People seem to roll their eyes when you tell them you are watching your carbon footprint, as if low carbon must mean no fun in life. But everyone knows that the electric Teslas are some of the hottest cars out there. Electric motorcycles are also some of the hottest motorcycles out there. I started riding as a zero carbon way to get across the Tappan Zee Bridge on my commute to work. I have a Zero, but there are a few other brands out there now, and even Harley Davidson has an electric motorcycle in the works. Thrill riding and zero carbon are not incompatible.
We ended Earth Week yesterday with an electric motorcycle group ride up to Bear Mountain State park. If four riders counts as a motorcycle gang, we have the quietest motorcycle gang on the planet! Ben Rich, who is one of electric motorcycling’s most enthusiastic boosters (he’s one of the first people to have ridden all electric cross country) organized the group ride as a celebration of earth day, and a chance to stop by Rockwell Cycles in Fort Montgomery, the NY metro area’s Zero dealer. Even though Rockwell Cycles seem to be selling a lot more Ducatis than Zeros, Marian Rockwell sees electrics as the future of motorcycling. One boomer customer looking at the line of gleaming Ducatis was resisting though,”It’s all about the sound and the vibration,” he was explaining to the salesman. But a younger customer there was eager to try an electric.
Bear Mountain park is already a Mecca for bikers of the conventional variety. With miles of winding roads through the pines and hardwoods and shimmering lakes, it feels like a trip to a national park. With the range on electric bikes well over a hundred miles, riding through the park is in reach for a large portion of the metro area.
We took a break from riding to hike to the top of Bald Mountain, too. I’ll admit that I feel a little guilty silently and effortlessly passing the bicyclists on the roads at Bear Mountain – I miss the workout and the one-ness of bicycling, too.
Photos thanks to Ben Rich and Nick D’Ambrosio.
Live! Sustainably! Now! 