Electric Bikes and Expanding the Reach of Cycling

Boris and his partner and Anna Mostovetsky are on a cross-country tour, using their E-Velo bikes to ride from New York to San Francisco. We met for a brief chat on their way through D.C. (They were coming from Annapolis and headed up the C&O Canal to Pittsburg.) I spent much of the time peppering Boris with questions about equipment, costs and breakdown scenarios, which he patiently answered. It was only at the end I realized that I was overlooking the big story.
What Boris and Anna were doing was demonstrating that e-bikes put something as big and ambitious as a transcontinental bike trip within reach of anyone. They need not be super fit, with the capacity to pedal 80 to 100 miles a day for weeks at a time. They need not even be particularly well off – these bikes cost roughly $1,800, and the total cost of electricity for the trip? About $20. That brings bike touring to an exponentially larger population than a regular bike.
 

Clarendon Cycles

• By Mark Blacknell

Electric Bikes and Expanding the Reach of Cycling - Clarendon-Courthouse-Rosslyn, VA Patch