By William McGinn
KAWARTHA LAKES-“Park a car, ride a bike,” said Allen Hussey, the man who has opened the first electric bike shop of the Kawartha Lakes region.
Saturday was the opening celebration of the store, Pedego Electric Bikes Kawartha Lakes, in downtown Bobcaygeon.
Hussey says electric bikes are faster and easier to ride than a regular bike and for some people, could replace a car.
The bikes use lithium ion batteries that can go an estimated length of 120-150 miles before requiring a recharge. To recharge, the batteries can be plugged into an outlet and take approximately 2-6 hours to recharge.
Hussey was born and raised in Lindsay and spent about 44 years in a family recycling business. He says he started one of the first blue recycling box programs in the province. He then built a new company called Waste LogicX in 2012. Four years ago, Hussey was diagnosed with cardiopulmonary disease; which affects the heart and lungs. But he wanted to continue biking for his health, in spite of this disease pulling him back, and he came across electric bikes; bikes that help out their cyclists with pedalling, slopes and speed.
Pedego electric bikes have been critically acclaimed across the continent. For example, actor William Shatner expressed his appreciation for the product after he and his wife tried one out in 2012. Today, his family owns 16. 2012 was the same year woman Rhonda Martin bought one while she weighed 477 pounds. After getting the bike, within 2 ½ years, she lost 277 pounds, and said she was in the best health of her life. She used it as a stepping stone for exercise, inspiring her to get outside, and she said it was fun. Both Shatner and Martin said riding the Pedego bike makes them feel like kids again.
The store officially opened back on May 1st and celebrated its opening Saturday.
Some VIP’s flew in from British Columbia in celebration of this event, including Mike Clyde, Pedego’s Canadian Distributor from Nelson, and Allen’s girlfriend’s daughter, a two-time Olympic swimmer, Alexa Komarnycky. Other significant faces included MPP Laurie Scott and Mayor Andy Letham, who cut the ribbon with a pair of giant scissors at 12:30 p.m.
The journey to get this store open involved months of transportation across the continent according to Hussey. After he found out about electric bikes, he went down to a pop-up store in Bloomfield, (now the official Pedego store of Prince Edward County), gave one a test run, immediately loved the bike, and went out of retirement so he could start a brand new project and bring the bikes and the brand to his local area. “Allen came and visited me last October [in Victoria and] we went to visit the Pedego store there,” said Komarnycky.
“[Allen] came down to the annual Pedego dealer meeting [in 2017] and met a whole bunch of the store owners in California near the Pedego headquarters. It was in Newport Beach. It’s once a year in December,” explained Clyde.
When asked how he sees the future of the electric bike industry, Hussey said, “It’s gonna grow tenfold in the next five years.”
The industry has also been growing rapidly locally. When Allen first talked to Mike about opening up a store, he said the only Pedego stores in Canada were near Vancouver. Now, this Bobcaygeon store is, according to Allen, now the third Pedego store to open in Ontario.
“[Now] we’ve got about 30 Petego stores across the country and we’ve got 8 [other stores] who are selling them,” said Mike.
The bikes are not cheap, however. Most of the bikes being sold cost around $3,000-$5,000. It is vastly recommended cyclists lock their bikes or put them in a guarded place whenever not using one. If you would like to test a bike out before purchasing one, you can rent a bike and be charged either hourly or for a full day. The store also has tours locals can participate in. The next ones they plan to have are June 2nd and June 9th.
You can go to https://pedegoelectricbikes.ca/dealers/pedego-electric-bikes-kawartha-lakes-on/, call 800-478-1237 or email [email protected] to get more information about buying a bike or booking a rent or free test ride date, and the store is at 47 William St, Bobcaygeon. Their current business hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.
