It’s that time again -  the annual Spring Bike Swap presented by Cycle 9 – Sunday April 10 9am-3pm, or so.  As always, space is free for vendors and the public.  Shops are welcome to bring their wares.  Back Alley Bikes, Reidsville Bikeshop, and ReCyclery NC are on the list.  There is plenty of free parking and space to set up tables, tents, blankets, rocking chairs, etc.  The Looking Glass Cafe’ adjacent to us, has plenty of great food and beverages for purchase.  It’s a great time to sell (or get rid of) that stuff gathering dust in the parts box.  The previous Spring Swap’s have seen upwards of 200 people in attendance.  So, it’s kind of a big deal.  Come join and geek out with us on bike parts galore!

Contact Steve at 919-636-5909 or steve@cycle9.com

Electric bikes.

They’re the buzz word of the bike industry lately. Will 2010 be their year? or will they burn quickly as a fad and fade out as in the past? As a rider and dealer of electric bikes, I’ve watched the offerings grow from small, obscure companies, to today with a plethora of options, including major bike manufacturers jumping on the wagon. I have to say I’m pretty impressed by the offerings. Clearly the industry thinks these are going to be big and small and large companies alike are gambling big bucks on developing products and getting dealers to support them. Will they hit it big? I don’t know, but here are a few of my thoughts on the question.

My first ebike

I’ve been interested in electric bikes for many years. My first bike was a ZAP bike in the early 1990s that I shared with my significant other. It employed a roller that went against your tire to help propel you forward, and I used it to assist me on my 12 mile each-way commute across town. The roller system worked ok as long as the road was dry, and you stopped occasionally to adjust the pressure on the tire. The battery was a golf cart battery strapped to the rear rack, and if I spared it’s use to the hills only, it would last all the way to work and half way home before giving up the ghost. But it did provide just enough help for me conquer my commute, a large factor being the few extra minutes it saved me.
By contrast, today’s ebikes are so much better, they barely compare. With my current electric kit, I can easily ride 20 miles or more, keeping my speed at 15-20mph over hills, even with cargo! The kit works reliably rain or shine, and the battery is 3 times the capacity for the same size and weight as my original ZAP kit. But most importantly, the kit has allowed me to free myself from my car, addressing my concerns about peak oil, environmental degradation, and quality of life for me, my kids, and my community.

The oil problem

As bike commuters, we generally understand the benefits of biking versus driving. We know that biking is healthy for us. We know that driving uses lots of resources. We know that our resources are finite and our environment is being polluted. But when I really started looking into the numbers, I was shocked. You see, through a friend I learned about the problem of Peak Oil. Peak Oil is the concept that at some point the world will have reached the peak efficiency of oil extraction worldwide. That means that all the easily extracted oil will be used up, and the stuff that’s left will be more difficult, costly, and time consuming to extract. Many geologists argue persuasively that peak oil is at hand, but that we don’t realize it in the marketplace yet. And the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico just underscores that drilling for oil is risky and has lots of associated costs.

Once you dive into the consequences of a future of more expensive and declining supply of oil, all kinds of scary facts start popping out – oil is required for the production of plastics which are critical in the health care industry. It’s heavily embedded in the production and transport of our food supply. It’s used in the pharmecudical industry, and will be required to manufacture and deploy solar panels, wind turbines, busses, bicycles and all the other elements of an alternative energy future.
Yet, here we are, burning up oil by driving around. Over 60% of the US oil supply goes to transportation, much of it personal and short distance. The internal combustion engine uses only 20% of the energy contained in gasoline while the rest is wasted in inefficiencies. And most of the energy consumed in driving is to propel the car – a big, heavy, metal box – not us or our stuff.
Clearly, we need to change our paradigm about transportation if we’re going to have an effect on this problem. And the sooner we can do that, the better off all of us will be. Once I realized this, I thought the best place to start would be with myself. I’ve always been a casual biker, recreationally and for transportation. But I had a problem if I was going to ride my bike more, and it came in the shape of 3 small people.

