If you make a way for me to travel safely without potholes within an inch of passing cars, I’ll buy an electric bike and ride it everywhere.
I just ride around with a flame thrower and spray off a warning jet when cars get too close.
The pot holes are terrified of me because of the flame thrower, so they just get out of the way.
It’s great fun, but I know I’m totally screwed if I crash.
Also, I’m pretty sure the tank hurts the range on my bike real bad.
I wear a poncho or a rain jacket/pants. I usually at least have a pair of cheap Frog Toggs in my bike bag: They’re like $10 and work great.
Or I just get a little wet and dry off, in the summer it’s not really a big deal.
Are those Frog Toggs breathable at all? I was thinking about getting some for my regular bike rides.
Enjoy it 😉
In terms of gear, a waterproof shell and pant shell if its pouring. Usually downpours don’t last and I can just wait 10 mins though.
Change of shoes + socks at work.
Americans are all spoiled by their weatherproof, rolling, one-ton death machines. Riding a bike in the rain isn’t that hard, just dress correctly.
How do I stop someone from stealing it? I’m for it but I live in suburbia and the stores don’t have bike racks for anything other than a parking lot. It’s not a “bad” area but it has people. A $500 bike is one thing but a $1500 bike is another.
I don’t think there is any secure bike parking as mentioned in the article and I’m not talking daily commute to work. If anyone has any tips I’m open to ideas.
You can get a $1500 electric bike? The only ones I’ve seen at the bike shop all start around $5000. I can get a car for $5000.
You can get e-bikes for under 2k but they have some definite drawbacks. I wonder if the ones in the bike shop are all super high end models or mountain bikes. Even very nice e-bikes are around 3k, if they’re designed for city use. Check out this list here https://bikexchange.com/best-electric-city-bikes/
I’ve kept a chain around both of my scooters’ stems for the years I’ve been riding each of them and have not had a problem yet. Two things to note: I’m not in NYC and I keep it racked in high visibility areas in daylight. Honestly with the price of bikes a 1200 scooter with a thick chain isn’t worth the trouble me thinks.
Yea but like the other guy said, there’s nothing to chain it to. I also live in suburbia and have been looking at an e-bike for groceries and other short errands but there are no bike racks at the stores for me to rack and chain it. Best thing I can do is chain it to a signpost I guess
Rolling it through the store until they install bike racks is a great passive aggressive approach.
One place I lived was close to a semi-suburan mall. Despite being on a major intra-city bike lane, there was a single bike rack tucked in the delivery area.
I also learned from my new neighbor that you can just install bike racks wherever you want. He just buys the pole like ones and installs them wherever he wants parking.
