C M Y K Sxxx,2011-08-28,TR,001,Bs-4C,E1

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011

Over The On a Bike With A Boost Cycling Swiss mountain passes with battery power (and some breath to spare) isn’t a bad way to cheat.

BY TIM NEVILLE

HE road east out of Sören- berg rears up into a series of steep turns that climb the Glaubenbielen Pass, the T high point of a road the Swiss Army punched through the Alps more than 60 years ago. Though the occasional car and bus make the jour- ney to the top, these days much of the road belongs to cyclists. On a cool afternoon in mid-July I was one of them. I hadn’t ridden much all season, yet something primordial kicked in when I spied another biker just ahead. His calf muscles were swollen like Salamanca hams, and he was stooped over the bars, sweat drip- ping onto the pavement. Easy pickings, I thought, as I tore after him. Within moments I’d reeled him in. He, gasping; me, hardly out of breath: I felt, well, guilty. “You’re cheating!” he panted in German as I sped by. “You’ll be out of power soon!” He was right: I was cheating. With the mash of a button on my handle- bars, a 250-watt electric motor had spun to life and increased the power of my pedal strokes by 150 percent. Sud- denly I had my own domestique, a 26- volt brute that seemed to grab the saddle and shove me onward every Continued on Page 6

TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES A Flyer electric bicycle helps a rider get over the Grosse Scheidegg Pass in .

36 Hours: Portland, Ore. Exploring the Beach The $100 Weekend Earnest Hub of Towns of Eastern In Madrid Comes In West Coast Urban Cool. Lake Michigan. A Bit Over Budget. BY FREDA MOON 4 BY JENNIFER CONLIN 9 BY SETH KUGEL 10

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6 TR THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011

