Christmas came early for Brian & me!  It arrived on Monday, September 30^th, five months from the day that we officially went full-time in our RV.  It came in the form of two e-bikes, also know as electric-assist bikes.  For several years, Brian researched transportation alternatives for us to use when out on our boat.  This research included folding bikes, scooters (stand-up and sit-down), and hoverboards.  If it had wheels, would fit on the boat, and had a motor, Brian checked it out as a possibility. 

Fast forward to our living in the RV, the desire for one of these inventions hadn’t disappeared.  When we moved out of our house, we each brought a “regular” bike, nothing fancy, just a bike that we could ride in a campground or at a park.

While we were in Minnesota, Brian discovered a bike shop in Lake Itasca that rented e-bikes.  With long summer days, we headed to the park one late afternoon to try them out.  And what a blast we had!  We had ridden OUR bikes in the park a week or two before, but between being out of practice and not in great shape, we didn’t make it very far.  Here we were just a few days later riding mile after mile on the e-bikes.

You can still get exercise while riding them.  It’s really up to you whether you ride the bike with zero assistance or, if you’re tired, you can ride it like a moped at about 20 mph throttling the motor without pedaling at all.  Gone is the feeling of looking at the hill ahead and wondering how you’ll ever make it up it, just a little throttle, and you’re at the top!  I’m not sure how many miles we rode the night that we rented the bikes, but we were out for about an hour and, aside from one walk down some stairs to see the view, we spent the whole time on the bikes.

And my knee that often causes me pain if overworked felt great!  I had exercised it by pedaling and getting plenty of movement to the joint, but hadn’t overstrained it by pedaling hard uphill.  Brian’s plan was coming together.  I loved the idea of e-bikes.  We agreed that we would buy them for each other for Christmas.  We watched many YouTube videos from Electric Bike Reviews, and Brian spent additional hours reviewing specifications for bikes to see what would be best for us long term.  In these days of watching videos, the months before Christmas began to feel like years, and we knew that we had great biking opportunities in the travels between then and Christmas.   Yes, we completely talked ourselves into buying our Christmas gifts early.  Now we need to spend Christmas riding our bikes instead of opening gifts and playing with new toys!  😊

Read more about the bikes in our review of them by clicking here. Or you can commiserate with us on the challenges we faced during the order process by clicking here.

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