Bicycle Quest: A three year non-adventure

You may have inferred by the way I clench my jaw as I type the “word” ebike, that I think they are and will be an important part of our human story to lessen our need for cars. Perhaps extend our ability to explore and slow down. But I don’t have an ebike, yet.

When we got the van, I believed that we would want, or need, some form of non-van transportation to be able to:

• explore
• get groceries
• do the paper work to change campsites
• pick up take out food
• get to trailheads

Others we know, had the same realization and immediately equipped their van with a couple of ebikes (jaw clenched) and a fancy bike rack. Envious, I was. Cheap, I was. Stuck in analysis, I was.

In addition to being cheap (yes, we have some expensive, well researched, stuff). I’m selectively cheap. We had a number of constraints we had to live within. Here they are:

• Our van came with a bike rack* the bikes had to fit onto
  • each bike had to be under 50 lbs
  • tire width had to be under 2.25 inches
• The trailer hitch on our van is inferior – a hitch mounted rack was not an option and this ruled out bikes over 50lbs
• We planned on getting only one bike so it had to fit either of us and we are not the same size
  • having Amy makes going on a bike ride together difficult
  • figured we could assess bike usage and if there was need we could get another and some method to carry Amy
• We can’t carry much more stuff inside the van
• Bike had to have at least 20km range
• Had to have a way to secure the bike to prevent theft (a common problem)
• Had to be available in and supported in Canada
• Be able to remove the battery to reduce on rack weight
• Hopefully capable of some level of trail riding

*The bike rack: OK. Winnebago really did a crappy job with our bike rack. The rack itself is mounted to the skin of the rear door with some metal plate inserts to hold the rivnuts the rack mounts bolt into. Brass rivnuts through thin door skin into a 0.125 inch aluminum sheet (ok, I didn’t measure it, but that’s close enough). When I took the interior of the door off to inspect the installation, I noticed that two of the rivnuts were not even attached to the backing plates. I fixed this with longer bolts, washers, lock washers and nuts ensuring the mounts are actually backed by the backing plates. Still not confident the skin won’t pull off the door (this has happened to other owners). The workaround is to strap the mounts to the door hinges to help distribute the load.

Of course I consulted with many real bicycle type people. One younger, more athletic (think triathlons) coworker had a few key pieces of advice. Non-ebikes can be pretty light and are less maintenance. Our legs have pretty close to unlimited range. Shit! Obviously I chose to ignore that insight cause there was no way it supported getting an ebike. Good thing about us people, we tend to ignore the good advice. Another one I ignore too often is “you can’t outrun your fork”. That one also came from a treasured coworker.

For 3 years I read ebike reviews. I analysed (I spelt analyzed as analysed for my Australian friends) specs. I investigated Canadian support and shipping policies. I watched YouTube greats like Jimmy and Natalie, Van Trekking Lifestyle and plenty more get free bikes to review. WTF. I have a blog. I have mentioned ebikes before. Sometimes a person or two reads my blog. Where is my free ebike?

One thing of note. It is hard to find objective ebike reviews after the initial launch of the bike. Reddit seems to be the best bet to get ongoing information about quality and longevity.

As I approached my birthday this year I decided this was it. Time to buy. I was going to get a Lectric XP Lite 2.0 Extended Range Belt Drive. Yup. That’s the one! Jimmy and Natalie have the previous generation. Must be good enough for me.

But wait. What was that advice about legs and bike weight. Keep that on ignore.

But wait again. There were a number of posts on reddit indicating the specific model I wanted was possibly having some issues. Dang. Let’s wait a bit longer to see if there are more similar reports.

But wait even more. While paralysed (you are welcome, Aussies) with analysis, Lectric abandoned their international shipments. For years, the policy had been that they would ship to Canada for $200 USD and that covered shipping and all duties. Not a bad deal.

Plan B: I looked at other ebike options.

