(Memphis) It’s Earth Day, and a Memphis man is celebrating it on his ELF.
It’s a solar-powered bicycle, and it’s the only one you’ll find in Memphis.
Only 350 of them exist world-wide.
Paul Patrick says it’s good for the environment, good for his waist line and most of all, he thinks it’s just plain cool.
It might not be a Lamborghini or Corvette, but when people see it on the road, they stare.
“People drive by they look at me and they don`t know what they are looking at but they smile, thumbs up, they wave, they blow their horn,” said Paul Patrick, a Midtown resident.
Paul is the only person you’ll find in Memphis with these three wheels.
“Electric Light Fun is what it is called. ELF.”
It’s a solar-powered bicycle and it takes him to work, 14 and half miles, from Midtown to Hacks Cross.
“Fourteen and a half miles to get to work, let it sit in the sun for seven hours, the battery recharges and then I ride it home.”
Paul says he can pedal or use its solar power or do both. It can take get him cruising about 30 miles an hour and while he paid $ 7,000 for the thing, he says it saves him money.
“No license, no tags, no insurance, no gas.”
He let reporter Sabrina Hall take a ride. She says the solar power made pedaling a breeze.
“It’s got lights, blinkers, mirrors, horn, the whole bit,” said Paul.
It’s not a car, but he says a police officer has mistaken it for one.
“He backed up and took a picture of me and I told him to tell his other boys in blue that he caught his first ELF.”
It’s a new toy for Paul, who has only had it a month.
He learned about the invention on the internet and went down to North Carolina to the company “Organic Transit” to buy one.
“I am one of the first 350 people worldwide to own one.”
While it may not be a Corvette, you can tell that Paul is in love.
“Guess what? I don’t have to get any gas!” he said.
Paul says it can carry up to 350 pounds in the back for groceries and things like that and the battery lasts for about 20 miles on the road.