Save and Conserve

i read an interesting article in men's journal about gary fisher's interest in electric bikes. fisher was one of the early manufacturers of mountain bikes and he feels that the next big thing in biking will be the electric bike. while fisher has already struck gold once in his life and has therefore probably had his day in the sun (and made his millions), it's nevertheless intriguing to see a powerful, respected industry heavy get excited about electric bikes.

it's indisputable that electric bikes make sense in terms of energy efficient personal travel. they make scooters and mopeds look like gas pigs. it's also true that electric bikes have evolved quite a bit in the past several years. batteries are getting lighter and storing more energy than ever before, improvements that make the electric bike more practical as a transportation option.

the article highlighted a recumbent style two-seater named the twike as an example of progression in the electric bike space. i checked out twike's english website and, while not the most user friendly site out there, it gives you an idea of how far things have come. the twike places the riders in a shell that would theoretically protect the rider from the elements. as someone who lives in the northeastern usa, protection from the elements in the winter months is a prerequisite to changing primary transportation vehicle.

although the product has many appealing assets, the twike is prohibitively expensive today. and, as the article pointed out, riding a twike on congested usa roadways would be akin to running with the bulls. america's not setup in a twike-friendly fashion, to say the least.

while i like the idea of electric bikes taking hold and becoming a realistic method of personal transportation, you can see that, for most sane people, electric bikes are currently too expensive and too dangerous to be taken seriously. one caveat: if we did get some sort of significant oil shock, i think we could see the popularity of electric bikes take off.