How to get cycling again: one couple’s cautious route into e-bikes
It’s not easy buying an electric bike.
What to buy? What’s the difference between a cheap Chinese machine and their more expensive European counterparts?
Add to that a general lack of understanding of what’s legal, what’s not legal.. and what about licences, insurance, helmets? Battery types and myriads of other technical details make the decision-making hard enough. But when mentioned to partners, family and friends, all similarly uninformed, but all believing they’re ‘not proper cycling’, the glimmer of interest can soon be lost.
What follows is a summary of my route into electric bikes and what I’m still finding out along the way, hoping it might help someone completely new to the subject.
As far as I go, I always used to cycle regularly and have had several good MTBs and road bikes, but at 50 I found I was no longer riding frequently, with most trips being made by car or the motorcycle if the weather was fine. My wife, Anne, once a keen rider, also found herself cycling less over recent years and followed suit in climbing more into the car or onto a motorbike.
Living three miles from the nearest shop and feeling that local trips are both more suited to and enjoyable by bicycle however, I felt electric bikes might have a place in my life...
Read the full story here:
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/news/cycling-again-couples-cautious-route-e-bikes/
Our thanks to Kev and Anne for their time in sharing their story to pass on what they've learnt so far.
It’s not easy buying an electric bike.
What to buy? What’s the difference between a cheap Chinese machine and their more expensive European counterparts?
Add to that a general lack of understanding of what’s legal, what’s not legal.. and what about licences, insurance, helmets? Battery types and myriads of other technical details make the decision-making hard enough. But when mentioned to partners, family and friends, all similarly uninformed, but all believing they’re ‘not proper cycling’, the glimmer of interest can soon be lost.
What follows is a summary of my route into electric bikes and what I’m still finding out along the way, hoping it might help someone completely new to the subject.
As far as I go, I always used to cycle regularly and have had several good MTBs and road bikes, but at 50 I found I was no longer riding frequently, with most trips being made by car or the motorcycle if the weather was fine. My wife, Anne, once a keen rider, also found herself cycling less over recent years and followed suit in climbing more into the car or onto a motorbike.
Living three miles from the nearest shop and feeling that local trips are both more suited to and enjoyable by bicycle however, I felt electric bikes might have a place in my life...
Read the full story here:
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/news/cycling-again-couples-cautious-route-e-bikes/
Our thanks to Kev and Anne for their time in sharing their story to pass on what they've learnt so far.
