Pedal-powered farming

Ever thought farming in the modern day was possible without a driver's license? I think soon, it just may be! I will admit, we're not quite car-free just yet; we do rely on Christoph's ability to drive the carshare truck to move produce around town twice a week: once on harvest Friday, and once again on market Saturday. I could pull off those tasks in multiple trips on my bike – but only at the expense of produce freshness (which for us is a first priority).

Apart from those occasions, however, I get everything else I need to get done via an electric bike pulling a tacky faded pink cargo trailer. This includes hauling everything from garden tools to 50 lb. bags of organic fertilizer – and recently, my newly scored, used 5.5-horsepower rototiller!

The integrated electric hub I purchased for my mountain bike is what makes this at all possible in hilly Nelson. If I still lived in Toronto, which is mostly flat, I could probably get by without an electric hub and still manage to be an urban farmer. Unfortunately, the steep grades one encounters around every corner here forced me to consider an alternative to pure pedal power. In my case, since I didn't have a driver's license (still don't) and thus couldn't drive a vehicle, I chose the next best thing (or the better thing, depending on how you look at it): the eZee electric bike conversion kit.

This electric bike kit may not be as sleek or fancy as the more popular BionX electric bike kit (which has principally the same design but with a few more bells and whistles). But unlike the BionX, the eZee kit doesn't choose to go completely kaput with every month of use. Well, that was my own BionX experience, anyway. Apparently there's a world of other buyers out there who wouldn't trade their BionX for anything, including some BionX-faithfuls in Nelson. I must have ended up with BionX's negative karma or something.

The eZee electric hub kit does the one thing I need it to do, and does it reliably: gives me a powerful boost at the twist of a handlebar throttle.

Today I put the eZee hub to the most strenuous test ever: hauling my new rototiller from my home to our highest garden in town at Park & Gore. It stalled just a smidgeon near the end of the trip. (This happens if you ask for maximum boost at high torque for an overly sustained period; I suspect a circuit breaker steps in to prevent the electronics from overheating.) I was quite satisfied. I didn't think it was going to be able to make it!

Next year I am considering advancing to the next stage of cargo bike transportation: an Xtracycle longtail bicycle with the Stokemonkey electric hub. Read up! (I think the Xtracycle may just be designed just for me...)