Chicagoan looking for economy and reliability.

[evilbrew]

With gas poised to reach 5 dollars a gallon this summer I'm looking to cut 100 miles of driving out of my commute weekly. For the past week and a half I have been riding my bike 20 miles (round trip) daily to my job. I can already feel the savings but I don't think I'll be able to keep pedaling as the heat rises. My job is physically demanding already and I'm afraid I'll wear my self out.

So here I am! Call me Larry. I've lurked the site and picked up some valuable information already but I could always use more both before and after I purchase a kit. If it isn't to much trouble I'd like to summarize what I learned so far and if I have something wrong you could set me straight.

For a few reasons I think a friction kit would be the best option.
- I'm not mechanically inclined and they appear to have less moving parts.
- Chain driven kits seem to be hit or miss in terms of quality (Most vendors that were highly spoken of in threads I visited aren't in business anymore either.)
- The legality of a friction kit seems much less murky.

With all that said, has anybody ever gave Bumble Bee Bolt On a try? I haven't found a review for that here and it's giving me a too good to be true vibe. The price is enticing since I'm still not 100% sure this entire motor bike idea will pan out. I look forward to putting my days of pedaling behind me. I'm no Neil Armstrong.

 

[sparky]

I'm not sure about either Chicago or Illinois policiess.... but I'm gonna tell you how it is. If the bicycle remains to have functional pedals, you treat the road with respect, and esp. if you DON'T carry a DL or another form of state-issued ID... you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You take the reasonable safety precautions and take it slow for your first year or so.... then you will have much more than respect from those around you. As long as you don't injure someone or damage property, there's not too many other ways you can truly break the law.

I'm getting a bit off base there, but I would tend to agree with you that chain-drive can be fairly difficult. If I had the money, I'd just go with a GEBE kit... but that's just me. Friction-drive may be simpler, but there's too much loss of power/efficiency for me to entertain the idea.