Here’s a little photo essay about my family’s bicycles. I’m proud to say that we use our bikes a lot. Each bike is tailored to its user: I drive a cargo bike capable of carrying passengers and cargo long distances; my wife drives a slower and lighter but more stylish bike; my 11-year-old daughter Thea and her friend JJ drive bikes tailored to their 2-mile drive to school. (My son Jasper, aged 15, resists having a bike. He pretty much walks wherever he needs to go.) Ithaca is hilly, so it’s important for a utility bike to have an electric motor. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of years  experimenting with electric bike motors and other accessories. Maybe you can benefit from my discoveries.

boating mode: the boat carries the bike

biking mode: the bike carries the boat

The Aqua-Xtracycle is a do-it-yourself amphibious electric cargo bike. This video shows how it works, and the photo gallery below shows a bit of our development process. In a future post I’ll describe how you can make your own Aqua-Xtracycle.

“There is a spirit which I feel that delights to do no evil, nor to revenge any wrong, but delights to endure all things, in hope to enjoy its own in the end.”
-James Naylor’s deathbed testimony

I’ve been a bicyclist since I was a kid. As a middle-schooler I delivered newspapers from my bike. As a teenager I worked as a bike courier in Washington D.C. As a college student I biked from Portland to San Francisco on a three-week journey with my future wife. For me, bicycling is simply the most enjoyable way to travel.

Bicycling is also a way for me to care for the earth and to improve my community. In the last couple of years I’ve experimented with what the mainstream media calls a “car lite” lifestyle. I drive a large electrically-motorized bicycle that can easily carry a passenger and four bags of groceries up the steepest hills in Ithaca. In a typical month I put more miles on this bicycle than I do in the family car. I bike in all weather and in all seasons, and I make trips that are sometimes hundreds of miles long. I’ve found ways to almost completely (and comfortably!) replace our car with a bicycle.

I have a sense that others would like to bike more but don’t know how to get started. I’d like to share my experiences and learn about theirs. I’m setting up a project with Ithaca Monthly Meeting’s Earthcare Committee that I call the “Friends Free Bike Clinic”. Basically I will bring my tools to the meetinghouse deck and invite anyone to come by. We can work on our bikes together and share our knowledge about biking. Repairs could be as simple as a quick tune-up: cleaning a chain, pumping up tires, and adjusting brakes. Or they could be more involved: ordering and installing parts or even ordering whole bikes. In particular I encourage people to add electric motors to their bikes. I feel that an electric motor is a necessity for utility biking in Ithaca.

I plan to hold the bike clinic on fourth Sundays from 1pm to 3pm beginning September 25th (which also happens to be Porchfest, a neighborhood music festival). I invite complete novices as well as mechanically-minded people to join me.

-Larry Clarkberg

Test drive to Sheldrake Point

Caution: shop talk blog post intended for do-it-yourselfers. For my recent 240-mile journey I created what I call my “trip batteries”—batteries that I can attach to my bike to augment my regular batteries, but that I don’t intend to carry around on a daily basis. As such, the main design criteria for these batteries is that they be inexpensive. I don’t want to pay the big bucks for a battery that I only use once in a while. The obvious choice is SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries. These are the same kind of batteries used in cars, and the technology is almost 100 years old. E-bikers out there may poo-poo this choice of battery. After all, compared to my lithium batteries, my SLA batteries are heavy (20lbs vs. the lithium’s 15lbs), not quite as powerful (600wh vs. the lithium’s 720wh), don’t last as long (300 charge cycles vs. the lithium’s 1,500) and they are dumb (that is, they don’t have a battery management circuit board in them to prevent human error from damaging them, although most controllers provide the necessary protections). But they are cheap. I can put together a 10ah 36v battery for about $120 versus a 10ah 36v battery for $600.

Furthermore, there are many reasons to have some SLA batteries around. One is that their native voltage is 12v. I’ve created custom connectors for my batteries so that they operate at 36v when they are on my bike, but I charge them at 12v (see the images below). I find that 12v chargers are much more reliable than chargers made to output other voltages. I’ve had several 36v and 48v chargers self-destruct.

