Description: So shiny and new. My first attempt in eons at chaining up a bike. How long has it been? I don’t remember there being U-locks around the last time I locked a bike publicly.
I have jumped on the e-bike…train? Something. In the low end of the pool. It is a simple bike for cheap because the company went out of business.
I am guessing not from build quality because it is well made, but likely just competition. It doesn’t go super fast like some bikes but it is certainly a passel of fun and more enjoyable than a normal bike.
The shakedown cruise today was 15 miles in the Valley on a hot day. There is a bike path here and there and also some riding with traffic along Ventura Boulevard that gets the heart racing.
It takes riding a bike to see just how much bikes aren’t accounted for, consistently, in urban planning. There are newer, very nice bike lanes put in by new developments, but then the apartment building leaves its trash bins right in the lanes. I know, those of you that bike all the time can fill a stadium with all your stories.
Then that nice bike lane, once you can ride in it, ends abruptly at the property line and it’s back to a free-for-all.
I did have a number of courteous and very courteous drivers today and for that I am thankful. Good people do exist. More than morons, thankfully.
My plan is to use the bike for the short stuff around town. Stuff inside its range and my time frame. Small grocery runs, trips to the pool to work out. Today I took Nimmi’s car for a tuneup and rode back after I dropped it off at her work. Stuff like that that makes sense.
It took an e-bike to get me to think about getting out of my car more. So be it.
Oh! If you want a cheaper bike that seems to be well made and won’t set speed records, I can point you to the clearance place in Westwood, Los Angeles where I got it. They had two more in boxes that were large frames (not medium or small). And I can show you the archive.org for the company, Lane, that went under.
Photograph copyright Peter West Carey. All rights reserved.