Thinking of revamping my commute for 2018

I live on the south side of town. My work is on the north side. My typical commute takes me on the ring road that runs around town called the loop. It's about a mile from my front door to the loop then around 14 miles on the loop takes me directly to work. The speed limit is 60 but slows to 50 for about a mile before I get to work. Traffic usually flows around 70.  It takes me about fifteen minutes in the morning and in the afternoon. 95% of the time I'm on the bike. The only time I take the car is if the weather is really atrocious or the rare occasion I need to drop off or pick up the boy.   The bike has been averaging around 45mpg and $10 will get me back and forth for two weeks.

I watched a video last week about scooters. That got my mind working which never really ends well. So Thursday night I planned out a route that a small scooter could navigate and that's the way I went Friday morning.

The first couple miles are an a 40mph divided four lane road that is very lightly traveled. Then onto a different four lane road that leads straight to work. 35mph for a couple miles then 30 for a mile or so then a long 20mph school zone and back up to 35 the rest of the way in. Total mileage door to door was 7.9 and it took me a little over 20 minutes with a slight delay for a train at a crossing near work. I intentionally accelerated at a pace that I felt was on par with what a scooter would do. Lot's of red lights with way too much going up and down the gear box on the bike for me to go that way on the bike. But it should be perfect for a scooter. The whole trip has very light traffic in the morning. I have a feeling it will be slightly busier in the afternoon.

Now years ago when I wasn't a broke down old man I commuted by bicycle. Now I have a hard time going a mile before my knees give me fits that takes days to recover from. But I would love to do the commute by bicycle. So I got to looking at electric conversion kits. That may be a viable option IF the electric assist is enough to take the strain off my knees on the power strokes. I can free spin all day but when I have to put any pressure down is when it kills me.  So anyone have electric bicycle experience that they can share? What would I need as far as batteries to cover that distance?  Does it reduce the pressure I need to exert on my knees?

If my knee problems prevent bicycle then I'm looking at small scooters that all should get somewhere above 100mpg, But if an electric version of a scooter exists that will cover the distance and not be so slow as to be dangerous on 35mph roads I'm certainly open to those.  I just haven't found anything in my research that fits the bill. Anyone know of any electric scooters that would work? I'd like to stay away from ultra cheap Chinese stuff as I need it to be dead reliable and I'd rather it not fall apart in 6 months as some of the gas powered Chinese scooters seem to do with very poor quality rubber and cheap plastic bits.

My goal is to stop wearing out the expensive tires on the bike with boring commuting miles. And chain maintenance, I hate chain maintenance. I'd rather wear that stuff out on fun weekend tours. Plus I need to ad a little adventure to my boring daily life.

Anybody got anything for me?

Those little electric skateboards I see the too kool for skool twentysomethings on?  That's a joke as are they that ride them but I do see the occasional regular bike with two stroke engines buzzing around.  I'd be pretty sure the drive is chain unfortunately.  There are however what appear to be little white and black rental electric scooters around lately so I'll try to get closer to one.  Might even have a photo of one somewhere.  I've also seen a little 49cc or smaller scooter that looks like a sportsbike - Tao Motor, looks good but prolly Chinese.  Can't find the photo of the electric scooter but I'll keep my eyes open. 

WaPo link.

'JUMP'  down through this article about 'dockless bikes' as the third or fourth option is an electric bike with belt drive.  Dunno if your locale has them or if they can be bought separately but an example that's out there.  

In reply to nutherjrfan :

No, scooter as in Vespa or similar. I really like the Yamaha Zuma 125 

Think I found the one I've been seeing.

Mahindra it seems. Familiar name on this board.  And I came across the easy button of scooters.  Vespa. 

In reply to nutherjrfan :

That GenZe 2.0 would be perfect I think. I wonder how Texas would classify it? They have laws about gas engined things but not electric that I've been able to find. I think under 28mph and having human power means no registration or insurance required. Above that needs tags and insurance. But since this has no pedals I'm not sure how they would look at it.