The kid problem

You see, I had 3 small people under the age of 5 to take care of and not only did they need to be transported, but I needed to have the energy to deal with them. After a lengthy internet search, a cargo bike was selected to transport them. But I didn’t live super close to town, and there were some big hills in the way. I didn’t think I could do it. I could barely pedal the bike up the 1st hill out of the driveway. This is where the electric assist kit transformed this into a realistic solution.
With my kit, I can pedal the bike even with 3 kids or a week’s worth of groceries, over 12 miles of hilly terrain. I can do it every day and it doesn’t take forever or leave me sweaty and exhausted. It’s become a realistic and competitive alternative to the car. And in fact, it’s become the preferred option most of the time as everyone enjoys riding the bike more than riding the car, especially Mom!

Setting up this bike actually was a life changing experience for me, so I started a bike shop to help other people realize their own dreams of using their car less and their bikes more. Electric assist has been a big part of this. We help a lot of people like myself who want to electrify cargo bikes. But we also help a lot of commuters with distances of over 3 miles to go. Some people are even riding 20 miles each way, and the electric assist just makes this commute much faster and more do-able. Instead of bike commuting one day a week, they’re doing it 3 or 5 days. We’ve also helped people with disabilities, people who are out of shape, and people who just want to have more fun riding their bikes. It’s been a pleasure watching all of these people dust off bikes and leave their cars in the garage. In my book, anything that enables people to do that is worth doing.
Would it be “better” if these people were able to bike under their own power without the assist? Maybe. But consider again this fact. The energy used by a typical electric bike is about 15 watt-hours (wh) per mile. The energy used by a typical car is 1,580 wh per mile. That means that you can ride your electric bike for 20 miles and use less energy than it would take to drive your car 0.25 mile. That’s a pretty startling statistic.

The adoption of electric bikes

Over the past 20 years, electric bike technology has made huge strides to where it is generally reliable and easy to use. This is not to say that everything out there is quality – there are still a lot of low quality and low powered bikes out there. But companies manufacturing the bikes and kits have started paying attention to what consumers want and I think we’ll see considerable weeding out of the stuff that is not worth it.
One of the biggest barriers to electric bikes in the marketplace that I see today is actually the reluctance of independent bike shops to take them on. Your local bike shop employees are probably dominated by hard core bike enthusiasts who wouldn’t consider an electric bike for themselves, and so are not very interested in selling them. I’ve also seen considerable reluctance on the part of mechanical staff to be interested or even willing to work on electric bikes, simply because it’s something pretty different than what they’ve seen before. The door has been left open for new specialty shops focused on electric bikes to pop up, and also for big-box retailers to get into the market. These retailers, in combination with the internet, have served to grow the market considerably. As the products increase in quality (and thus decrease in maintenance and support), and as consumer demand grows, I think local bike shops will come around. This would be a great thing, because local shops will always be the best place to get the service and support that bikes of all types need.
So, will electric bikes become a big part of the bike industry? My answer is, I sure hope so.  The potential they have to encourage and enable people to ride more is huge. Both hard core riders who commute longer distances or are aiming for the car-free lifestyle, and for casual riders who would ride more if it was easier and more convenient. And riding bikes is good for our souls, our communities, and our planet.

This article originally appeared on CommuteByBike on June 2, 2010

Join us for our monthly All-Ages Welcome Cruiser Ride.

THIS Saturday, July 17th

Gathering at 10.15AM, ride leaves at 10.30AM

Meet at the Shop for a leisurely social ride about 45 minutes in length. Families and kids welcome. Afterwards you’ll have time to swing by the farmers market or socialize at the Looking Glass Cafe, next door to Cycle 9.

This event repeats monthly the 3rd Saturday of the month

————————–

GULF OF MEXICO – As plumes of toxic fish-killing oil continue to spread throughout the gulf, scientists are rushing to determine what effect the spill will have on wildlife, food, and tourism.

One Chapel Hill woman was heard saying, “The real blame lies with ourselves.  All of us who drive cars regularly are rooting with our dollars for the big oil companies.  We are like drug addicts.  Disasters like this wouldn’t happen without our faithful support.”

A recent solution has surfaced to this problem.  It is a new form of transportation that is clean, low impact, and oil free.  “My human-electric hybrid bike is the way that I starve the big oil beast every day – and I’ve lost weight and saved money in the process,” says the woman.

