I had the opportunity to take a Fonzarelli electric scooter for a spin. It’s a 125 cc equivalent that would be great for getting around town.
For anyone that’s spent a bit of time riding motorbikes, it’s hard to overstate how big a deal the lack of engine noise is. Motorbike riding is normally yourself, inside your helmet, wind noise that increases with speed and the constant buzz of the bike below you. There’s no radio, no passenger, no car interior to compete for your attention.
I first met Danny the founder of Greendrive at the Founders Institute startup launch program about 2 years ago. Back then it was a “cleantech business creating new automotive technologies to increase vehicle efficiency and reduce emissions” (snooze). In layman’s terms he was building a widget that plugged into a port on your car to help you reduce your CO2 emissions. It sounded quite ambitious and to be honest I didn’t really believe he would make it happen (or that people cared enough about CO2 to buy it unfortunately).
With the right kit, riding rain, hail and shine becomes a passion and joy that will see you loathe your time in the car or on public transport.
High visibility – yes you might think it looks a little dorky, your children might poke fun at you, your friends make remarks about you being under the thumb. But, ask yourself this question – if you were taken out by a car and found yourself with a broken limb, or worse – would you really think you’d made the right choice in prioritising your vanity over your safety? If you maimed yourself properly would you really be happy with your decision? Probably not.
Our guide to everything you need for safe and all weather cycling:
There are two major things you can do for a greener house move. Firstly, avoid using cardboard boxes and secondly ensure that you recycle or re-purpose any unwanted items you find during your move instead of sending them to landfill.
Replace cardboard boxes with these plastic moving boxes that can be re-used hundreds of times. There’s also a huge functional benefit in that they’re easier to carry than cardboard boxes, they’re sturdier meaning packed items are less likely to be damaged and most importantly you don’t need to tape them up so they’re faster to pack.
There are now three major car sharing fleets operating across four capital cities in Australia along with two peer to peer networks allowing people to rent their personal vehicles to others.
A car that can be replaced by a car sharing service will most likely be getting relatively little use each year. The embodied emissions (those created in its manufacture) will likely far out weigh those produced by its use. Further more once the annual runnings costs of registration, insurance, maintenance and the owners time are tallied up, the per use or per km cost will often be significantly higher than the equivalent car sharing service.
There’s been a flurry of wireless, smartphone, bike lock products over the last year. Unfortunately to date none of these projects has resulted in something that you can place an order for immediate delivery. Most have been delayed or completely stalled.
Of those we found the Noke U-Lock by Fuz is looking most promising given their history of previously delivering a similar product. Watch this space.
They’ve long been the domain of cycle couriers in Australia’s capital cities but a niche has formed and cargo bikes are just starting to make their way into maintstream use. Even in our hilly cities such as Sydney when combined with an electric bike kit they’re a viable alternative to a second car for many families.
Whilst many local bike shops stock a handful of cargo bikes there are now a serious number that specialise in this space. They can provide you with much greater level of insight into which style of cargo bike is right for you.
Sometime ago I’d read with delight but also disbelief that China had 120+ million electric bikes in use. Currently travelling through the region I no longer doubt this figure. The roads everywhere are constantly filled with them and to the complete domination over petrol alternatives. The rapid uptake resulting from bans on motorbikes in most major cities.
There are currently two vendors of electric motorbikes in Australia, Zero and Brammo.
