This is Joy. She’s the most affordable electric bike on the market, for just $350 at Costco. Her handlebars fold, and her body has a built-in handle for carrying (although at 41 pounds, she’s heavy). I had been wanting her; I had saved up a little gift money; and the timing seemed right.
Joy was easy to make ride-ready in less than 10 minutes. She goes, at most, 15 miles per hour, which is the maximum posted speed on most multiuse trails (and twice my average speed) so she may be perfect for inviting friends and family members along with me who have difficulty (for a variety of reasons) riding an analog bike. I’m hoping she also helps start conversations with lots of other people who don’t think they can ride a bike comfortably anymore and haven’t tried an ebike yet.
Joy has a powerful built-in front light that could make using her in the dark extra easy, especially just around my neighborhood during Moon Rides (which I’ve been wanting to do more of). Extra bonus is I won’t get sweaty, even while whipping up the enormous hill where I usually walk my bikes, which means I can ride her after showering at night. It’s such a lovely, quiet time outdoors that I’ve been missing (and I want more of that in 2022, please).
When I told my 85-year-mother, whom I take for a “roll” in a wheelchair every week on a greenway, that I had gotten Joy, she said, “I’ll try it!” Here’s my mom during Biketober on an adult trike. Stay tuned to see if she takes a Joy Ride!
I’m anxious to paint Joy so she fits in with the rest of the fleet — Attica, Magic, Data, and Freedom* (see Freedom getting painted below). Joy’s warranty period, however, requires no alterations to her so we’ll have to wait until her one-year birthday for that. In the meantime, follow her journey (and more) on TikTok at Speed of Bike.
*With the addition of Joy now, the total for my six bikes is less than $900, spent over 32 years. Two of them (Magic and Freedom) were about to be junked and were given to me for free. An $80 one from Walmart (Scwhinneola) is in NY so I have a bike to ride when I visit my dad and stepmom. Attica (the most expensive, before Joy, at $300) was a wedding gift from my husband. (Della Ray, whom I bought to use as transportation for a month instead of Uber or renting a car when my father-in-law in Florida was sick, was $125 and was a very brief member of the fleet. I gave her away when I left.)
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 