The New Magic Carpet

We are long-term cyclists and ride our handy folding bikes a lot, both around Humboldt and beyond. Purists, we never thought we'd succumb to an electric bike. But last July, we surrendered and invested in one that we now share and love.

We walk as much as possible, and do most errands either on foot or bicycle. But there are times when cycling takes too much time, or is just plain unpleasant. Weekly trips from Eureka to Arcata on a bike would entail at least 40 minutes each way on the freeway. A trip through the Arcata Bottoms is lovely, but takes even longer.

When we visited Southeast Asia last year, the number of electric bikes in (usually flat) cities and towns was amazing. The most popular model was manufactured in Vietnam, cost around $500, and had a range of about 15 miles before recharging. Seeing all these quiet, economical bikes was inspiring, and once we were back home, all the notes from an Humboldt State University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class on electric bikes came out and the online research began. The choices were daunting.

Complete bicycle or kit? That was pretty easy. We already had an old but very comfortable hybrid bike that we rarely used. Why pay for a bike when we already owned one? That narrowed the choices down, but there was still more to decide.

Power hub on the front or back wheel? From the rider's point of view, they feel much the same, so we went with the simpler front wheel replacement.

Automatic or manual control? A controller in most kits sends more or less power to the hub, depending on the effort exerted by the rider. It's the bike version of an automatic transmission in a car, and since both of us prefer stick-shifts, we went with manual control.

On-off switch or adjustable throttle? I read online that most users with throttles keep them at full, so we elected for the simplicity of an on-off thumb button on the handlebars.

Range? In order to cycle from Eureka to Arcata and back, we needed a battery with at least a 20-mile range.

Having gone through that decision tree, online reviews and comments convinced us that a Seattle-based company, Clean Republic, had solid value-for-money kits. For $800, we bought their "Hill Topper" kit consisting of a replacement front wheel, a 20-mile range Lithium-ion battery and on-off button. Their kits start at $400, for an 8-mile range.

Installation was pretty simple, although not the three-minute (!) conversion touted on the website, mainly because we had to file our bike's front forks to accept the new wheel's slightly wider axle, as well as add a couple of thick washers for a good fit. But the next day the bike was tooling along Waterfront Drive at 18 mph (according to our GPS) without pedaling. A week later, it made a 25-mile ride combining pedal and battery power, and came home with juice to spare. After an overnight charge, the bike was ready to go again.

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The New Magic Carpet