I can also power 12v appliances. 12 is a magic number in the appliance world. The boating, camping, and RV industries produce all kinds of 12v appliances. I have some small solar panels and those too output 12v. And I purchased an 800w inverter ($80) to power 110v household appliances. I recently used it to power my electric weed-wacker when I was at too great a distance for a power cord to reach the weeds. I do have a 12v converter for my lithium batteries, but it can only output about 240w.

How did I make the batteries? My bike operates at 72v, so I made two 36v 10ah batteries that I connect in series when they are on my bike, one battery on each side. Each 36v battery is made up of three 12v SLA batteries in series. As I mentioned, I can quickly convert the 36v 10ah battery to a 12v 30ah battery by switching from a series connector to a parallel connector. I used scooter batteries since I figure they are designed for a similar application. I connect the batteries with 10awg wire. Thick wire is essential since these puppies will be outputting plenty of juice. The wire has spade connectors on the battery side and Anderson connectors on the output side—Anderson connectors are an awesome tool for the hobbyist. They are the Lego of the connector world. I should probably put a fuse in my battery pack. I then wrap up my pack with a layer of duct tape.

I considered making a special battery box but I decided that the batteries are waterproof enough, and they are so ugly they are probably theft-proof too. So I simply strap the batteries to the “footsies” on my Xtracycle bike. Footsies are wooden platforms that my daughter rests her feet on when she is riding with me. This spring I did a test drive out to Sheldrake Point on Lake Cayuga, some 25 miles from my house. The trip batteries performed admirably and took me almost the full 25 miles at 20mph, drawing 600wh in the process. (Note that I probably could have gone 50 miles at 12mph.) Then I switched to my lithium batteries for the ride home. Yes to switch batteries I have to actually stop, get off my bike, physically disconnect the spent batteries and connect the fresh ones. Someday maybe I’ll connect my SLA and lithium batteries in parallel, but I understand it’s important to put some electronics between batteries using different chemistries.

Let me know how it goes making your own SLA battery packs!

Last year my strategy was to charge my batteries en route using three solar panels supported over the rear of my bike. The solar panels were helpful, but couldn’t generate as much electricity as I needed. This year I upgraded my bike to use two 36-volt LiFePo4 batteries in series (for 720 watt-hours), and for this trip I carried an additional pair of 36-volt SLA batteries (for an additional 600 watt-hours). All of these batteries together weigh about 70 pounds.

I purposefully limited the amount of power my bike could draw from the batteries. My 72-volt system can easily push my bike over 20 mph, but at that speed my distance would be limited to about 60 miles. However, if I kept my speed between 10 and 15 mph I could get a full 120 miles out of my batteries, though I would have to be in the saddle 12 hours.

The first day went smoothly. Last year I had headed north first in order to connect with, and possibly camp on, a section of the Erie Canal which skirts Syracuse. The bike path along the canal looks great in pictures, but I discovered in actuality it is unbearable because of the mosquitoes. This year I avoided the canal. I headed east through gorgeous pastoral landscapes, then up to the Hotel Utica where I spent the night and recharged my batteries.

The next day did not go so smoothly. When I was ready to hop on my bike I discovered a flat tire. This turned out to be the first of three flat tires I would have to fix that day. (I should count my blessings though; I had seven flat tires on my trip last year.) The next 80 miles or so went smoothly enough. However, I was troubled by a low voltage reading when I switched to my lithium batteries. Sure enough, the motor cut out when the voltage fell below the limit. I tested all the connections and replaced the fuse to no avail; one of the batteries was low. In desperation I called my wife and asked her to pick me up. After thinking about it however I realized I could access some of the power of the good battery by connecting it in series with the charging port of the depleted battery, thereby temporarily bypassing the depleted battery’s BMS. I called my wife and cancelled the rescue. I hacked off the end of my charger cord and made my second field repair of the day.

