Electric Mobility

The Earth Module landed in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Saturday was to be a day of rest before journeying  on.  With the truck unhitched we meandered into the town from Cochiti Lake.  Kadizzle had made arrangements to rent an electric bike.  Kadizzle has been seriously considering the purchase of an electric bike for some time so this seemed like a good chance to try  another one.  From the train station where the bikes are rented Kadizzle took off and surveyed the town.  Getting about on a bike is so much simpler than a car.  You can use the road, paths, or in some cases the sidewalk.  A nice feature of the electric bike is you can give a little boost to take off at a traffic light by twisting the throttle.  You set the amount of assist you want.  These bikes are perfect for exploring a dense part of a city.  Eventually Kadizzle found the way out into the country side and was able to try some windy bike paths with some steep grades.  It was nice to just give the bike a little juice to get a start up the hill.  On the level the battery seemed to be hard to wear down, but once on the steeper gravel pathway the battery did start to deplete.  The path followed the railroad tracks leading to Albuquerque.  When the bike was returned it still had about one third of the power left.  It seemed like the whole ride was around twenty miles.  Keep in mind Kadizzle has some meat on his body.  Of course the more you pedal the longer the battery would last.  Currently the Yamaha is strapped to the back of the Earth Module.  An electric bike would be a tremendous weight savings and it would serve about 80% of the duty the motorcycle does.  However, if you want to go up a steep mountain grade with rocks you better by on the Yamaha.  Kadizzle would recommend an electric bike for people doing the RV life.  It would be great for exploring and getting small amounts of groceries.