Several months ago, after I had finished taking the nights garbage to the overflowing bin room (carnage from another day of healthy consumerism), I watched Al Gore speak on Andrew Denton’s program, “Enough Rope”. Like many people, I was affected by both his passion, and the clear logic of the message he has worked so very hard to convey. After I read his book, “An Inconvenient Truth”, I decided I needed to do a personal stock take. Not surprisingly, I didn’t come up too well. 

Like most people although I carefully separate my garbage before I dutifully place it in that big yellow bin, that’s about where my accountability stopped. Somewhere in those few days, I decided that I would at least try and tidy my own lot. A quick tally found some glaring holes that were easily fixed – using air conditioning when a fan would do, inefficient incandescent lighting, using that awful clothes dryer, and then there’s that car… Hmmm, maybe it was time I had a closer look at that electric bike shop I had driven past. 

I have never liked bike riding much, but maybe an electric bike would be ok? So that weekend I resurrected an unused mountain bike, and purchased an electric bike conversion kit. It was pretty basic – a new front wheel with a motor in it, and a carrier for a little battery. The thing is, that’s all it needed to be. In no time, I was hooked. I initially found I could use it to get to town far quicker than by car, but soon I started using it for my work trips to work (30km each way), the shops, my friend’s houses and all manner of journeys previously traveled by car.  

I was truly amazed at how fun this simple little machine was. My lovely MX5 sports car now sits very idle, in fact it is now refueled less than often than every two months. And the bike costs practically nothing! No more toll fees, parking fines, and no fuel needed.   During my daily rides I get to do a lot of thinking. My reoccurring thought was, “surely other people would do this if they knew about it”. Somewhere there “Suitable Transport” was born.  During my ride from Melbourne to Sydney, I hope to inform as many people as I can that if a conventional bike isn’t for you (as it wasn’t for me), maybe an electric bike might hold the key. I wont be in a burning hurry (that’s not the point), and I wont be raising a big sweat (that’s also not the point), but I do plan to enjoy the ride as much as possible (that’s always the point).