It all started with our visit to Williamsburg. Neither Mark, nor I had really seriously considered getting e-bikes until we rode there for an hour on a nice trail in the countryside. We found out firsthand how fun they really are and how that extra boost is golden for a bike rider. We didn’t even have any hills in Williamsburg, but we could tell it would seriously change the dynamic of bike riding for us to eventually get e-bikes. I really didn’t think it would be this soon, but Mark came back raving about them and couldn’t stop talking about how we should get them. We both have perfectly good 7 speed bikes, but boy, the hills around us are a challenge at times. We live in the perfect small town of Acworth, which is ideal for bike riding, but there are a few hills on our route and those take every bit of stamina for us to continually get up them.
These Pedego bikes and our bike ride in Williamsburg late May, started the whole chain of events and last week we picked up our own Pedego e-bikes. I’ll warn you, e-bikes are not cheap. They are an investment and now I say, these bikes are our golf cart that we probably will never get now. We live in a golf cart town, but we don’t have a great place to park one. Our garage is full with 2 cars. Mark did the research and decided we should get Pedego bikes and we went to Roswell to the Pedego franchise store near the mall to get ours. We looked them over and I rode one of their rental bikes around the parking lot to refresh my enthusiasm and yes, it was still there! I loved having that boost.
Mark always thought and so did I, that having an e-bike was for lazy people. But, I’m here to tell you, you can still get plenty of exercise with an e-bike. You can set the boost to 1 or 2 to assist on the hills and then operate the gear shift as normal, shifting from 1 (for hills) up the 7 for speeding downhill. So, it’s the same idea, just an extra boost when you need it. Once you start pedaling and depending on how high you have the booster set, you can feel that little surge of power helping you get up the hill. It’s magical and wonderful! Ours even has an extra throttle on the handlebar that gives an extra-boost on top of the booster setting. If for some reason the battery gives out, you can still pedal as usual. We opted for the largest battery they had and we got their classic cruiser bikes.
Here’s my beauty! I chose the coral shade with turquoise tires. Isn’t she gorgeous? Of course, mine looks girlie, a true beach cruiser. I took my old basket off my regular bike and had to mount it inside the handlebars, since the power cords are in the way in front. The battery sits on the back of the bike.
And here’s Mark. His favorite bike color is red so he got the metallic red color with silver fenders and he’s getting whitewall tires for his bike soon too. He’s pretty particular when it comes to his bike and he insisted on whitewalls. I don’t really care about that, so I’m fine with the standard tires on mine.
As I mentioned, the bikes have 7 speeds and they move up and down very smoothly. The extra boost throttle is there on the right too and they have hand brakes.
The screen shows speed, battery charge, distance ridden and other things. The bike has a power button that you turn on and off each time you ride and when the battery gets low, you just plug it in and charge. I do not want an electric car, but these e-bikes are really fun. The + and – is for adding the boost assist. I stay on 1 or 2 and that’s plenty for us.
I could mount something back here if I need to. I might try to get another basket or holder for Daisy, since the basket I have for her won’t fit on the front of my bike anymore. We are going to keep our old bikes for now, but I’m sure we are going to mainly ride these now. We thought if we go to the beach or out of town to a good bike riding town, we can take our old bikes with us.
Mark also found these handy bluetooth headsets that we are using so we can hear each other now. This is a game changer for sure. They mount directly to our helmet straps and we turn them on and pair them and now we can hear each other with no problem. There was a lot of yelling before and saying “I can’t hear you”. Not anymore! So far, these are performing wonderfully. They charge up too and we’ve been on 4 bike rides with them so far without having to recharge. I’ll link them here for you (affiliate link used): Sena Bluetooth headset
Mark threaded them on our helmet straps close to the ear and they really work great. You can barely see it on the left here.
Coming out of our neighborhood and hitting Main Street in town, we meander through the beautiful historic neighborhood behind town and ride on the sidewalk around Lake Acworth, going through the woods trail and back into another neighborhood, finally crossing Main Street again and heading down to the woods entrance to Logan Farm Park, where we circle both loops and head on through the park and back out towards our neighborhood, going down to Dallas Landing on Lake Allatoona, before heading back home. It’s a great place to ride and now it’s going to be even better. The 5 or 6 hills that we know every inch of will be so much better with the boost of an e-bike. We ride 7 to 10 miles every time we go out and we are definitely getting exercise with these bikes.
The trail around Lake Acworth is so pretty and it meanders through the woods before coming back out to a neighborhood behind town.
This is the scenery we have enjoyed for 7 years in our little town. We don’t take it for granted and we are so grateful for this beautiful spot we live in. These pics were taken during fall months.
We also regularly see deer families all around us. This pic was last week. There are plenty in our own backyard woods and we most always see deer on our bike rides, like this little family of mama and two babies enjoying their breakfast in someone’s front yard. They’re not that scared of people and we sure do love to watch them too.
So that’s a bit about our new e-bikes. I know many of you might be interested in them too. We loved our old bikes, but these are going to age with us and will help us stay active as we get older. We hope to keep riding for many more years. It sure takes me back to childhood, riding in the morning with the sunshine and cool breezes, not a care in the world with stunning scenery like this and houses all around. I’ll tell you how much these were so you have an idea of cost. Both of our bikes were just under $5000 total. Definitely not cheap, but as I said, this is our golf cart that we most likely will never get. We think it’s a great decision for us and maybe you would like them too. Everyone we’ve talked to that has e-bikes, loves them and we are loving ours as well! Happy riding and staying active!
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