My new ebike

Back at the beginning of June 2020, Gaylord Draper and I ordered our new electric bikes from the Seattle-based company Propella (see their site here). They were playing catch-up because of the pandemic, so our bikes didn’t arrive until the first week of August. After about an hour of simple assembly work (and making sure the battery was fully charged), mine was up and running, so I took it out for a spin in the neighborhood.

This is a “Class 1” ebike, meaning that it senses the pedaling you’re trying to do and then adds some boost power to what your leg muscles are already doing. The controller on the left side of the handlebar lets you select from five boost levels (1-5), or no-boost (level 0). In addition to the boost level, the conventional Shimano gearshift system on the right side of the handlebar lets you choose which of seven gears to use, just as you would with an ordinary bike. (Also, being a Class 1 ebike, there are no restrictions about using it on any trails you want.)

So I couldn’t resist the first big test: coming up the long and relatively steep hill on River Falls Drive from the C&O Canal to our house at the top – probably about 800 feet with about a 150 foot elevation change. I put it in third gear, with a boost level of 4, and rode up the hill at 15 mph without standing up, and without breaking a sweat – totally liberating!

Since then, Gaylord and I have added some accessories (and, no, there are no playing cards attached to the wheel forks with clothespins and flapping against the spokes!), and have taken five or six rides in the 20-39 mile range so far. We’ve generally concluded that the battery charge is good for about 30 miles of boost if we use an average assist level of around 2. (Gaylord brought along his second fully charged battery, which allowed us to do our most recent 39-mile ride out and back between Brunswick and Sharpsburg MD, mostly along the C&O Canal towpath except for the several mile uphill climb into Sharpsburg.)

Although we probably look like the 72-year-old Frick and Frack duo riding our tricked-out bikes with blue wheel rims and white chains, we have yet to hear any cat whistles! And, posers though we may be with the battery assist, many observers don’t even notice, because the battery is easily mistaken for a large water bottle!!

So, if you’re feeling that your bike riding days have come and gone, think again and get one of these!

Propella 7-speed, version 3.4, newly assembled out of the box back in August.

After a few additions…