Our E-Bike's First 500 Miles
And many more. I've lost track.
To anyone thinking about an e-bike: do it!
The choice to go car-lite and get an e-bike has brought upon joy, fitness, and a rekindled connection to our hometown. We’ve sailed past the first 500 miles on our bike—when I meant to write this post—and are nearly at the first thousand.
I’ve been a bike nerd for most of my life. It’s always meant freedom, fun, and this sense of joy that I can’t quite explain unless we’re out riding together. For all those years, though, it also felt like owning a “daily driver” car was necessary. Come to find out, it wasn’t—even in our small town that’s largely deprived of any bicycle infrastructure.
Being “car-lite” is so much easier than expected.
We didn’t make any radical change with this new endeavor. Kristy and I still have cars: a Subaru Crosstrek as our reliable, modern car and an absolutely lovely camper van from the 90’s.
Car-lite living is so easy, though, that we still don’t drive the van enough to keep the battery reliably charged to start it.
One e- bike that we can share and cars when we need them. It’s easy.
Once I sold my Jetta, we bought a Tern Quick Haul P9 at Roanoke Mountain Adventures. It’s a compact cargo bike with a good motor. It’s designed to fit people of many sizes and Kristy and I can both ride it comfortably and only need to adjust the seatpost each time.
If you’re considering an e-bike, it’s a great option. There’s definitely cheaper bikes as well as ones that are triple this price. I wanted one that would solidly work as a “car replacement”, so I chose the Tern.
In the market? This Quick Haul has gone up in price thanks to one man’s silly tariffs but the industry has so many options. There’s used ones now, too!
We put about 100 a miles a week on our Tern.
Every weekday with decent weather, one of us rides to work. It’s around 20 miles roundtrip, which uses about 80% of the battery with our town’s relentless hills. In a flatter place, you’d get a lot more out of a single charge.
That’s 100 miles a week that we get to be outside. 100 miles that we don’t put on either car. We also drive less in general—grocery trips are easy with the cargo bike and I will definitely grab the bike to ride over to a friend’s instead of driving.
A few days of groceries isn’t hard at all to pick up on the bike. It’s stable with weight and cruises easily at 22-25mph. Going down a hill (the motor cuts off at 28mph) these little tires feel great at 35mph too.
So, should you get an e-bike?
I genuinely think most people could use one. So many car trips are short ones: to the store, over to a friend’s, or general errands like work commutes and kids to daycare.
Most people I talk to are incredibly supportive of the car-lite thing. Others share the same basic reservations about it.
“It’s dangerous."Sure. But so is driving. And I’ve come to grips that biking in general isn’t necessarily safe. At least with this bike I can keep up with cars most of the time.
“I live too far away from work.” This one makes perfect sense. But how about your grocery store? Daycare? Church? There’s lots of trips you could use a bike to accomplish!
“I can’t with the kids.” This is a big one. The funny part is, the vast majority of e-bike owners I know have kids and an incredible amount of e-bike marketing and the products brands sell are designed for this very use in mind. There’s a kid-focused solution for pretty much everything associated with e-bikes!
Bottom line: I think you can e-bike! Most everyone reading this could replace a car trip with some bike rides, walks, or by simply choosing not to do the drive. They make tricycles, scooters, and so many more assistive devices now, too.
So, what have I learned? Let’s start with the frustrating parts:
You’ll need to know how to fix basic bike things like flat tires. It’s a function, mostly, that we’re simply putting a lot more miles on bikes than ever before. That being said, I’ve also changed more flats than ever before. That seems to be sorting itself out over time but it’s been a bit frustrating start.
It forces me to plan. Long-term, this will be a good thing. There’s no more “I forgot to grab something, let me pop back home in 15 minutes.” or “Can we meet in half an hour?”
The bike provided a crash course in planning. Again, this is frustrating in the moment but not a bad thing. Most work meetings can be virtual and I’ve learned to be a bit better about packing.
Brodozer trucks and SUV drivers on cell phones Cars still hate you. Being on the the bikes more now, we get yelled at more. If anything, I think the vitriol towards bikes is getting worse. I often think that even if a small percentage of people would get on bikes too, we’d all be safer just by sheer numbers.
I really don’t want idiotic drivers to scare anybody off, though. I’ve found safe routes and ways to deescalate driver interactions over the years and am more-than-happy to share my tactics.
What about all the good?
All the good parts of e-bikes far, far outweigh the frustrations. That’s why I didn’t even call anything above “bad”. They’re all just realities of life—planning is good, mechanical things break, and some drivers will simply never learn. There’s so much good:
I’ve seen the seasons change in an incredibly intimate way. Everyday, there’s new birds out chirping. Trees bloom literally overnight. The Huckleberry Trail (our local greenway system) is a vestige of green space where cars and car driver’s attitudes can’t touch.
The people are incredible. Everyday I ride, I wave at almost everyone. I’ve started to see the regulars and learn their routines. Everyone is just moving about and living their own life. Without a metal cage around us, it all feels so much closer.
More than that, my own community supports it. People have reached out, offering their cars if I ever need to borrow one. Nobody cares if I show up a little sweaty. Everyone asks questions and I can often feel the wheels turning in their own heads: “Can I do this too?”
You can do this too.
If you’re considering it, take the leap. Talk to me. I can send you information, resources, and a not-so-gentle nudge in the right direction. These first few hundred miles have been lovely. I can’t wait for more!