I tried swapping my car for an ebike for a month and got a totally different result than I expected

Honestly, I thought swapping to an ebike for my daily commute would be a huge pain, but I wanted to cut my carbon footprint. I live in Austin and drive about 10 miles to work each way. First week, I was sweating through my shirt by the time I got there, even with pedal assist. But by week three, I actually started looking forward to it because I skipped all the traffic on I-35. What I didn't expect was how much money I saved on gas and parking, like around $120 that month. But then a thunderstorm hit last Tuesday and I had to call a coworker for a ride, so it's not perfect. Has anyone else tried ditching their car for something smaller and found the trade offs surprising?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.aaron1d ago

Did your friend ever try the rain test? I had a buddy in Portland who went all in on an ebike commute for six months. He got caught in a freak hailstorm one morning and showed up to work looking like a wet cat with ice cubes stuck in his hair. After that he kept a backup bus pass in his bag just for days like that. Was your big rain day enough to make you rethink the whole thing?

lilyp371d ago

Read somewhere that ebike batteries can get weird in extreme cold too, not just rain. Makes me wonder if the whole "all weather commute" idea is overhyped.

ray_martinez821d ago

Yeah but most battery issues in cold weather just mean shorter range, not total failure. I've ridden down to 15 degrees and the bike still got me where I needed to go, just had to charge it more often.