Acoustic Bike v. Electric Bike

I've been riding an electric cycle for 2 years, now, and I'm convinced I was right about electric bikes all along. They're a disability aid being co-opted by the able-bodied. They're also a major pain in the arse!

The touring bije I rode for 8 years was converted to 250w euro-style electric assist (Australian street legal) and it gave me back my pre heart attack urban range. but it handles less well with the electrics onboard, and comes with a heap of logistical considerations if I wanted to go outside of urban spaces - which was always my first love of riding, rural rambling, the wide-open road.

Electric motorists need to look to e-cycling for the reality of range anxiety! A big, heavy battery, just above the bottom bracket, 50km range if you sip it at a constant 50w boost, 15km if you hit the full 250w pedal assist. The above mentioned battery barely leaves you with room for a single water bottle, only toptube bags need apply for the job of holding fuel for the rider. Electrifying my bike has thethered me to more than a standard power outlet. It ties me to home, to only exploring around towns with a railway station.

If we stretch the "acoustic bike" analogy, my Greenspeed trike is a fucking "double bass!" As a lifetime rocker, the electric/acoustic thing should have been a warning. I have 2 acoustic guitars, a half scale nylon string, restored from a hard rubbish find (no strings, no bridge bone) and a steel string dreadnought. Both can be picked up and played, anytime I like to, no prep, no pulling the amp out from its storage nook, just pick up your guitar and play. Electrick guitars come with plugging in amps, pedals, power bricks by the dozen for the pedals, pedals to control the amp, to switch cabs, a vanload of shit equal to a drummer's toolbag only with more knobs, dials, wires, tethers...

And so does my recumbent Greenspeed trike. I feel like a god, riding it, the e-assist and the recumbent position both help me overcome post-heart attack stamina limitations, both by building my fitness, and by helping me not overdo any extension to my stamina I seek. But, like a double bass (which as a rock bassist, still had pickups, pedals, an amplifier (BIG!) and leads everywhere), "Greenie" takes up so much space! On the workbench. In the car, which is where I have to store it because there's no room anywhere else at home, and on the roads and trails! I it denies me access to Melbourne's protected bike lanes because I'm slow rider, comparatively, and Melbourne's commuters are a general Tour de Fuck You!

So, I'm building an "acoustic" bike, well, refitting a classic 90s, MTB as a modern ATB/gravel/tourer with hydro disks (with the help of metal 3D printing), a cleverly slackened geometry (again, metal 3D printing) and modern wheels and drivetrain. I plan to explore affordable rail routes and use them for hops between interesting towns and explore those towns by bike. Where affordable rail isn't afforded to me, I'll drive or fly there, although rail is my preference. It's a butted chromoly framed Giant Sedona, it isn't shiny-new pretty, but it is shaping up as a lighter bare-build touring bike than my Reid Uban X2 ever was, even before it got fitted with racks. The "Frankengiant" with racks (and no electrics) will just about match the aluminium Reid, gram for gram) without racks. (And no electrics!)

If this works out like I'm hoping...

Fingers crossed...

I may just disencumber the Greenspeed, too! I love riding it! Yeah, it's a modern, Taiwanese-built, Terra Trike designed Greenspeed, but it's still got the Ian Sims heritage, it's true to the old, steel framed "Greenie" that I hired for an afternoon in Hobart, Tasmania, in the late 90s. They corner terrifyingly, inner-wheel-liftingly, more "English" needed than on motocross trials event, real sports car thrills, but I'll still have to store the damned thing in my car. A car I've only committed to to get the damned trike out of my studio!

Yep, motorised transport is for the disabled, and all the power to equalising disabled mobility, more ramps in more places, wider doors work for everybody, train floors should be level with platform decks, I believe Federal law can be argued to require the latter. But motors are not, and should never be, for the able bodied. That's a bit of positive discrimination, right there, and I'm proud of it.