This installment of “Friends” takes us to Calgary, Alberta where Wendy M. is now the proud owner of a new Boar E350. High-five Wendy. Our first Friends post had Dwight W. from Massachusetts in the spotlight, and we described an inspiring story about how our bike’s electric assist gave a young-at-heart man with a history of health issues the freedom to stay out of the hospital.

Freedom is a theme that’s so inseparable from biking – not just ebiking – that I say we stick with it. Consider these two “freedoms”: the freedom to keep up on the family bike rides and the freedom to sell your second car.

Wendy’s story will sound familiar to many young families. She works full-time as a professional, is married to a super-fit guy named Mike who LOVES to mountain bike, and is the mother of a 6th grader who, by all accounts, looks to be following in her Dad’s footsteps; footsteps in bike shoes by the sounds of it.

KIDS OF ALL AGES GO CRAZY FOR ELECTRIC FAT BIKES. 

As much as possible the family stays active. They get around the sprawling city of Calgary by foot and by bike when they stay home and bring the bikes on camping trips, frequently to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains outside of Calgary. Sometimes they pile into the family Westfalia and head to Fernie, BC, a popular mountain biking destination with the Cow-Town crowd.

With such a busy work and family schedule, it’s been difficult for Wendy to find the time to log the miles on a bike that it takes to keep up with her husband and, increasingly, with her daughter who gets fitter and faster each day. Until the arrival of her new bike that’s been a frustrating situation.

It was Mike who first floated the idea of getting his wife on an ebike. Mike’s not exactly a gear-head, but he does stay up with advancements in technology, especially technology that can reduce his family’s carbon footprint. And, like a smart husband and father, he knows the importance of doing things together as a family.

According to Mike, the decision to go with a fat tire ebike was a no-brainer. He already rides one all winter long and knows there is no better set-up for winter riding, whether on single track in the foothills of the Rocky’s or on the streets of Calgary, a city that can see snow in just about any month. Thanks to Wendy’s new bike the whole family can ride together again. Judging from the photos they sent us, it looks like her daughter is pretty stoked about it too.

But Wendy’s story gets a whole lot better. The same weekend that the new bike arrived, the tow truck also arrived… to haul the family’s second car away. If you’ve been keeping up with Surface 604 you’ll know that nothing makes us happier than using bikes to eliminate short but carbon-intensive car trips. In fact, it’s such a big part of what we do that we build every bike we sell with our patented Automobile Replacement Technology, and we’re glad Wendy is putting it to use.

So far Wendy is the first customer we’ve heard from who’s downsized from a two-car-family to a one-car-family, but she won’t be the last. After all, the planet needs as many Wendy’s as we can get.

Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from our Friends of 604. And as always, if you’ve got a great bike story to share, send it on in, we’d love to read it. 

Written by
DAVE HEIGWAY