Replacing My Car with an E-BIKE! Will it Turn Me Into a Bike Commuter?! | Miranda in the Wild

what's up friends my name is miranda this is my cat hi dog wow this is just i am the new doctor doolittle this is my job i think you should leave is this what's this [Music] just a tail and frame now flicking up we'll fix it in post [Music] what's up friends i am miranda this is miranda in the wild and in this video i am going to be bike commuting for 21 days let's do it this is my show gosh darn hannahdale challenged me to see if i could replace my car with an electric bike i've decided that what i'm gonna do is take 21 days to ride this electric bike everywhere within 10 miles of my house for any errands that i have to do why 10 miles i live in an area where the vast majority of my errands and of my like daily commuting stuff happens within a 10 mile radius while i don't commute to work because i work from home i do frequently commute to the gym to the grocery store to see my friends so what i want to do is see if i can replace all like my driving all those different places with riding the bike with an electric bike i'm imagining that it'll be a lot easier to do this because it's electric [Music] so as far as like the biking aspect goes i'm expecting it to be easy i mean it's an electric bike like how hard can it possibly be my bike seat actually lowered while i was going up the hill so i'm having some concerns i've already gotten lost multiple times ah yes that was a disaster 10 miles is still pretty far my bike chain popped off i feel like i've cursed myself by saying that like it's gonna be hard um hold on let me just show you my bike boom this is my bike so we have this little computer thing on here it'll tell you how many miles per hour you're going you can press this plus button and it'll go through the different modes of the like pedal assist this is just off and then we have eco mode which is just like a little bit of boost and then tor sport and then finally turbo but that'll also drain the battery really like quickly so i imagine i'm gonna try and like ride within eco or off as much as possible and only pop into turbo when things start to get a little dicey this is the or you plug in the bike boom this is the battery light on the back seat that looks cushy for bike commuting do you have to wear diaper shorts i do have diaper shorts because i'm a baby i meant like you know like a butt baby oh god this is getting so weird i don't have the butt endurance that a lot of cyclists do cool 21 days of bike commuting let's go fully prepared to fail at this i'll probably cheat okay i'll tell you if i cheat but i'm already anticipating biking at night and being like no so just a heads up okay so here is what i got at rei so i got this bike bag of light a essentials tool kit and i also got a tube yeah i think i should be all set for uh tomorrow when i am like commuting to a friend's house at night one thing that i was kind of surprised by is the fact that even though it's an electric bike it's not like a motorcycle or a moped like i still have to put in work which part of me was kind of hoping i wouldn't party was thinking like oh it's a bike i'll just you know it's it's it's electric meow meow should have plugged this in a lot earlier today make sure it was fully charged this is the first time i'll be charging this bike we have three bars we're gonna try and get up to five before i leave maybe just bring the charger with me okay i'm gonna get myself ready to go all right it is 6 45 which is the time that i would have normally left to go to my friend sonny's house if i was driving what would have been a 15 minute drive is going to be about a 45 minute bike ride and i'm actually having a little bit of anxiety about it but i have my backpack full of my stuff i have my bike lock i have this little bag what i'm doing is i have my map on my phone going and then i have a one headphone in so that i can like talk to me as i'm biking so i'm hoping that that gets me there safely we're gonna do this ride and we're off all right we made it to a trail you can see behind me he kept going let's go three miles i've already gotten lost multiple times all right cool onward end up this ride's getting really cool i'm having a great time just look at this view oh plus i got a wave from a fellow cyclist so that was kind of cool all right so i finally made it to my friend sonny's house actually the ride wasn't as bad as i expected it took me longer than the map said it would because i got lost so i'm a little more nervous about riding home tonight when it's totally dark but that is a problem for miranda three hours from now and not miranda right now it is 11 15 at night and i'm about to start my bike ride home i am feeling a little bit nervous about biking all that way so i actually just called my partner sky and i know this might be cheating but i just don't feel totally ready to bike along some of the roadways um in the dark like not on a bike path so i'm gonna get as close to home as possible and then my partner's gonna come pick me up i can see that i've got my bike kind of decked out i have my light flashing i have my headlight and i'm gonna get my directions going in my ear and head home [Music] what's up friends so we are approaching the end of week one of my biking everywhere i think 10 miles of my house challenge this past week has been really interesting because i've been riding my bike a lot more than i normally would but i've also been like intentionally running more errands or going to visit my friends more often than i have in the past and i think that part of that is that i'm obviously making a video and so i'm like challenging myself to do this but another part of it is that it's been a beautiful week and like riding my bike around has just kind of like given me life and appreciation for my local neighborhood and everything it's been a lot of fun to like bike to my coffee shop to bike to the grocery store the