Sippi Lovin'

Recently a good friend of ours procured a bike so cool it gave me bike envy. Here's his story.

Hello all, Larry Lee here (Mississippian Extraordinaire).

This, friends, is the coolest bike on the planet . . . . and I own it.

There is a short story as to how I came to procure such an amazing bike - so stay with me. During our MS summers I have taken to biking from point to point on campus in an effort to avoiding the lazer-like rays of that small star we call the Sun. Here it takes approximately 1.4 minutes of direct exposure to instantaneously combust. Although I sometimes cut it close, I found I could manage a trip from my office to the other side of campus on my old road bike in about 1.3 minutes (downhill the whole way - no peddling). I was comfortable with this arrangement and didn't forsee purchasing a new bike until my trusty old road bike was stolen from me last month. The story goes something like this...

One afternoon I had a 30-minute meeting just 30 seconds away (that would be 30 seconds by bike). I arrived at the set location and told some physical plant workers in the area to watch my bike (yes, I know the guys). After the meeting I walked to the post office to check my mail, continued to my office on foot, got busy on the phone/computer, finished the workday, and picked up Bev & the kids before heading home to me casa. At 10pm I sprung up out of bed realizing that I had left my bike at the RC Cook Union. Crossing my fingers, I went back to sleep and decided to look for it in the next day. Unfortunately, I found no sign of my trusty steed the next morning.

Now, no tears were shed - here lay my excuse to find and buy a Bionx. The Bionx system is produced in Quebec (did you know they speak French!!!) by some very smart people (did you know they speak French!!!). In short, there is a 250v battery - NiMH to be exact that runs a brushless magnetic motor that is housed in the hub of the rear wheel. This motor is controlled by a "con-troll-er" mounted on the handle bars. It assists the rider in two manners: automatic assist or throttle control. In auto-assist mode the rider can choose anywhere from 25% assistance to 200% assistance (adds two rotation to one actual rotation). In throttle-assist you simply push the button and go. One can also do both simultaneously, which is very cool. It has some other neat features like a speedometor, odometor, and alarm. It also recharges as you brake and travel downhill, thereby reducing the amount of time needed to recharge on the grid.

All of this is combined with a rather nice bike - a Norco VF-4. Its a Canadian communter bike from Vancouver (they dont speak French but the guy I bought it from was Russian - hello Janko). Oh, and if you want one, good luck, Janko has a monopoly on these suckers. The Shimano components are beautiful or at least better than my other Shimano components and the 700cc wheels really add to the low-friciton speed. So far my max flat terrain speed is about 25mph without really standing on the pedals. The weight is just slightly more than one would like but obviously the power-assist makes up for it.

It has been hard to find fault with my new bike. It is a bit expensive but may very well be my last bike (really, seriously) and, compared to what my friends spend on bikes, seems like a steal.

So, go ahead, express your bike envy . . . . . its only natural.