I felt sure I could eke out enough power to make the rest of the journey. But after 10 miles or so the motor stopped again. I needed to find an outlet. I struggled forward under leg power alone. I felt like an electric vampire, desperate to sink my two prongs into an unsuspecting outlet. Finally I came upon the Fox’s Lair, a bedraggled bar at a crossroads. They gracious allowed me to charge my batteries there. After a beer and a burger I felt renewed. I continued my trip. I was in electric heaven again.

Then after another 10 miles my motor started making a funny noise and was no longer propelling me forward. The freewheel on the motor was busted. Aaargh! I knew the freewheel was worn but I had delayed replacing it. Now I was paying the penalty. I tried another field repair, removing the motor and adjusting the freewheel, but when I put it all back together the motor still kept spinning in place. Again I tried calling in my wife for a rescue. But by this time she was at Silver Bay which was out of range of cell phone service. I realized that I would have to make the last 20 miles of the trip manually, including the 800-foot climb up Graphite Mountain with approximately 180 pounds of bike and batteries. I mustered my resolve and got back on the road.

Words cannot describe the painful ordeal that ensued. I alternated pushing and riding my bike up the mountain, bit by bit, taking two hours to cover the five miles uphill. There were several points where I had to stop and coax my trembling limbs to continue. I felt a bit faint. I could easily have lapsed into panic and given up. But instead my physical exhaustion and the eeriness of my surroundings made it a spiritual moment, a time I will always remember. I was alone on the road. A full moon guided me, and lightning flashed in the distance. Finally I reached the summit. I was weak but I managed to climb into the saddle and brace myself for the exhilarating 1200-foot  drop over five miles on the east side of the mountain. It was a wonderful release to glide downhill the rest of the way at 35 mph. I finally reached the Silver Bay Lodge at 2 am, staggered into our room and collapsed.

Dear Congresspersons Maurice Hinchey, Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer:

I am keenly aware of the connection between my car use and America’s shameful oil dependence. So two years ago I made a personal commitment to reduce my car use. I’ve been using an electric cargo bike to run most errands around town and even make long trips. Last month I made 30 bike trips adding up to 254 miles. Many of those trips were carrying a passenger or hundreds of pounds of cargo; all of them used a hundredth the energy of a car; almost all of them were immensely enjoyable. In contrast I made 10 car trips adding up to 181 miles.

My point is this: my bike use is not recreational. It is not “frivolous”. It is a valid solution to very real problems America faces. For Representative Mica and Senator Inhofe to reduce funding for bike programs is short-sighted and intolerable. It is a slap in the face to my efforts. Please see to it that bike funding is not cut. And please encourage Americans to bike not just for recreation but to replace their car; not just for their own health but for the health of the nation.

Thankfully the news media is keeping quiet about this or I could be in big trouble: I flooded the Mississippi earlier this month. I’m also responsible in some small part for the Arkansas killer tornados last month. I may even be implicated in the Japanese earthquakes earlier this year, though the evidence for that is not so clear. But certainly without a doubt (as I confessed in a previous post) I share with BP responsibility for the gulf oil spill last year. How did I manage to cause such massive death and destruction? Simply by living my life as usual, getting around by car. I feel a little bit guilty about it actually. But what can I do?

I think more and more people will, as I have done, make this important connection: my driving habit (among other things) causes global warming which causes extreme weather which leads to premature death and hardship around the world. I can no longer read about the misery in Mississippi, the anguish in Arkansas, the grief in Japan, and the environmental destruction in the Gulf of Mexico without knowing that I am in a small way responsible. I think more and more people will feel a little bit guilty like I do. And we’ll have to weigh our guilt against our need to use our cars. After all, don’t we have to use our cars to pick up our kids now and then? Don’t we have to go get the groceries, commute to work in the rain, and occasionally drive to our parents’ house in another state? What choice do we have? I mean, these are all errands that we can’t do on our bicycles, right?

Wrong. It depends how you define bicycle. Most people in this country think of a bicycle as a recreational device for children or athletes. Most people don’t think of a bicycle as something they can use to carry passengers or to carry heavy loads. And most people think that it requires great strength to bike up steep hills or to go faster than 10mph or to go long distances. These are all misconceptions stemming from peoples’ limited idea of what a “bicycle” is. I’ve spent the last couple of years rejecting what a bicycle “is” and experimenting with what a bicycle “can be”. And I’ve concluded that my large (cargo) bike with an electric motor can be almost as capable as a car for almost all of my errands.

