Review: Yuba Electric Boda Boda

Coincidentally, the day that I brought home the electric Yuba Boda Boda bike was the day that the city of Portland decided to start a major construction project on the thoroughfare that goes by my house.

For a week, car commuters have been wandering around in a daze, finding their way through a maze of detours. “It’s like they’re a bunch of ants and their home has been destroyed,” our babysitter mused. I’ve bypassed all the confusion by e-biking to the construction site and walking my daughter and myself through the crosswalk.

Contrary to what my colleagues think (I love you guys!), I don’t believe that the bike revolution will happen when infrastructure improves. You see, I live in Portland, one of the most famously bike-friendly cities in the country. I’m (relatively) young, I don’t have a disability, and almost all of my destinations are less than a mile from my house, reachable through quiet residential roads.

Even armed with the best intentions, ideal circumstances, and gear, there are still some days when it’s just faster to pop my screaming toddler into a carseat than to get on my bike and do a SoulCycle-esque uphill sprint to her daycare. I don’t think people will take to biking en masse until it’s faster and easier to bike than it is to drive a car.

For the first time since I’ve become a mom, the electric Yuba Boda Boda has made that possible. It’s faster and easier to wheel the Boda Boda out of my garage, strap my toddler on the back, and e-bike, than it is to get in my car. The sound of my toddler shrieking, “This is so fun!” from the bike’s seat behind me is just a bonus.

Unlike the Yuba Supermarche, the electric Boda Boda is really easy to ride. It has a more compact aluminum frame with an extended rear rack, and comes in either a step-through or a step-over option. It has a 1.5-inch Chromoly fork, hydraulic disc brakes, and big, fat, 26-inch Cruz commuter tires. The tester model was in a wonderful bright teal color, and it was easy to adjust the seat and handlebars to fit my 5 foot, 2 inch height.

Yuba informed me that they don’t do home delivery, so I would have to pick up the bike myself at the retailer. I don’t own a vehicle big enough to fit the bike inside, and it wouldn't fit on my roof rack. No matter, I said. I’d just ride it fifteen miles home.

The electric Boda Boda is kitted out with the e6000 Shimano Steps motor, which is an intelligent, weatherproof electric system with an integrated computer that assists you when you’re walking or riding the bike. It made the ride from the bike shop back to my house a total breeze.

The Steps system provides up to 50 newton meters of torque while pedaling. It automatically downshifts to a lower gear for an easier start, and even while stopping and starting on steep hills (curse you, stoplights!), I never felt like I had a hard time getting going.

Because the system provides power only when you need it, the motor has a colossal range of up to 93 miles, or around six hours, on one charge. That initial 15-mile bike ride on high assistance ate up only 24 percent of the battery life, even when I was hauling ass uphill at around 20 mph. If you ever want to surprise dedicated bike commuters, I suggest putting a Shimano Steps motor on the mom-liest bike of all time and waving as you pass them, hunched over in their racing crouches. I felt the way Paul Newman must have when he dropped a V8 engine in his tiny VW Bug.

The bike's display is mounted between the handlebars, and you can turn your lights on and off, check your speed, range, gear, and battery life, and select between three levels of assistance (you can also turn off assistance entirely) from one convenient spot.

On a week of trucking my daughter and myself around our neighborhood (at much more moderate speeds), I only charged it once. It took a little over an hour to charge it after it had gone down to 40 percent.

E-assisted biking makes a huge difference, especially when you consider how heavy the whole apparatus is. The Boda Boda weighs 60 pounds without accessories, and can accommodate up to 220. I didn’t quite get there, but I came close. After you start piling on bags, bike seats, and kids, it is a lot of weight for a small woman to keep balanced. When it comes to hills, forget about it.

That’s why I normally hook a big, awkward bike trailer on my own bike, rather than put my kid in a bike seat. It’s a pain to wrestle my trailer out of my house and to strap my kids in it, but it does significantly lessen the possibility that I will keel over and crush everyone I love.

But, it's much easier to maneuver a bike around obstacles when you don’t have a trailer fouling up your every move. My toddler far and away prefers riding in the open air, at a height where she can talk to me and enjoy the scenery. Instead of struggling to get her in the car, she now can’t wait to climb on. With electric assistance, I’m no longer afraid that I’ll let the bike topple over while she's riding.

The electric Boda Boda is not light, or cheap. I wouldn't be able to haul it up a flight of stairs if I lived in a walk-up, and the base model costs $3,400. A Kryptonite U-lock and cable seems sufficient protection for my ancient Surly, but I was terrified of letting the Boda Boda out of my sight. That might be a consideration if many of your bike trips are to public places like the farmer’s market or the corner store. You can also detach the battery from the motor and take it with you.

The base model comes with a double stand, chain guard, wheel skirt, fenders, and front and back LED lights, along with a two-year warranty on the frame and a one-year warranty on the motor. Thanks to Portland’s Clever Cycles, my step-through tester model was tricked out with a bike bell, padded seat, roll bars around the rear rack, and the Yepp Maxi child’s bicycle seat, which would have added about $500 to the cost.

Like I said, it costs a lot of money. But when you consider how much cars cost, and how much time and money it takes to maintain them, four grand starts to seem like a drop in the bucket.

According to a 2009 survey by the National Household Travel Survey, car trips of under a mile in the United States add up to ten billion miles per year. There have been more times than I’d like to admit when I’ve jumped in the car and driven a half-mile and back to get more milk. I’m constantly crunched for time and energy, and sometimes driving is just easier, until it’s not.

The electric Boda Boda turns driving into a relative hassle. While it might not be financially or physically possible for every family, it’s made a huge difference in how many times I use my car—just in a week! If it does turn out to be possible to buy our way out of climate change, then getting an e-bike might be a great start.