riding an e-bike around town!

sunday, may 12th, 2024.

We finally received our tax refund on Friday, so my family and I dropped by our local bike shop after work and picked up an Electra Ponto Go! class 3 e-bike. Yesterday, after installing an old handlebar mirror and my wife getting acclimated to the bike, we rode about 10 miles around town. Visited a coffee shop and the park. The weather was fantastic, and I believe it's going to be pretty great today, too.

We all had enormous smiles on our faces getting out and about on our bikes! The little one has a seat on the back with foot pegs and she was really excited to get out for a ride. We're planning on riding out to another park with a splash pad today, too. I think she's really going to enjoy riding to school with my wife on this e-bike! We'll keep miles off of the minivan by replacing a bunch of local trips with bike rides. Once I get a cargo net for the back, I'll be able to schlep some groceries home on it, too.

One thing's for sure: e-bikes really make longer distance biking around town accessible! I'm super excited to see how this changes transportation for us. Hopefully this keeps wear-and-tear off of our automobiles, which are much more expensive to maintain. Plus, we're walking the walk when it comes to advocating for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure!

post-ride update.

Well, the splash pad bicycle trip was awesome and we're definitely getting comfortable riding a few miles together around town as a family. We even dropped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up some cardamom pods for an Indian recipe I'm planning on cooking tomorrow night.

I took the opportunity to degrease my bike's drivetrain when we got back to the house. It's one of those super gratifying chores of bike ownership— I won't have to do it on my new belt-drive bike, but I also won't get the powerwashing-like satisfaction from getting all this grime out of the sprockets.

Finally, a member of one of our local cycling groups shared this video and I thought it was pretty rad:

Until next time, be well! :)