The Year of Magical Pedaling

It’s time for a bike update. One of the ideas when we moved here was to live a more sustainable, lower carbon lifestyle. That meant moving to a place where we could walk and bike many errands.

We started with two Lectric XP 2.0 ebikes that we got before we left Nashville. The goal was to get Yessa up and riding on a bike and the gentle neighborhood we were in was a good place to start. They also accommodated the sizes of people we have in the house.

• The Black and White Lectrix XP 2.0 Twins: 239/301 miles respectively. Our starter pair are ridden occasionally by Monkey and frequently by Yessa.
• RadRunner 2: 461 miles. We got this bike from Facebook Marketplace soon after moving, it’s a sturdy cruiser that is Ginnie’s exclusive ride. This beast seems to never run low on battery and has an upright riding style that reminds me of a Harley.
• Blix Aveny: 270 miles. Purchased in the summer, again from Facebook Marketplace. This bike has become my primary ride. It’s a little tame for my taste with an euro-styled look and a very natty blue color. Unlike the other bikes, it has full-size skinny-ish tires.

I started the year with dreams to have our bike miles match or exceed our local driving. This hasn’t come to pass as the local driving has totaled around 5-6,000 miles and we’re at 1270 for the bikes.

We’ve been mentored by our motorcycle riding friends Victor and Renee. They rhapsodize about how connected you are to the world around you while riding on two wheels with all of your senses available. It’s true, there’s so much more to see and the bikes make it trivial to swing off and inspect some find more closely.

Over the year, we’ve geared up. We’ve accessorized with mirrors (super necessary!) and walkie talkies and Ginnie has found both a XL milk crate to haul goodies and a crossing guard vest to wear while doing so. A covid-style facemask does wonders in the winter to keep the cold at bay.

There have been misadventures: I started the year by pancaking the black Lectric XP on slippery ground spraining my thumb for several months and smashing its headlight to pieces. The RadRunner’s big tires have gone flat twice which we’ve fixed by applying some goop then later replacing the tube. My Blix threw a wheel off but I landed on my feet (an adventure that never got a blog post).

Recently, one of my favorite YouTubers gave us inspiration to recommit. He’s living car-free in Las Vegas (Sin City y’all) and thriving. If he can do that, we can easily do more in a much more bike-friendly small city.

Ecosystem shapes and constrains what’s possible. In our suburban Nashville home, I wouldn’t have felt safe biking on the road in front of our home (two accidents over the years had sent cars tumbling into our front lawn). We didn’t have or couldn’t find options for shopping local beyond an Ace Hardware in a strip mall up the road.

We’ve enjoyed having options and riding the bike for errands or to CrossFit, or just to look around pays off in joy every time. Even when it’s 30 degrees out.