What I learned on the longest, craziest electric bike ride of my life

I had pedaled the first 20 miles up Big Oak Flat Road in Yosemite National Park, cursing its misleading name — far from flat, the route gains 7,000 ft in altitude — when my electric bicycle's battery finally died. That's when I had one of the strangest good news-bad news moments of my life.

Good news: I had saddlebags containing three pre-charged batteries! Bad news: heave and squeeze as I might, the new five-pound battery and its clunky hard plastic cover simply would not fit into the slim slot my Gazelle electric bike required. (Too late, I remembered that the Gazelle rep had trouble demoing this maneuver when he delivered the bike, and cursed myself for not practicing.)  Read more...