John Randall, from Fort George Florida, bought a bike in spring. Now continue to share his story with us:
So on to more interesting experiences involving my Himiway All Terrain Electric Fat Bike.
Aside from much attention by many about the bike out in public, I have friends who ask me about how it has affected my body in terms of endurance and well being.
I have had people passing on a remote one-lane road here in Fort George Florida who must drive slowly, stop and ask me about the bike. Most people it seems, including myself once, are not aware of how much range you get with one. I tell them that with full power riding or, riding on full power assist, I get thirty miles or so, and they either laugh as if I am lying or are amazed. The reality is and according to the manual, it all depends on how and where you ride. The terrain is key in that if you live in a hilly area, you will get less range. If you live in a place like Florida's Upper corner which is primarily flat, you get much more.
One factor I discovered is tire pressure, which the company recommends you check before riding each time. The bike needs a tire pump and built-in gauge along with a snap-on valve that can be pumped by hand or foot. The tires usually take a few trips to lose any pressure but even two pounds can make a range difference.
Power assist is a fascinating part of the bike's design. On level '1', when the rider begins to peddle you can feel the surge in power, boosting your acceleration and speed. As one rides the bike on uneven terrains, like small hills in my case, the peddling resistance remains the same regardless of grade. On the level, if you increase the assist level, the resistance remains the same but you end up going faster. I have yet to discover the reason for level four and five as once you go to level three, the bike is going at top speed. I am probably missing something.
The real beauty of this machine is that I can supplement my power in whatever way I need to make the experience dynamic and profitable. In other words, the different permutations of settings allow me to make whatever distance I travel to be reasonable for my gradual increase in fitness. I can make it more stressful or less. I can ride farther with less fatigue or I can ride shorter distances with much more. I personally like to push it by riding as far as I can without assistance until fatigue sets in and then hi-tail it home in full electric, allowing me to cool off the whole way.
So far, I have ridden the bike one hundred and seventy-two miles which the odometer keeps track of regardless of whether or not I have power, and therefore digital readouts, on or not. I have had one single instance of failure in that time which was actually quite minor and common to multi-speed gearing systems but simple to remedy. I went over a harsh bump and did not have tension on the peddles. The chain jumped off the derailer and just hung there. At the time I did not know how to fix the problem. I love that emergency feature. It turned out that all I had to do was push the derailer on its spring to collapse it and reset the chain on the gears. Took about three seconds to accomplish.
I am going to write about the health benefits I have already discovered from riding about nine miles a day so far as I build up endurance. The beauty is the combination of assist and distance one can use to do that.