Over The Alps On a Bike With A Boost

150-mile, inn-to-inn route that would From First Travel Page take me along the rolling heart of the time I pedaled. In a few minutes, I had Emmental valley, through the Entle- reached the summit, taken a short walk buch Biosphere, and up and over a se- and realized that cycling big Alpine ries of Alpine passes — a fine mixture of passes with some breath to spare might pastures, mountains and forests in re- not be such a bad way to cheat. gions that many foreign tourists know Here in the United States electric little about. I’d have flatlands and hills bikes are slowly becoming more pop- and the chance to find out whether the ular — you can, for instance, take e-bike benefits of an electric motor outweighed tours in San Francisco and Napa Valley. its own weight. ABOVE LEFT Installing a battery on a Flyer bicycle. ABOVE Riding electric bikes in Madiswil, where there is a place to swap b In Europe, the trend is more developed My British friend Tom Stephens with robust rental schemes in places joined me on the inaugural leg toward like Britain’s Lake District, Versailles an inn I had booked, 45 miles away in and Amsterdam. But it is the Swiss who Fischbach. As it happened, we set out route’s architect, mapped the first 37 sought to highlight “exceptionally beau- have embraced the concept with the into driving rain. miles of it in 2003 by following narrow, tiful” aspects of the country. He found most imagination. “I suppose the weather could be mostly car-free paths originally used by them at their best in the Emmental. For 50 Swiss francs a day, about $62 worse,” he said. “It could be hailing.” farmers. It ran through covered It took no time for Tom and me to see at $1.25 to the franc (with discounts for Bad weather or not, our bikes bridges, past castles and over asphalt what he meant. As any cyclist knows, multiple days), you can rent an electric charged ahead. We cruised through sog- and packed dirt from Burgdorf east to on a bike you not only feel the landscape bike from one of 400 rental stations gy forests and past farms selling free- Willisau. Last year he expanded the but smell and hear it too. Yet, with an around the country and then set out on range eggs. We drafted off each other, Heart Route to about 180 miles, from electric bike, instead of worrying about some 5,600 miles of well-marked bike which seemed more Nascar than Tour Laupen, near Bern, to Zug, near Zurich. the next grueling climb, I could relax paths. With hundreds of places along de Suisse. On the flats I often left the Another section extending south to and inhale musky patches of Russian the way to obtain fresh batteries free, motor on “eco,” a 50 percent boost to my Lausanne on Lake Geneva is scheduled olive trees and wonder whether cows or you don’t need to be a whippet-thin rac- own pedal power, unsure of how quickly to open in 2012, with the idea that the sheep would be around the bend based er to roll for days through the spectac- the batteries’ 30-mile range might dwin- route will eventually stretch across the on the tone of their bells. We sped ular Swiss hinterlands — up steep dle in hilly terrain. entire country. around weathered wooden chalets with mountain passes and past soft mead- Things really kicked into gear after a “The electric bikes really opened up geraniums bursting from window box- ows, burbling creeks and curious cows. lunch of thick goulash at a tavern in the possibility for me to direct people es. The path itself was paved and no You’re free from unforgiving train Burgdorf, when we picked up Route No. down the most beautiful pathways even wider than a sidewalk, a rollicking rib- schedules and away from the tourist 99, also known as the Heart Route, de- though they might be more demand- bon that rose and fell with the surge of hordes but still have access to all the signed for e-biking. Peter Hasler, the ing,” Mr. Hasler said, adding that he the land. traditional Swissness you can take at We stopped about 20 miles outside inns and restaurants along the way. And Burgdorf in Lünisberg, which seemed to since sweating is cheap, a famously ex- to be no more than a couple of farms, pensive country just became a little ROLLING OUT ON AN E-BIKE one of them run by the Flückiger family. more affordable. Ursula Flückiger emerged from the No doubt traditional cyclists are roll- Several outfitters offer electric also offers five-day tours of the kitchen, wiped her hands on an apron, ing their eyes. Electric bikes go against bike tours in Switzerland. For Eng- Heart Route from 1,280 Swiss and sold us slices of plum pie and two the very core of what makes a bike a lish-speaking guests, DuVine Ad- francs a person, or about $1,600 at cold glasses of fresh milk. “How do you bike, they say, and I agree. I’ve moun- ventures in Somerville, Mass., has $1.25 to the franc, including guide, get that to taste so good?” Tom asked tain biked along some