alloo

I have lived a car free life since 2005 in four states. It's possible. I have a motor scooter for my powered wheels. Everyone talks about getting groceries. I get groceries delivered every week problem solved, not weather dependent. Most grocery chains have delivery or free pickup now a days. Online shopping helps you to purchase things and get them delivered. My ebike is my primary commute vehicle weather permitting. I scooter about three days a week now. This past week, we got hit with a major snow storm. This is my first winter commuting on a ebike. If I need a car, I rent one for a weekend or a week. Renting a car is cheaper than lyft/uber. Besides Enterprise picks you up.

Recently my scooter was stolen. The weather was bad so I replaced my scooter with another one. I decided that it would be too hard to live with non motorized wheels. Ebikes are the affordable hybrid vehicles around. Funny thing was days before I was thinking do I really need a scooter. I do enjoy some motorized vehicle in my life. In the winter, the bicycle route/roads that I take take a few days longer to clear of ice/snow. My scooter commute routes take a couple of days to clear with temperatures over 40 F. I think my bike routes take about 4 days over 40 F to clear. Maybe 5 days.

For the last week, I've been catching public transportation to work. We got over a foot of snow and the roads/side streets still have not cleared. The main streets have cleared with some icy spots. We're expecting two more minor snow storms over the next few days. I miss riding both my ebike and scooter. Sidewalks here are still snow packed and icy. Catching the bus to to work is ok. The time that it takes is double my bicycling commute time. My scooter is the fastest way for me to go to work. Funny thing is I prefer to ride the scooter when it's colder than my bicycle. I do have regular bicycles, but as others have said once your ride and ebike you don't go back as much.

My newest question on ebikes is are hub drives better than mid drives in the snow. My early thinking is yes, throttle bikes might be a little better in the snow. Anyway, it can be done.

I got into cycling to lose weight. So far this year, I've lost 20 lbs. My goal is to lose 100 lbs total by next summer through diet and exercise. I got the ebike to stablize my commute times home. Which took about 40% more time than getting to work. Commute times for a 12 mile one way commute are: 20-40 mins scooter, 45-60 minutes ebike, and 110-130 minutes on public transportation.

Oh yeah, I commute on a 2017 Raleigh Retroglide IE. Next year, I want to get a Townie Go 8i. My two other choices are the Blix Sol, and Giant LaFree E+1. My choices are internal hub and/or belt driver. What are your thoughts? I have Bullhorn handlebars on all my bikes. I love the vertical posture and the cruiser style.