Ever since I moved back to Atlanta, I’ve had my eyes on one thing: an e-bike. I happen to live in an area where I don’t really need a car for day-to-day activities, which is great since my old BMW keeps breaking. So when I saw that Rad Power was offering $700 off the RadRover 6 Plus, I went ahead and pulled the trigger. And after riding it around all weekend, I can say I’m officially hooked. E-bikes have become my entire personality, and I will not apologize for it.
Need to grab some groceries? I can just zip on up to Publix and be back on my couch in less than 30 minutes. A friend wants to meet for a drink at one of the nearby breweries? I can be there in 10 minutes. A different friend wants to get together for a bonfire? I’ll be there in 15. It makes everything in my life more convenient, and I absolutely love it.
Possibly more importantly, it’s also just downright fun. When I took it for an initial test ride, my plan was to spend about five minutes on a nearby bike trail making sure I’d put it together correctly. After all, the last thing I need is to lose a wheel or have my handlebars fall off while riding in traffic. That five minutes turned quickly into nearly 15 miles of riding in one day. Yes, I somehow tricked myself into doing a good bit of unplanned exercise simply because I was enjoying myself too much to stop.
And while I’m used to road bikes with tiny tires, the RadRover 6 Plus’s fat tires have definitely won me over. The Beltline trail is only paved in some sections, which means others are mostly gravel and dirt. With fat tires, I don’t have to worry about that being a problem. Nor do I have to worry about any of the garbage roads near my apartment giving me a flat. Heck, I can even ride right over the curb to get to the bike racks when I get to the grocery store. That’s just awesome whether you’re four or 34, and you won’t convince me otherwise.
Take me up to the mountains or put me on a race track, and yeah, I’d rather have a car to drive. Getting around Atlanta on a day-to-day basis, though? There’s absolutely nothing fun about that. My e-bike changes that completely. It’s all the fun of riding your bike that you remember as a kid, except you can actually go places and do things.
The only downside (other than my incredibly sore butt) is that, as everyone knows, it’s more fun to ride your bike with friends. Unfortunately for me, only one of my friends has an e-bike, and he lives in Phoenix. It’s OK, though. Once my other friends get a chance to ride my e-bike, I’m sure they’ll all want one of their own. It’s only a matter of time because if they think I’m going to shut up about how great e-bikes are any time soon, they couldn’t be more wrong. Eventually, they’ll figure out it’s just easier to give in to peer pressure and join the e-bike revolution than to keep having to listen to me talk about how great they are.