News
Local
Nation
World
Science
Investigators
Traffic
Weather
Obituaries
Minnesota Topics
Local
North Metro
West Metro
South Metro
East Metro
Minneapolis
St. Paul
Your Voices
Blogs + Columns
Minnesota Topics
Sports
Vikings / NFL
Twins / MLB
Wolves / NBA
Wild / NHL
Lynx / WNBA
Gophers
Preps
Outdoors
Golf
<!–
Racing
–>
Soccer
Blogs
Video
Business
Economy
Your Money
Top Workplaces
Blogs + Columns
Business Finder
Minnesota Topics
Politics
State + Local
National
Hot Dish Blog
Opinion
Editorials
Our Columnists
Commentaries
Cartoons
Letters
Lifestyle
Taste
Home + Garden
Travel
Health
Kids’ Health
Style
Relationships
Steals
Blogs + Columns
Entertainment
Movies
Music
Eat + Drink
Stage + Arts
TV + Media
Books
Family + Fun
Celebs
Comics + Games
Blogs
vita.mn
Video
‘);
}
document.write(‘
‘);
document.write(‘
‘);
jQuery(‘.navTab’ + ad_AdvertiserArray.data[adt].advertiserID).click(ad_AdvertiserArray.data[adt], function(eventObj){
window.location.href = “http://” + hostEnv + “www.startribune.com/weekly-ads/?dppAID=” + eventObj.data.advertiserID;
});
jQuery(‘.navTabWa’ + ad_AdvertiserArray.data[adt].advertiserID).click(ad_AdvertiserArray.data[adt], function(eventObj){
window.location.href = “http://” + hostEnv + “www.startribune.com/weekly-ads/?dppAID=” + eventObj.data.advertiserID;
});
}
‘);
}
dppNavTab.start();
hide
Mike Brown, a cancer survivor, suspicion his cycling days were over. An electric bike has been transformative, permitting him to energy by 20-plus mile rides that he suspicion were history.
Photo: GLEN STUBBE • gstubbe@ startribune.com,
Star Tribune print galleries
view larger
ul > li > a > img {
margin-left: 4px;
}
]]>
6
comments
resize text
print
buy reprints
Tweet
A cancer diagnosis knocked Mike Brown off his feet 3 years ago and into a five-month sanatorium stay. At a end, a Army maestro who had kept himself fit into his 60s with unchanging cycling couldn’t travel 50 feet though a assistance of dual nurses and a walker. In his damaged state he discharged a suspicion he would ever float his dear bicycle outdoor again.
Last summer, interjection to a peaceful practice he found with a customized Trek bike propitious with an electric engine and battery, he was racking adult 25-mile trips with aged roving friends and revelation others of his motor-driven recovery.
“I never suspicion we would be as clever as we am again,” pronounced Brown, of St. Paul.
His joyous acclimatisation to electric biking comes amid a call of new seductiveness in e-bikes, with vital bike brands like Specialized, Trek and Raleigh phenomenon new designs for people who wish some assistance removing down a bike trail or daily commuters who don’t wish to arrive during work out of breath.
The bikes still are a tiny cut of a bike marketplace in a United States when compared to China (31 million e-bikes sole in 2013) or Europe (1.4 million sole in 2013), though a U.S. alien some 198,000 e-bikes final year, a 30-percent boost over a prior year, according to Ed Benjamin of a Light Electric Vehicle Association.
“We’re saying a mood change,” he said.
A tiny though flourishing series of bike shops in a Twin Cities have e-bikes on a sales floor, with Varsity Bike and Transit in Dinkytown among a beginning adopters. Shop owners Rob DeHoff promotes a electric bike as an choice to regulating a car, a switch he promotes with stickers, rags and shirts that review “Pedal Less Oil.”
He’s also happy to assistance cyclists like Brown get behind on a highway again after a health setback.
Among DeHoff’s some-more renouned models is a Stromer, a sleek-looking Swiss bike that hides a massive battery inside a frame. A absolute electric engine drives a behind wheel. The bicyclist still has to pedal, though a engine kicks in to assistance out for adult to 55 miles, depending on how a bike’s configured. Like all e-bikes, a operation will count on a turf and conditions and a rider’s weight and roving style.
The combined record significantly increases a cost of a bike — a Stromer starts during about $3,000, and other models can cost many more.
Asking someone to compensate that many for a bike has been challenging, since “it’s a difficulty with such a outrageous naivet� rating,” pronounced Brent Meyers of Stromer U.S. “So many people in a U.S. don’t know what an electric bike is.”
Meyers pronounced he’s still violence behind a idea that it’s a bike for a idle person.
“With a bike, we still have to pedal to make a bike go,” he said. “They’re still removing exercise. They’re going to go faster and serve with a lot some-more ease.”
“That’s cheating!”
Joe Schur has listened it copiousness of times out on his Prodeco Outlaw, a $2,000 electric bike — other non-electric cyclists tell him he’s cheating.
