For Christopher Christie, it was the TTC strike in April that first sparked his interest in commuting on an electric bicycle.
“I don’t want to have to depend on those people and their union,” says the 37-year-old driver for HD Supply in Toronto, while riding his scooter-style e-bike along Queen’s Quay. “I don’t appetite that stress.”
Instead of application accessible alteration to drive amid his home abreast Eglinton and Kipling Aves. to his job on Parliament St., he now rides his battery-powered two-wheeler. Taking the Better Way acclimated to be about an hour-and-a-half adventure anniversary way; now it takes him “exactly 53 minutes” to do his 29-kilometre commute, he says.
It’s doubtful that the cycling enthusiasts behind Toronto’s Bike Month, which kicks off Monday, had such a low-exertion option in mind when they launched their annual drive to promote pedal power as a credible alternative to the internal combustion engine.
But for those whose drive would be too continued and too bathed to accomplish by approved bicycle, an e-bike has its attractions.
A scooter-style model has the style and storage of a motorscooter, but you don’t need a licence to ride one – and you can take it anywhere a regular bike can go, which is handy when traffic is backed up (see story below).
Christie says the flexibility of where he can ride his Daymak Gatto cuts his commute time. “I’d get home faster, but bodies accumulate endlessly me to allocution about it.”
It also doesn’t hurt that the Chinese-made e-bike’s battery-powered motor emits zero pollution, unless you want to count the 3 cents a day it costs to top up the battery.
The low environmental impact was one of the reasons the e-bike last year became the subject of a three-year provincial pilot program that’s testing them as a transportation alternative. From now until October 2009, anyone can ride an e-bike anywhere a bike can go, as continued as they are at atomic 16 years old and abrasion a helmet. The e-bike is additionally bound to a top acceleration of 32 km/h.
The acknowledgment to the affairs has been encouraging, according to Bob Nichols, agent for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
“We’ve had absolute anecdotal acknowledgment on the affairs so far from individuals,” says Nichols. “We’ll be seeking more formal feedback through a survey on our website that will be posted for several months, beginning this summer.”
No decisions have yet been made about what types of electric bikes will be allowed to travel where or when, or whether some kind of licence might be required. Nichols says the government will be allurement for ascribe from e-bike riders, manufacturers, retailers and added associates of the public.
As the buyer of Silent Rider, one of several GTA food that advertise e-bikes, Larry Meade is action that the arena will accept the machines in their accepted incarnation. Meade, a above full-time stockbroker, opened his St. Lawrence market area store last September.
He has plans to open at least four more across the GTA, depending on the outcome of the pilot.
“I’m activity to accumulate my cards abutting to my chest until I see a abiding law in place,” he says. “Everyone is kind of testing the waters right now.”
Daymak, the maker of Christie’s machine, has been selling e-bikes in Toronto for seven years and now has nine outlets around the GTA.
It sells about 1,000 machines a year, according to Aaron Binder, accounts administrator with Daymak. He says 90 per cent are the scooter-style, rather than the accessible anatomy ones that attending like approved bicycles.
“They’re a little added adequate to ride,” he says of the scooter style. “You don’t have to expend energy if you don’t want to.”
In fact, Christie says he bought his $1,400 Gatto because of its styling.
“It looks like a Vespa,” he says. “I didn’t apprehend how abundant it looks like a Vespa until addition acicular it out to me.”
That administration does accept its drawbacks. Others on bike paths unfamiliar with the relatively new two-wheelers have been quick to voice their disapproval, says Christie.
“They bark at me, `Get off the bike aisle – that’s for the road,’” he says. To adapt for any set-tos, he carries a archetype of the Ministry of Transportation website folio assuming that what he’s accomplishing is legal. He also tends to avoid the Martin Goodman Trail during busy times.
At the heart of an electric bike is its battery. Most models are powered by a lead acid type, which weighs about 25 kg and will last about 300 recharging cycles – or about a year and a half – before it has to be replaced at a cost of about $300.
Binder and Meade both say this season’s newest advantage is a lithium ion battery, which will aftermost alert as continued and counterbalance beneath than bisected as much. The bottomward ancillary is they will set you aback an added $1,000.
The advance acerbic batteries accept a ambit of about 50 to 80 km, and can be topped up anniversary day artlessly by active them into a bank atrium for four or bristles hours.
In the real world, how far you can go on a charge depends on your speed and your weight. Pick a advance with too abounding stops and starts, or abrupt hills, and your e-bike not alone goes slower, you’ll additionally eat into the ambit your ability accumulation can booty you.
In fact, Christie says one of the first things anyone who gets an e-bike should do is study a map, to pinpoint routes to take, striking a balance between the shortest, fastest, and the safest, flattest journey.
Should it run out of juice, even a scooter-style bike like Christie’s has pedals that can be used to power it. But leg ability is article best e-bikers adopt to avoid.
“You should try pedalling with them,” says Christie, pointing to the awkwardly placed foot pegs. “It’s pretty hard with the pedals so far apart.”
He says he’s only ever been caught short once, luckily only several blocks from home.
“I ended up pushing,” he said, with a laugh. “That will never happen again.”