fabric store to buy some fabric and all of that has just been like a fun way to kind of incorporate this challenge into getting outside on my bike so i'm now officially a third of the way done with the challenge and i think that the biggest thing that i've learned about this is that riding electric bike is still a workout like it's still really hard work [Music] [Applause] [Music] i just have the opportunity to make a decision about how hard it is you know the bike has this pedal assist like electric thing that kicks in and helps you and your biking and so on times that i'm going up a hill and i'd like i'm having a hard time going up the hill i can just turn on that pedal assist and make it a lot easier on myself but if i'm in the mood to like work really hard i can just keep that at a low level or just totally turn it off and that wasn't really something i anticipated i think i was sort of expecting that because it was an electric bike it would just be like a different kind of vehicle and that maybe i would just find it like a hassle being on a bike instead of in a car but because it does have an element of like still working hard and still like getting my heart rate up but feeling like i can do that in a comfortable range it's actually been really fun and really cool to like do this instead of just driving i do have kind of some big errands that i have to run for the upcoming weeks i have to do like a grocery trip some of these like bigger trips i'm interested to see how that will work since all i have on my bike right now is still just that small bike bag on the handlebars and i've just been carrying around a backpack but yeah i mean aside from that it's been really awesome to do this for this past week just feeling pretty psyched to continue this challenge the weather's been really nice and so i think that that's adding to how much fun i'm having i was a little hesitant i was a little skeptical about the whole thing since i'm not a cyclist but so far it's been all fun and not really inconvenient in the same way i was expecting so this is the end of day seven and the end of week one of my 21 days of bike commuting everywhere challenge i'm psyched for weeks two and three [Music] so i just got to the grocery store and i realized that i forgot my bike lock i think i have forgotten my bike lock more times than i've remembered my bike lock in these past 11 days that's been the hardest thing is remembering to bring something to lock my bike up with i guess i'm just gonna go grocery shopping with my bike i don't like that um cyclists who remember bike locks how the fudge do you do that it's flipping hard so it is a rainy friday here in the pacific northwest and i'm headed to my favorite coffee shop to do some work with my producer i was really kind of nervous about biking the rain so i reached out to cannondale because my thought was horseback is electric does that mean that it's not waterproof and um they confirmed that as long as i didn't like throw it into a lake or something that it would be fine beyond just by like general nervousness about biking in the rain yeah the bike is really fine it's just me that's scared yeah this is one of those hills where i used to bike up it whenever i was taking the shuttle into work but i hated biting it all right here it is that's not nearly as bad as i was expecting it to be dang if i was biking into an office that was the most work that i had to put in i could have worn like nice office clothes and not broken a sweat on this bike which is so cool so i just got to my favorite coffee shop where i'm meeting my producer to do some work today uh the ride here wasn't too bad i definitely was like a little nervous riding in the street with a bunch of cars after it had just rained but this bike did really well i think it's probably because it has such big tires all in all the ride was pretty easy [Music] so i just had one of the more frustrating bike commuting moments that i've had in this entire process i was going to the grocery store and i locked my bike up and after i finished i went across the street to pick up some non-alcoholic beer and there was no bike lock like no place to lock up a bike anywhere in this entire like long block and so i started like walk my bike into this like beverage store which i realized is really bad idea obviously much like glass bottles but the guy at the front was like you can't have that in there you have to leave it outside and i was like well i can't leave it outside like there's no bike rack there's no place to lock my bike i checked the entire block he was like well you can leave it outside or you can like not come in like you don't have an option and i was like can i lock it up where the carts are and he was like no you can't lock your bike there and then he was like well just leave it outside and i'll keep an eye on it i was like baffled by that i was like i can't just leave my bike outside we eventually like settled on me like leaving my bike at the front and even then i was like i left my bike there for like a second because i was like i can't just like leave this very expensive e-bike full of groceries with this guy who's like i'll probably i'll keep an eye on it no one's gonna take it there are all these amenities and these things that we need as cyclists and a lot of places just aren't set up for that and they should be this bike commuting is super fun i wonder if i could like write a letter to my city council and like ask to install a bike rack there okay that's all i was just feeling cranky i have my bike lock i have my keys i have the keys to my bike lock i have my wallet and my bag it's a beautiful day to be around a bike looking for crab apples [Music] [Music] um goodbye apartment complex [Music] nice [Music] zoom zoom yes [Music] [Applause] so i'm gonna head over to my favorite thai restaurant to pick up some lunch [Music] so this is an interesting predicament the chain popped off my bike and i'm struggling to get it back