Electric bike, stupid love of my life

> The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto.

This isn't quite the primary thrust of the article but if you travel to Kyoto I highly recommend renting a e-bicycle to see the area. I will never forget the 2 days that my partner and I spent riding around there.

I can recommend 'Fuune bicycle rental shop' - the proprietor will helpfully annotate a map for you with recommended routes and explain all the turns and paths with a translator device.

I made my own electric bike by purchasing a brand new Stevens City Flyer and mounting a TongSheng Tsdz2 Mid Drive motor to it. It is light, fast, and really easy to maintain. I've been riding it daily for the past 3 years and it has brought me so much joy. It changed where I can live and work. I'm running open source software, so the top speed is only thermally limited. https://github.com/emmebrusa/TSDZ2-Smart-EBike-1

E bikes really are the best form of travel.

The only issue is how do you get rid of that ridiculous looking grin on your face. You just had a huge rush, got a bit of exercise, paid nothing for parking, eight pennies for 'gas', and beat all your co-workers who were stuck in traffic. The grin is real and not a good look professionally at the office when commuting.

Thanks ebikes.ca, endless sphere forums and Sheldon Brown. True spirit of the internet.

There is no way for me to let a ~2000 euros object of mine unattended and out in the open. I barely leave my current bike like that, and that "only" costs ~300 euros.

More generally, I feel like this is a subject that doesn't get discussed often enough. Yes, most probably the writer of this article can eat the 2000 euros loss if his e-bike gets stolen, but the majority of the population cannot. It also sucks that the majority of said population is also made to feel like it is its fault for not riding this type of bikes instead of driving their SH cars to work and back.

There are electric folding bikes you can take inside with you.