There is a local GenZe dealer. I'm going to check them out next week. Plus it's made in the USA.

I’m all for motorized things, but cycling is very low impact on joints. Depending on the location of your knee pain, your saddle is either too low, too high, or too far forward or back. A $45 fit at a bike shop will more than correct the discomfort. Then electric convert your way to work!

I did fits professionally for a dozen or so years. 

In reply to Carson :

It's under my knee cap on the lower side. I can aggravate it simply walking, stairs are impossible. It doesn't matter what bike or seating position, if I put any pressure downward with my knee bent at all it becomes excruciating in very short order. Ortho said it was likely a partially torn meniscus. 

Anyway, I'd really like to try an e bike.  I'd guess that would push my commute time to around 40 minutes or so. I think that's acceptable.

I converted my huge cargo bicycle (bakfiets) to an e-bike this year because the hills in my new city are too much for me to climb with a 100 pound bicycle. 

It's pretty badass. The unit I went with was a 750 watt mid-drive kit, that replaces the bottom bracket and crankset with an electric motor. It definitely reduces the pressure of pedaling by a huge amount, and it's hard to get a real workout even on the lowest setting on flat ground, even considering I'm riding a giant 100+ pound bike. I have no problems doing 25 mph on flat land, and 20+ mph up a pretty significant grade. I went with a 48v 14 Ahr battery and it's plenty for my 10-mile rides, I could probably go 40 without a recharge depending on use. 

Those speeds are mostly limited by the significant weight of this bike, and the gearing of the internally geared hub. If I used a smaller rear sprocket, I would accelerate slower and increase hub wear, and really 25mph is too fast on this bike anyways with its drum brakes. 

The way the Bafang kit works is you select a level of assist from 0-9 and that's how much extra push you get from the motor, or use a thumb throttle.  It doesn't respond to pressure or torque inputs like a higher-end Bosch unit might, but those units require a custom frameset bottom bracket and are significantly more expensive (and less powerful).

In short, I'm very happy with it, and if I needed to do a commute within 25 miles on streets that don't exceed 35mph, I'd have a hard time justifying any gas powered or electric scooter over a simple e-bike conversion of a mountain bike. I'd do disc brakes, suspension fork, fat tires, fenders, and panniers. 14 Ahr would cover your commute one way definitely, and possibly round trip. You can easily disconnect and plug in at your destination.

I think the mid-drive kit is the way to go. Find a local dealer and test one out. I think you'll be shocked. 

In reply to Erich :

Thank you for relaying your experience. After poking around I am leaning towards an ebike for the simplicity and I don't really want to register/insure another vehicle.

The place that sells the GenZe that was talked about above is an ebike store. I'm hoping they will let me test ride one. It's located in a little historic town just down the road and I know they rent them so maybe I can swing that and get a pretty good feel for it. I'll try to get by there next week since I'm off work.

At the other end of the spectrum......Ben_Modified (youtube) and numerous threads here of insane creations...

Don't know about bikes, but if a used Genuine Buddy 125 is as cheap in Texas as they tend to be up here, that's probably your best bet for an inexpensive, reliable scooter.

The Yamaha C3 is awesome. Fuel injected and the space under the seat is big enough to store a toddler. My favorite underrated scooter by far. 

In reply to Nick Comstock :

Going from your motorcycle to a scooter sounds like a reasonable and decent idea. Your total commute time will go up 50% or so per day, but your expense will likely go down. 

However, going from a 30 minute commute to an 80 minute one is almost a 150% jump in commute time. That's roughly 17 hours per month, or just under one full day per year, spent commuting. Is that how you want to spend your time?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

The way I read his post is that his current route is 15 minutes one way of mostly highway. His alternate scooter route is half the distance and 20 minutes one way of mostly back roads. I know I'd trade 10 minutes a day for much lighter traffic and saner speeds.

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Yeah, I'm not a very busy guy. I never have anything going on during the week so really I'm in no rush to get anywhere. It just means I'll be 25 minutes later sitting on the couch waiting for work to start the next day. I'm comfortable with a 40 minute one way commute.