Funny thing happened to me on the way home

[drclark]

I regularly (up to 4 days a week when the weather is good and I'm not being lazy) commute to/from work on a bike. I usually ride an old KHS hardtail mtb; it gets all my hand-me-down parts & tires... so its not a beauty queen. I've been commuting for the past 10yrs, but one of the funniest things happened to me last friday evening on my way home from work.

First, I will freely admit, that I am fairly competitive and take great joy in chasing down & racing roadies on my fat tires. Sometimes I "win" and othertimes I get my butt kicked. When there is no one to chase, I'll treat each ride like its an individual time trial. So, I leave work last friday evening an pull up to a stop light. There is a rider already at the light and as I pull up I am already sizing up my potential "competition".

I see that he is riding a commuter style bike with paniers & loaded bags. He is wearing an orange tshirt, kahki pants tucked into his socks, flat pedals and business shoes... clearly not a challenge. The light turns green and I take off in front of him, figuring that would be the last I see of him.

I set out on my ITT, settling into a tuck, pushing 3-7 into the wind as I head toward the beach. Pushing into the wind is always a psychological battle for me; I hate it, it sucks... but after about 3 miles or so, I'm starting to build a good sweat and a nice moderate burn in my legs. I approach an intersection where cars turning into the right turn lane have to cross the bikelane. I have gotten into the habbit of looking over my left shoulder to make sure I'm not about to get creamed by car...

I have to do a double take, as its "Mr. commuter" hanging just behind me about 2 bike lengths or so.... Sitting upright, spinning lazily into the wind?!?!? While my upper brain function is still trying to process this apparent contradiction, my instincts drop one more gear and put a burst of power into the pedals. I can instantly feel my heart rate jump, my lungs start to burn, and my legs are right on the threshold of blowing up on me. I give it everything I've got for another mile or so when the light ahead turns red. (damn I hate it when that happens). I ease up and glance back and there's my commuter buddy still crusing just behind me.... I start to think that I must have superman behind me or something... I'm almost wiped out and I know I was going fast, but he looks like he's so relaxed, barely breaking a sweat!?!?!

While lost in thought, contemplating what kind of warped parallel universe I must be in, the light turns green and Mr. Commuter takes off ahead of me. I have to get up and sprint just to get back on his wheel. I sit there for a while watching this guy in awe. He's nearly sitting upright, relaxed, spinning away and I'm pushing 3-8 just to stay on him. We're going so fast my knobbies almost sound like a chainsaw on the pavement. Thats when I first noticed something funny....

I see a plastic pannel with a green button and LED built into the rack that is holding his pannier bags. That's kind of odd, I've never seen something like that before. So I put in a little burst of power to get up next to him and then I see this really strange looking front hub with some wires going from the axle up the left side of the fork.... It took a couple of minutes for my brain to process this information since most the the blood and oxygen in my body was being directed to my aching legs. But then the realization of what I had been up against hit me like a faceplant after casing a double... Mr. Commuter is riding a G#* D@%^ Fu&*#@ electric bicycle!!!!! (it looked alot like this one .. pretty stealthy, eh? http://www.schwinnbike.com/products/...ail.php?id=887) So, I shamelessly drafted him for most of the way home. I was so tempted to get close enough to hit the power switch

Anyways, I thought it was pretty funny that I got duped pretty good. I could rest assured that my "cycling-hood" was secure and that there wasn't some pedaling-god lurking out there. On the flip side its also cool to see that electric bikes are getting to the point where they look like "normal" bikes and are a viable commuting option for some people.

drc

[denmother]

My father has an electric bike and he loves it. He uses it for errands and grocery shopping!

[dirtmistress]

[JoeTruth]

Nice post. That's pretty funny indeed...LOL!

[DownHillPhil]

Don't lie Doug...we know you got smoked by some mid-40's dude wearing a Havana Shirt Company shirt and slacks while smoking a stogey and talking to his 18-year-old girlfriend

[strobelite]

we sell the pedal assist bikes if your interested.

[bajamtnbkr]

LOL!! Nice writing.