Will e-bikes be the new 'commuter cool'?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/electric.bicycles/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/15/electric.bicycles/index.html
CNN: Will e-bikes be the new 'commuter cool'?
- Thread starter pwbset
- Start date
dogman dan
1 PW
Much as we ebike owners love em, they aren't going to catch on with gas at $2.50 a gallon or less.
What everybody doesn't realize, but I finally did, is that gas is barely scratching the surface of what the dang car costs you. 10 cents a mile is todays cost for gas, on a 25 mpg car. But the car itself may cost 40 cents a mile, or more. My ebike is costing about 10 cents a mile total costs.
What everybody doesn't realize, but I finally did, is that gas is barely scratching the surface of what the dang car costs you. 10 cents a mile is todays cost for gas, on a 25 mpg car. But the car itself may cost 40 cents a mile, or more. My ebike is costing about 10 cents a mile total costs.
spinningmagnets
100 TW
Also, most people (used to) buy a new car every 5 years. The logic is they want a newer car to avoid paying for repairs, and as long as you're going to be making a monthly payment anyways, might as well get a new one.
For a cost/benefit analysis I recommend a 6-10 year-old economy car (one with a record of reliability) with a manual transmission, pay it off quickly so no monthly payment. Then...keep it a very long time. Towards this end, I have a 1991 Toyota 4-cyl truck that just barely passed over 100K miles.
By moving closer to your work and buying a well-engineered E-bike, you can cut out 80% of you car miles, and 95% of the miles you used to rack up when you lived a longer drive away. Its not just saving on gasoline costs (which will go up again) but whatever car you have, it will last MUCH longer and will have higher resale value due to lower miles at sell-time.
With low accumulation of miles, parts wearing out is pushed farther back, and time between problems (tires/brakes/minor repairs) is more spread out.
It wasn't raining when Noah started building the ark...
For a cost/benefit analysis I recommend a 6-10 year-old economy car (one with a record of reliability) with a manual transmission, pay it off quickly so no monthly payment. Then...keep it a very long time. Towards this end, I have a 1991 Toyota 4-cyl truck that just barely passed over 100K miles.
By moving closer to your work and buying a well-engineered E-bike, you can cut out 80% of you car miles, and 95% of the miles you used to rack up when you lived a longer drive away. Its not just saving on gasoline costs (which will go up again) but whatever car you have, it will last MUCH longer and will have higher resale value due to lower miles at sell-time.
With low accumulation of miles, parts wearing out is pushed farther back, and time between problems (tires/brakes/minor repairs) is more spread out.
It wasn't raining when Noah started building the ark...
julesa
10 kW
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2008
- Messages
- 950
I'd love to live closer to work. The trouble is, closer housing either costs double, or you have to deal with problems like repairing bullet holes in the siding. 
Luckily we were able to find a place fairly close to my wife's job, and we moved in konwing there's a bike trail going two thirds of the way to my job (20 miles). I'd use it more if it wasn't so bumpy from tree roots. It's a beautiful ride but hard on the battery rack. The streets are more dangerous, but I can go a lot faster.
Luckily we were able to find a place fairly close to my wife's job, and we moved in konwing there's a bike trail going two thirds of the way to my job (20 miles). I'd use it more if it wasn't so bumpy from tree roots. It's a beautiful ride but hard on the battery rack. The streets are more dangerous, but I can go a lot faster.
