Recently I went on a 24 mile bike ride with a long-time friend starting in Cleveland (The Flats) down the incredible Towpath Trail that winds through Tremont, industrial terrain, Valley View and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park where we eventually ended in scenic Peninsula, Ohio. Yes, uphill, but you really don’t realize it over the distance. It’s one of the best things about Northeast Ohio to have a multi-use path taking you from lake (Erie) to south of Massillon to a little old canal town called Bolivar. Patrick had been riding the towpath with his boys over the years, but I never put much thought into it till my daughter started rowing. One rowing camp day we decided to use the time to do a bike ride exploring the new Wendy Park extension of the Towpath that completes a long time coming plan of making Wendy Park accessible to bike riders with a bridge extending over extensive rail tracks. After the ride we decided to plan a ride a from Cleveland to Peninsula (23-25 miles) one of the last bits of nice weather in Cleveland which ended up being September 26. Patrick has a very nice bike, while I have been riding on a used Trek mountain bike. It is not meant for comfort at all. This bike has served the purpose well for the time I have had it, but I had not had a new bike since my college days many moons ago. While on our ride we started spotting e-bikes and chatted about them a little. After this 24 mile ride I seriously started contemplating a new bike. I started looking into it with Patrick and I exchanging links for e-bikes we come across.
I soon came across of couple of contenders with one being a single speed and light-weight and the other with many features I desired, 7-speeds, lights, removable battery and not too heavy. I figured I’ll make a decision sometime early next year. Then, Wing Bikes, the latter of the bikes I was interested in, pushed up the decision with a huge discount on the bike. At that moment, I knew this is the bike for me and it was meant to be. I ordered it with the expectation that it would not ship till sometime in December which was fine because we are getting the typical early winter here in Cleveland. But then, just before Thanksgiving week, it shipped. My wonderful new silver Freedom 2 arrived and with easy, minor assembly it will be ready for a ride which I can’t wait for now. I’m ready to tackle another long ride on the Towpath again. This bike will go up to 35 miles of battery assist pedaling (BAP) with a max speed of 25MPH, built in lights (head and tail), horn, removable battery and an alarm. Since it has 7-speeds it should be perfectly okay once the battery dies. I plan on commuting some days to work when I have to go in and thanks to an extremely secure parking arrangement I will not have to worry about someone lifting it while there. It does have an alarm system too so that is interesting.
Happy early Christmas and (very early) 50th birthday to me. I’m ready for another 24 mile bike ride.