car has sat unused for the last two years. My 16-year-old Honda has sat mostly unused in the garage for over two years. A few weeks ago, I sold it.
On Sunday, I used the money from that sale to purchase a Lectric Bikes X Premium electric bicycle. Over the last few months, before I sold my Honda, I read a lot of articles about electric bicycles. After much reading, I knew that I wanted an electric bicycle with pedal assist, at least sixty-five kilometres of range, disc brakes, and a mid-drive motor. I poured over every review and narrowed my choices down to the Lectric X Premium. I hope that the power assists in this mid-drive electric bike will allow me to get some exercise while reducing the impact on my knees. I have dreams of riding the Delaware & Raritan Canal Park trail into Princeton, Griggstown, Manville and other towns along the canal.
Kopp's Cycle Shop was established in 1891 by E.C. Kopp and is the oldest continually running bicycle shop in the Americas and the second most continually running bicycle shop worldwide. Kopp’s has very few electric bicycles. They sell primarily traditional bikes and focus on serving leisure and enthusiast cyclists. I hope they pivot soon.
- I am an independent consultant. My contracts usually start at six months but sometimes get extended for two or more years. I started a new contract in 2021. ↩
