Patti Naumann has participated in a variety of sports over her lifetime, but she is now primarily a runner and the two bikes she owned sat idly in her garage as her running training ramped up. Often tired from long runs she rarely felt she had energy left to go and enjoy riding her bikes like she once had.
Little did Patti know how her decision to buy an e-bike would radically change her appetite for biking. “First of all, it made me feel like a kid again. Boulder is a bunch of neighborhoods glued together. It’s very safe to ride once you find the secret shortcuts through the various neighborhoods and sometimes cut throughs are just for bikes and pedestrians on foot. It makes you feel special to have these secret bike and foot traffic only corridors. You get to see things you don’t normally get to see and it allows you to meet people. People want to talk about the bike and not being in the car allows me to connect with the community around me in a way that doesn’t happen when I drive my car.
Riding my e-bike has made me a happier person. I love to run errands on it, I use it for doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, going to dinner, bringing the dog places, getting drinks, I have even hauled construction material on it. Sometimes if I’ve had a rough day, I will hop on my e-bike and ride and ride and then I feel better. The bike is my therapy, it really is.” Another side benefit besides feeling happier, getting exercise and saving time commuting to places in a somewhat congested downtown, Patti claims she has the ability to eat copious amounts of ice cream WITHOUT putting on extra pounds.
Fun fact about Patti’s new e-bike is that she has put over 900 miles on her e-bike since she purchased it this past April. That’s an impressive amount of miles and great to see that she is so inspired to ride. If you see Patti around the shop she will be likely doing some basic maintenance on her bike. “It’s the community around me at community cycles that inspires me to work on my bike and I hope to learn from the other people at Community Cycles.”