I’m really excited, I don’t need my car except for journeys of more than 10 miles. Once I get my moped garage built I can give my little Penny-Me -Panda to someone who needs her. She’s a canny little runner and does 56 mpg but the tax is a bit much. Never mind, my ancient moped is tax exempt and should do 112 mpg. There are only two or three places I need to visit that are more than 10 miles away so I won’t need to put too many miles on the dear old thing.
Polly-Me-Ongo is my main personal transport vehicle. She’s a peddle assisted e-bike. I’m not too keen taking her out in the rain in case it affects the battery in some way but we have been caught out numerous times already as I live in England where we get all the rain we need, and a bit more sometimes, not complaining though.
Me and Polly have been together for about six months and I know I can get a decent range out of 15-20 pence worth of electrons which take 5 hours to download from the National Grid into the battery. A freshly filled battery in ‘M’ power mode gives us 25 to 30 miles range at a decent average speed of about 13 mph without much effort at all. I’m not tight fisted but am careful haha, so I like to keep her in ‘L’ power mode and just plod along at an average of 7 or 8 mph which extends the range to about 40 miles, might be a bit less depending on the hills and headwinds.
I took Polly on an overnight trip last November in cold weather, very wet too on the return journey the next day. That was a one way journey of 23 miles. There are loads of long steep banks to ride up in the last 10 miles of that journey and I was forced to use ‘H’ power mode after almost running out of gears on the biggest of them, there was still power left when we got there though. Took 2 and bit hours mind, I’m thinking of getting a better, more comfy sprung saddle after that weekend.
Polly is ideal for a ten mile ride if it is a round trip or includes a rest before the return journey. Now that I have a speedometer fitted I know my average journey is between three and seven miles. I have enjoyed every journey too, even the one that included getting blown off by a gale of wind when I stopped at a junction. I have perfected a technique to deal with windy junctions now, I put both feet down and stand up when stopped instead of balancing on tip toes. I do avoid travelling during windy weather though, or plan a sheltered route if there’s no choice and I have to go.
Polly my faithful ONGO e-bike
Never thought I would ever get back onto two wheels again, not at my age, what with me creaky joints and all that old age stuff. ‘Just you wait you’ll see’ me Mam used to say. Sounded like a curse at the time, turns out it was lol. x
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