The Endless Carless Summer

Well, I wound up driving a car (not mine, granted) to Emily and Nolan's wedding in Maryland. I decided to come up with a backup plan to justify Trek and Bosch sponsoring me, essentially, with three loaner batteries for the summer. And the more I've thought about it, the more I realize the backup plan is actually better than the original plan. I'm planning to ride from Rock Hill to Lake Greenwood State Park to watch the total solar eclipse Monday. Here's the route: Totality happens there at about 2:40 PM. Then the plan is to ride back, and since I won't be in a hurry to get back, maybe I'll take a less direct route:   I've had people tell me I'm a little bit crazy to ride so far on unfamiliar highways on a day predicted to have the most traffic South Carolina roads have ever seen. South Carolina is the closest point in the path of totality to almost 100 million people, so experts predict anywhere from 500,000 to 2 million visitors to the state Monda...

I've gotten desperate in my effort to find a way to get to Emily and Nolan's wedding without taking a car. It's not looking good, and I'm rather depressed about it. Here's my latest hail Mary, an email to Amtrak: How strict is the 2-inch tire and 50-lb. weight limit for trainside checked bikes? I have an e-bike that weighs 60 lbs. and has 2.4" tires. Would it fit? Also, I need to travel from Durham, NC to Aberdeen, MD, and though the Carolinian isn't scheduled to stop in Aberdeen, could it stop long enough to let me and my bike off? Short of that, could it slow down enough to allow me to jump off safely with my bike? I would catch the NE Regional that leaves from DC to Aberdeen 50 minutes after the Carolinian arrives, but it doesn't take bikes on board. Or could an exception be made for me on that train? It's the 192 NE Regional that travels from DC to Aberdeen Saturday, 7/22 from 5:20 PM to 6:26 PM. Thanks for your consideration.  I hope whoever...

I did my first big trial run on the Super Commuter earlier this week. I have to say I was a little disappointed. I thought I’d be able to ride from Rock Hill to Greenville in about 4½ hours, averaging about 23 miles per hour. Surely it wouldn’t make a difference that I was pulling a trailer and an extra bike—I have a MOTOR, and motors are impervious to workload. Or so I thought. After speeding out of town on SC highway 5 in sport and turbo modes (the ones where it’s fairly easy to maintain 25+ mph—any who’ve ridden SC 5 between Rock Hill and York will understand), I did some math in my head about 15 miles in and realized I needed to get 60+ km out of the 500 watt hour battery I was using first or run the risk of running down the smaller two spare batteries I was hauling in the trailer. Running out of battery short of my destination at my brother’s place in Greenville on unfamiliar roads, probably after dark, maybe in rain, definitely with a 60-lb. bike and a 30-lb. trailer and ...

I have a friend named Ray who needed a ride on Mother's Day. I obliged, and he told me his car was in need of major repair and he was looking for a temporary solution while he figured out whether to repair or replace his car. I thought about it for a few minutes and realized I could afford to be without my car for a week or two. I've always enjoyed commuting by bike, and this would give me the chance to get back into that rhythm. A week or two has turned into six, and for more than half of that time, I didn't know, didn't care, and didn't care to know what had become of my car. I was experiencing the liberating joy of being self-propelled, as I like to call it; why would I want to subject myself to that giant metal frown-box again? In the past week, I've learned from Ray that my car is fine, and he took the liberty of having a few repairs done to it, but in the meantime, I've decided to extend that carless week to a carless summer. My friend Emily is get...