• Cannondale Compact Neo
  • overpriced for its small battery
  • met weight limits despite non-removable battery
  • nobody seems to have them in stock
• Fiido X
  • bigger removable battery
  • met weight limits

Plan C: Non-electric bikes

Well. Give in to this old school way of using our bodies to power a bicycle? OK, let’s consider it. But first, I needed to know that I was actually capable of propelling a bicycle for enough distance. Rather than taking my 1986 mountain bike, the RockPig, out for a real ride, I hopped on the stationary bike, brushed away the cobwebs and set a goal for 15km at at least 20kmph non-stop. No fake hills, that would be too much. Despite the fact that I average 5.5km per day of brisk walking and have been running some intervals, I was not sure I could do it. I did it. These old legs might be ok.

I considered the following bicycle options:

• a used Cannondale Hooligan (hard to find)
• some newer mini-velo (most likely have to buy the parts and build it)
• a Brompton
• some other folding bike

Given that it is the image for this post, you probably already know I chose the Brompton. As offspring number 2 said: “it’s like the Miata of bicycles”.

I ventured off to the Brompton dealer in Ottawa as their website said that had one in stock. I at least wanted to try it. Unfortunately I could not get them on the phone and email response was slow. We showed up only to discover there was no Brompton. Days later they emailed back to say they hadn’t had one for months as they all sold out quickly. That would have been good to know. Trip was not wasted. We got some ChunChung and Mr Puffs. Still not outrunning my fork! Pretty sure we won’t do Mr Puffs again.

I then booked a phone appointment with the great people at Curbside Cycle in Toronto. They gave me some great info and would not confirm rumours of the possibility of the new gravel ready Brompton (G Line). A few days later the G Line was announced.

Would it fit in the van the way a C Line might? Yes, the C Line might fit in the van. No rack to worry about! Lower risk of theft. I set about making a box the size of a C Line with G Line sized protrusions to see how either would fit in the van. There is no point having a folding bike if it won’t fit in the van. Good news. The C Line fits beautifully. Bad news, the G Line won’t. It is doable, but would always be in the way. Also, the G Line probably won’t be available in Canada until after our 2025 spring trip (open to suggestions for destinations).

I had been monitoring Kijiji for used Bromptons. Wow. 15 year old Bikes are listed for 75% of current price. Only makes sense to buy new. I better plan a drive to Toronto. On a lark, I looked at FB Marketplace. I rarely look at FB as it is The Devil (do we capitalize this?) . But this time it delivered. Perhaps The Devil is enticing me into the world of FB? I noticed an ad for a very new looking C Line spec’d the way I would buy it but without the rear rack. Let’s reach out while giving FB some more insight into my patterns. A day later the seller replied and then called me moments later. Is this The Devil? No! The Brompton was an acceptable colour. It had been ridden about 4 times. It was a 2022 model purchased from aforementioned Curbside Cycles. And, it had just been in for a tune up. Only problem was that it was 2.5 hours away but that is 1.5 hours closer than the bike shop in Toronto. “I can be there in under 4 hours”.

Off I went. The bike checked out. There were a few upgrades the seller had not listed. Bonus! I did my best job of negotiating by stating “I’ll take it”. I had a ride around the parking lot. We practiced folding it and unfolding it. Then we waited 30 minutes for my e-transfer to go through. The seller threw in the Brompton front carrier bag she had planned on keeping. That was kind.

Off I went and drove to the cottage (had some stuff to do and it was slightly closer than home). Cottage road is not great for Brompton riding.

The plan is to use the Brompton and assess suitability. If it is suitable and we use it, we have just had a big win. If not, we can sell it for not a huge loss. We will assess the G Line when they are out in Canada.

But, of course, it will need to be modified. I have ordered the rear rack and the toolkit from Curbside Cycles. Plenty of YouTube videos on how to install pretty much everything on the Bromptons.

The Brompton meets all requirements except for 1 (maybe 2). They are not well suited for loose substrates like some trails. Hill climbing is not a strength. There are plenty of videos of people doing both of these things on the Brompton despite them not being suitable.

Ours is an C Line M6L in House Red. Also known as a 6 speed C Line Explore with M type handlebars and no rear rack. You can google all that if you want.

The quest is over. Maybe just for now. So far I have put only 12.5 km on it. My perineum is fine. That’s a good sign.

And then it happened. I was out for a ride around the neighbourhood this morning. A young female child yelled out “that’s a cute bike!”. Now I know how the male Ladybugs feel.

Ride on!