E-Bikes

Today, Doug Pike interviews Wayne Arrington about e-bikes.  ( Show from 4/25/2024 )

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote because you were the TV
remote. Remember when music sounded likethis, Remember when social media was truly
social? Hey John, how's itgoing today? Good? Well, this
show is all about you. Thisis fifty plus with Doug Pike, helpful

(00:28):
information on your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by theUT Health Houston Institute on Aging Informed Decisions
for a healthier, happier life,and by Texas Indoor Air Quality Specialists because
clean air is healthier air. Andnow fifty plus with Doug Pike. All

(00:51):
right, Let the Thursday edition ofthe program starts right now. Let it
start right now. I got mysingular and plurals mixed up for just a
second there. Glad to have youalong, Glad to do you don't mind
sharing a little piece of your afternoonwith Will and me, whether in ten

(01:11):
seconds. Nothing to see really untilincreased rain chances on Saturday or not Saturday,
but Sunday and Monday. Windy Saturday, but that doesn't count because you
can't see wind. Markets. Everythingwas down except gold. Gold was up
a few bucks. Thank you,Houston. Gooldexchange dot com for keeping it
up there. And at some pointwhen I can get ten minutes to walk

(01:34):
into where there's just a couple oflittle old pieces I've got laying around,
maybe I'll get them over there toBrad and sell them off. Wouldn't be
a bad idea. I am goingto kind of work along with some quick
hits I guess on news here untilwe get all the way to the bottom
of the hour. Holy cow,this microphone just just went rogue on me

(01:56):
and it just fell over. Anyway, at the bottom of the hour,
I'm gonna talk to a guy namedWayne Errington about buy Sickles, And until
then, I'm gonna go through somekind of quick hits, little shorties of
news stories and what I want youto do. Rather than rather than think

(02:17):
that I'm gonna sit here and boreyou with five minutes on the same subject
or longer as a lot of talkshows do, I'm gonna give you information,
and then I'm gonna trust all ofyou to either say that doesn't matter
to me, or to if youare interested, go on and find your
own information on top of what Ion top of the seeds I've planted,

(02:39):
and then form your own opinion,and if you feel so inclined, you
can also let me know how youfelt about that and what you found by
going to pound two fifty and thenjust type, or don't type, but
say the keyword fifty plus. That'sall you have to remember, pound two
fifty and then fifty plus, andthen you could leave me about a fifteen

(03:01):
second. I think it's fifteen secondsof voicemail. And I appreciate all of
you who have done that. Sofar. I'm getting some pretty good feedback,
and I would love some more.So. The first one I've got
here, in a secretly taped interview, somebody who works for the Department of
Defense suggested that all Americans, allAmericans, should be stripped of all their

(03:27):
guns and that the Second Amendment shouldjust be crumpled up and tossed out the
window. Basically, there's a suggestionthat the National Guard should be employed to
perform those confiscations. And there's inferencealso that more than a few people in
our federal government at a lot oflevels would be pretty much in favor of

(03:53):
all of that. We are,without question, at a tipping point in
this country. If there are thatmany people in that in those positions who
would favor abolition of the Second Amendment, And in many cases, in most

(04:13):
of those same people wouldn't mind throwingout the first with the second so that
people like me can't share what I'mlearning. So keep a sharp eye out
and watch your backs. In HarrisCounty, a man charged with violating a
lifetime protection order was released recently ona PR bond, that's personal recognizance,

(04:40):
placed in a county licensed group boardinghome. This guy's already he's got a
history of offenses including and this isjust the tip of the iceberg DWI in
decency with a child. And onApril tenth, a judge ordered his release
so long as he wears his anklemonitor, you know, and he's gonna

(05:02):
be in a place where there's alsoanother registered sex offender. In this case,
that man's charges involved a five yearold child. So that's who's out
of jail. That's who's just Iguess back on the streets. He had
a lifetime protection order on him,and the judge thought, no, h'd

(05:27):
be all right, just let himout. I saw this one on Facebook
this morning. To paraphrase, itwas kind of funny. Really, a
guy was building a wall to keeppeople from coming into our country illegally.
And then another guy came in andstopped construction of the wall. And when
millions of people came in, millionsof people, he blamed the guy who

