Living abroad for years we realized that the nature some of us are blessed to experience isn't a given.
We took some of this planet's most beautiful gifts for granted... until being in a place where it's harder to get out and bask in the glory of the forest.
In some of these places, the government texts you to let you know leaving the house is hazardous to your health because the pollution is so bad.
This is happening in cities all over the world...
While air pollution is caused by many factors, a huge part of it can be attributed to the exhaust from combustion engines. If you've ever smelled the excrement leaving your car's tailpipe, you know what we're talking about.
While it's not the final solution for air pollution, replacing car miles with bike miles is just one way we can help cut down on these toxic gases in the air we breathe.
How much air pollution could you save by getting on the bike more?
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The average American drives 13,500 miles per year [1]
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Let's say you're able to use the bike for 40% of these miles in a year, or about 100 miles per week.
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Your car gets 25 mpg (well above the national average). [2]
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You save 4 gallons of fuel per week.
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Each gallon of gas burned emits about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. [3]
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So you're saving 80 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air every week.
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Which equates to 4160 pounds of CO2 per year.
Of course, the production of electricity does also emit some gases but at a rate exponentially less than petroleum.
You'll use about 65KWH of electricity to ride these miles on an electric bike like the FLX Roadster. Each kWh of energy produces about 1.6 pounds of carbon dioxide. [4]
So during the year, your electricity will produce 107 pounds of CO2, 39 times less than the car!
With this factored in you've got a net savings of 2 tons of CO2!
Just how much CO2 is that?
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It's equivalent to the amount of CO2 that 48 tree seedlings would sequester if grown for 10 years.
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Or that 480 of them could sequester in one year.
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That's 2.2 acres of forest - about 1.5 football fields worth of forest!
If you imagine 1.5 football fields end to end, that's 180 yards.
So on average, you're saving one yard worth of forest sequestered CO2 on these fields every 2 days you ride!
By the way, if you were hardcore and replaced the car completely with an ebike, you'd save 9500 pounds of CO2, which is about the carbon sequestered by 4 football fields worth of forest!
But enough boring you with the paper figures...
The reason we bring this up is that we want to go above and beyond and give back a tiny portion of what this beautiful planet provides us. You're already making a huge impact on air pollution by choosing to ride an ebike (hopefully an FLX!).
In addition, to celebrate the International Day of Forests on March 21st, we've partnered up with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant 100 real trees for every bike sold.
How does it work?
1. Purchase any bike from the shop before March 21st.
2. We'll automatically coordinate with our partners to sponsor the planting of 100 trees on your behalf!
3. Enjoy the ride and replace as many auto miles as you can to maximize your impact!
Check out this quick video from our partners about their impact in 2017.
You can donate directly to Eden Reforestation Projects here.
So what are you waiting for? Choose your favorite bike, leave the car in the garage and ride with us for cleaner air!
We love you,
Team FLX