The Free Press, Mankato, MN - Scooting on electricity

Sun, Nov 22 2009

Corrections | Police Logs | NIE | Special Sections |

Resources

Print this story

Post to del.icio.us

Photos

Marty Leenhouts takes an electric scooter for a ride. The small scooters require no license, go 20 mph and travel up to 30 miles on a charge.
John Cross

Marty Leenhouts slides the battery pack out from under the seat of the scooter. The battery can be recharged inside the bike or brought indoors to charge. The barn in the background will open later this summer as a retreat center and a sales showroom for the scooters.
John Cross

The indicator panel on the scooter shows the levels of charge, turn signals and headlight indicato
John Cross

The entire electric motor powering the scooter is contained inside the rear wheel.
John Cross

Scooting on electricity

Some can reach 60 mph

By Tim Krohn
Free Press Staff Writer

The smaller bikes are sold under the EZride label while the larger motorcycles are sold under the X-Treme Scooters label.

The electric scooter business is one of several endeavors Leenhouts is involved in.

He teaches for Northstar Academy, an online Christian and home school academy. He has 18 years of traditional classroom teaching in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Indonesia and holds a master’s from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

He’s nearing completion of a new big red barn on his homesite southwest of Good Thunder that will serve a variety of purposes. One section will be a showroom for the electric scooters. He will use one room to teach chip woodcarving, a passionate hobby and a business of his.

And the two-level barn, which will include sleeping quarters, a full kitchen, classrooms and a large events room can be rented.

“It can be for anything, family reunions, business retreats, quilt clubs, scrapbooking or other arts and crafts groups,” Leenhouts said. “It can be just a one-day thing or over a few days, whatever people want.”

The farmsite, near where his wife, Shelley, was raised, is nestled in a serene setting surrounded by woods, rolling fields and next to the Watonwan River.

“We have the whole rural entrepreneur thing going here,” he said of the projects he and his wife are undertaking.

<< Previous |