(05:49):
was building the wall. He blamedthe guy who was building the walls.
That's unfamiliar kind of is in Washington, thirteen year there's video of this one
too, and it's just despicable anddisgusting. Thirteen year old thug snatched a
woman's purse. And he wasn't alone. He was just walking the street with

(06:10):
several other young people looking to getthemselves easy money. Snatched this woman's purse.
She fought back and wound up gettingpunched in the face other youngster when
her When the contents of her pursekind of scattered in the street, they
descended upon it like little vultures thatthey were, and stole whatever they thought

(06:32):
would be. What looks like oneguy grabbed her phone. A couple of
them picked up credit cards. Anyway, the bottom line is, and the
good news is the very good newsthat kid was arrested just a few blocks
away and charged with robbery at thirteenthirteen years old. Absolutely, no Ah,

(06:54):
no guidance certainly coming from the home. It's very frustrating and very saddening
for this, and this is notthe first time we've talked about things like
this before. Back to our presidentduring a speech at Hillsborough Community College.
Wait where Hillsborough Community College in Florida. I think that's in around the Palm

(07:15):
Beaches somewhere. He is at acommunity college giving a speech and he well,
he ragging on how he negotiated pensionfor labor unions and repeated in that
speech a lie that he once drovean eighteen wheeler. Never happened. The

(07:36):
closest he came, the closest anybodycan find to him actually being around eighteen
wheelers was back when he was asenator in nineteen seventy three and hopped aboard
a big rig and rode five hundredand thirty six miles just to show that

(07:56):
he was on their side. Hewas empathetic toward true and then he jumped
in a jet and flew home atColumbus. How much time do I have
will I'm just none? Wow?Okay, Moody Gardens. Then let's go
to Moody Gardens because that well,that's where I'm going tomorrow afternoon, as

(08:16):
a matter of fact, I willbe am seeing this fly Fishing Film Festival
going on down there, third annualevent, and I am excited as I
can be to get down there andsee this year's tours, this year's film
festival, and it's two different setsof films, two different tours. This
is kind of a one of akind opportunity, it really is. And

(08:37):
you could see these films on thelargest screen in Texas. Come down there,
eat some good food, enjoy thecash bar, especially if you're spending
the night down there and taking advantageof one of their one or two night
hotel packages. The film fest ticketsare just fifteen bucks. Just fifteen bucks.
That's all it takes to get inand enjoy hours of this and then

(09:00):
before and after mingle with the vendorswho are on site to show you some
of the latest and fly fishing gear, the latest and sunglasses and all these
wonderful things that you need to bea fisherman, and especially a fly fisherman.
Even if you just love the ocean, you love rivers, you love
lakes, even if you just havethat and don't care at all about fishing,

(09:24):
you will enjoy these films. Alot of catch and release going on,
a lot of conservation being talked about, and then of course the incredible
fishing footage. Moodygardens dot org iswhere you go for information on this Moodygardens
dot org. What's life without anet? I suggest you to go to
bed, sleep it off, justwait until this show's over. Sleepy.

(09:46):
Back to Dougpike as fifty plus continuesfishing sip of water Blue, Welcome back
to fifty plus on this Thursday.It's kind of cloudy out there, I
think if I remember correctly, isthat about right? No world threat of

(10:07):
rain until Sunday and Monday, likeI said, And Saturday is supposed to
be real windy. That's not scary, not at all. I was asking
Will if he could find a sheepsound. Eh, that's I don't know.
Neither one of those really did muchfor me in any event. I

(10:31):
wanted that because I wanted to sharea story that shows just how blindly a
lot of college kids are being ledinto supporting things and doing things that they
really don't understand. At Columbia University, a student who joined in the big

(10:56):
pro Palestine protest actually told a reporterthat she had no idea what was being
protested. She was just out therehollering and screaming because other people were doing
it. She figured that was ithad to be a good idea. If
all of them are doing it,well, then I need to be out
there doing it too. And thatis it just flies in the face of

