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+Header image for Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
+ 
+
+Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
+
+Reflections on eighteen months of electric bike ownership
+
+ 
+
+My electric bike sings, emits a nearly imperceptible hum from its tiny motor. I
+love its song. A song of peace and magic. Has money ever bought as much delight
+as the delight of an electric bike?
+
+The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto. The electric bike
+I rented was huge and unwieldy, but that tug of its motor never left my mind. I
+went to climb a hill and it felt as if a giant had gently placed his hand on my
+back and pushed me forward. That stupid smile has been on my face ever since.
+
+Two years ago I rented another one. This one smaller, lighter, the motor more
+powerful. I was convinced. This is the way. Eighteen months ago, in the heart
+of the pandemic, I committed and bought my first electric bike and have never
+looked back.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+Indulge me — a summer afternoon: Soaring down the coast, the ocean to one side
+and a strand of old pines to the other. The afternoon sun beats down but it
+feels cool and there’s something irrationally stirring — downright emotional —
+about the efficiency of this dumb machine beneath my body. The motor looks too
+small — just a black cylinder on the hub of the wheel. And yet it moves. It
+sings that song. A subtle hum. A beautiful hum. It makes me want to ride and
+ride, ridiculous distances, nonsensical distances. I don’t want to get to where
+I’m going because I want the ride to last longer. I want to linger in this
+space as long as possible, this space of smooth and efficient movement through
+the world, gliding in near total mechanical silence, just the sound of rubber
+on the pavement, wind in my ears, breaking waves, salt, the smell of pine. This
+is what electric bikes do: They drive you insane with the poetry of the world.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+A strange trio A few of my old bikes: A mamachari, carbon fiber road bike, and
+Kalavinka
+
+#So Many Bikes
+
+All my standing life, I’ve biked. As a kid I rode a K-Mart Huffy to a rusted
+nub and then managed to nab a Haro Group 1. As an adult, bikes have been one of
+my few material indulgences (unwittingly, organically). In the past twenty
+years alone I’ve owned some fifteen bikes. I’ve had aluminum and carbon Bianchi
+road bikes. I’ve had steel Kalavinka keirin bikes with gorgeous head badges.
+I’ve had folding Dahon and Birdy BD-1s. I’ve had a handful of beloved brandless
+throwaway mamacharis — shopping bikes — that have proven hearty and fun in
+their own ways, and have each died uniquely. I’ve gone out of my way to get a
+handmade Arrow cruiser from a builder in Ogikubo. I still have a custom orange
+Moulton that I’ve modified into a single-speed city bomber that goes remarkably
+fast while floating atop its simple suspension.
+
+And on and on — bikes. Why? Because as any bike lover will tell you, to be
+ensorcelled by the bike is to crave one and only one thing: More bike. Each new
+bike is like riding once again for the first time. Exploring a city on a
+mamachari is different than a BD-1 is different than a Moulton. All thrilling.
+The bikes change, and so, too does your relationship to the pavement. My love
+for bikes has no categorical allegiances; if it has two wheels, and pedals, I’m
+interested. I want to ride them all.
+
+A Moulton Tiny, but fast, nearly flawless as a city machine — a Moulton with
+converted stem, Sugino cranks, coaster brake
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+Summers in most of Japan have never been easy. The temperatures England flirted
+with in 2022 are temperatures Tokyoites have contended with for centuries (and
+now contend with ones even higher). Crushing heat coupled with suffocating
+humidity. A three-shower-a-day kinda summer. Watch an Ozu film and observe the
+languid and supine impulse of its inhabitants during summertime scenes — that’s
+not affect, it’s survival. In Japan’s August, you simply can’t walk a block
+without losing most of your moisture.
+
+Bikes have always helped. A bicycle generates a microclimate with minimal
+effort. Standing on a street corner you may be soaked, but on a bike, the wind
+whooshing past, you are crisp(er) and dry(er). An electric bike only amplifies
+the effect.
+
+When I was a child I dreamt of having a personal helicopter. Powered by my feet
+and a bit of magic (certainly not gasoline, oddly, thinking back on it now). I
+imagined quietly gliding over the city in this tiny contraption, floating from
+home to video rental shop to diner, stopping by a friend’s house along the way.
+An electric bike gets me most of the way to this feeling.
+
+In the past eighteen months I’ve put several thousand kilometers on my electric
+bikes. It feels like cheating in every best possible way. I live in a seaside
+town south of Tokyo and traffic can get ridiculous, its ancient roads sized for
+horses, not cars. The electric bike swoops between and alongside these stale
+processions of heat and burning fuel. Drifting behind a gas-powered scooter or
+moped feels like observing some Victorian contraption — inefficient and loud
+and clunky and burdensome and pollutant. And not much faster (often much
+slower) or more useful than an electric bike.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+A Vanmoof and a BESV My friend's S3 and my BESV (the X3 looks like a slightly
+smaller version of the S3)
+
+#Electrics
+
+I own two electric bikes. My first purchase was the strangely named BESV PSA1 —
+which is a smaller wheeled (20"), rear-wheel drive machine, with mostly
+off-the-shelf components allowing you to customize it to your liking. ^1 And
+then, because I was so enamored by the BESV — so seduced by its small motor of
+umph, so wanting more and different electric bike experiences — I went and
+picked up a front-wheel drive Vanmoof X3 — the smaller-wheeled brother (24") to
+Vanmoof’s (quite frankly) giant S3 — just a few months later.
