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By John Darling For the Daily Tidings November 15. 2014 2:00AM With e-Bike business booming, Ashland vendor expands Joe Carroll, a mechanic with Ashland Electric Bikes, tests out an electric cruiser bike during the Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Show at ScienceWorks in Ashland in September. Daily Tidings / file photo Ashlanders are warming to the energy-friendliness and (relative) low cost of electric bikes, enough so that pioneer retailer Jerry Solomon, after six years in the business here, has opened a big storefront in Ashland Shopping Center.  E-bikes, he says, are catching on in a big way, as people get more and more bad news about greenhouse gases, global warming and weather extremes tied to it — droughts, cyclones, wildfire. Governments aren’t doing much about the problem, but individuals, at least in Ashland, are responding, buying up to 100 e-bikes a year now from Solomon — and enabling him to move from his small, non-visible shop in the Hersey Street light industry complex. His spacious new shop is on the corner between Blue Toba and the Dollar Store, with one side facing Ashland Street. E-bikes are outside the box, so, says Solomon, buyers usually go through a process of overcoming their preconceptions. They think “bikes” should be cheap so they get sticker shock with e-bikes. “But when you compare the price with cars or motorcycles, then they seem cheap.” People tend to think of e-bikes as not very powerful, “but they are pleasantly surprised when they try out the bona fide equipment,” he says. Buyers are wary that the local shop and/or the manufacturer will go out of business, but, he says, he and the most dependable companies are now well established and will be here decades from now, for parts and maintenance. Usually, the convincer is just taking an e-bike for a test drive. The logic of e-bikes, he says, goes like this: • They’re no longer cute luxury toys. They make sense economically and environmentally and make a logical adjunct to a car. •  You don’t need a car for everything. Who needs space for five people when most of the time you’re just running errands, going to the gym, meeting someone and commuting to work? A family in this carbon-conscious age should have one economical car for trips or schlepping big items or if it’s bad weather, but every family member should have an e-bike. •  They cost a fraction of a car. They start at $1,600 and average $2,500 to $3,000. That’s under 10 percent of the cost of a new car. •  You don’t use the main planetary carbon polluter, gasoline. You charge the e-bike up in a couple hours and goes 20 or 30 miles, depending on terrain. •  They’re fitness-friendly. You just throttle back and pedal. But if you’re going to work, you don’t get hot and sweaty and need a shower, as with bicycles. •  They’re fun. You’re out in the fresh air and can see and enjoy everything. Many of his buyers have gotten e-bikes to eliminate the commute in traffic, as well as all the problems of gas and car repairs from stop-and-go driving, he notes. Most of the commuters to Medford use the Greenway, which is flat, so they get maximum miles from their charge, then recharge them at work. As for luggage space, Solomon sells all kinds of baskets, saddlebags and even trailers. An e-bike doesn’t need a license plate and you don’t need a driver’s license to drive them, since they operate under 25 mph. Because of this some of Solomon’s customers have gotten DUII’s and lost their license. An e-bike takes care of that problem. The e-bike wave is just starting to build in America, which sold 150,000 last year, compared to China’s 30 million, Solomon says. Europe is close behind. However, their bikes don’t work well for America, which has wider distances and more hills, so we’ve had to engineer bikes with more voltage, he says. Now all the pieces are in place for it to take off. John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Email him at [email protected].   http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20141115/NEWS/141119880 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->