I love bikes, and love to ride them. But the trouble with bicycling as a means of everyday transportation is that it takes serious work to get somewhere in a decent amount of time. That serious work makes one sweat, and while I don’t have a problem with sweating per se, there are times when sweating is just not… nice. I don’t know about you but I don’t like smelling myself all day after biking to work, and I’m sure others don’t appreciate it either.
So, I’d really like to get one of these; a Go-Hub electric motor. It’s a motorized assist to make the ride easier… To flatten the hills and make the ride to work (or wherever) much less strenuous (and make me easier to be around throughout the day.) And for the ride home, I’d be free to use it or not; get some exercise or get there fast. While I’m not a treehugger by any stretch of the imagination, I still have a difficult time with the concept of driving 2,000-plus pounds of metal just to get my sorry butt to where I need to go. Most of my trips around town are just me in the car, and if I could do it without having to pay for the gas, all the better.
The Go-Hub is essentially an electric motor built into the hub of a front wheel. It sells for about $550, and comes with the battery pack, throttle, etc… The price sounds a bit steep, but considering that I’d be able to get by without buying gas for weeks in a stretch, I think it’d be worthwhile. The batteries give it a range of 25-30 miles, and recharge via 110V AC in a matter of a few hours.
Now to convince the Chief Financial Officer that this would be a good idea…