S
smapadatha
Guest
Roy ... I sincerely hope you will persist and keep a good thought. I'm overweight too and that was my main motivation in putting together a motorized bike. (On a partly facetious note, I think there are a sufficient number of us fat ranters, as Bama calls us, on MBc to merit our own subsidiary. Decal TBD.)
I began this project nearly a year ago to answer two questions:
1. Can you lose weight by riding a motored bicycle?
2. Can a motored bicycle partially or completely replace a car in a variety of environments?
Unfortunately, I haven't been involved with motorized bikes long enough to have collected too much meaningful data.
I've been riding a motorized bike just long enough to realize how complex a thing they are to evaluate:
But regardless of whether GEBE, or motorized bikes, play a part in your life, you have taken it upon yourself to improve your health and you should be commended and encouraged.
-Sam
I began this project nearly a year ago to answer two questions:
1. Can you lose weight by riding a motored bicycle?
2. Can a motored bicycle partially or completely replace a car in a variety of environments?
Unfortunately, I haven't been involved with motorized bikes long enough to have collected too much meaningful data.
I've experienced that kind of behavior (from GEBE and others) and I find it very unpleasant. OTOH, being a small business owner can be brutal: salaries, taxes, insurance, supply problems, long hours... fat ranters... skinny ranters (they're worse, as they are not at all jolly) that's why I prefer to talk to wrenches, rather than shop owners. Wrenches like to talk bikes, shop owners only want to talk sales. Also, and I'm as guilty as anyone of this, but for some reason it's always easy to remember the times when people disappointed you and so hard to remember the times they really helped you out. I don't know why that is...
In the six weeks I've been riding I think I've averaged about 2 mechanical problems per week. Today the %#!^#@$! terminator fell off the throttle cable (3rd time in 6 weeks). Tuesday the tension spring broke. Last week I broke a spoke, and that's no joke...
I've been riding a motorized bike just long enough to realize how complex a thing they are to evaluate:
- I'm not a wrench or motorhead like a lot of guys on MBc, so I have a bike and engine learning curve ahead of me. In learning I've made mistakes, and that costs money.
- I'm riding my bike nearly 100 miles a week now, and that kind of mileage by itself is going to increase maintainance time and repair costs.
- Putting any type of motor system on a bike is going to increase maintainance time and repair costs, regardless of the vendor.
- Last year I spent over $2,000.00 on a rebuilt transmission and new clutch for my car, and that was just one visit to the shop! If I spend $1,000.00 a year for motored bicycle consumables (belts, tires, engines, rims, spokes...) that seems like it would be a serious cost savings (I made several trips to the car shop last year). I believe DougC did an analysis of this and I vaguely remember he wasn't very impressed, but there are some weeks that go by now when I only use my car once! If that can be maintained over the long term, it would spread the cost of car maintainance and repair over a considerably longer time.
- The gyms around here sell memberships for about $300 a year, and I suspect that with the car savings, I'm getting 10 half-hour workouts a week for quite a bit less. (One of the best pieces of fitness advice I ever heard was: if you want to get in shape faster, exercise longer, not harder; and a motorized bike really does that quite well.)
But regardless of whether GEBE, or motorized bikes, play a part in your life, you have taken it upon yourself to improve your health and you should be commended and encouraged.
-Sam
My next purchase ( this spring) with be either a Stanton system or a TOMOS moped.
