i live on a big hill in San Francisco and am looking for a scooter to get to my work a couple of miles away. has anybody had any luck w/ a bike that has done well climbing hills? i'd much prefer a more retro looking bike, but i'd settle for reliability.
thanks for any insight you can offer.
Lawrence Rhodes loves his Oxygen Lepton scooter, and he lives in San Francisco.
It's a 28 miles/hr scooter that's very solidly built. The maker is from Italy and has a lot of style and looks like a Vespa.
You can get them from Thunderstruck Motors or Electric Motor Sport (both are in the bay area)
Last time I saw Lawrence he ended up giving me a ride on his lepton. Both of us are (ahem) a little (cough) overweight but the lepton did us just fine on a ride of about 5 blocks in the area around the Moscone center (fairly flat). But he lives in a very hilly section of SF and also rides to Twin Peaks quite a bit.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Another good option would be a bike kit that drives the chain, so the gears can be used to climb. And if you went hub motor bike, the geared ones climb well. Most retro cruisers are a bad choice for hills unless they have at least 5 speeds on the rear wheel. But you still get nice things like a chain guard.
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