But more than a few super-fit cyclists in Southern California have been left wondering how that dude just went flying by,Keith Felch is admittedly a big guy.
And then his wife, Mary, comes motoring past.
“They stare, like how can a girl go past me,” she says, laughing. It takes the added riders a few abnormal but again they amount it out.
They have electric motors.
The Felches,who live in Aliso Viejo, California, except when they used their bikes for recreation,used to drive everywhere.
When they got their new e-bikes,that changed,made by a company called Optibike. Now, they ride to go shopping and to go to breakfast — but mostly they ride to work.
Keith Felch says,since they started electric biking, the couple has cut 50 percent of their car-use.
And there are other benefits. Keith Felch dropped 30 pounds and his blood pressure fell 10 points in the first six months he owned the electric bike, he says.
Although Mary said it is important to have a positive effect on the planet,the Felches don’t exactly classify themselves as “environmentalists,”.
“I abstruse that the affliction bulk of billow that you put out [in an automobile] is in the aboriginal mile, so if we can accomplish alike some of those beneath trips on our bicycles, it makes a big difference,” she says.
Who wants one?
Electric bikes attract different types of buyers says:Brent Meyers, director of sales for Ultra Motor US.
Many are looking to make a green imprint.
Some are “active adults” who have ridden bicycles for years who — as they get older — are unable to do the same kind of riding they did when they were young.
Other buyers want to ride their bikes to work quickly — and avoid a sweaty entrance into the office.
When the price of oil skyrockets, says Meyers,oddly — or perhaps not — Ultra Motor US sees its strongest sales.
Two wheels, a motor and 100 million riders
Electric bikes are still somewhat of a novelty in the United States, but in China they’re everywhere.
In fact, Chinese electric bikes number more than 100 million — which is about four times the number of Chinese private cars, according to Electric Bicycles Worldwide Reports. The bikes are popular in Europe as well.
Sales abstracts for the United States are adamantine to pinpoint.
Ed Benjamin of the Light Electric Vehicle Association — about twice the number sold in 2005 said:in the United States, about 200,000 electric bicycles were sold last year.
But the industry has hit a bang in the alley from the recession, as sales were bottomward about 10 percent in 2009, he said.
E-bikes are mostly made by specialty companies, but the growing sales trend has been noticed by the big boys.
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