Human-hybrid electric bikes can be plugged in to the wall to charge up for under ten cents per day. They can carry the rider effortlessly more than 30 miles on a charge, so the rider arrives clean, refreshed, and smiling ear to ear.

Carrboro bike store Cycle 9, located at 601 W Main St, is presently offering $100 off any Ecobike electric bike and a free helmet as part of the “Kick Big Oil In The Butt” sale.  They can be contacted for more information at 919-636-5909 or on the web at www.cycle9.com.

Last weekend, local bus driver Dave Deming attempted to carry over 900 bananas on his Yuba Mundo cargo bike. That’s 400 lbs – 10 boxes of 40 lb. each. Why did he do it? How successful was it? Watch the video to find out.

Bike will be put to test on Saturday

We once calculated that the Yuba Mundo, with it’s 440 lb payload capacity, could carry 900 bananas. Well, we decided to test this out for ourselves, just because it would be fun!

On Saturday, May 1st, Dave D., a long-time Carrboro resident and regular of Johnny’s in Carrboro, will attempt the feat. Bananas have been ordered and are awaiting pick-up at Weaver Street Market, our local food co-op  and community gathering spot.

Expected start time of 3pm should find Dave and his helpers attempting to load 900 bananas on his blue Yuba Mundo cargo bike. Will it be a record banana load???

The bananas will be pedaled (hopefully!) over to the Really Really Free Market at Town Commons (held from 2.30 – 5.00) to be distributed to a mob of hungry banana-eaters. Want to be par to the mob? Want to cheer Dave on?

Come on down and join in the fun!

-Elise

He Did It!!! See video here

http://www.cycle9.com/blog/cargo-bikes/banana-ride-successful/

Introducing Bike School from Cycle 9 – classes start May 4th

Learn basics about how to care for your bike and not get stuck with a flat.

Come learn to fix your bike under the tutelage of our experienced staff. We offer an open and inviting atmosphere and small classes free of intimidation where there is never a question that will go unanswered.

What is it?

Three classes are offered. Attend all 3 or just one or two. No prior experience needed.

• Class 1: Learn how to fix a flat and adjust and maintain your brakes (caliper, V, cantilever and disc)
• Class 2: Learn how to tune and maintain your drivetrain (chain and shifters)
• Class 3: General maintenance, adjust your headset and bottom bracket, replace a cable, and learn how to properly fit you on your bike for a comfortable and efficient ride.

Who’s it for?

• Anyone who wants to learn basic bike mechanic skills. No prior experience necessary.

When is it?

Classes will be on Tuesday evenings at 5.30pm and will last apx 1.5 hours. If we have a good response to this, we’ll repeat the series. So let us know if you want to see more classes later in the summer!

• Class 1: Tuesday May 4th
• Class 2: Tuesday, May 18th
• Class 3: Tuesday, June 1st

Where is it?

Classes will be held at Johnny’s, in Carrboro’s West End. Johnny’s is an inviting, outdoor venue located just up the street from Cycle 9 at 905 W. Main Street.

How do I sign up?

Register for one class or all three. Pre-registration through Cycle 9 is $25 per class or day-of registration $30 per class. Tuition includes one free drink (non-alcoholic) and tasty treat from Johnny’s. (Full time students eligible for discount.)

• Call 919-636-5909 to pre-register for any class. OR come by the store to sign up.
• Space IS limited to maintain a small class size, so call or stop by today!

At Cycle 9, you’ll find kids bikes for ages 2 through first adult bikes.

For your littlest riders, ages 2-5, we carry Balance Bikes by Kazam. What’s a balance bike? This is a short little bike that has no pedals. Your toddler sits on the seat and walks along, holding onto the handlebars. The advantage of this is they learn how to balance the bike in an upright position. As they get a little older, they can run along and cruise on the bike while picking their feet up off the ground. They get the idea of balancing right from the beginning without training wheels, and then add pedaling skill later.

Kazam balance bike

For 4-6 years old, the 16″ wheel bike is the way to go. We have bikes from Marin bike company in this category. They come with training wheels installed which can be removed once they aren’t needed anymore.

Marin Kids Bike 16"

From there, it’s leg length that determines how quickly they move up in sizes. We have 20″ wheel bikes in a mountain bike or beach cruiser style, and 24″ bikes in a mountain bike style. The 24″ bike will last until they reach their teenage growth spurts, at which point, they’ll be needing a bike with 26″ wheels, the standard wheel size for most mountain bikes. When they get to this point, look for a bike in a small frame size with adjustable seat post and handlebars to get the most years out of the bike.

