this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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Great, congrats! Cars are really expensive, so reducing their use is always a great way to save some money. I just hope it doesn't affect your day-to-day life too much.
While it may be a stretch, have you considered an ebike to go to the village? Depending on your local situation, a 20km trip should take around an hour, and the electric assistance makes it much easier physically.
Thanks!
It shouldn't have too much impact on daily life. As part of embarking on this, we decided that running to the village for takeout from the cafe wouldn't count nor would running to the next village over to craft store or lumberyard. We don't do either often enough to matter.
As for an ebike, I really like the idea. I used to be a pretty hardcore cyclist, even cycling year round. (I actually used to ice race motorcycles!) But gravel roads (speed limit 80 kph), especially in winter, aren't something I should be taking on at my age. :) I'm a hobby manufacturer and one of the things I'd like to tackle is an e-trike. But I probably never will, because I just don't think it will safely mix with traffic anywhere I'd ride it.
Haha, I will admit I was worried when I bought my ebike for the same reason, but it was nice to see that I was wrong, and that a vast majority of people will do their best to leave you as much clearance as they can. While there is still the occasional moron, I now feel way safer than when I started, and my trips are getting longer. I now mostly use my ebike if the trip is 15km or less. I even got snow tires last year, and it went better than expected, although I'm now contemplating going with studded tires when the road gets icy.
Given my age (66) I probably shouldn't be riding gravel roads too much. I've done a lot of it in my life and am pretty confident in my skills, but I don't have the reflexes, the bones, or the recovery time of a teenager anymore! :)
I gave up my trials bike and my mountain bike a few years ago due to more frequent falls and injury. If I ever do build that e-trike, I'll build it with a 50km range so I can run to town and back, but I'm not sure how often I'd actually do so. In some ways, a trike might be more challenging than a bike because of the probability that one wheel will always be in a gravel ridge.