The dream bike

So the new bike is here and I am loving it. I'd say I am loving it more than I thought I would, but I actually knew I would love it so much. I was afraid I wouldn't love it enough. But I do.

Anyone who has been reading this blog for any time will know that one thing I have been obsessed and fascinated with is an electric bike. I like biking as an activity but over the years I have grown to realize- I like what biking can do for me. The feeling of the open air and the feeling of flying down a street. The ability to be out in the community and see and talk to neighbors more readily. The ability to find parking right outside a store. The sheer esthetics of the bike as well. And while I enjoy the motion of biking I don't necessarily enjoy working hard up a hill. I feel embarrassed to say so- but I just don't.

Before I ever started riding as transportation I was intrigued by an electric bike. Although 10 -12 years ago when I saw them at an Eco fair by the Charles the bikes were well out of my budget and while I longed to try one or even own one- it seemed like an idea out of a dream.

Well dream no more. I now own a bicycle with an ignition key and I am ever so happy. I'm not out for speed. Just ease in movement and less awkward starts at the stop light and of course as always a gentle push up the hill towards home.

I'd say for the past 6-8 months I began to put away any and all of my earnings from my little per diem job in hopes of buying a dream bike. Over this time period this dream bike has changed and shifted as I tried to prioritize which of all the types of bikes I coveted should I spend my hard saved money on.

I searched electric bikes and spent my winter hunkered down onthe couch under a blanket watching youtube videos and reading reviews for Kalkhoff and Sanyo bikes. I remember one cold snowy day watching a 10 minute video of the someone from the Kalkhoff store in portland riding through the streets on an electric bike and wanting to jump into the video and take over the bike for my own. In March I went down to NYC and forced B to stop on the Upper East Side for me to try out a Sanyo only to find out when we arrived that just that week NYCeBikes decided to discontinue selling the bike due to unreliable customer service from Sanyo US and in Japan. I was so sad as I was finally sure that that would be the bike for me. I test rode a Gepida bike instead and it's easy assisted ride told me I really wanted an ebike of some kind. Although the Gepida just wasn't the one for me.

However I began to second guess myself. B said an electric bike was silly. I felt like I was at square one all over again and began to covet a Yuba Mundo electric bike. And I returned to the internet for reviews and videos of any kind. I refreshed websites hopefull of any new info that would help me figure out if this could work for me. I thought of ways to get to New Haven to test ride Sara's. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and finally thought, I am no good at riding the xtracycle, why would a Yuba work better for me? I knew I couldn't take the gamble and took it off the table.

At the suggestion of Velouria, I decided to just focus on myself and what I wanted for a true bike ride. I abandoned the electric idea and began thinking about a custom bike that would be my regular ride around town and tour cape cod bike. I'd work to make it zippy and abandon the internal gearing and look toward a mixte frame and well gosh darn it I had some pair of legs and who needed an electric bike for two wheels anyway. I started conversations. I was one day away from laying down my credit card info and was all finally satisfied with my choice and then I got an email.

A few months before I had made an inquiry like so many inquiries that I have made over the past three years and figured the response would basically be, "not in your timeframe" and I'd move on. However it turns out that the bike I was curious about *would* in fact be available here in the US and it could in fact be mine by Sept. Was I still interested?

8 months of thinking, review searching and daydreaming came to a screaming halt. That "dream bike" that I said I started saving for- *this* was it without my knowing it would be available and so I emailed back a resounding "Yes!" without thinking of anything else.

Well Sept has arrived. And so has my bike. Of course this week has been uber rainy so I have only gotten on a few times. A full review and tons of posts about it's ride and specs will be forthcoming. But right now my dream of an electric Cargo Trike is here.

And we are ALL pretty freaking happy for it.