The bike designs change a bit from year to year, but here are some photos of the bikes.

Kids Beach Cruiser

Marin Hidden Canyon Kids Bike

Another reason to buy a Kids bike from Cycle 9 is our Trade-Up Program. Get up to 50% of the value of the bike towards the next size up. Read more about it under our “Why Shop Cycle 9” tab.

You may have heard of an electric bike before and asked yourself, “what the heck?”

I must admit, it sounds like an odd contraption, adding an electric motor to a bike.

If you are like most people, when you first heard of it, you may have had a reaction of “I don’t need that, I wouldn’t get exercise.”  Or “it would be cheating.”  Or “people would think I’m wimping out.”

I had a reaction like that the first time I heard about them, way back in the early 90′s.  But then the idea wouldn’t leave my mind.  I eventually called up to order one, because I thought it would be nice to have a bit of extra help in my every day commute.  Plus I like trying bleeding edge contraptions.

And I was most surprised by one thing: how fun it was.  Once I was on the bike cruising around with a human-electric hybrid, I quickly lost the notion that it was an odd contraption.  I really liked it.

The thing I realized is that it was so fun that it encouraged me to bike more often.  I started biking lots of places instead of driving, because the bike had become so much more fun.  Especially in the hills.

Many people who come in the shop have the same reaction as my first one (and perhaps yours): what the heck?

But for those that overcome the reaction and try one out, they almost always come back from their first e-bike ride with a big smile on the face.  It is a transformational experience.

I don’t know what it is.  It is more than a decade later, and I still have trouble explaining why it is so fun.  It just is.

Maybe it is because I can readily cruise up the hills, even if I’m tired or it is hot outside.

Maybe it is because I feel like a much stronger biker (sort of like being bionic).

Like you may have, sometimes I’ve wondered whether I get enough exercise.  But I can spend months only riding the electric bike (no gym, no other exercise to speak of), then get on my road bike and ride very fast.  I seem to stay in good shape.

I know a lady who bought an e-bike kit to put on her bike, and enjoyed it so much that she rode every day, loosing 80 lbs.  She must have been getting some exercise.

It seems to encourage me and many others to ride their bikes so much more, that we get a lot more exercise than we would otherwise.

When you buy a car, do you look for the most spartan, uncomfortable car possible?  Or do you go for a car that will transport you around with plenty of power and in comfort?  If you are like me, you prefer having a bit of power and comfort.

But people are funny.  When it comes to buying bikes, I encounter many people who think they should buy a bike that forces them to work hard all the time.  Maybe that’s why a lot of those bikes sit in the garage unused.  If you have to work hard every time you get on the bike, you might not be so inclined to use it.

But if it is always fun to use, you might be more likely to use it.

That’s why I think electric bikes are great.

If you are someone who goes out and rides 50+ miles on your bike on the weekends for fun, you don’t need an electric bike.  But if you think that 10 miles is a long distance to go on a bike, then you may be the perfect candidate for an electric bike or hub motor kit.

Electric bikes

Electric bikes are made from the start to incorporate the electric features.  The main difference from a regular bike is that they usually have a spot for a built-in, lockable battery, like on this bike:

That’s the battery behind and under the seat.  Looking at this bike, you might not have even realized that it was electric.

You can control the power with a throttle on the handlebar.  If you just want to pedal, you can leave the throttle in the off position.  If you want full power, you just twist the throttle all the way.  If you want just a bit of power, you twist it a bit.  You can use any combination of pedaling and/or motor power that you want.

Electric hub motor kits

Electric hub motor kits are meant to be added onto your own bike.  They come in front wheel and rear wheel versions.  They are great if you already have a bike that you like, but want it to be electric.  The work just like a regular electric bike after installation, with the same kind of throttle activation.  You can still ride it just like your bike, or you can turbocharge your ride using the throttle.

With either the electric bike or the e-bike kit, when you get to your home or office, you just plug in the battery for a charge.  It only costs 1 to 2 cents to charge up, and usually takes about 3-4 hours.

