You’ve driven cross-country for hours if not days and you’ve reached your destination. You’ve parked your RV and set up camp. Now, how do you get where you’re going?
Silly huh? Well, let me explain further. First a caveat. I do not own a recreational vehicle, but I have frequently rented them in order to visit our National Parks. After we park the machine I find that I want to move about and see some of what’s around me but I only have two options, move the vehicle or start hiking.
When I look at the other RV’s I usually see that many of their owners have solved this dilemma in a number of fashions. Some tow small cars while others carry or tow motorcycles or motor scooters. Carrying bicycles also seems to be a very popular option. I however have an option that I believe is superior in many ways to these called the Folding Electric Bike.
Folding bicycles have been around a long time but are most common in Europe and Asia where living quarters are often small and storage at a minimum. Sounds sort of like RV living doesn’t it. These bikes are quite sturdy and very light weight and fold up small enough to easily fit into the outside storage compartments of most recreational vehicles. Electric bikes have also been around a long time, again in Europe and Asia where there is a high demand for cheap, small, local transportation. These bikes have been updated to use high tech light-weight lithium batteries, solid state controllers and self contained hub motors that do not require belts, chains or gears.
It only takes about 90 seconds to unfold and setup one of these bikes and about the same length of time to put one away. Once set up, you have three options, you can just pedal away like an ordinary bicycle, use straight power, or use the motor to assist your pedaling. In the last case, the motor provides a 1 to 1 assist; that is it turns the wheel each time you do. Using the pedal assist mode, an electric folding bicycle can travel at 12 to 20 miles an hour for up to 25 miles before a recharge and some of these lithium batteries are good for 1000 recharges. The battery also easily slides out so that you can conveniently recharge it
Electric folding bicycles have a number of benefits over the other forms of auxiliary transportation that I described above. They are:
· Smaller and lighter than regular bikes and they are easier to stow
· Much easer to pedal and move about with than a regular bike
· Almost totally silent, create no fumes, and will not frighten the wildlife
· Require no fuel other than household current to recharge
· Do not require trailers, tow cables, or special racks to carry them
· Do not require any licensing or insurance
· Require only about 5 minutes instruction to operate safely
· Can often be operated where motorized vehicles are prohibited
· Practically maintenance free, no oil changes, sparkplugs, or belts to replace
There are a number of firms that sell these products. Worldwide Electric Bikes have two excellent models both eminently suited for use with an RV or for that matter a yacht. They can also be easily fit into the trunk of even the smallest automobile and carried as luggage aboard an airplane.
I highly recommend that you take a hard look at these products. Clean, quiet, healthful and energy efficient they can greatly enhance your travel experience. Also, they’re a complete blast to ride.