+
+I love them both like damaged brothers, because both of these bikes are flawed
+in frustrating ways.
+
+The electronic brain on the BESV is as dumb as they come.^2 The settings reset
+each time you turn the bike on. The acceleration curves feel unrefined —
+herky-jerky, you might say. Its app is the worst app I have on my phone — badly
+designed, nearly functionally useless, clearly engineered without love. And
+yet. Despite these flaws I put hundreds of kilometers on this thing in the
+first month. The front and rear suspension turn every road to glass, and are
+even fine for dirt trails; I find myself hunting down paths through parks I’d
+never otherwise think about. Suddenly every hilly road is a thing demanding to
+be explored. Up up up the little machine yells, and you follow its command.
+
+Guests who stay at my studio are given the BESV to ride. We take it down the
+coast. It never fails to amaze. One friend felt compelled to pet it upon
+dismount, saying, Good job, buddy, so quick and deep was the affection for the
+thing.
+
+The Vanmoof is much smarter — the brain and software within it are refined, the
+app good, the acceleration curves smooth — but the bike is all custom
+components, and they aren’t the highest quality at that. The automatic shifting
+mechanism on mine failed twice in the first two months, requiring shipping the
+bike to the Vanmoof store.^3 The seat post bolt broke off in the post. The
+original plastic pedals felt cheap and flimsy (pedals are one of the few things
+you can swap for your own). The aluminum frame is too stiff for the speed the
+bike generates — it can feel like you’ve been rattled to death after a bumpy
+road. (And stiffness mitigation by lowering tire pressure seems to only
+increase possibility of puncture.) But, more than all that, the design of the
+bike has a dangerous fundamental flaw: The bottom bracket is simply too low.
+
+Of all my many, many bikes, I’ve never had a pedal bottom out. On this Vanmoof
+X3? Dozens of times. Most critically during a turn at speed — the pedal hit the
+pavement, jumped the bike sideways, and sent me flying. It’s the only bad crash
+I’ve had in decades. So I’ve had to modify the way I ride — no pedaling into or
+out of turns, hyper awareness of deviations in lateral road slope — because,
+despite all this, I can’t stop riding this stupid thing. It sings — that hum.
+It is joy. I reach for it daily and it takes me around the peninsula and makes
+me happy to be alive.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+BESV @ Lee's Bread, Oiso I've written about three electric bike rides for
+Papersky Magazine: Misaki, Oiso, and Yokosuka.
+
+Allow me to share a dirty secret: More often than not, at midnight I can’t
+repress the impulse — I have to take a bike out. Out the bike comes and
+together we head into the empty streets of my town and hum our way all over,
+visiting temples in total silence. There are no cars. Often no people. It feels
+illicit — this slipping around town, this sliding into temple parking lots in
+the shroud of the night, looking at their old beams, feeling ten years old and
+grateful for both the ability and awareness to be doing just this very thing at
+this very moment.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+I’ve long since posited world peace could be achieved if you bought everyone in
+the world a bike, but now I want those bikes to be electric. I want everyone to
+feel this silliness, this punch-drunk stupidity of pure love, this sense of
+cheating the rules, the norms, this sense of ever-present delight. At our
+worst, humans mindlessly consume, sear the earth and each other, fill our
+bodies with poisons. At our best we invent electric bikes. Batteries have
+gotten more efficient, motors smaller and more powerful. The last decade has
+brought great efficiency to these machines, and the next ten years will only
+double down on these gains. Electric bike numbers are up, year over year over
+year. Tremendously so. Those who know, proselytize. We can’t help it. The charm
+is too great. The game non- zero sum. The more people who know, the better the
+world. It’s a wild notion, this sense of goodness to be had if you just reach
+out for it. Goodness with no real downside. Like solar panels or wind turbines,
+electric bikes are machines that buoy the spirit and the earth.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+Buy the best electric bike you can within your budget. Stretch if possible.
+Usually, the more you spend the lighter the machine, the more powerful the
+motor, the longer-lasting the battery. Depending on which country you live in
+top speeds will differ. In Japan the bike’s are capped at 24km/h. In America,
+32km/h. Some places only allow for pedal-assist — meaning the motor only works
+when pedaling. Others allow throttles, blurring the line between bike and
+scooter. Laws will change in the coming years as more people adopt the machines
+and cities themselves adapt. This is just the start. Ten years ago it was
+fairly rare to see an electric bike around Tokyo. Today, it seems as if every
+parent hauling their kids is doing so electrically.
