Mark Siddall says his E-bike serves as a “range extender.”
For some time I had occasionally noticed a man on an orange bike pedaling up Gibson Hill in North Albany, and I wondered at the speed with which he attacked the steep incline. One of those new E-bikes, I assumed.
On a ride myself on Wednesday afternoon (on a conventional bike), I caught up with him elsewhere in Albany, but only after he had stopped. He is Mark Siddall, and he indeed rides an electric-assisted bicycle, a high-end model of the Specialized make that he was kind enough to let me inspect.
Siddall is 86, an engineer who retired from Wah Chang about 30 years ago and still does a bit of consulting work on the side. He used to ride a bike to work from his North Albany home, and he’s been riding bikes practically his whole life.
E-bikes are all the rage now. Even Pacific Power is promoting them with ads on social media. Mark got his as a gift from his daughter and son-in-law, who live in Albany.
Together with their bikes, he told me, they were back east not long ago, spending a few days on the Silver Comet Trail. I had never heard of it, but I looked it up. It’s a 61-mile paved trail, 12 feet wide in most places, that follows the alignment of a former rail line from near Atlanta, Ga., to Alabama. There it connects with another paved trail, the 33-mile Chief Ladiga Trail.
Look it up online and check out the videos. If you’re interested in bike travel, you’ll be impressed by this trail, which was completed in 2008. And you might wonder why we in the Willamette Valley can’t achieve anything even close. Despite years of trying, albeit half-heartedly in recent years, we haven’t managed to build even a modest 10-mile bike path between Albany and Corvallis.
Mark calls his Specialized a range extender and a hill leveler. On full battery power alone, it can go about 20 or 30 miles. With half power or less, and presumably a good deal of pedaling, the range extends to 50 miles or more.
Most of the time around town, though, Mark just turns the cranks without battery assist. “For the exercise,” he says.
It’s on the hills where E-bikes make the biggest difference. Just watch him climb North Albany Road up Gibson Hill. (hh)
Take a look at the drive train and the size of that cassette.
I would like to invite you and Mark to come ride with the Santiam Spokes for about a 30-40 mile casual ride on a Saturday morning. Most Saturday’s we meet at 9:30am and about10-12 riders cruise around the Willamette Valley. Linn County has some great bike routes.
If you would like a bit faster pace, The Mid-Valley Bicycle Club in Corvallis has my favorite Wed morning ride. We normally leave from Osborn Aquatic center at about 9-9:15am. We would love to have both of you.
Mark would fit right in, we have a 82 year old rider on the same type of E-bike. EVERY Wednesday..
Electric cars won’t save the world. Bicycles and E-bikes will.
It’s a long and inconvenient bike ride to get anywhere more than a few miles from home and heaven forbid you might want to haul something more than what attaches to your body (groceries, a kid, etc, etc). Cars aren’t going away and the sooner bike people realize that, the sooner we can live together without issues.
Bicycles will save the world? How might that happen?
Okay, a little hyperbole on my part, but …
Chapter 1 — Why the need? Why will bicycles help?
The increasing cost of scarce resources is outpacing the ability of people to pay for them. Resources include everything needed to make and run cars, both gas and electric. It includes huge amounts of land for roads and parking.
Both the supply (resource depletion outpacing wizardry like fracking in the long run) and the demand (increasing population and affluence) are moving in the wrong direction. Electric cars do little to solve this.
The same problem affects other aspects of living: most notably housing, eventually food. The only way for a dignified, happy, healthy, and economically-sustainable future, while avoiding resource conflict, is to use less of everything wherever possible. Two examples:
1 – Smaller houses without required off-street parking.
2 – Bicycles and E-bikes instead of cars.
Note that I didn’t mention climate change. All it takes is economics to make the case.
Chapter 2 — How might that happen?
(maybe to come if there’s further debate and I can turn my sketches into something coherent)
So the world is not yet saved by bicycles. But maybe China has found redemption through bicycles.
https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat13/sub86/item1914.html
Hasso!
Get one. Use it only on Sunday or Monday. I don’t care.
Once a week only.
Your Primary Doc will thank you. But what fun!!!
Pre-COVID, there was a retired gentleman who rode Albany to Corvallis on many Wednesdays along Hwy 20 on an ebike. His name escapes me, but he had been with OSU Facilities, dept.
Always enjoyed chatting with other bikers when opportune.