(11:20):
what university education is supposed to do. It is supposed to foster independent thinking.
It is supposed to produce people whocan change the future for the better,
not just be led around like sheepand do whatever they want to do
once they step into line, whichbasically they're being taught to do nothing on

(11:43):
their own, nothing without being prodded, nothing without being told how to think.
And that that frightens me a goodbit. Major protests propping up on
campuses all over the country, includingU T Austin by the way, where
Texas in Austin said no, no, that's not how it works in Texas.
You can't just get out here andstart yelling and screaming and threatening people,

(12:09):
And there were plenty of arrest madethere. As It's starting to happen
at some other schools too. Thesekids are skipping school they're camping out,
they're creating encampments, if you haven'tseen the pictures. And interestingly enough,
in many of these places where thesethese encampments of students have popped up,

(12:30):
all of the campus or all ofthe tents are the same green color,
and every one of them looked shiny, brand new, like they just got
pulled out of the box. Myquestion, who bought the tents? I
want to know who bought the tents, because that's gonna tell a whole lot
I would bet about who's behind someof this, who's fueling the fire.

(12:56):
There have already been several campuses onwhich it's been kind of revealed that there
are in many cases paid agitators comingin and rallying, rallying the troops,
so to say that bringing out thebath. Here they come, all the
students come running out. What arewe protesting today? Oh yeah, let's

(13:18):
And by the way, I findthe words I've seen in interviews with some
of these students who are protesting.If you're wearing a mask to hide your
face, if you're not, ifyou're not proud enough of your cause to
stand there for it with the lightof day on your own face, then
uh, I don't. I don'tcare what you have to say. Honestly,

(13:43):
if you have to hide behind amask, if you have to cover
your face to say what you needto say, then you don't believe in
it. Really you can't. Youcan't say what you mean and don't hide.
In other university news, in testimonybefore Congress, Secretary of Education Miguel
Cardona pretty much promised he wanted toshut down Grand Canyon University, a Christian

(14:09):
university and among the nation's most successfulprivate colleges. Cardona's Department of Education find
that school recently a record thirty sevenpoint seven million dollars. Did I talked
about this yesterday. I don't thinkI did. I didn't get to it.

(14:31):
Thirty seven point seven million dollars forsomewhat misleading in their brochures PhD students
to let them know that they hadto take extra courses while working on their
dissertations. It's a type of graphicalerror. It's an honest mistake. It

(14:54):
was in no way intended, I'msure, to dupe doctoral students who can
pretty much figure it out for themselves. And in comparison, that same department
find Penn State for sex crimes committedthere by one of its own two point

(15:16):
four million dollars Michigan State four pointfive million dollars for another horrible bunch of
sex crimes committed there. Public recordseems to reveal some hostility too, toward
the university's success with private affordable education. I'd be willing to bet that that

(15:39):
campus doesn't have any tents green tentson it right now? And Oregon,
Well, where do you want meto go? Oregon? Or to the
NC double A or California's too easy, there's a dozen of those. Or
what I called here a twisted storyfrom right here in Texas, whatever you
can do in forty seconds, ina twisted story from right here in Texas,

(16:03):
Nixon, Texas, to be specific, Little Lisa san Antonio, ten
year old boy has confessed to shootinga man, shooting him cold dead while
he slept that he didn't know backwhen he was still seven years old.
No charges are going to be filedeither. They put him, They subjected

(16:25):
him to a lot of therapy andevaluation, if you will. But in
Texas, you've got to be tento be criminally culpable for stuff you do.
So and that kid's got a lotof problems, but it just kind
of shows you how messed up thingsare right now. UT Health Institute on

(16:45):
Aging is a place where you canyou can unravel the puzzle of your own
health by visiting with a provider.Doctors, therapists, trainers, the collegists,
psychiatrists, cardiologists, all of themwho are also specially trained beyond what

(17:07):
got them the diploma on the wallin senior medicine and how their discipline can
be applied specifically to the bodies ofseniors, the bodies and minds, and
that helps because we're different. I'mdifferent from Will in so many ways,
including our bodies. I'm very proudto speak for UT's Institute on Aging ut

