Vehicle Owner

I actually meant to buy a bicycle, but I ended up owning a vehicle. But I am jumping ahead a bit here, and let this be a cautionary tale about wandering the internet unguided.

I cannot recall why I initially thought about exploring the idea of owning an ebike, but in hindsight I blame Hanoi.

By the time I reached Hanoi, I was starved for conversation. So I flagged a moto in the Old Quarter, hopped on board and off we went. My destination was a British style pub, a few blocks from my hotel.

After a few meters, I realised the thing uopon which I had hopped was electric.

Very cool and very slow on the hill. Mind you, we were carrying over 300lbs on an ebike with a maximum capacity of 250 lbs.

As the driver dropped me off, I looked at his ride and registered something. Something that rose to the surface about ten days ago. So now I own one of these

I didn't just buy an ebike, I bought the Cadillac Escalade of this genre.

Originally I deluded myself into thinking that I could drag this pig up the stairs, but I soon realised my quaint notions of a utopian bicycle would fade quickly, like Egorillas in the mist. The law classifies my vehicle as a bicycle, but it is a bicycle in name only.

And the Talking Head lyric "watch out, you might get what you're after" has been playing in my head for days.

And so it is that I did get what I'm after, and what I'm after does not require insurance, can be parked on a sidewalk, and driven in a bike lane.

An ebike is also universally hated by the police, motorists, and those lycra spandex clad traffic law breaking moralists known as the urban pedal set.

Throwing in the nonplussed reaction from a few friends only serves to cement the fact that I'm on the right track. Some people like change, but most people don't. Real change threatens deeply held beliefs.

Sure finding parking/storage is a problem, but it is a problem I solved. And with fuel costs under $50 per year, the lure of an ebike is hard to resist. Make no mistake, you will see more and more of these vehicles on the streets of Toronto and around the world.

So I'm gonna proudly drive my ebike around town come spring, and if you bleak dreary auto addicts don't like it, then too bad. And ditto for the lycra crowd.

I've seen the future of personal urban transport, and if you haven't, then that is your problem.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com