of the hardest guided, fully supported weeklong three-star hotels, bike rental and and ordered another round. stretches of Colorado’s Continental Di- electric bicycle tours with set de- luggage transport (41-41-418-65-65; We never made it to the bed-and- breakfast. Our batteries were down to vide, and pedaled across Iowa (not flat, parture dates starting at $4,495 baumeler.ch/reise-velo-herzroute about 40 percent by the time we by the way), up thigh-numbing climbs without airfare, as well as custo- -21427.php, in German). reached Madiswil, a village about 10 in New Mexico and, yes, even across mizable trips (888-396-5383; duvine On your own: If German or miles short of our goal, and we decided most of Switzerland. .com). French isn’t an issue, you can rent a Flyer C9 on your own through it was time for us to make our first swap The Swiss company Baumeler for a fresh battery. We followed a red HE physical accomplishment rentabike.ch for 50 Swiss francs per sign with a bike and a battery on it to of doing those trips under my day, with discounts for multiple the Gasthof Bären hotel, one of 600 own, fleeting power certainly days and for returning the bike to swap points around the country. The ho- helped sear them into memo- the pickup point. Be sure to specify tel tavern was cozy, with wood tables ry. With e-biking, the indelible your bike size in the Notes section and tidy windows blurry with rain. A prideT of conquering my own limitations of the reservation form. young woman disappeared behind a would, I know, vanish with the push of a , offered in English, Veloland.ch wooden door and returned with two button. But the benefits were too in- has printable maps of bike routes fresh batteries. I was just about to leave triguing. Electric bikes aren’t motor- in Switzerland, including battery- when Jürg Ingold, the owner, offered us cycles — I’d still find plenty of exercise swap points as well as the names two rooms that had suddenly come and reap the pleasure of watching a and contact information for elec- open. It was an easy decision. We took country unfold beyond a novel set of tric-bike friendly hotels along the hot showers and headed for the pub, handlebars. Maybe the joys would be way. where we tore into plates of entrecôte even greater since I’d be able to look For farm stays, visit schlaf-im and chicken, and lingered late into the around without a burning, gasping body -stroh.ch. night with a small bottle of red Swiss- to distract me. The company SwissTrails ( 41-43- Italian wine. The silverware came sort- With that in mind I rented a Swiss- 422-60-22; swisstrails.ch ) can help ed in a bike saddle and the bread was made Flyer C Series electric bike from you rent an electric bike, provide served in a fender. the main train station in Bern. It looked maps and arrange luggage trans- The 11-room exposed-timber inn, built like any other bike for the most part but port and hotel reservations, start- in 1746, is something of a mother ship for weighed a crushing 60 pounds, a good ing at 669 Swiss francs for a four- e-bikers who, at least in Switzerland, 40 pounds more than my road bike at day, three-night tour of the Heart seem to gravitate toward finer food and home. There were four power settings Route, including bike rental. Swiss- crisper sheets than more budget-ori- — high, standard, eco and no assist — Trails will also do just luggage ented long-distance cyclists. On a busy controllable through a digital console transfers (one 44-pound bag) be- day Mr. Ingold said he would get 100 cy- mounted near the left-hand grip. A tween hotels across the country, clists coming by to change batteries. torque sensor near the cranks would tell not just the Heart Route, for 180 “Some order something to eat or drink, an electric motor how much to assist me francs total for three days. others spend the night, some swap and based on the power setting and how For more information on the go,” he said. hard I was mashing on the pedals. It Heart Route, visit herzroute.ch (in The next morning Tom returned to was no free lunch: no work, no help. German). The founders of the Bern, leaving me alone for Day 2. I My plan was to spend four days on a Heart Route also offer self-guided planned to turn south for 60 miles. The day trips along a portion of the bike rain had stopped and it was barely 60 TIM NEVILLE, who recently returned to route, including bike rental and a degrees. Perfect cycling weather. Oregon from several years in Switzer- FROM TOP Route signs; controls three-course lunch, for 99 Swiss Whereas I had been skimpy with the land, writes frequently about the out- show intensity of power and francs per person (41-62-959-55-55; power the day before, this time I de- FROM TOP Lamb salad at Gasthof Bäre doors. battery level; e-bike batteries. herzroute.ch). cided not to hold back. I put the bike in Obwaldner dairy farm Glaubenbielen P C M Y K Sxxx,2011-08-28,TR,007,Sc-4C,E1

