Day in the Life of an E-bike Owner (Nov 22, 2006)

As of Oct 20, I became the proud owner of an electric vehicle.  While in America, this makes me join the ranks of a select few thousand, I'm just a drop in the bucket of the 18 million people in China who are also projected to buy one in 2006.  I'm not talking no EV1, Smart car, or GEM.  No, I forked over a whopping $260 (post-haggling, I'll have you know), for a slick new, sizzling "Vespa" style e-bike!  

Life on campus at Tongji University has never been the same.  All of a sudden, my morning commute from my dorm to the office goes by a LOT quicker (used to take me 5 minutes by bike.  I shaved it down to 2.5 min by E-bike.  I rule!!).  I get a lot of stares/glares as I silently whiz past the crowds of bikers and walkers on their way to class.  My dorm security guard comments, "Wow, your bike is cute. Hehe, kind of looks like a girls style e-bike." I pay him no heed.  I know this bike is one thing and one thing only: big PIMPIN' (that means "cool" for all you over 35). I'll let the picture below do the talking.(can you tell which one's mine??)

So let me give you the stats on my new ride (nicknamed Xiao Ma Zha, or "lil'  grasshopper").  It made by a subsidiary of Honda (XinDaZhou in China). It does 0-27 km/hr in about 18 seconds.  After 8 hours of
charging, I can go about 30-35 km.  Motor power: 250 Watts (that's 0.34 hp for all you gear-heads out there.  I know you're jealous!).
It weighs 50 kg.  It has no less than 32 small  but absolutely precious butterfly stickers on its body panels (and two on the battery).

I'll admit, I've had to bring the e-bike into the dealer twice for some work already.  I noticed the actual range was nowhere near the stated 50 km range (I only got 28 km on an accelerated discharge test).  One of the  batteries was faulty, but they swapped it out and now my bike manages to crank out a modest 35 km per charge.   Only other problem is that my horn intermittently fails (not a minor safety hazard in China!), and the brakes needed adjusting.  Besides that, this bike is a gem.

One downside to this whole e-bike thing however is what I call the
"General Tsao Effect".  I used to really look forward to a quick
little bike ride from the cafeteria back to the office after lunch to
work off that heavy "General Tsao's Chicken" sitting in my gut.¹
Now, it just sits there.  Pre-E-bike, this past year in China, I've
been exclusively relying on bicycle and bus to get to/from and around
campus.  If you want to know why there are very few fat people here,
one main reason is that going anywhere takes a fair amount of work
(standing, waiting, pedaling, guarding bag from theives), which is
tiring day after day!  I've had the recent fortunate experience of
suddenly lifting myself out of the ranks of the non-motorized to the
"elite" motorized class (though admittedly still on the lower tier).
As an American, I don't remember making this transition, probably
because my parents drove me everywhere I needed to go pre-16, and I
just rode a bike for fun (or for my paper route).

Seriously, this whole e-bike life is surprisingly pretty nice.
Electric drive is great because it's so quiet and peaceful yet
powerful, kind of like sailing.  I can see why this technology is so
attractive in China.  They're not all that fast compared with cars or
motor scooters, but they're a heck of lot easier and more comfortable
than riding a bike, which is what a lot of people switch from.

Satisfied Customer,
Jonathan

1. Actually, they don't have any General Tsao's chicken anywhere in CHina! Yeah, disappointing, I know! Believe me I've searched. In fact, I haven't even never heard of this mythical General Tsao. For the best GTC, you will have to settle for Middle Kingdom in Ann Arbor Michigan.