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<\/a>\u2018E\u2019 is also for \u2018Electric\u2019 \u2014 as in E-bike, the mostly dismissed and just plain dissed, two-wheeled vehicle of choice of those unfortunate enough to have had their driver\u2019s license suspended and still needing to show up for work: the \u2018pseudo motor bike\u2019 with pedals (that were never used!) that evolved from the Solex (at left) and mopeds so popular in Europe. I recall penning a disdainful letter to a G & M columnist after she chronicled the \u2018E-bike experience\u2019 on a \u2018cycling trip\u2019 to Italy \u2014 pointing up, none too subtly, that you could celebrate the trip, but please spare the real bikers amongst us the indignity of calling what you did on said trip, \u2018cycling\u2019. Same country, a few years later, I experienced first confusion, then annoyance when the portly \u2018tourist\u2019 steadily gained, then passed me as I puffed up a long climb, he astride something that certainly looked like a bicycle (more or less, minus the edemic down-tube). Suffice it that my history with \u2018E\u2019 and bike was oxymoronic at best \u2014 the two did not belong in the same sentence. <\/p>\nFast forward a half-dozen years. Karma being what it is (also relentless), one\u2019s words are frequently fed for breakfast. The choice of \u2018falling off the back\u2019 \u2014 that delightful term applied to cyclists \u2018going backwards\u2019 as the rest of the pack pulls away and\/or waiting for the windless day with perfect temperatures before venturing out on a flat route was, shall we say, hardly a choice. <\/p>\n
Evidently I was not alone in this, my Damascene moment. The cycling population had aged right along with me. The (heretical) possibility that the shame attaching to \u2018cheating\u2019 with a pedal assist was just maybe not so \u2014 shameful, illegitimate. You Tube videos appeared, pitting \u2018real\u2019 bikes against their turbo-charged E counterparts, comparing fitness benefits, and championing the pro\u2019s of joining a growing number of E-converts. One could look, feel, and perform \u2018like they used to\u2019, keeping pace and pushing the envelope out another few years. St. Paul meets Ponce de Leon. <\/p>\n<\/a>But something quite wonderful was, in fact, happening during this same time of dereliction and discouragement: E-bikes became \u2018legitimate\u2019. Gone were the foot rests and kiddy pedals. Slimmed were the fat, battery-heavy down-tubes. Weight watchers had come to the E-bike as the bulky, awkward, heavy, and frankly ugly frames dropped pounds. Design and aesthetics found their way into functionality. The E road bike was born. My arrogant, cynical, holier-than-thou stance that had held sway for lo these five decades of road biking was won over, trumped by necessity and style. I could continue my sport of choice and do it with dignity.<\/p>\n