I still have a lot of work to do to make my bike into a true car-replacement-vehicle. I recently added batteries for long trips that enable me to go 60 miles in 3 hours or 120 miles in 12 hours, depending on how much I lean on the throttle. As a former bicyclist that speed and distance is more than good enough for me. However I imagine others might want to add a few more batteries to make a faster but slightly heavier car-replacement-vehicle. How is a true car-replacement-vehicle different than a motorcycle? For starters, it uses one hundredth the energy of a gasoline-powered motorcycle. And the energy it uses (namely electricity) comes in a form that is easily gotten from renewable sources. I can satisfy all my transportation energy needs by putting a modestly sized solar panel in the sun for a day or two. Secondly, unlike a motorcycle my true car-replacement-vehicle is designed to go slowly. That’s right: slow by design.

My bike as it is now replaces almost all my personal transportation needs and most trips carrying a child; a little more power and a larger frame would enable me to carry adult passengers too. A canopy would make winter riding more comfortable. But these are minor improvements to an existing proven technology. The car companies would have us think that they need a technological breakthrough before they can offer us environmentally responsible vehicles. Not so. You can begin your car-free lifestyle now with an electric cargo bike.

If the car-free revolution doesn’t require new technology, what is stopping us? The revolution only requires a simple collective change in our attitude: the willingness to go slowly. An electric-vehicle-centered lifestyle requires a willingness to go say 15mph rather than 30mph in the city, or 30mph rather than 60mph on the highway. Is that too much to ask? I hope people are willing to make this attitude change. It seems like a small thing: take a little more time to run your errands in order to spare us all from extreme weather events, in order to prevent permanent damage to the earth’s climate.

Aside from preventing planetary destruction, there are plenty of other reasons for people to travel slowly. At 15mph traffic lights and stop signs are no longer necessary; people have enough time to negotiate their way through intersections. Other signage for restricting cars from doing annoying things (such as parking in the wrong place) becomes unnecessary. Pedestrians—even kids and pets—can roam the streets. Because we all have smaller vehicles, more of our cityscape can be green rather than concrete. People driving bikes and other open electric vehicles can greet each other, stop, and talk. No more massive concrete structures dotting our landscape and draining our government budgets. Imagine what our living spaces can look like without cars! It almost seems like paradise, until the next tornado comes rolling in because the climate hasn’t changed back yet.

I confess that I still drive occasionally. I apologize for that. I am confident that by driving an electric cargo bike I can wean myself from causing further environmental destruction. But until then, sorry about the flood y’all.

No doubt you were convinced by Part I of this post to try the front-landing running style yourself. You are wondering “How is it done? Do I need special shoes? Is it dangerous? Will people make fun of me?” Let’s answer each of these questions one-by-one.

How is it done?

No one showed me how to run using the front-landing running style. In fact it was frustrating to read the book Born to Run, which promotes the front-landing style, and nowhere in the book does the author explain how to run this way! The reason, I think, is that your body already knows how it’s done. You just have to let it show you. Try this simple method: take off your shoes and run a bit. Lean back and take small steps as you run. Now put your shoes back on and run the same way. Continue to refine your running style. It’s that simple.

This is not rocket science people. It’s not about forcing your body to conform to a pre-conceived notion of how to run. It’s about experimenting, paying attention to what your body is telling you, and making tiny adjustments. For long-distance running even tiny adjustments can make a big difference. When you’re out running ask yourself:

• What part of my foot am I landing on? Try landing different ways. What’s most comfortable for long distances?
• How much am I leaning forward or backward? What’s most comfortable for long distances?
• What are my arms doing? Try swinging your arms side-to-side versus front-to-back.
• What’s my stride and pace? Compare short quick steps to long slow steps.
• How can I maximize each breath? What posture best facilitates breathing?
• What’s the rhythm of my breathing? That is, how many steps do I take when inhaling and how many when exhaling? How does that rhythm change when I am exercising more strenuously such as going uphill or downhill?

