(On lighter note) It seems most of my time is spent in experimenting than being consistent in anything !
But this time I wanted to club more aspects into my lane driving experiment with my good old "Benz" (Maruthi 800), I thought of having one more experiment with my daughter's iBike. Story follows :
1st part:
This June-5th (World Environment Day) made my elder daughter(12 years old) very happy because I got her an expensive gift of an electric bike namely iBike. The battery operated vehicle was my selection to my loved one because its suitable for daughter in many ways.
1) Its maximum speed is 25Km/Hr which is safe for kids
2) Looks smart (Company link removed, as I am not promoting any specific company)
3) When they go jolly rides every now and then I donot need to burn money on petrol. In other words, no tensions !
4) No registration, no helmet, no gears. So straight into road
So all cool on kids side.
2nd part:
Its long since I used my car to my office, in support of using public transport. Almost a year a now I go by BMTC routes 378, 215CD. That gave me a lot of ground facts about BMTC. Thats seperate topic. Now I decided to lane driving experiment with "slow moving vehicle" namely iBike. I traveled around 22*2 km to & fro.
Results:
a) Very hard to maintain the lane on a virtual bicycle lane.
b) Even though there is no space to your left, pBikers (Petrol bikers) honk restlessly. Mostly their intension is to climb on footpath to continue onwards.
c) My slow speed seems a torture for others :). So imagine the plight of poor bicyclists.
d) In case you occupy a middle position of a vehicle in front of you, the drivers in back feel that we are "wasting" their space :) So honk follows, sometimes loud verbal instructions to move away from "their space" are heard from back.
e) All of a sudden, you will find a bicyclist or a two-wheeler coming from opposite (deadly wrong way!!!). A life scaring situation, where you dont have space to move in any direction. Prayers do help in that situation ;)
f) If you stop at stopping line at red light , there is 90% chance you will get honk to move "swalpa munde" (a little ahead). Thats to make space for him/her to make "space" to "save" his/her time during green light :)
g) Few time got some "positive" suggestios from fellow bikers to climb footpath. Afterall footpaths are relatively empty, right? Why to waste time waiting in line with 4 wheelers? Get the "real" benifit of 2-wheeler !!!
h) Female bikers are at par with male counterpart, in "savings" and patience. "Appreciate" them too. Many female pilion riders "help" their parteners by showing empty footpath
g) '"Touching" from back my eBike was common. Sometimes it was a (sound)pollution free way of asking the "way" !
i) Finally, there were many "OnRoad" enquiries regarding specifics of eBike, specially near signals. "Est Kodatte saaar?" (How much it gives -milage specifically). At least one of my purpose was met (to spread go green message) but wrong timings ;) Some people who knew helmet is not required, extended courtesy "Helmet beda alwa? Yaake haaktiri?" (Helmet not required, why are you wearing then?)
Update: I have not yet given green signal to my daughter to ride in public roads, due to safety concerns. She rides within lay-out.
(Related article here)
Desclaimer as an update: I have no intention to promote any eBike companies directly or indirectly. So I am removing the link to company's site and the picture as well.
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easy to steal?
This is from personal experience. No registration required, so if someone walks away with your ebike, no way to trace the theif!? It happend to an e-bike in my family. Hardly 1 minute of looking the other way and the bike was gone! No way to trace or find it, no details except for color to supply in the FIR. Onwers need to be doubly careful about their ebikes due to 1) no registration 2) there is no start-up noise, theif can get away without making any noise!
Yes, right.
Yes, theft is right concern. But there are 4 points:
a) Now, two insurance companies provide insurance for the brand which I brought.
b) For tracking purpose, there is unique motor and chasis number like any other vehicle. This also helps in securing insurance.
c) I advise to keep charger at home, and not in vehicle. I do this way. This will give some trouble to theif as he/she can only drive till battery drains. Then thief has to get right charger.
d) Handle locking is a must every time.
But yes, easy to steal, no doubts.
More on eBike.
I admit that I have "stolen" the eBike from my daughter, but no complaints filed by daughter so far :) though I have done so called "experiment" with slow moving electric bike for nearly 3000Km now.
It has given me great satisfaction as a desciplined driver trying to follow lane driving and further satisfaction of having so much of carbon footprints.
I have saved 0.51 Metric Tonne* of carbon dioxide by avoiding my old "Benz"(Maruti800-1996 Model). Isnt it amazing?
Not need to mention, the cost of transport is even less than public transport(BMTC- which costs at least INR40 for full pass, while I spend less INR10 for 50Kms), while travel duration is alomst same.
Now some negative points :
a) eBikes are too light (85Kg, my case), so harsh braking is not effective. In other words, it skids because of light weight.
b) Driving/Riding comfort is a compromise.
c) Handling "normal" people and their lots of expressions :) -> "Oh slow speeda.."(Is speed less?), "Double aaagalvaa..."(Cant ride doubles?), "Up hattalvaaa?" (Does this climb uphills)? Man - you need to analyze before you go for it :)
*Carbon calculation for small pertrol car, less than 1.4ltr for 3000kms.
More than 9000km now
While my car is taking rest in garriage, the red horse eBike has travelled more than 9000Km, shuttling between Domlur-Anjanapura (25km*2). Thats good news..