(17:30):
Health. They've done this for many, many years, and they're getting better
and better. These providers are allover town too, mostly down in the
medical center. There's hundreds of them, but a lot of those people,
a lot of those hundreds also practiceout in the outlying area. So you've
got a great shot at finding oneof these providers, especially trained providers close
to home. Go to the website. See all they can do for you,

(17:51):
See the information that's available there.It will you'll keep going back and
back to the site for more utdot edu slash aging uh dot ed u
slash aging aged to perfection. Thisis fifty plus with Dougpike Cycle Cycleicycle I

(18:15):
want to ride now, all right, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks
for listening. Certainly do appreciate it. I can't imagine what we're gonna be
talking about now. Huh. Thanksto all of us, for all of
you for sharing this little chunk ofthe afternoon. We're talking to segment segment
segment, by the way that someof us in this audience can take full

(18:37):
and proper advantage of technology to makeus feel like kids again, not look
like kids with botox and all thatstuff, but maybe feel like kids by
riding a bicycle until the street lightscome on and just never getting tired.
That would take me back a wholelot of years to explain, I'm gonna
bring in Wayne Errington, owner ofa Ride Bikes electric Bikes right here in

(19:00):
Houston. Welcome aboard, Wayne,Thank you, Doug, thanks for having
me. You bet man, So, what on earth motivated you to get
in the electric bicycle business. Well, I definitely wasn't looking to get into
this business. I was actually inthe home care business and sold that business
about a year and a half ago. And I was actually on the Tennessee

(19:21):
River looking at a boat show upthere, and some guy had an electric
bike. I hadn't been on abicycle in thirty years, Doug sixty eight
years old. And I'm standing therelooking at this bike, and he says,
you want to try it? Isaid I'd love to. Well,
I got on this thing and Iwas literally blown away. I started going
up this hill and there's no challengethere. I mean that electric motor is

(19:45):
kicking in and helping me get upthe hill. I literally felt like a
kid again, making you look likeyou're big and strong. Oh yeah,
he'll no problem. Were you pumpingthe pedals, be honest, or were
you just letting it bring you up? You know, I was turning the
pedals, but it was the energyin that motor that was bringing me up

(20:07):
hill. What it takes, man, I got I gotta have one of
these. So what made you decidenow that now flashback or flash forward to
now? What made you decide onthis particular brand of bicycles for your shop
over all the ones you could haveput in there, well, Doug,
I looked at probably Ford. Iactually bought four different brands of bikes and

(20:30):
tested them all out, and whatreally impressed me about the Trucks' brand of
bikes was the quality of the componentsthat they're using. They used Buffang motors,
they used Shamano shifters and derailers,they used Tectro hydraulic brakes, Samsung
sell batteries. They even have aluminumfenders on these bikes, which is something

(20:53):
you typically don't see anymore. Alot of plastic out there now, huh
right, right, and they justintroduced a five year warranty on this bike.
I mean that's unheard of in thisindustry. What confidence will do for
you? So what is the differencein in component parts and in features and

(21:14):
whatnot between an entry level bike fromthem and a top end bike entry level
from from the Trucks? Yeah,yeah, just in your brand. So
you know the lower end bikes thatWe've got a brand new bike we just
introduced. It's a folding bike.Oh wo. So it's a lot lower
weight. Uh, it uses asmaller motor, the batteries not as big

(21:41):
as is some of the upper endbikes. So yeah, it has to
do with with size of the componentsand capabilities of that makes sense. Yeah,
and and for the lead footed membersof this audience, how fast will
these things go? I have noidea. Well, they're regulated by the
states. Come on, yeh,well it goes all the fun you go

(22:02):
in there. Tweak them a littlebit. Oh okay, never mind put
in order for them to be ableto use them on the street without requiring
any license or anything. The maximumspeed is twenty eight miles per hour,
okay in headle assist mode, andthen twenty miles an hour and throttle only
most but that's still pretty fast onYeah, that's zipping along on a bicycle.

