For All Alpha Rule-Busting Mavericks: The E-Bikers Code

Let’s roll

Photo by Himiway Bikes on Unsplash

Riding electric doesn’t call to everyone. It carries a level of risk that few are willing to face. Most people today are quite simply afraid to diminish their social standing and overall attractiveness for the sake of effortless bicycle transportation.

Against the grain of today’s distraction-filled society, it is only the e-biker who is prepared to dedicate the time and the focus to learning an entire handlebar-mounted display panel. Like a time-honored craft, mastering the skills necessary to read battery power levels, the wattage meter, odometer, and speedometer, all while monitoring and adjusting pedal assist settings, does not come quickly or easily. Far from it. But making that sustained effort is what sets us apart from the common cyclist.

Those of us drawn to e-biking — we few, we happy few — reap immeasurable rewards from our way of life. For us, the sublime sensation of a step-through frame between our legs and hundreds of watts of battery power mounted on a stem beneath our butts imbues life itself with life itself. By travelling up to twice as fast as the mass of analog bikers, we experience feelings of raw, unpasteurized adventure otherwise accessible only on HBO.

And we connect to an earlier, bolder, more straightforward time. A time when…