on and try to figure out the best way to do this i'm on a really busy street corner i love you this is tough all right let's see if we can figure this out we did it got it back on a little grimy and grubby there's a bunch of cars but we can't figure it out so i just picked up my food and i managed to fit it perfectly into the paneer on my bike which is very exciting so you can see just slides right in there so perfectly i have a like five mile ride home so i'm gonna try and stay on smooth roads and sidewalks so i don't spill anything that bike um [Music] what's up everybody i am having a really hard time focusing on work right now so i contacted a friend of mine who lives like 10 miles from here and we're going to meet at a little coffee shop in issaquah just to like do some co-working and kind of hang out i feel like if there's anything that i've learned from this challenge it is one that as someone who works from home i don't use coffee shops often enough and two bike commuting to a coffee shop is like the most hipster thing i can do and i love it [Music] great all right getting on the bike [Applause] [Music] all right here we go [Applause] oh my golly come on mike oh that was hard that would have been impossible for me on an old bike there was no way i could have done that without the e-bike say hello hello so i just got home from the coffee shop where i hung up my friend mel on my phone it said it was going to take me 57 minutes and instead it only took me 35 because i just put that bike in turbo mode and just turboed all the way home also it just really hit me when i was on the bike ride home that tomorrow is my last day of bike commuting that'll be my 21th wait my 21st day and i'm done with this challenge i kind of didn't even really realize it and now i'm feeling a little bit of sadness that it is over because i've really enjoyed it what's up friends and happy 21 you're doing that today is the last day of my three week bike commuting challenge when i first started this challenge i would consider myself to be a very casual cyclist someone who viewed cycling as a leisure activity and occasionally something for exercise back at the beginning of these three weeks i was really nervous to ride in the streets on your right no biking on the sidewalks kind of a no but maybe's all cut up i didn't really know too much about bikeability in my city i missed my turn and still the hardest part of bike commuting is navigating and now three weeks later and especially in this last week i have realized how much more comfortable i am biking in the roads miranda you can do it i'm much more aware of how to get places oh wait i know where i am i have researched bikeability in my city i am now going to try and find a place to request about crack i know where all the racks are to lock up my bike i'm just like much more involved in kind of the cycling commuting community i mean to some extent it's still only been 21 days so i'm not at all like inserting myself into people who might commute everywhere i think the other thing that i realized with all of this is just how privileged i am to one have access to an e-bike thank you to cannondale for letting me borrow this one and two like how bike accessible the city is where i live you're right [Music] i also recognize that it's a huge privilege to get to choose to bike commute everywhere for 21 days versus having to ride a bike at any point i could have just chosen to get in my car and say like this challenge i'm just gonna drive my car somewhere but i didn't maybe like once or twice i did that's it though so i just have learned so much more i'm way more confident uh as a cyclist and i'm a lot more aware of alternative forms of transportation one thing i didn't expect is that bike commuting requires so much awareness in a time where i don't actually have to commute to an office so easy for me to just like put on blinders and stare at a computer and like lock myself off when i'm working bike meeting somewhere required me to like literally pick my head up and look at my surroundings and be really aware i think that this whole challenge has made me a much more like a much more conscientious commuter even in a car now i find myself looking out for bike lanes paying attention to cyclists seeing how accessible a certain area is looking for bike racks and just in general being a lot more aware of the alternative forms of transportation that exist in my city besides just driving a car around if you are a bike commuter i just want to say that i have a lot of respect for you after these 21 days if you have any tips for me on how to continue bike commuting uh or if you've never tried an e-bike before let me know in the comments below i would love to hear your thoughts this is my last day of bike commuting and yes i am biking somewhere i'm meeting up with my friend elena at a coffee shop yeah if i don't leave now i'll be late i think that's it for me if you enjoyed this video hit the like button subscribe to the rei channel and i will see you all in the wild bye how handsome is this handsome man oh you two don't fight no fighting okay you just go sit there you just stay here what's up friends i am miranda this is miranda in the wild there's no way anything's gonna be listening to a word you say the cat is staring into the lens like i feel judged somehow this is going crazy [Music] you

Channel: REI

Views: 332,875

Keywords: miranda rei, cannondale adventure neo 4, cannondale e-bike, can an e-bike replace a car, bike commuting, bike commuting for beginners, bike commuting by e-bike, first time using e-bike, riding e-bike for the first time, which e-bike is best, best e-bikes, can a bike replace a car, how often do you charge an e-bike, what is the range of an e-bike, how fast do e-bikes go, best alternative transportation, e-bike, electric bike, can an electric bike replace a car

Id: ZtHZiiY3KKo

Length: 19min 37sec (1177 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 10 2021