After conducting all of these experiments I came to the following conclusions. When running long distances my body likes to lean slightly backwards, land with my feet flat on the ground, swing my arms side-to-side, and take short quick steps. I throw my shoulders back when I inhale, then lean slightly forward when I exhale. I like to breath in for four or five steps, then exhale somewhat explosively for two steps. When going uphill I sometimes need to switch to three steps inhaling and two steps exhaling. Should you run this way? No, probably not exactly like this. But you should be able to say as explicitly as this how you run. If not, work on it.

So the first step to adopting a front-landing style of running is simply to pay attention to how your body moves. Here are some exercises designed to help you pay attention:

• As you go about your daily business pay attention to how you walk. Can you walk by landing on the front of your foot? Does leaning back help? Does taking short quick steps help?
• Run up and down stairs mindfully. Notice that stairs force you to stand upright and front-land.
• Try running as quietly as possible. It’s no accident that tip-toeing is a form of front-landing.
• Try running a couple of miles with a cup of water in your hand without spilling the water. This exercise really shows you how to run smoothly and efficiently.

The second step to adopting a front-landing style of running is to run a lot. As soon as you finish reading this post get up and go for a run. Run to work. Run to school.

Do I need special shoes?

No. You can use the shoes you already have but use your feet differently. When you run with a front-landing style you don’t rely on your shoe’s padding, so you can use the same running shoes for years and years. However, when your running shoes do wear out you might consider replacing them with shoes that don’t have a thick heel. It used to be difficult to find such shoes, but more and more are coming on the market even as I write this.

Here’s my experience finding shoes. Last year barefoot running shoes didn’t yet exist, so I tried running in flat sandals. The straps caused terrible blisters so I reverted back to my beat-up wedge-heel running shoes. This year there are plenty of barefoot running shoes available. I bought a water shoe that has a thin sole and no heel. I’ve been very happy with it.

I find a front-landing running style allows me to run in any shoes. I think most heel-striking runners would hesitate to run on a moment’s notice if they were not wearing their proper shoes. I can just start running on a whim. I find that with front-landing I can run comfortably even in my boots. That’s because it’s the springiness of my calves that’s providing the cushioning, not the padding in the heel of my shoe.

And do we really need running shoes at all, especially in warm weather? I’ve begun experimenting with barefoot running and I really like it so far.

Is the front-landing running style dangerous?

No. In fact it is dangerous not to run with the front-landing running style. The only discomfort you’ll feel at first is that your calf muscles will be sore. That’s a good sign—it shows that they are cushioning your feet properly.

Will people make fun of me?

Yes, for now. If you are the sort of person who obsesses about what other people think then front-landing is not for you. But I think most of the readers of this blog do not fall into that category. And I think it is just a matter of time before heel-strikers feel self-conscious about how they run instead. People used to think the Earth was flat. People used to think smoking was good for you. Times change.

Like bicycling, running has fallen out of favor as a valid means of utilitarian transportation and is nowadays considered exclusively an athletic pursuit. Runners these days also suffer from an unexpected handicap: the shoe. That’s right the shoe. And in particular the running shoe.

No doubt you are now thinking “How could the very item designed to facilitate running be bad for runners?” Don’t take my word for it. Just ask the growing number of runners who are eschewing traditional running shoes for “barefoot running shoes” or even actually running barefoot.

It’s not that shoes are intrinsically bad. The problem is that they encourage us to land on our heels. This may be fine for walking. Or for carrying a heavy load. But when you run you need to land on the front of your feet. When you run you need to land on the front of your feet. Yes I repeated that last sentence because it’s important. I’ve learned from experience that the most comfortable way for me to run long distances is to lean back, take smaller faster steps, swing my arms side-to-side, and carefully place my feet flat on the ground over and over again. To go a little faster I can lean a bit forward and land more on the front of my feet. This is what I call the front-landing style of running.

