Ready for a makeover? From a COVID 19-chrysalis into an e-bike butterfly?
E-bikes (electrically-assisted) resemble person-powered bicycles except for a small battery-run motor that allows riders to overcome the resistance of weather (especially wind), terrain (specifically hills) or physical limitations.
STAGES OF METAMORPHOSIS:
IN OUR HEADS
E-bikers are the tortoises, not the hares, of the cycling world. By getting an e-assist, we’re not cheating; we’re unseating ourselves (from the couch) and leaving guilt at the fridge door. We’ve researched the right e-bike fit, type and price range for us. Mountain bikes, cruisers, road commuters, cargo bikes (for grandkids or pets) and fat-tires all come with e-assist. Call us a couple of cruisers.
IN OUR BODIES
COVIDly-cooped up with nowhere to go but downhill (and back up again), we live on the side of a mountain. Our recreational biking pattern has been to go elsewhere (a car ride with bikes on a rack to somewhere flatter). Now that we have e-bikes, we arrive at our destination less sweaty and more energized. We go faster (Olympic-tortoise tempo) with momentum on our side.
A 2019 Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives journal report compared electric bicycle users to conventional bicycle users in seven EU cities. Purportedly, 10,000 adult e-bikers edged out pedal-bikers in taking longer trips. The e-bikers were older with a slightly higher BMI (body mass index).
They sized us up (frame size and gearing familiarity).
“The right hand clicks the 10 gears the same as a conventional bike.”
“Check,” I say.
“The left is your boost button.”
“How many do I get?”
“Three, plus a walk mode.”
“Walk mode?”
“In case you’re walking up a ramp (off a BC ferry) with pannier-bags-full.”
Ours are pedal-assists, which means we pedal. We’ve been pedal-pushers since childhood. E-bikes allow for less strain on joints, and on the body as a whole. The weight of our battery and motor are in the mid-frame, which distributes the 50-pound load, and eases back-wheel adjustments.
If you haven’t ridden in a decade or more, the expression, “it’s-as-easy-as-riding-a-bike” may no longer apply. Practice on a stationary bike at your local gym to ready your pedalling muscles and raise your fitness level. Remind yourself how to gear shift on a traditional bike, before graduating to an electric’s heavier (yet sturdier) frame. Technology has changed, as have our bodies.
We scoot along the flat without any boost (this fifth level of power is our own). Uphill, we anticipate terrain changes and graduate clicks “low, medium, high.” Maintaining cadence, we gear down before we power up (in revolutions per minute) to minimize fatigue. With that slight surge, we’re in control. We apply assist when needed. The computer display shows the range of the battery’s power (over 100 km) is well within our own. We re-charge when we get home. It all depends on the outing’s outage.
IN OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD
Find an e-bike provider locally who can advise you pre-sale, then help maintain your bike post-sale. Our service-support is OHM Electric Bikes in North Vancouver. With 15 years of industry-leading experience, OHM designs their own frames and outfits them with high-quality components.
According to CEO and co-founder Michael DeVisser, “OHM e-bikes allow riders to climb steep hills, keep pace with stronger riders and reduce commute time.” (For retirees, commute-time = regular travel-time.)
I fill a pannier with groceries, step through my frame, and ride home uphill, humming right along.
IN E-BRANCHING OUT
A robust bicycle rack and U-locks (and cables for security) get us ready to roll. Leaving the car at Tsawwassen, we ride across the Saanich Peninsula (to Mt. Newton Cross Road, off Lochside Trail), and take the Brentwood Bay-Mill Bay ferry to the Cowichan Valley.
Cowichan Bay is North America’s first slow-food town. At the mouth of the Cowichan River, we pace ourselves past winning wineries into Cittaslow’s space at Oceanfront Suites and breakfast on café-croissants at True Grain Breads. We take in the wharf, its fishing boats and sustainable fishery, all-the-while viewing Mount Tzouhalem, named after a 19th-century Quamichan (warm place or Cowichan) chief.
Following rotary routes to the Sherman Road access to the Trans Canada Trail north of Duncan, we welcome 28 kilometres of shaded rail trail to Lake Cowichan. Between the lake and the river, we cross a rusty rail bridge to our B&B. We retrace our path to Cowichan Lake Road and cruise downhill to Duncan and its totem tour.
One pole, The Transformation in Life, depicts Eagle spirit supporting an adventurer in a wing-enfolded embrace. We are an e-gal with her e-guy. We have been carried away. As two seniors looking to embrace change in the best way we can, our vision quest is ongoing.
Our Cowichan expedition culminates at the Kinsol Trestle. Transformed, as one poster heralds, from “working railway trestle to resurrected treasure,” the Kinsol Trestle provides active transport over the Koksilah River for hikers, horse-back riders, and cyclists like us.
Our counter-clockwise route circles ’round. To cap off, a circum-road-navigation of the lake ends in a refreshing dip at West Shawnigan Lake Park. Home via the Merridale Cidery and Distillery, more refreshment is at hand. We tuck some scrumpy into our pannier… for the e-lectrolytes.
Transitioning to e-bikes has been an e-volving and e-lating transformation.
Joan Boxall is a regular contributor to ‘Inspired 55+’ and author of
DrawBridge: Drawing Alongside My Brother’s Schizophrenia, Caitlin Press, 2019
IF YOU GO:
References and Accommodations:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259019821930017X
http://oceanfrontcowichanbay.com/
www.crownhouse.ca/
www.shawniganlakebedandbreakfast.ca/
www.duncancc.bc.ca/visitors-info
*Note: The Cowichan Regional Visitor Centre has advised (via the Ministry of Transport) that the Trans Canada Trail (also named The Great Trail or the longest multi-use recreational trail in the world) will be repaired and re-opened this fall due to a winter washout between Routes B and C. Check in with Visitor Services before planning your route.
*Request a Cowichan Valley (CVRD) Trail Map showing:
Route A: West Shawnigan Lake Park to Kinsol Trestle
Route B: Glenora Trails Head Park to Kinsol Trestle
Route C: Duncan to Lake Cowichan
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Food for thought, Joan. I always enjoy your articles.