Moving to TX, trade gas motor for elec?

wheelbender6 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 02:21 PM

Moving to Houston area and my gas powered bike will not be street legal there.
I could try to register it as a moped, but then I couldn't use the bike lane?
It looks like I may trade my gas motor for electric before moving.
I want to commute to work in downtown Houston and do not want any hassles
with the law. Any advice is appreciated.

george_n_texas · #2 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 08:52 PM

Houston traffic is pretty intense dude...they have transit to get ya downtown though I don't know how great it is. I've seen a lot of bikes in San Antonio, Dallas and Austin but can't remember seein any around Houston. Have you been there yet?

Driving / Traffic - Houston Warnings - VirtualTourist.com

ebikelover · #3 (**permalink**) 10-28-2009, 09:44 PM

Check out this review in last week's LA Times. Any of these top 4 electric bikes will serve you well.
Electric bikes are all green (colors vary) -- latimes.com

wheelbender6 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 11:52 AM

George - I have not been to downtown Houston, where I will be working. Parking is expensive there, so it would be nice to avoid that cost.
When I worked in downtown Atlanta, the streets were crazy so I used public
transportation.
I would still like to have an e-bike in Texas for errands if it's not possible to commute to work.

george_n_texas · #5 (**permalink**) 10-29-2009, 02:46 PM

I don't know how it would be in the central business district...in Dallas it would be no problem lots of lofts and the speed limit is 30mph. I am sure you could navigate to local stores ect. in your neighborhood it's the getting into the CBD I would think might be hard.

wheelbender6 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-30-2009, 04:46 PM

EBLover - Nice bikes in the link but a bit pricey. I am leaning toward something with a rear hub motor and hopefully a disk mount.

edoff · #7 (**permalink**) 10-31-2009, 08:24 AM

George, I have a cozy bike 9 which I'm pleased with. It too is pricey, but has lots of good features like turn sigs, theft alarm, regenerative braking, front and rear baskets, etc.

george_n_texas · #8 (**permalink**) 10-31-2009, 01:13 PM

Sounds nice...Tulsa would be a nice town to commute on a bike in...I used to work out of Ochelata Wal-Mart DC. I drove for Crete delivering groceries.