That’s what I discovered works for me anyway. For a long time I didn’t understand why I rarely came across others who run the way I do. At my first marathon a few years ago I scrutinized thousands of my fellow runners as I ran. I saw only half a dozen or so that ran like I did. Was I doing it wrong? Or was this another case of me being right and almost everyone else on the planet being wrong?

I am by no means an athlete. But I am very good at analyzing bodies in motion. When I see how someone moves I can copy their motion and come to understand it. (This ability comes from my modern dance background.) When I started running seriously a few years ago I tried copying the heel striking running style that I saw others doing. It was a disaster. I got pains in my shins that took months to heal. My feet felt beat-up. I retreated back to the front-landing running style that I had developed. I made up a few exercises to help me (which I’ll go over in Part II of this post). I paid attention to my front-landing running style and I found there were many advantages:

• It is easier to run uphill. Try landing on your heel when going uphill–it’s awkward.
• I have more control running downhill. Heel-striking causes you to lean forward when running downhill and it takes a lot of effort to slow down. But front-striking allows you to lean back to slow down, or lean forward to speed up as you desire. It’s like your whole body is a big gas pedal.
• I enjoy a continuous range of speeds from walking to running. With heel-striking I find I can either walk briskly or engage my thighs to run, but there is not a smooth transition between the two. With front-landing I am much more nimble speed-wise.
• I have more muscle-use options. I find heel-striking tends to use only my thighs and knees. With front-landing I can shift to my thighs/knees for sprinting and shift back to my calves/ankles for distance. For a short burst of speed I can lean way back and engage my gluteus maximus (a.k.a. butt muscle). They don’t call it maximus for nothing!
• With front-landing I can better negotiate rough terrain. Try jumping between boulders and you’ll see what I mean. First of all you can’t begin a jump from your heel. Secondly if you land on your heel it’s easy to slip. If you land flat-footed you are more secure.
• With front-landing I can breath more deeply while running. Do a big yawn right now. (The power of suggestion is powerful isn’t it?) Let your arms do what they want. Did your elbows come up to shoulder height and did you push back your shoulders? This is the posture that’s possible when you’re front-landing, leaning back, and inhaling. Now exhale. Notice how you rock forward. This rocking motion between inhaling and exhaling is not possible when you’re heel-striking because it’s difficult to lean back.
• I have less injuries. I find the loping gait of a heel-striking running style forces me to put my legs way out in front of me. This lets gravity pull sideways on my ankles, knees, and hips. The quick short gait of a front-landing running style keeps these joints aligned below me. And the springiness of my calf muscle protects me from injury better than the cushioning of a running shoe can.
• I suspect that front-landing is a more efficient running style. When I run this way I don’t bob up and down as much as other runners I see who are heel-striking. The next time you are out running look at a runner who is in front of you. Can you see the bottoms of their feet? If so they are wasting a lot of energy by picking up their feet so high. Another reason I suspect front-landing is more efficient is that it can be very quiet. Do your feet make a slapping or thumping noise when you run or walk? That’s a sign of inefficiency.

That is certainly a long list of advantages that I discovered. Why couldn’t I find others who had also made these discoveries? Then a couple of years ago I heard about Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run. My friends told me that I might like it. I rushed to the bookstore, bought a copy, and read it cover-to-cover. The book describes how we are creatures designed for long-distance running. That is our special skill in the animal kingdom. We used to use this skill for persistence hunting: running down large game until it fell over from heat exhaustion. Why then does long-distance running seem so difficult? The book further describes how in the 1970′s running shoes came to have heavily padded heels. Coincidentally with the introduction of this type of shoe came a dramatic increase in the number of running injuries. The book describes how the author, after suffering from injuries, adopted the front-landing running style. He describes how this is the same running style used by the race-winning Tarahumara Indians. As a finale the author and his friends join the Tarahumara Indians in a joyous ultra marathon.

