Leaf will be lonely at home tomorrow

I feel a little guilty leaving my new Leaf at home tomorrow, but as environmentally friendly as it is, me riding my bicycle to work and my wife running to work is even better. I got the Leaf for the 2 or 3 times each work week that errands or weather would make one of us drive our ICE to work. Of course it will get a workout on the weekends.

Perhaps if my belly hadn't grown this holiday season I could skip a few days of biking, but it did so my Leaf will sit alone at home tomorrow.

Hey - I've got nothing to do tomorrow. While you go out and exercise, I'd be happy to exercise your electrons, you know - keep them in good shape and ready to work over the weekend and all!

if you want to be environmentally friendly, you should convert your bike to electric.
I've read somewhere that because of the human body efficiency to convert energy into motion, and the really high energy needs for producing food, you're better off using electricity (on a bike) to move ... it won't make you fit though ;p

http://ebikes.ca/faq.shtml#quiz8

My bike is a bicycle so the fuel is ice cream and pop corn.

Way to go vkruger! I've never understood the thinking of folks who drive across town to get to the gym, then drive in circles around the parking lot to find a good spot right by the entrance, so they can then run on the treadmill or spend some time on the stationary bike. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply run or ride your bicycle the same distance?? Like all animals, humans need to be active to be healthy, so why not "kill two birds with one stone" by biking to work - and conserve fuel (or even some electrons) in the process. But it must be awful hard to leave your new Leaf at home by its lonesome :?

vkruger said:

My bike is a bicycle so the fuel is ice cream and pop corn.

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That's what gudy is saying - renewable energy driven bike is more ecofriendly than using food as fuel. ofcourse that assumes you eat extra to bike.

So how is that range anxiety on the bicycle ?

smkettner said:

So how is that range anxiety on the bicycle ?

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Which just made me realize for the first time that there is no such thing as an electric bicycle. Every one of them is carrying around a carbon-belching emergency power supply. That means they are all hybrids, and as the Volt-haters among us continue to preach, a hybrid cannot be an electric vehicle.

And some of those e-bikes are serial hybrids (Volt style), others can function as parallel hybrids (Prius style) :lol: But in either case range anxiety applies, and depends on age, size, charge level (Wheaties?), temperature, wind conditions, terrain, elevation, oxygen starvation, ...

vkruger said:

I feel a little guilty leaving my new Leaf at home tomorrow, but as environmentally friendly as it is, me riding my bicycle to work and my wife running to work is even better. I got the Leaf for the 2 or 3 times each work week that errands or weather would make one of us drive our ICE to work. Of course it will get a workout on the weekends.

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Atleast I can confidently say your commutes are not unsustainable

I never had range anxiety with my bike. Actually I never ran out of juice.
But a (home made) electric bike is not as reliable as a car, so I had a small "breakdown" anxiety.

gudy said:

But a (home made) electric bike is not as reliable as a car, so I had a small "breakdown" anxiety.

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Even on a regular bike I've had "flat tire" anxiety when out on long rides. Especially the kind where you rip a tire bad enough that it's not repairable - even though I've never had such damage in my entire life (even on group rides) - just regular flats and the occasional flat that needs a bit of powerbar wrapper as backing! Us humans are such worry-warts.

johnr said:

I've never understood the thinking of folks who drive across town to get to the gym, then drive in circles around the parking lot to find a good spot right by the entrance, so they can then run on the treadmill or spend some time on the stationary bike. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply run or ride your bicycle the same distance??

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I'm currently one of those who drives to the gym (YMCA) to ride on the stationary bike. The idea is to get my heartrate into the target zone to work out my heart. I suppose I could accomplish the same think with a bike in the park and a wrist heart-rate monitor by shifting gears to get the resistance right, but it seems easier just to use the stationary bike with predictable resistance and heart-rate monitor built in. It even has "cruise control" that automatically adjusts resistance to keep a specified heart-rate. Of course, I also use the weight machines for resistance training... Also, our weather here in Philadelphia, especially during certain times of the year, is not as "bicycle-friendly" as some parts of the west coast.

It'll be great when I can drive my LEAF to the YMCA, but I don't see that happening for at least a year.

johnr said:

Way to go vkruger! I've never understood the thinking of folks who drive across town to get to the gym, then drive in circles around the parking lot to find a good spot right by the entrance, so they can then run on the treadmill or spend some time on the stationary bike. Wouldn't it make more sense to simply run or ride your bicycle the same distance?? Like all animals, humans need to be active to be healthy, so why not "kill two birds with one stone" by biking to work - and conserve fuel (or even some electrons) in the process. But it must be awful hard to leave your new Leaf at home by its lonesome :?

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Agree with all that. And another benefit from commuting by bicycle is that it helps guarantee the workout. Even if your motivation sags in the afternoon, you've still got to pedal to get home .

smkettner said:

So how is that range anxiety on the bicycle ?

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At this point a strong cyclist has an edge over the LEAF in terms of distance.

I was hoping that Team Radio Shack would have used some prototype LEAFs as chase vehicles in last year's Tour de France. Though a LEAF would not have made a full day on most stages, they could have leap-frogged 2 or 3 vehicles, or limited to the time trials. Such a perfect fit to have zero-emission vehicles there. Someday soon I'd hope for the racers to demand it.

Nubo said:

I was hoping that Team Radio Shack would have used some prototype LEAFs as chase vehicles in last year's Tour de France. Though a LEAF would not have made a full day on most stages, they could have leap-frogged 2 or 3 vehicles, or limited to the time trials. Such a perfect fit to have zero-emission vehicles there. Someday soon I'd hope for the racers to demand it.

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Yeah, me too. While I bet most of the cars are actually not too bad to follow behind (once warmed up), I imagine that the motorbikes are a lot more annoying to follow behind.