CYCLING SANCTUARY - Spokes Magazine

“I DON’T NEED NO STINKING MOTOR....” That’s what
one bike store owner was quoted as saying in a bicycle
trade journal this month.
You don’t know it, but there’s a battle brewing in
the bicycle retail business. A handful of mid-Atlantic
shops have begun to sell electric powered bicycles (ebikes)
alongside the pedal powered models. A majority
have decided not to.
Best Buy, the electronics retailer, recently announced
it will begin offering e-bikes in some of their West
Coast stores, and if they catch on expect to see them
in other stores nationwide.
Many bike retailers, according to industry press, are
choosing not to sell e-bikes because motored powered
(or assisted) bike transit is not part of the bicycle culture
or lifestyle they espouse.
Truth be told, about 20 years ago, I owned a Velo-
Solex, a bicycle that had a gas powered motor that
could be used to assist the pedaling or used to eliminate
pedaling entirely.
It was fun, but hardly exercise. The one time I had to
pedal it was when I ran out of gas in Rock Creek Park.
It was heavy and really tough to pedal all the way
home. I only had it a few months until it was stolen in
front of my apartment building.
I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a motor assisted
bike for years, but everytime I talk to my wife about it,
she points to the garage full of real bikes and asks the
all important question:
“Why?”
I ride a bike to work on nice days (about a 16 mile
round-trip commute) but I don’t have to wear a suit
or nice clothes to the office. I often wonder if I did,
whether an electric bike would take body perspiration
out of the equation (we don’t have an office
shower). But then again, I wonder how I would feel if
I was back in the urban environment of DC, Northern
Virginia or Baltimore, and used bike trails and paths
to get to work. How would I feel riding alongside
electric powered bicycles? Would I be accepting or
would I be resentful, telling them whenever possible
“get on the road with the other powered vehicles!”
I’m still up in the air on this one. I mean, if you want
to get religious about it, how about those new electric
motor driven gear changers on top end road bikes
ridden in the Tour de France. They are, my friends,
motors on bicycles. If the batteries wear out the
gears don’t get changed. Is that truly any different? A
motor is a motor.
The jury is out on this one but watch how your local
bicycle retailers respond in the coming months and
years. Will they “cross the line” and start selling
“motor vehicles,” ooops, I mean “e-bikes” or not?
Bike stores are perhaps best suited to do so since the
platform of an e-bike is a bicycle. But what do we lose
when a bicycle retailer crosses this line? Anything?
Happy trails,
Neil Sandler
Editor & Publisher
ON
COVER
THE
Maryland's Dorchester County is a cycling sanctuary.
Photo: courtesy Dorchester County Tourism
page 6
Touring • Racing • Off-Road
Recreation • Triathlon • Commuting
JUNE 2009
SPOKES is published monthly eight times a year — monthly March
through September, plus one winter issue. It is available free of charge at
most area bicycle stores, fitness centers and related sporting establishments
throughout Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and parts
of Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia.
Circulation: 30,000. Copyright© 2008 SPOKES.
All rights reserved. No reprinting without the publisher’s written permission.
Opinions expressed and facts presented are attributed to the respective
authors and not SPOKES. Editorial and photographic submissions are
welcome. Material can only be returned if it is accompanied by a selfaddressed,
stamped envelope. The publisher reserves the right to refuse
any advertising which may be inappropriate to the magazine’s purpose.
Editorial and Advertising Office:
SPOKES
EDITOR & PUBLISHER
5911 Jefferson Boulevard
Neil W. Sandler
Frederick, MD 21703
neil@spokesmagazine.com
Phone/Fax: (301) 371-5309
CALENDAR EDITOR
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Sonja P. Sandler
Studio 22
sonja@spokesmagazine.com
www.studio20two.com
www.spokesmagazine.com
Don’t Miss an Issue!
Subscribe to
■ Yes!
Send me
the next
8 issues
first class
for $25.
Name ___________________________________
Address _________________________________
City/State/Zip ____________________________
TRIATHLON CAMPS
FOR WOMEN
The first and only triathlon weekend
camps for women in the Mid-Atlantic!
Fun, informative and surefire way to help
prepare you for your triathlon.
Now offering beginner and intermediate
level camps in both Maryland and Virginia.
Register Now for
Our Summer and
Fall Camps!
“Phenomenal!”
“Awesome weekend. I feel much
more prepared for my first tri.”
“Fun, comfortable environment.
Very knowledgeable instructors.”
Send check or money order
payable to:
SPOKES, 5911 Jefferson Boulevard
Frederick, MD 21703
OR subscribe online at:
www.spokesmagazine.com
For more info and to register:
www.shedoestri.com
443.414.5846 Presented by: Krista Schultz & David Glover
June 2009
5