(22:26):
And to keep any of us fromhurting and or killing ourselves, it's
probably I would imagine you have somehelmets laying around to absolutely definitely recommend the
helmets. You know, got it, especially as we get older. Doug,
Well, if you want to getolder wherever you are now, it's
probably a good idea to ride bix. I had a friend who worked a

(22:47):
pediatric neurology like place, and hesaid most of the people, most of
the kids on that floor were inthere for bicycle injuries, bump their heads.
Oh wow, yeah yeah, Icould see myself riding one of these
things on a deer leaves too.How are they climbing little hills? I
tell you I've got a bike.They call it the t Rex. I

(23:08):
call it the Beast. Wow.This this bike has a thousand watt mid
drive motor on it and if itcould get traction, it would literally climb
a tree. I mean, it'sjust absolutely amazing. You get on this
bike and it's like hold on.You know that that's such an as a
hunter, okay, and as somebodywho likes to go exploring in the woods

(23:30):
and whatnot. But as a hunter, that's a great way to scout new
pastures or get into a blind beforedark, before daylight without making noise.
That really has application on deer leasesfor I manna have to talk about this
on Saturday morning as well. WayneErrington from a ride bikes on fifty places.
It am I saying it right?Is it a ride air air ride

(23:53):
air ride air right bikes? That'swho you are. So let's talk about
practical uses for seniors, which Ithink think has to include being able to
interact better with your grandkids, maybetackle some little bit of moderate mountain biking
on trails around here, or justdo a neighborhood lapse in the sunshine to
get some vitamin D, right,I miss anything? Right? Yeah?

(24:14):
Absolutely. So you know a lotof people say, well, you're you're
not getting any exercise on electric bike. Well, if it wasn't for electric
bike, I wouldn't be on abike at all, because I'm sixty eight
years old. It's like, Idon't want to fight that here. How
much exercise you're getting on the couch, you know exactly? And I know
I can't keep up with grandkids unlessI got a little extra power in there

(24:38):
to help me out. So Imean it's great for seniors. We're down
to about a minute way. Solet's get to the elephant in the room.
What's the cost of these bikes andhow durable are they? Okay,
so from a durability standpoint, notmany people off for a five year War's
just not a durable product, right, cost of bikes, I mean they

(25:02):
start out. My new bike thatwe just I don't need even have it
on the website yet, starts outabout sixteen hundred, okay, and my
top end bike is about four thousand. Matter of fact, we're introducing a
new program, I just haven't gotit up on the website yet, where
you can get any of these bikes. It's zero percent interest, and I'm
hoping to have that by this weekend. Works out about one hundred dollars a

(25:25):
month. Is that four gram onethe one that'll climb a tree? Well
that's not but that would be moreof the lower end. Oh my gosh,
Oh my gosh. Well hey,look man, I really do appreciate
this. I so I can't thinkof a better way to get out and
just get that. Get out therewith the grandkids and ride along with them

(25:48):
and then flip the switch and letthem think you're a superhero. Right,
Hey, there you go. Orwe've got a cargo bike. We can
pile them all there, you know, nice only count air ride bike dot
com a r r i d E. That's the website. Air Ride a
r R i d E bikes dotCom. Thank you, Wayne, I
really appreciate your time, buddy.Hey, we appreciate you you. Uh

(26:12):
huh audios. All right, Holycol already got to take a break and
we will do that with Texas IndoorAir Quality Specialists. This this is this
is my buddy, Uh, Ican't impress upon you strongly enough how important
getting your ductwork cleaned is. AndI know a lot of people in my

(26:34):
hand goes in the air who haveneglected the duct work. You just presume
that the only thing that's running throughthere is air. But every time you
open your door, little stuff blowsin, dust and pollen, all kinds
of little contaminants and allergens and irritants, and some of that gets through the
filter, no matter how good afilter you have, And over time,

(26:56):
which can be years since you've doneit, that can accume in there,
and every time you turn on yoursystem, a little bit more of that
stuff kind of blows on out throughthe vent and gets out into the house,
and you're breathing it. And youcan't understand why you sneeze when you
come home and you haven't sneezed allday, you can't understand why your eyes
itch. That's probably what it is. Texas Indoor air Quality specialists will come