Most of these can go around 20 miles per charge, though if you like to pedal a lot, you’ll probably get more than that.  If you’re really not into the pedaling thing all that much, then you might get just 17-20 miles.  That’s still a pretty good distance.

If you’d like to check out some of our offerings, you can have a look at our pre-made electric bikes in our online store.  Or if you are more interested in an electric bike conversion, have a look at our electric bike kits here.

Today I had to go into the doctor’s office for a diagnostic visit. No food, no drink, and all that. The appointment was mid-morning, located on the other side of town from my home. The car was really, really tempting – it is a cold and cloudy day in Chapel Hill. Last night I stayed up way too late doing some research. And I’ve caught some kind of cold from my kids. Overall, this combination doesn’t exactly lead to an optimistic outlook on life. I don’t know about you, but with me, when I don’t get enough sleep, everything seems more dramatic, and this morning I was feeling dramatic about things. The alarm rang, and I just lay there wishing I could go back to sleep. But, nope, the world called, and I had to drag my rear end out of bed, get showered, and get on my way.

All through getting ready, I debated about whether to take the car. The problem with taking the car is that I have no parking permit at work. One of those would cost me over $1,000 per year (seriously!). So I would have had to drive across town to the doctor and back, then park in a remote, expensive hourly parking lot far from my office.

I intentionally decided not to buy the parking permit, to force myself to ride the bike more. It is just too easy to get in the car some mornings if everything is so convenient. On mornings like today, I sometimes wonder about that decision.

But anyway, I decided the hassles of driving would have equaled the hassles of hopping on the bike when it was all added up, so I took the bike – my electric assist “Big Dummy” (who comes up with those names?).

The first 5 minutes or so on the bike I continued to be in a bit of a sour mood, and feeling a bit chilly. But then the blood started flowing. Pedaling was therapy. As I pedaled on I forgot about my woes, and started enjoying the sights and smells of the morning. It helped a lot to have my eZee electric assist this morning – that made all the difference, because I was able to fly across town in time to make my appointment. And I wasn’t in the mood for major exertion today. I did pedal, I always do, because I like to. But just the light pedaling was enough to warm up my body and my mood.

I got to the doctors office, and am sitting here writing this in the waiting room. I’m in a far better mood now, and very glad I biked. I wouldn’t have been so cheery if I’d driven. Driving almost never lifts my mood. It makes me wonder about the whole concept of convenience. Does comfort and convenience equal happiness? I think there’s a fine line. Certainly some comfort and convenience is good. But for me personally, if I have too much comfort and convenience in my life, it just ends up leading to a sort of numbness. Maybe that’s what Roger Waters was writing about in the song “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. I thrive on challenges – at least small ones – and I think many people do.

This reminds me of a Cycle 9 customer named Rick. He’s a really fun guy. He’s a professor and doctor whose hobbies are sailing, flying and building airplanes, and now, electric bikes. Rick got interested in e-bikes back when Cycle 9 was operating out of a small rented warehouse space with dirt floors. We built him up a customized e-bike with a hub motor that can do some incredible speeds (I’m not going to mention them here, because I don’t want to get Rick in trouble with the local authorities). He really needs those speeds for his situation. He lives in a place with no good bike route to work. Around his neighborhood the biking is good. And around his university the biking is reasonable. But there’s a section in between where the only connector road is an almost 1-mile stretch of very busy highway, with a 45mph speed limit (meaning cars travel 55mph). Some bike advocates would say – well, just ride like a vehicle and occupy that lane. I’d say to them that one would be crazy to do that. Rick does it this way. At the one traffic light before this stretch of bad road, he waits for all the traffic to go through. Then he guns the throttle and flies down the road as fast as he can, to get past “the gauntlet” before the light cycles and lets the next group of cars through. It works, most of the time (I saw him alive and well last week!).

Rick clearly likes challenges. It might be the easier thing for him to drive everyday given the location of his home and work. But he chooses to bike. So do many other folks I know, an ever increasing number. I’m glad that I’m not the only one these days out there riding. And I’m glad for days like this that riding the bike puts me in a much better mood.

And by the way, the doctor’s test was fine.

]]> http://www.cycle9.com/blog/cycling/biking-stimulates-the-soul/feed/ 0