rexr

Hi all.. I am new to the forum and this is my first post.

I fell into the No, Never category but am now converting a bike to PaS.

I have been riding and racing bikes since I was 8 and will be 51 this year. My wife, son and I, have 14 bikes in the garage including 3 BMX bikes, 3 fatbikes, 2 gravel bikes and 5 mountain bikes and a tandem. Needless to say we ride a little. I am one of those guys mentioned above that can maintain 20+ on the flats and 30+ going downhill without a motor (on my good days). That said there is a time and a place for it and crowded bike paths are not that place.

I started commuting by bike 3 year ago when we moved to Denver from SoCal. My first commute was 10 miles each way with about 50% of that being dirt so I rode my MTB or FatBike.

I changed jobs two years and that commute was 13 miles each way all on streets and bike paths so I switched between MTB, Fatbike and Gravel Bike depending on the weather and what I felt like riding.

I am changing jobs again and now my commute will be 26 miles each way with at least 1000 ft of climbing each way so I am in the process of converting one of my steel MTB's to a pedal assist bike with the Bafang 750 watt motor. It will have a throttle but I don't plan on using it unless traffic or some other situation makes it necessary. It also has 9 steps of assist so I can determine how much help I want depending on how I feel that day, what type of path or road I am on and traffic type.

Why would a guy at my level want an PaS bike? Well, what I am finding is that at 51, I am dead by the end of the week if I commute everyday. Riding 2 hours a day plus being on my feet 8+ hours a day is wearing me down quick. I just can't recover like I did when I was younger. I don't want to drive my car. I did a 90 mile a day car commute in SoCal for 20 years and NEVER EVER want to do that again. So now my options are RTD/Bus/Train or ride the bike. So for now I am opting to ride a PaS bike that will let me ride the bike 5 days a week. If the weather is absolutely crap then I can take RTD.

Bottom line is that until recently I was VERY against e-bikes. I had a lot of the same opinions as stated in the posts above. Then I saw two of my friends in CA that were not able to ride or do much exercise for that matter get e-bikes and it changed their lives. Then this commuting situation came up for me, so a PaS bike started to make more sense and have a true purpose.

After reading a lot of articles, doing some research and talking to riders I would now consider myself an advocate for Pas bikes. There are always asshats out there. In all aspects of life, even cycling. Banning the bike or putting restrictive laws in place for a specific type of bike is not going to change a persons behavior. Asshats are going to be asshats. Just my 2 cents.

Keep pedaling!!