(27:17):
to your house. They use apatented truck mounted system that is unlike anything
else that most of these alleged ductworkcleaners use. And their system starts.
They start by cleaning the coil andthe plenum on every unit in the house,
and then they go from vent tovent to vent, methodically cleaning from

(27:40):
those vents all the way back tothat clean planum so that there's nothing left
moving through that duct work except cleanair. And as I've told you a
million times, clean air is healthyair. Breathe air. That's what you're
supposed to be breathing in your house. Breathe air. Drop my name.
When you talk to them, theywill give you a discount, and that

(28:02):
discount can save you a good bitof money. It's a very simple pricing
system. You call them, youtell them how many units you have,
You tell them how many vents youhave in the house, and they will
tell you right then and there exactlyhow much it's going to cost to get
your your ductwork completely cleaned top tobottom, side to side, front to
back, so that you will breathehealthier air for years to come. Pound

(28:25):
two fifty, just like the onefor the show. Here. Just dial
pound two fifty and when they askfor the prompt, say healthy air,
pound two fifty. Healthy air.Now they sure don't make them like they
used to. That's why every fewmonths we wash them, check his fluids
and spring on a fresh coat ofwax. This is fifty plus with Doug

(28:47):
Pike. Welcome back fifty plus,thanks for listening. A built a paper
airplane for Will during the break,and he was so dismissive of it,
and it didn't even want it,so I flew it right past his head
like a little F fourteen doing afly by of the aircraft carrier. That's

(29:11):
scare you, Will, I did, I shrieked, Well, I yeah,
but that's normal in here. Youdo that all the time. When
you're excited, you shriek a littlebit. That's okay. Oh, I
didn't mean to tell everybody. Allright, Well, I'm gonna Oh.
By the way, today's National TelephoneDay. Did you know that ring ring?

(29:32):
You know what the grumpy tagline ison that. I'll just call somebody
who cares. I just thought aboutthat. I thought it sounded funny.
Uh pop quiz Will. One infive is the headline here? Twenty five
percent of all the mammals in theworld. Twenty five percent of all the

(29:52):
mammals in the world are what andit mars? It's not humans. No,
it's not more soupials either. Youhave to be a little bit more.
Well, I'm not gonna tell youof all mammals in the world are
are not bears either, babies atsome time in their lives, they all

(30:19):
are. Yes, No, it'sbats, will bat, they're bats.
They're winged rats kind of Yeah,same thing. Chocolate lovers beware or hot
or cold or watch where you're walking? All right, chocolate lovers beware.
Yeah, this is interesting viral pandemic. They actually likened it to the COVID

(30:41):
virus. But no, this isin plants, specifically in the cacao trees
in West Africa, where more thanhalf the world's chocolate originates. There is
some virus killing those trees, andthey're actually having to give the plants vaccine
to kill it. What's that gonnado when that vaccine loaded chocolate gets here?

(31:06):
Will we got to worry about chocolate. Now, chocolate, we have
to worry about sheriff's office in SouthCarolina, by the way, it started.
You know what it is, Rememberthis big emergence of all these bajillions
of cicadas. Oh yeah, itstarted, Oh very cool. And in
South Carolina sheriff's office had to askpeople to stop calling nine one one to

(31:30):
file noise complaints because of a weirdroaring sound. It's cicadas. People.
If you don't know what they are, look them up. If you don't
recognize the sound, listen to itonline so that you know not to call
nine one one when this bug comesout of the ground and starts making noise.

(31:52):
I don't know if we're supposed toget the bulk of that around here.
I don't think so. I thinkwe only have one bunch of them
hatching out this hyar year. Butwhere where they are most coming? I
guess all you got to do isjust go scoop them up and take them
to louis Was it Louisiana that hadthe recipes for him? Or somewhere else?
I have no idea. Some places, you know, there's some restaurants

(32:12):
somewhere. It probably is. They'lleat anything in Louisiana on the road,
off the road, next to theroad, doesn't matter. All right,
We're gonna get out of here,see you tomorrow, Audios.