VanMoof 010

(Hold on. Let’s start here. I dowloaded an app for zen writing for the site. So, Ommwriter is quite the typing machine experience. All setup with the key-sounds, background noise, background wallpaper, font size and style, this is nice. It’s good to get back into writing.)

So, I recently cancelled my order for an electric bike that ran near 7 months of consistent non-delivery status. For one reason or other, there was always a delay. It was disappointing to me. It was a well-built, USA-made mountain-ish bike with an advanced motor and battery setup. It would help me up the steep hills of the island where I live.

I passed by each biker every morning while driving to work thinking “well, I’m not going to say it’s easy, but it can’t be that hard” as I gunned the accelerator pedal in the ol' bus, sure that they’d hear the loud muffler spitting smoke out the back as I pass. I mean, this ol’ bus can’t be polluting that much, right? All the time neverminding the pointless dismissals of what I really knew to be true. The bus is another post, though.

So, I decided with the advise of my omniscient wife, to cancel my order, only to see the email I’d received 14 minutes earlier stating that there was an order update and that they’d expect to receive all of the parts by the next Monday and finish assembly in order to ship. I was number Two on the “list”. But it was Too Late. Half a year was costing me commuting dollars.

After rounding out about nine months of bike research, I remembered a bike I’d seen that was still in my mind. Searching Uncrate.com where I’d seen it took a bit, but then I’d found it: VANMOOF.

Searching, searching, availability, etc., blah blah blah. Needless to say a new version of the bike was being released in the US that next Friday. Wow. Timing.

A week later, it arrived at work, I took it to the Dutch Bike Co Seattle to have it checked out and final tuning… “Three to five days, I estimate…” said the good man, but TOO LATE, says I. Back into the bus it went and that night had it finished up with the help of the kids and wife (yes, I needed ten hands to assemble it, see this pic: Assembly with Aidan and Gwen).
HOORAY!

Then came the ride to work this morning. Ugh. I’m so out of shape. So out of shape that I think I’ll have to skip tomorrow to make sure this ol’ body can catch up to the workout I’ve given it.

Onto the ferry along with the other thirty or so commuters, soon off the ferry in Seattle and on to work a short distance away.

The body feels good and the ol’ windpipes are aching with that feeling of having gone for a short run.

I’ll probably drive the ol’ bus once a week or so. For now, I feel great about solving quite a few issues surrounding getting to work, and not being stuck behind a long line of cars waiting to get on the ferry. I just get on. Every time. No more missed boats.

This bike is solid. The lights work well, the gears are a dream, it’s just my legs and body that need the constant tuning. I’m very happy with the bike choice. Recommended.
vanmoof.com M2 Collection (mine is the 3.7.28)

Can’t wait to start tracking my progress with the Strava App, either.