Its called Sparky and my mate has one called Electra.

I have always thought giving vehicles a name really Naff but this time it just came naturally.
Other names could have been Volta, Shocker, Amppy, Watty.,,,,,,,, Take your pick.

I have been cycling to work in the City Centre for the past couple of years on a standard bike. The journey from Moortown is about 4 miles and is down hill all the way into Leeds, with a long climb back home again in the evenings.

Being a bit heavy and on the wrong side of 50 years old I've been finding the evening hill climb a slog, especially on dark wet winter evenings. I keep reminding myself that its good Cardio-Vascular exercise and my job is a bit sedentary. Also doing my bit for the environment made me feel positive about cycling. However half the distance would give me the exercise I feel I need.
I have recently found myself finding excuses to go in the car.

Often, whilst cycling home during the summer, I noticed this other bike whizzing past me somewhere around Meanwood Road. In itself this is nothing unusual. I am always being overtaken and never go fast enough to overtake other cyclists. However the bloke on this bike hardly seemed to be putting any effort in at all. Then I realised it was an Electric Bike. Well what a cheat. What a Wimp. Call yourself a cyclist !!!

The bloke on the bike always had a grin on his face as he flew up the road seemingly effortlessly. I was always envious as I saw him coast off into the distance.
The seed had been planted in my mind and I started thinking about making life a bit easier and getting an Electric Bike.

There were a few doubts. One was that they are not that cheap. Also I think that cycling is good exercise and I didn't want to give up the only real exercise I get.
The reaction of other people was a bit off-putting when I mentioned I was thinking of going electric. "Isn't that like getting a Motor Bike?" somebody said. The general opinion seemed to be that electric bikes are for wimps. This from people who drive everywhere!

About a month ago my standard bike started giving me problems and I knew it was time to spend some money on it and get a complete new chain set. Instead of spending money on an old bike I decided to buy myself a new Electric Bike.

So I've been using it now for two weeks and it is fabulous. You have all the advantages of cycling. Exercise, speed of commuting, (even faster) fresh air, low cost, green transport, no parking problems, etc etc ,whilst travelling twice as fast for the same effort.
I can now cycle uphill to home in 25 minutes. This is a bit strange because it's taking me 30 minutes to get to work downhill in the mornings.

It's a Chinese made bike from a firm called Powa Cycle. If you look on their website you will see the range of bikes they do. However if you go on ebay you will find the same bikes for £100 less. This one cost £499 on ebay but they claw a bit more out of you by charging £50 delivery.

I wanted a bike with gears because it means I can still pedal hard to get my Cardio-Vascular exercise. And this is exactly what it does. It means you work just as hard but go twice as fast.
There is an option to just use the twist grip without pedalling but only on the flat. If you get to any sort of hill you have to assist the bike by pedalling. This is highly influenced by you body weight and if you are a feather-weight I think the twist grip will probably power you up some hills without pedalling.

The Lithium Polymer (LP) battery is lightweight and powerful. They are about £100 each so this puts a lot onto the price of the bike. It also means that it is essential you can lock up the battery when you leave the bike unattended. The manufacturers claim LP batteries are good for 500 charges so you may have to replace it every 2 years. LP batteries are best maintained by not fully discharging (only to 40%) and then recharged regularly. Even if you don't use them they should be topped up weekly. They pose a fire risk if not charged with a specially made charges but this is supplied with the bike. They take a good 5 hours to re-charge which is quite a bit longer than other battery types. For more battery information go to http://batteryuniversity.com/.

The other important component is the motor, which is built into the rear wheel hub. I know nothing about these so time will tell with this one.
Another unknown area for me is repairing and maintaining the electrics on the bike. I think this will be an unknown area for cycle shops also and perhaps the best people to work on the electrics would be mobility shops who usually work on electric wheelchairs.

There are one or two things about my new bike that are not perfect. The power sometimes just doesn't kick-in as you pedal or turn the twist grip. Then you stop and try again and off it goes. It's a bit annoying but not serious at the moment because it's intermittent.
Only having 6 gears means I can't pedal going downhill but this is not that bad because I can freewheel. It only has 26 inch wheels when I am used to 27 inch. This, and the style of the frame means my leg is still bent a bit at the bottom of the down stroke when ideally it should be fully stretched, I am getting used to this and the power assistance makes it less important.
The battery does have a lock on it but it would be very easy for a determined thief to smash the casing and steal the £100 battery.
Of course like all cycling in this country it is still dangerous on the roads but then again being a pedestrian is statistically a lot more dangerous.

So far so good.

UPDATE

Its now 4 months since I have been using the electric bike and I have only missed using it for work on a couple of occasions when there was a bit too much snow to be safe.
So at 8 miles a day that makes about 650 miles.
Apparently the average mileage done by cycles bought in this country is 25 miles in its lifetime. I can well believe it. I know loads of people who have a garage full of flat tyred bikes, one for each member of the family and they haven't been used or years.
So I did more that average in the first week I had the bike.
The bike has now lost its new sheen and a couple of the stickers have peeled off.

It goes with the territory that if you ride a bike you are forever having to tinker with brakes, gears etc etc and electric bikes are just the same.
I have had to replace the brake blocks today and this is apparently a fault common to electric bikes. The brakes wear down due to the heavy weight of the machine. The rims also don't last as long as normal bikes because of the same problem.
I thought this would be a disaster for an electric bike because the motor is built into the wheel but Ive discovered that you can buy a new rim and re-spoke it all so that's a relief.
I have also fitted a puncture resistant tyre that meant I had to mess around with the electric side of things. However I took my time and now I know how to get the back wheel off with its built in motor and disconnect it from the electric controls and battery supply.

I still haven't run the battery down to nothing so I'm not sure what its range is.
I am looking forward to taking it into the Dales in summer in the back of the car and I can perhaps push it to its range limit.

To go the home page Click Here

To go to a page about my personal opinions and experiences Click Here