+
+A good strategy: Find a local bike shop that will let you try out several
+electric bikes. Some have front-hub motors, others rear-hub motors. Others, the
+motor sits in the center, between the cranks. Each has a subtly different feel.
+Going up a hill, a front-motor’d machine may skip or slip as you pull back on
+the handlebars, but on flat land will feel more like being tugged through the
+world.
+
+Sure, electric bikes aren’t cheap. But I believe they’re a rare object to be
+well worth the cost. This in spite of their annoying flaws, their often bad
+software, their defective geometries. Because they open the world. Whatever
+world may have been nearby, an electric bike brings it nearer. This is worth
+more than you might estimate. These bikes sing their little songs and the smile
+on your face makes you look like a village idiot, but what a wonderful idiot to
+be.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+A summer night: Biking home alongside a river. The air is thick with humidity
+and cicadas vibrate wildly in the distance. The moon is out. My choices:
+straight home along the shimmering moonlit river, or take a detour, up into the
+dark mountains, doubling the distance. To my surprise, I choose the mountains
+almost every time. More! That tiny child who fantasized about helicopters
+yells. More of this, whatever this is. More more more. And so I feed that
+impulse, an impulse generated and nurtured by the electric bike. Into the
+shadow mountains we go, up, pushed by the hand of that giant, always present,
+always ready to help. It is a ridiculous thing. A thing of peace and magic. An
+owl hoots. The smile has never left my face.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+#Noted:
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+ 1. I upgraded my BESV to an SRAM drivetrain and Paul brake levers and Klamper
+    disc calipers, some MKS pedals, and a set of Brooks grips and saddle and it
+    feels wonderful through and through. These Paul Klampers are mechanical.
+    The Vanmoof uses (generic?) hydraulic brakes. After thousands of
+    kilometers, my conclusion is: hydraulics feel nice, but they are fussy (and
+    perhaps Vanmoof’s chosen components are sub-optimal) and difficult (?) to
+    tune on your own. In the end, I just don’t think they’re worth it. Too
+    “delicate.” The Pauls feel as fresh today as the day I put them on, whereas
+    the hydraulics have required much bikeshop tuning over the course of the
+    last eighteen months. Were the Vanmoof more flexible, I’d happily swap out
+    for mechanicals. This lack of flexibility is a bummer because, unlike an
+    Apple iPhone, for example, where the components tend to be best of class
+    (think: modem, CPU, camera unit, etc), the physical components on a Vanmoof
+    most definitely aren’t — nor do they offer the option to pay more to get
+    better components. ↩︎
+
+ 2. Oh, how I wish this thing was open source, hackable — because it’s so close
+    to great. Sadly — and I don’t know how else to frame this — it feels like
+    the engineers behind the software don’t ride bikes. At least not this one.
+    The software flaws are so fundamentally obvious, that anyone who had a)
+    access to the code, and b) rode the bike, couldn’t NOT fix these obvious
+    issues. What I really wish, though, is that I could slap the Vanmoof brain
+    onto the BESV body and, well, then we’d be in Electric Bike Elysium. ↩︎
+
+ 3. I’ve since learned — the drive train of the Vanmoof is not to be “ridden”
+    like a “bike” but rather, “feathered” like a delicate sand castle — assume
+    the gears could explode at any moment and apply the least amount of
+    pressure you can; the motor is strong enough to take care of most of the
+    rest. In this way, the Vanmoof feels more like a moped that uses “pedal
+    assist” as a suggestion than a pure electric-assist bike — a smart way to
+    get around motorcycle laws in most countries, which I assume is the main
+    point. Not to say you don’t get a workout on the Vanmoof, you do, but not
+    nearly as much as the more classically committed BESV — which really does
+    require you to pedal.
+
+    Maybe this is a good place to bring up the question: Why not just get an
+    electric scooter? I think it mainly comes down to flexibility and
+    philosophy. With a pedal assist bike (even if the pedaling required is
+    minimal) you simply have more flexibility in parking, in riding, in
+    “lightness” of transportation, than with an electric scooter. Also:
+    Insurance costs, maintenance, and higher base cost. And philosophically,
+    being able to still use the bike as a “bike” without power feels like an
+    aspect of these machines we shouldn’t be so quick to toss aside. ↩︎
+
+  
+
+This essay, published September 2022. Thoughts? Email me@craigmod.com.
+
+Craig Mod, his head, floating at the bottom of the article
+
+Craig Mod is a writer and photographer based in Japan. He's the author of Kissa
+by Kissa and a MacDowell, Ragdale, and VCCA writing fellow. His essays and
+articles have appeared in Eater, The Atlantic, California Sunday Magazine,
+Wired, Aeon, New Scientist, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Yorker, The New
+York Times, The Morning News, Codex: Journal of Typography, and elsewhere. He
+writes newsletters, oh yes, newsletters: Roden & Ridgeline.
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