“Of course, I’m cheating! But who cares?” he shot behind while on a new float in Minneapolis. Powered by a 750-watt motor, a largest authorised underneath U.S. regulations, a bike carried him silently opposite a Stone Arch Bridge in downtown Minneapolis as joggers and bicyclists huffed past him.
“I used to do a aged pedal approach for a prolonged time though … osteoarthritis. we couldn’t go anywhere as nearby as far. Now that we have it, we wish we would have gotten it many earlier,” he said.
related content
State of songbirds isn’t indispensably pleasing music
Thursday Mar 26, 2015
Threats to bird medium silence honeyed strain of their return.
Cabin Country: It all started with a land patent
Thursday Mar 26, 2015
Great-grandfather James put his new merger to good use during Lake Mille Lacs.
Self-proclaimed ‘InstaGramma’ has eye for outdoor photography
Thursday Mar 26, 2015
We inspire Instagrammers to share photos and tab them an Alexandria grandmother is doing her part.
E-bike
vs. Car
The challenge
A former co-worker of cave concluded to control a plea — a race, unequivocally — between a automobile commuter and an e-bike commuter (in this case, me). The start was a same for both commuters: a residence in a Como area of St. Paul. So was a finish: a parking lot in downtown Minneapolis. We started during a same moment, any of us drumming “Start” on a smartphone app that measures speed, track and distance. Laws would be followed by both drivers, definition stops during stop signs and red lights. A retard after a start, we separated, holding opposite routes to a destination.
So how did they do?
The e-bike won, by scarcely 4 minutes.
The automobile motorist took what he illusory would be a fastest track to a highway, formed on his observations from months of automobile commuting. we took bike paths and bike lanes, and benefited from a widen of bike line between St. Paul and Minneapolis that zips between a St. Paul and Minneapolis campuses of a University of Minnesota. It’s a discerning route, and it’s off-limits to cars.
Afterward, automobile motorist Chris Havens pronounced he strike each immature light streamer north on Snelling, though then, disaster: “Any clarity of swell halts during a on-ramp to Hwy. 36 westbound. The scale light seems to take forever.” His pokey invert along Interstate 35W finally speeds adult to 60 mph only before a Mississippi River, and it’s well-spoken sailing to a finish line from there.
On my e-bike we cruised about 21 mph for many of a float interjection to medium-strength pedaling and a electric engine dutifully whirring away. A mislaid bike commuter along a track asked for directions, and we stopped quickly to tell her how to navigate a new Dinkytown Greenway, that allows bicyclists to speed underneath a overload of Dinkytown though many traffic.
Crossing a Stone Arch Bridge into Minneapolis, a skyline rising to accommodate me, we suspicion that we competence win due to a electric engine and to a bike track that authorised me to cranky a Twin Cities during rush hour though saying many traffic.
On this day, that valid correct.
matt mckinney
Car driver
Distance: 9.56 miles
Max speed: 62.2 mph
Duration: 25:51
E-bike driver
Distance: 6.46 miles
Max speed: 27.6 mph
Duration: 22:09
more from outdoors
Police to step adult patrols on Lake Minnetonka
Self-proclaimed ‘InstaGramma’ has eye for outdoor photography
Cabin Country: It all started with a land patent
get associated calm delivered to your inbox
‘);
}
manage my email subscriptions
‘);
}
ul > li > a > img {
margin-left: 4px;
}
]]>
6
comments
resize text
print
buy reprints
Tweet
Click here to send us your sport or fishing photos – and to see what others are display off from around a region.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Most read
Most Emailed
Most Watched
<![CDATA[
]]>
French prosecutor: Crash was intentional
25,000 record albums sole from Star Tribune collection
Zgoda: Are a Wolves winning by losing?
Father of blank Crystal boy: ‘I have zero to do with’ disappearance
Minnesota removing a soccer upgrade
More Video
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
question of a day
Poll: Should a lake where a albino muskie was held sojourn a mystery?
View results
ADVERTISEMENT
inside a StarTribune
home
Pedaling America: A cross-country biking journey
lifestyle
New Blog: Rands on a Run
lifestyle
2015 Minnesota Summer Camp Guide
local
Minnesota History with Curt Brown
local
Viking track construction cam
lifestyle
State of Wonders: Amid a golden land, beauty in a details
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
Company
About a StarTribune
Advertising
Directory + Contacts
Jobs during a StarTribune
Newspaper in Education
<!–
Tours
–>
Vita.mn: Entertainment
Business Listings
Subscriber Services
Newspaper Subscriptions
Digital Access
Today’s Paper
Vacation Holds/Billing
Newsletters
Website
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Ad Choices
Site Index
Buy Ads
Online Ads
Newspaper Ads
Classifieds
Store
<!–
Photographs
–>
Article Archives
<!–
InfoArt
–>
Back copies
Commercial Reprints
Permissions
Connect with Us
Contact Us
Send a press release
Become a Fan
Follow Us
RSS
© 2015 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters