Earlier this year we put a Kalkhoff Agattu C11 Premium Impulse at the disposal of Paul Craig who was about to embark on a ride from London to Paris to raise money for the The Macmillan Trust. The idea was to keep the bike on standby in case Paul's own electric bike (a high-powered, US-made Optibike) failed en route. Unfortunately, that did turn out to be the case, so the Agattu had to step up to the plate. Here's Paul's story:
My Name is Paul, and I am disabled. I cannot bend my left leg an my right leg has reduced strength. In 1988, at the age of 16 I was in a severe road traffic accident. While initially being lucky to have survived, the damage to my legs was going to be life changing. After a year or so in hospital, having undergone nearly 30 operations, involving skeletal and vascular reconstruction, I was left with a fused left knee and a greatly weakened lower right leg, with inverted foot. Walking was, and still is particularly painful. For 22 years, I limited my physical activity to that which was wholly necessary. But, by now my world had changed, for the better; I was married with three active young sons. I needed to be able to do more.
Andrea my wife had heard about electric bikes before, but having experimented briefly, they had proven unsuccessful. Andrea forced me to keep looking, she knew it would be so good for me, and as usual, she was right. In 2010 I imported a great bike from the US, it was powerful and it had been customised to fit my needs. It was awesome. I could now ride with my boys and wife in Richmond park. I felt so much less debilitated.
After a while I got brave and started to ride occasionally to work in London. The frequency increased, and I found my leg was getting stronger, and of course I was getting fitter. It was slightly addictive.
In 2010, a friend and I decided we wanted to do something, raise money for cancer, we both knew people who had suffered, including my mother. We came up with a very ambitious idea. In 2011 we would both be 40 years old, so lets cycle from London to Monaco, and raise as much money we could. This was to be 1000 miles over 2 weeks. Very ambitious, but nonetheless a goal. Not long after we hatched this plan, my friend Jeremy, as fate would have it, was diagnosed with cancer himself.
Needless to say, this put our great opus on hold. We are over year later now and the great news is that Jeremy has completed his treatment, and is recovering very well. So, we have started hatching another plan. This time, however, we decided to be a touch more realistic about what we could actually achieve. We joined an event organized by The MacMillan Trust, riding from London to Paris. 500 kilometers over 4 days. It is still a big "ask", but with more concerted effort and training, we were sure we could do it, raising money for Cancer related charities.
In signing up for this, I had questions both about my own ability and that of the bike. The former, I could hopefully answer, but as for the latter, I had to go to the directly to the inventor of the bike I was using. He allayed my fears immediately.
The cycling increased, to almost everyday. I needed build up my strength, power and fitness. All was going super well, I had planned everything as well as could be.... then. The bike which had revolutionised my life, started to have some issues. We were now merely a few months out from the big ride, but I wasn't panicking, yet. The guys who made the bike were incredibly helpful, the whole way through, but unfortunately, they were 7 hours behind us, and I was losing a lot of training time. I needed to start to think about back up plans. Not doing the ride was not an option.
I came across Scott, Tim and Aaron from 50Cycles. One Saturday I went in to the store in Hampton Wick, merely to have a look. (Again another thing my wife made me do.) I clearly had very specific needs and requirements. But it had been several years since I had re-examined the new technology which was being developed in the electric bike arena. The Kalkhoffs were such a completely different animal to the one I was used to. Aaron fixed me up with several models just to take out for a run. I was amazed. The pedal assist technology was incredible. In my own ignorance I was completely unaware of it existence. This had been rectified. It was incredible. You could set how much assistance you wanted, it measured speed, distance, battery life. My only issue was that I had my own bike up and running again, and given how expensive my bike had been, it was hard to justify spending even more money on another bike, no matter how good it was. I thanked Aaron for his help and advice and went on my way.
But my thoughts kept coming back to this Kalkhoff, my own bike and its current very temperamental nature, and my forth coming adventure. I was still very nervous. So I took the bull by the horns, and decided to call Scott. In short I was being incredibly cheeky. I was asking for something for nothing. I had arranged with MacMillan, and the Ride organisers that I could bring a spare bike, given the relative uniqueness of my situation. But I needed to get the spare bike. It didn't take a huge amount of persuading, and Scott and Tim decided they would just lend me a bike to bring as my back up! I was very hopeful that I wouldn't need to use it. Indeed as I said, it was so different to my on bike, and all my training had been done on that, trying to ride such a huge distance on a completely different bike would pose a lot of problems.
Moving on, we were now on the ride. One of the support vans at all times was carrying the Kalkhoff Agattu C11 Premium Impulse, just in case. My own bike was beating all my own expectations. The ride was incredibly hard but great fun also. We were doing circa 100 miles a day for 4 days of hard slog, 90 odd people, working together with 1 ultimate goal. There were 6 guys in my crew. All was going well, just before the lunch stop on day 3, riding through Northern France, right into the teeth of a particularly punishing wind, it died. My bike gave up the ghost, inexplicably.. I got to the lunch stop, hoping I could repair it, but investigation showed a wire had snapped off a relay board. This was now outside of my comfort zone and not within my contingency planning. I sent the rest of my crew on to continue the trip. I decided the Kahkhoff had to be taken out. I now needed to know how far it would go, how long the battery would last, how long I could last on it. I had literally only cycled for 2 miles on it. On my bike I knew the answer to all those questions, but this was in the realm of the unknown. I removed the left pedal crank, got on it and started cycling. I decided I could only take it mile by mile.
I kept the bike in the lowest assistance setting, on the basis the battery would last longer. I was stunned. The bike just kept going, and going and...... going. It as relentless. On multiple occasions I was over taking normal riders. For the most part, though, I was alone. After 10 or so miles, the team leader called me to see if I wanted to be picked up by one of the vans, but I kept going. Mile by mile. There were times it was so hard, and I was going so slowly into that head wind, with some rain thrown in just to make it even more fun, that I decided that if I didn't laugh at the situation, I would cry. I kept going. The weakness was me, not the bike. That was unfaltering, constant, almost willing me along, giving me 100% confidence that it would get me there. And it didn't fail me, in anyway. The battery life alone was staggering, it just seemed endless, but I guess that is a function of the engine technology also. I didnt have an auxiliary battery for it, like I had for my bike. It was one battery and done for the day. But it got me home. The next day, on some particularly steep hills, it just dealt with them, everything I gave, it gave more. It got me to the Eiffel Tower, it got me to Paris, it helped me to achieve this goal that once seemed so far away. In many ways I was sad not to have completed the ride on my own bike, we had become almost symbiotic, but I was so proud to ride that Kalkhoff Steed down the Champs Elysee, along side my friends and fellow riders.
Tim and Scott had decided to help some guy they had never met before, with nothing in it for themselves. But in doing so they helped that guy achieve something amazing, and without them it would never have happened. Oh, for the record, the 6 of us together raise over £30,000 for Cancer Research.
If I hope anything comes from these few words, it is that people with physical disabilities like myself, find comfort in that anything is possible, specifically cycling, on one of these amazing bikes. It will help give you back some of your lost independence. Have a go and give Tim or Scott a call!!
Many Thanks to everyone at 50Cycles.
My Name is Paul, and I am disabled. I cannot bend my left leg an my right leg has reduced strength. In 1988, at the age of 16 I was in a severe road traffic accident. While initially being lucky to have survived, the damage to my legs was going to be life changing. After a year or so in hospital, having undergone nearly 30 operations, involving skeletal and vascular reconstruction, I was left with a fused left knee and a greatly weakened lower right leg, with inverted foot. Walking was, and still is particularly painful. For 22 years, I limited my physical activity to that which was wholly necessary. But, by now my world had changed, for the better; I was married with three active young sons. I needed to be able to do more.
Andrea my wife had heard about electric bikes before, but having experimented briefly, they had proven unsuccessful. Andrea forced me to keep looking, she knew it would be so good for me, and as usual, she was right. In 2010 I imported a great bike from the US, it was powerful and it had been customised to fit my needs. It was awesome. I could now ride with my boys and wife in Richmond park. I felt so much less debilitated.
After a while I got brave and started to ride occasionally to work in London. The frequency increased, and I found my leg was getting stronger, and of course I was getting fitter. It was slightly addictive.
In 2010, a friend and I decided we wanted to do something, raise money for cancer, we both knew people who had suffered, including my mother. We came up with a very ambitious idea. In 2011 we would both be 40 years old, so lets cycle from London to Monaco, and raise as much money we could. This was to be 1000 miles over 2 weeks. Very ambitious, but nonetheless a goal. Not long after we hatched this plan, my friend Jeremy, as fate would have it, was diagnosed with cancer himself.
Needless to say, this put our great opus on hold. We are over year later now and the great news is that Jeremy has completed his treatment, and is recovering very well. So, we have started hatching another plan. This time, however, we decided to be a touch more realistic about what we could actually achieve. We joined an event organized by The MacMillan Trust, riding from London to Paris. 500 kilometers over 4 days. It is still a big "ask", but with more concerted effort and training, we were sure we could do it, raising money for Cancer related charities.
In signing up for this, I had questions both about my own ability and that of the bike. The former, I could hopefully answer, but as for the latter, I had to go to the directly to the inventor of the bike I was using. He allayed my fears immediately.
The cycling increased, to almost everyday. I needed build up my strength, power and fitness. All was going super well, I had planned everything as well as could be.... then. The bike which had revolutionised my life, started to have some issues. We were now merely a few months out from the big ride, but I wasn't panicking, yet. The guys who made the bike were incredibly helpful, the whole way through, but unfortunately, they were 7 hours behind us, and I was losing a lot of training time. I needed to start to think about back up plans. Not doing the ride was not an option.
I came across Scott, Tim and Aaron from 50Cycles. One Saturday I went in to the store in Hampton Wick, merely to have a look. (Again another thing my wife made me do.) I clearly had very specific needs and requirements. But it had been several years since I had re-examined the new technology which was being developed in the electric bike arena. The Kalkhoffs were such a completely different animal to the one I was used to. Aaron fixed me up with several models just to take out for a run. I was amazed. The pedal assist technology was incredible. In my own ignorance I was completely unaware of it existence. This had been rectified. It was incredible. You could set how much assistance you wanted, it measured speed, distance, battery life. My only issue was that I had my own bike up and running again, and given how expensive my bike had been, it was hard to justify spending even more money on another bike, no matter how good it was. I thanked Aaron for his help and advice and went on my way.
But my thoughts kept coming back to this Kalkhoff, my own bike and its current very temperamental nature, and my forth coming adventure. I was still very nervous. So I took the bull by the horns, and decided to call Scott. In short I was being incredibly cheeky. I was asking for something for nothing. I had arranged with MacMillan, and the Ride organisers that I could bring a spare bike, given the relative uniqueness of my situation. But I needed to get the spare bike. It didn't take a huge amount of persuading, and Scott and Tim decided they would just lend me a bike to bring as my back up! I was very hopeful that I wouldn't need to use it. Indeed as I said, it was so different to my on bike, and all my training had been done on that, trying to ride such a huge distance on a completely different bike would pose a lot of problems.
Moving on, we were now on the ride. One of the support vans at all times was carrying the Kalkhoff Agattu C11 Premium Impulse, just in case. My own bike was beating all my own expectations. The ride was incredibly hard but great fun also. We were doing circa 100 miles a day for 4 days of hard slog, 90 odd people, working together with 1 ultimate goal. There were 6 guys in my crew. All was going well, just before the lunch stop on day 3, riding through Northern France, right into the teeth of a particularly punishing wind, it died. My bike gave up the ghost, inexplicably.. I got to the lunch stop, hoping I could repair it, but investigation showed a wire had snapped off a relay board. This was now outside of my comfort zone and not within my contingency planning. I sent the rest of my crew on to continue the trip. I decided the Kahkhoff had to be taken out. I now needed to know how far it would go, how long the battery would last, how long I could last on it. I had literally only cycled for 2 miles on it. On my bike I knew the answer to all those questions, but this was in the realm of the unknown. I removed the left pedal crank, got on it and started cycling. I decided I could only take it mile by mile.
I kept the bike in the lowest assistance setting, on the basis the battery would last longer. I was stunned. The bike just kept going, and going and...... going. It as relentless. On multiple occasions I was over taking normal riders. For the most part, though, I was alone. After 10 or so miles, the team leader called me to see if I wanted to be picked up by one of the vans, but I kept going. Mile by mile. There were times it was so hard, and I was going so slowly into that head wind, with some rain thrown in just to make it even more fun, that I decided that if I didn't laugh at the situation, I would cry. I kept going. The weakness was me, not the bike. That was unfaltering, constant, almost willing me along, giving me 100% confidence that it would get me there. And it didn't fail me, in anyway. The battery life alone was staggering, it just seemed endless, but I guess that is a function of the engine technology also. I didnt have an auxiliary battery for it, like I had for my bike. It was one battery and done for the day. But it got me home. The next day, on some particularly steep hills, it just dealt with them, everything I gave, it gave more. It got me to the Eiffel Tower, it got me to Paris, it helped me to achieve this goal that once seemed so far away. In many ways I was sad not to have completed the ride on my own bike, we had become almost symbiotic, but I was so proud to ride that Kalkhoff Steed down the Champs Elysee, along side my friends and fellow riders.
Tim and Scott had decided to help some guy they had never met before, with nothing in it for themselves. But in doing so they helped that guy achieve something amazing, and without them it would never have happened. Oh, for the record, the 6 of us together raise over £30,000 for Cancer Research.
If I hope anything comes from these few words, it is that people with physical disabilities like myself, find comfort in that anything is possible, specifically cycling, on one of these amazing bikes. It will help give you back some of your lost independence. Have a go and give Tim or Scott a call!!
Many Thanks to everyone at 50Cycles.
