in message <[email hidden]>, Stuart
Millington (') said:Does anyone here actually use any form of motor assistance - Or should
I be asking in us.fat.people.cycling? ;-)
I've said it before, and, having recently had a very good look at a Giant
Twist (formerly laFree - the most recommended electic-assist bike
available): on any but the most pancake-like of terrain you will do more
work - much more work - riding around on one of these than on a
lightweight non-electric-assist bike.
The Twist is enormously heavy; I'm not sure what proportion of that
weight is battery - the battery isn't actually that big. It also has a
horribly inefficient riding position from the point of view of actually
cycling. With the electric-assist working it goes along (including up
hills) quite nicely, although you still have to pedal. When the battery
runs out or dies on you, however, (as sooner or later it will) you're
either somehow or other going to have to somehow lug this enormous
ungainly weight home or else call out a breakdown truck. And every time
you have to heave it out of its shed, or load it onto a bike rack, or
manhandle it up or down a flight of steps, you're going to do more work
than I've done on my forty mile ride this afternoon.
For very elderly people living in dead flat areas and never wanting to
cover more than five miles in a day it may make sense; for anyone else,
it's madness. The lazy man, as usual, does the most work. Be sensible.
Get something you can actually cycle.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.
;; Jim Morrison