This was on my own bucket list, the gentlemen told me beneath the shadow of a Thor intercontinental ballistic missile that towered above us like a fading obelisk to some hopefully bygone era known as the ‘Cold War.’

Subsequently renamed in 2001 the Strategic Air & Space Museum, never to be confused with the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C, though his ‘bucket list’ item was the museum a hundred yards away once called the SAC Museum. This museum stands maybe a kilometer off Interstate 80 (Ext 429), halfway between Omaha and Lincoln. It houses an impressive assortment of hot and Cold War military aircraft, the centerpiece of which is the still amazingly advanced-looking SR-71 Blackbird.

SR71A Blackbird spy plane

Originally located on the grounds of Offutt Air Force Base – once the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command or SAC – in nearby Bellevue, the collection was moved to its present location in 1998. It was actually against this backdrop of ‘Out in the Blue’ military aviation history, that a half dozen of your estimated 40-50 Tesla electric car owners in your community brought their cars to ensure they available to the visiting public.

The variety of state-of-the-art EVs included five Model S sedans and two Roadsters. The owners are university professors, software engineers and business executives. Interestingly, in aggregate, the average age is probably early-to-mid-50s’; certainly not the affluent, young drivers portrayed by Experian Automotive’s recent survey .

It was in the shadow of that faded Thor missile that there also stood a set of electric bicycles: an aging, but still very serviceable Wavecrest TidalForce M750, my personal e-bike, and a brand spanking new Haibike Xduro Trekking, a loaner from Currie Technologies. They attracted nearly as much attention and interest as the Tesla cars. Of course, it probably helped that I was doing a share of sideshow barkering to obtain people to look them over.

The two e-bikes really represent as a great deal of technological leap over the last decade as the Model S does over, say, the EV1. My personal M750 was state-of-the-art in 2002. It uses a powerful 750W ( 1hp) rear hub motor and NiMH batteries that are mounted inside an identical front hub. The mountain bike frame was from Montegue. The bike weighs somewhere around 60 lbs. Seems lighter than that, even though Haibike will come in at 53 lbs. Maybe it’s just a visual thing. Those big black hubs on the M750 give it a bulky, heavier look compared to the Euro-styled Xduro.

The biggest difference though is in how each operates. The M750 uses a thumb throttle to make use of two quantities of power, while i explained to visitors who are interested in riding them: what I call cruise and what Wavecrest labeled Turbo. You need to do enjoy far more torque assistance, though you didn’t go any faster in Turbo. If you let and wished the hub motor do everything, though climbing a hill would be slow and tedious, you could stop pedaling. It will also consume a lot of battery energy.

In contrast, the Haibike ‘senses’ when you want extra help and applies it at four different levels: Eco – the smallest assistance Sport, Tour and level and Turbo. Each level offers successively more mechanical assistance. There is no throttle; you have to pedal to get assistance. This is a European e-bike requirement, but it also definitely makes the Xduro feel more like an ordinary bicycle.

Needless to say, everyone wished to know how much they cost. Wavecrest went out of business a good five-years ago or even more, but at that time the M750 cost somewhere in the $2200-2400US range of prices. I did a marketing barter cope with Wavecreat back then, so I had no actual out-of-pocket expense. The Haibike Xduro Trekking is a heart-stopping $4000US, but it also offers disc brakes, top-of-the-line components from Sram, Bosch and Shimano, which built the electrical drive system. Full equipment specs are available here.

The overall impression i got from your half-dozen or more people who I let ride the bikes, including several the Tesla owners, was they were surprised and impressed through the experience. Nearly everyone talked about how they might be interested in owning one to ride to work.

I am just four miles from my job, one gentlemen from Lincoln explained to me. I could possibly ride that on one of these, he mused.

In fact, the city of Lincoln, unlike Omaha, is situated on fairly flat terrain, making it ideal of biking. The trouble is because the state legislature never got around to debating and voting on my small electric bicycle bill (LB 756) this past session, an e-bike can still be considered ‘illegal’ from the state, though in the 12 year I’ve ridden my M750, I’ve never had any run-ins with the law. But, look at the entrance to your city or state-maintained bike path and you’ll see a sign that states ‘no motor vehicles allowed.’ In the absence of defining legislation, that definition can be extended to bikes like the M750 and the Xduro.

So where can we ride? asked one of the women that took the Trekking to get a spin and came back smiling.

You can still ride them on the street, I replied. But of course, we prefer to have people ride them on protected bike paths and trails, especially since most of the people interested in riding e-bikes will never be experienced cyclists.

The biggest impression I think the e-bikes made was their very existence. Almost no one that stopped by even knew such technology existed. Most had heard about Tesla, but, ofc course, few had actually seen one in person, much less seven of them in a single (and to tell the truth, I hadn’t either). But electric-assist bicycles? Who knew? was the common expression.

Now a few more people do know, some have even ridden them, a couple are even toying with the notion of looking into maybe buying one. On the Tesla side, we talked with one couple from Fremont – the Nebraska one, not the California one where Teslas are built – who seemed halfway serious about replacing their Lexus with one.

Personally, I came away encouraged from the reception of not only the cars, but the bikes. In accordance with Dr, they show the progress being made in electric vehicle technology at the opposite end of the mobility spectrum and when you consider that as many as 35 million of these types of EVs will be integrated 2014. Frank Jamerson in the Electric Bicycle Worldwide Report and his co-editor Ed Benjamin, then I think there’s a good chance a lot more of us will Ride the Current™ from the coming years.

Model S owner Jim Shulte

Tesla owner Jim Shulte helped organize the display of both up to five Model S and two Roadsters. Other owner photos on EVWorldwire Facebook page.