Since Born to Run came out I have seen an explosion of interest in the front-landing running style. It is gratifying to see I’m not alone in the way I run. However, it is disturbing to see how the movement is unfolding. For one, people seem to be focusing on the barefoot aspect rather than the front-landing vs. heel-striking aspect. When I first saw the  FiveFingers toe shoes made by Vibram I thought “It’s not about the toes, it’s about the heel! Tell them about not landing on their heels!” The shoe companies have the difficult job of diverting our attention from the fact that they have been selling us injury-causing shoes for the last 40 years. And they are in another awkward bind: how do they stand to profit if runners all decide to run barefoot? They are tripping up all over themselves with innovative marketing schemes. This is their chance to capture a new growing niche market. They have the difficult task of applauding the barefoot movement and discouraging it at the same time. They accomplish this by pushing what they oxymoronically call “barefoot running shoes”. I sense that people are buying into their marketing but not changing the way they run. I am shocked to see people wearing these shoes who apparently have no clue about how to land on the front of their feet when they run. I’m concerned.

My own contribution to the front-landing movement (which I’ll deliver in Part II of this post) will be to describe the training exercises I came up with. I’ll also describe my thoughts about breathing and about running shoes. In the meantime, imagine this “cargo running” scenario: you have a nearby errand to run and you don’t have much to carry. You definitely don’t need a car. You don’t feeling like biking. And you don’t even really feel like wearing shoes. Start running. Not because you’re in a hurry. Not because you’re trying to lose weight or train for an athletic event. But because you need to get somewhere and it feels good to get there by running.

Could this be our new logo? Have a better idea? Let us know.

I’m planning to start an electric bike club with some friends in Ithaca and we don’t yet have a name. Can you help us think of one? Finding a name is an important first step for any organization. It will force us to think about the goals of our group. This grueling process may release our hidden differences, but the fires of our disagreement will forge in us a new a sense of unity! Right. We invite you to participate.

Ithaca is especially suitable for ebikes. The largest part of our community is students. A very visible part of our community is environmentalists. Both of these groups would benefit from biking: students need an inexpensive mode of transportation and environmentalists want transportation that better fits with their values. But both groups are held back by (among other things) the incredibly hilly terrain here. An ebike erases that impediment. For a variety of reasons the bike stores here are unable to step up to the plate to promote ebikes. That’s where a club comes in. Our club is all ready to go except for one thing: we lack a name. Here’s some thoughts that may guide your club naming.

The goal of the club is to encourage people in Ithaca to drive ebikes. The activities of the club may include ebike conversion workshops (basically how to install a hub motor); Xtracycle conversion workshops (how to convert your bike into a cargo bike); repair clinics, weird vehicle projects; group rides; an online forum for giving advice about ebikes and for buying and selling ebikes; a way to buy parts as a group to get a discount; advocacy of some kind. There are other bike clubs in Ithaca that do some of these activities already (most notably the Finger Lakes Cycling Club) but I think these goals are different enough to require a separate group.

Some of the ways our name will focus us:

• Should we focus only on Ithaca or will the club someday have national stature? If we aspire to go national, we can use a name like “Ebike People of Ithaca” for now but it can be shortened to “Ebike People” later.
• Should we focus on the environmental side of this venture? The practical side? Or the fun side?
• How much should we emphasize the cargo biking aspect?
• Should we focus on the advocacy side? Personally I will be disappointed if I don’t leave club meetings with bike grease on my hands.
• Should we get into the buying and selling side? Could this group eventually be a store? I think  my favorite Canadian bike store ebikes.ca began as a club.
• Should we stick with bikes or could we include Electric Vehicles in general?

Another consideration: will people know what the word “ebike” means? I asked a few people that were easy to ask and none of them knew what it meant. However, I think within a year the phrase “electric bike” will sound as quaint as “electronic mail”. Until then we can define ebike in the tag line, such as “Ebike People: Ithaca’s Electric Bike Club”.It’s easy to change the tag line later.

Here’s some names we’ve come up with so far.

The obvious: Ithaca Ebike Club

Names about groups of people:  Ebike Alliance, Ebike League, Ebike Fellowship, Ebike Cooperative, Ebike Guild, Ebike Advocates

Place names: Ebike Village, Electrithaca

Wacky names: The Spinners, Responsible Vehicle Alliance, The Sparks

Do you like any of these names? Can you think of a good name? Do you know of similar clubs? Would you join a club like this? Leave a comment!