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011 TR 7

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES batteries. RIGHT An e-biker crosses a stream along the Grosse Scheidegg Pass. TOP RIGHT Hotel Rosenlaui, on the Grosse Scheidegg Pass. BOTTOM Cows at Glaubenbielen Pass.

“high,” which increased my own power The sun was slipping behind the Zug by 150 percent; eventually the motor 10 MILES Madiswil mountains and the temperature began Willisau turned off at about 16 m.p.h., the legal to drop dramatically. I stopped, put on a Lünisberg limit for an electric bike to still be con- windbreaker and checked my watch. It Soppensee sidered a bike. (Other models go faster had been seven hours since I’d left Lucerne but they require plates, like mopeds). Madiswil. It suddenly struck me that I SWITZERLAND But I was in no rush. I stopped at the probably could have made the ride in Burgdorf crest of a small rise and settled into a about the same time with my road bike. Entelbuch pleasant wooden bench perched under I was certainly getting there more com- Bern Biosphere a colossal linden tree. The Alps soared fortably — I had a big cushy seat, sup- EMMENTAL VALLEY behind manicured hillsides to the south; ple front shocks and an upright riding Laupen the gentle, rounded backs of the Jura position — and with less effort, espe- Lake Sarner mountains rolled to the west. There was cially on the ascents. But on the de- Mörlialp Giswil no way a tourist could come here with- scents, I reckoned that my sleeker road Sörenberg out a bike, and I relished the serene bike would have been far faster. FRANCE GER. GLAUBENBIELEN PASS beauty splayed before me. Five Flyer A few miles down the road, I hit the Basel riders rode by and waved. They were all brakes at Egghütta, a mountain hut Zurich Thun BRÜNIG PASS well into their 50s, the largest age group near Mörlialp run by Wisi and Rita Enz, Area JURA MTS. of Heart Route fans, Mr. Hasler had told two dairy farmers who allow hikers, bik- of Interlaken Schwarzwaldalp detail me. Then two small tractors carrying ers and anyone else who make it this Lausanne ENGELHÖRNER four farmers rumbled by. way to sleep in their hut’s loft. Ms. Enz Rosenlaui Glacier Lake Geneva “Grüessech miteinand,” I said, a Ber- served me coffee in a bowl and opened a GROSSE ALPS SCHEIDEGG PASS nese greeting. bottle of kernobstbranntwein, a stone Geneva ITALY “Grüezi,” they replied, a linguistic fruit brandy, for me to add at my dis- THE NEW YORK TIMES clue that I’d crossed into the Lucerne cretion. “To keep you warm,” she said. A canton and another of the Swiss-Ger- crude, wooden megaphone that farmers HERE you are!” shouted Moriarty. (Arthur Conan Doyle and his man dialects. once used to offer evening prayers my friend Dale Bechtel wife were guests of the hotel.) There we About 10 miles down the road, in Wil- across the hills hung from the wall. Mr. when I finally rode into picked up route No. 61, the Bernese lisau, population 7,200, I carbo-loaded on Enz, with untamed eyebrows and a gen- ‘‘ Giswil, a village on the far Oberland route, and the start of the chocolate-dipped Florentines and tle demeanor, strapped a small, one- swapped my battery near the train sta- side of the pass. Dale and climb up the 6,400-foot-high Grosse legged stool to his rear and began to T tion. From there the path shot along a his new Flyer had been waiting for me milk his 20 cows for a raclette cheese Scheidegg Pass. small lake, the Soppensee, before it at an outdoor cafe, ready to tackle Day maker in the valley. Meanwhile, I dined Rising nearly 4,500 vertical feet in turned to gravel and then concrete. A 3, a 35-mile push over the Brünig Pass on Älplermagronen, a hearty pasta and less than 12› miles, the pass was sup- red sign pointed out a junction I’d come and up half of the Grosse Scheidegg cheese dish, cooked in an iron pot over posed to be the most challenging on our to dread. The Heart Route was wonder- Pass. an open fire. The three of us sat up late route, but at this point I’d thoroughly ful, but I couldn’t stay on it. Another Under bright skies Dale and I worked talking about avalanches and farm sub- mastered this sweet spot business and friend was waiting for me to the south, our way up Route No. 9, the Lake Route, sidies, with my hosts speaking in the left Dale trailing behind me. As I so I pointed the front wheel down Route toward a row of serrated peaks. thunderous tones of people who spend climbed, the Engelhörner fangs ap- No. 24 and hoped for the best. It was on this route, when the road their lives shouting across pastures. peared to the east, a series of impossi- tipped up to a 12 percent grade, that I That night, I slept soundly, swaddled bly sharp pinnacles. The icy blues of REGRETTED it at first. No. 24, the learned that I had been riding the bike Rosenlaui Glacier rose overhead. in wool blankets atop a bed of clean hay, all wrong. On a normal bike you want to Emmental-Entlebuch route, fol- and set out the next morning with a We slept that night in a cramped lowed the Little Emme River along find the perfect cadence that balances room in the seven-room chalet at thick wedge of homemade cheese that effort and speed. This doesn’t work so a busy stretch of road. When it fi- Mrs. Enz insisted I take. My bill for two Schwarzwaldalp, knowing that in the nally swerved onto quieter country well on an electric bike. Instead you morning we would have just another I huge meals, two beers, a bottomless want to shift into a higher gear (harder roads, it turned into a steep climb up a half-hour of steep riding to reach the top glass of milk, spiked coffee and the to pedal) and then resist the urge to 600-foot hill. I actually broke a sweat. of the pass. night came to less than 50 Swiss francs. stand on the pedals and push hard. The Near the top, a sign announced I was And that would mark the near end of The cheese was a gift. trick: stay seated, and let the engine entering the Entlebuch Biosphere, a my trip. 150-square-mile Unesco reserve of high- pick up your slack and ferry you up steep pitches with about the effort of a Originally I’d planned the last day of land marshes, alluvial forests and karst this journey to be mostly an easy 20 formations. The air hissed through my brisk walk down a flat city street. Finding this “sweet spot” on the miles downhill through Grindelwald spokes as the path became level. The into Interlaken, where I’d catch a train long, toothy spine of the 6,800-foot-high e-bike allowed us to cruise up the 3,300- back to Bern. Those miles went by in a Schrattenfluh rose to the south. Far be- foot Brünig Pass so fast that at the top blur, and before noon I was standing on low church steeples stood like exclama- we’d completely drained our batteries: the platform among hundreds of tour- tion marks above the villages of Entle- 1,700 vertical feet in less than 8 miles. buch and Hasle. I ground around a cor- On the summit, we found what must ists, wondering what I was doing there. ner and a woman gazing across the lazy have been one of the most spectacular It didn’t take us long to decide to ride fields spontaneously smiled and waved swap points in the country: the Hotel another 20 miles together to Thun, to me from her window. Brünig Kulm, an ambling chalet-style where Dale turned south for home, and Around 3 p.m., I began the slow, inn. Neither of us could resist ordering I found myself contemplating a sign steady climb toward the top of the mile- beers on the hotel’s magnificent deck that pointed to a new section of the high Glaubenbielen Pass. It was harder perched high over a valley weeping Heart Route that Mr. Hasler had just than I’d expected, and after reaching with waterfalls. Below, you could just completed this year. I could follow it the top I noticed I’d drained the battery make out the glacier-carved floodplain back toward Bern though it would mean to just 20 percent in seven miles. of Lake Brienz. an eight-hour, 80-mile day. My battery Yet it was all downhill from there, so I Soon we were descending a steep was still nearly full, the sun was still switched the motor off and hit 45 m.p.h., twisting path that led to Meiringen, fa- high, and my map showed a swap point flying down the eastern side of the pass mous for the Parkhotel du Sauvage, well within range. I bumped the en in Madiswil; cheesemaker at the with the soft blues of Lake Sarner shim- said to be the place where Sherlock motor into high and sped off around the Pass; apricot pie, at Hotel Rosenlaui. mering below. Holmes left for his fatal encounter with bend. Æ