AutoblogGreen

Wait.... Really? How does adding an electric motor to a bike help the environment? If anything, more resources were used up adding the power train. HELLO!?! Since when does lazy equal green?

Reply

"We all need celebrities to remind us how to act, right?"

No.

Reply

iZip has some good looking products, but they need to get their act together. Their online "store" is a search on amazon.com, which returns only 8 products, ALL of which are "currently unavailable"!

That doesn't inspire confidence.

Reply

Looks like it might be fun to ride around on one of these for an afternoon. I certainly wouldn't give up the security cocoon of my GMC SUV on a regular basis however.

Reply

"How does adding an electric motor to a bike help the environment?"

J,

Many people don't commute to work on bicycles because they would arrive hot and sweaty. Using an electric bike for commuting is an excellent solution. Check out the comments to this post about ebikes over at treehugger.com:

http://tinyurl.com/yydooy

It is amusing to read the replies to the first comment posted by the anti-ebike eco-fundamentalist.

Reply

At least she practices what she preaches unlike the "God of Green" Al Gore who is one of the biggest hypocrites on the planet.

Reply

DanAB,

This picture shows her in some bicycling event where others are riding old fashioned body powered bikes. If some a-hole cruised pass me on a powered vehicle while I'm huffing and puffing along at an event like that, the last thing I'm thinking is "wow she sure is earth conscious". It does not show her using the bike to go to work. You can add any hypothetical situation and argue an assumed point but I base my opinion on the information presented on this page. Poorly executed BS celebrity PR.

Reply

J,

I was responding to your first comment. You are just "back pedaling" now. Your original comment made no reference to the use of an ebike in a bicycling event.

In your first comment you made 3 points:

1."How does adding an electric motor to a bike help the environment?" - Again, people who will not or can not ride a regular bicycle for certain trips would use an ebike instead of using a car. Using an ebike instead of a car is much better for the environment. I thought that was self evident.

2. "If anything, more resources were used up adding the power train." - The ebike Hanna was riding in the 7th Annual LA River Ride weighs 48 lbs. This is heaver than a typical bicycle but only by 20 lbs so. The extra material used in the drive train will be put to good use if the ebike is used frequently. The people I know who own ebikes use them for everyday transportation where as most regular bicycles (in the USA) are rarely used. 48 lbs of material put to good use is much better than 30 lbs of material sitting in a garage unused.

3. "Since when does lazy equal green?" - You can't assume Daryl Hanna is lazy just because she chose to ride an ebike in the LA River Ride. Most likely she thought it was a great transportation solution and wanted to promote it to others and the media who were covering the event. Perhaps you mean that all people who ride ebikes are lazy. If so, that is a stupid assumption which is not worth a reply.

In your last comment you said:

1. "If some a-hole cruised pass me on a powered vehicle while I'm huffing and puffing along at an event like that, the last thing I'm thinking is "wow she sure is earth conscious". The "event like that" was the LA River Ride not the LA RIVER RACE so there would be no reason to get so upset. I am sure Hanna wouldn't have been upset if a lycra passed her on a $4000 "regular" bicycle - which wouldn't be very difficult since the top speed of the model ebike she rode is only 18 mph. Hanna was the Ride Captain for the event so I am sure that the organizers were glad to have her there riding her ebike. The question I want to ask you is why you would be so upset about being passed by an ebike at an event which is not a race?

2. "It does not show her using the bike to go to work." - I did not say she was driving it to work.

Most people I encounter think ebikes are cool. Every now and then you hear criticism from eco-fundamentalists. It's a shame because they are doing to the environmental movement what Jerry Falwell did to Christianity - set it back by decades.

Reply