What a few days, Spotted John in Medstead on a loaned Raleigh Dover, Meet Mike in Harwell (although that was a planned meeting) and then yesterday met Richard in Evans in Guilford! ..Electric bikes seem to be everywhere! ..

EVANS 007 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

In Leicester spotted:

 

Izip Downtown

 

quite a few powabykes Euros

 

izip stepthrough

 

a pair of giants in nearby loughborough

 

a homemade assisted Recumbent bike I think you'd call it, the owner was using his hands to power this not peddling with his feet I wish I'd have asked if I could have taken a picture of this, hopefully see the chap in Watermead park again.

 

 

Most of the time I spot pedelecs when I'm in the car though so don't get a chance to have a chat.

I see quite few electric bikes in Miton Keynes now, more often than not coming in the opposite direction, so engaging in conversation is not possible as they have usually passed by the time I have spotted the battery or motor.

 

Occasionally I will shout a friendly "you are electric", this has the effect of making them speed up, I can only assume they think I am a nutter:rolleyes:

 

Any suggestions for a greeting a fellow electric biker welcome;)

I see quite few electric bikes in Miton Keynes now, more often than not coming in the opposite direction, so engaging in conversation is not possible as they have usually passed by the time I have spotted the battery or motor.

 

Occasionally I will shout a friendly "you are electric", this has the effect of making them speed up, I can only assume they think I am a nutter:rolleyes:

 

Any suggestions for a greeting a fellow electric biker welcome;)

I would follow them, wait till they stop and then pounce. I'll do my best to capture the technique on video next time I'm stalking the streets! ..

I worked out how to see more electric bikes, I slow down. I'm trying to get my excercise right so I'm having a lazy few days to let my body recover properly, the second day I tried this I got overtaken on a steep hill by something with a bottle battery. I don't think he spotted what I was riding (load of luggage) so I saw some puzzled looks as I matched his speed the rest of the way up the hill.

I have seen quite a lot of e bikes out and about recently. I was cycling in the countryside the other day in the Meon valley in Hampshire, i was just finsihing the ascent up Winchester Hill our local equivalent of Alpe D,uez !!!!! and standing on the top at the end of the climb was a gentleman on a Freego Kingfisher, we had a good chat for a while. I told him about the Forum.

There are definitely three or four + self around here in Bath. Congestion is terrible in this city which never envisioned the motor car, but it is also very hilly (a scoop of honey in a green bowl, as the man said) so I would expect the take-up of ebikes to increase more than somewhat in the coming months & years. It's the way forward...

I would follow them, wait till they stop and then pounce. I'll do my best to capture the technique on video next time I'm stalking the streets! ..

 

Your defiently verging on the side of stalker. Espcially with the camera's...

 

 

On another note - I've seen one. As I leave birmingham and commute out I see lots of other bikes flowing in with the traffic towards birmingham. None really going in the same direction. However mostly work commuters and a couple of Lycra's.

 

The one time I did see a MTB Juicy bike was on Tuesday this week gonig past a Tesco's around Hockley.

I think there actually on this forum and on the map though.

We ought to be seeing lots of Ebikes judging by the websites that tell you `out of stock `. Batribike recently had only 2 of 8 models in stock , A.S Bikes of Coventry are off for a few weeks as they have no bikes to sell . Woosh have run out of Scirrocos but Tonaros seem to be supplying everyone on the Forum .Is that because they have correctly anticipated the demand or do the others only keep low stocks and do the `just in time` thing with their orders ?

Edited June 2, 201114 yr by RoadieRoger

Well so far I haven't seen another one at all - even though there is an excellent, and heavily used cycleway (the Derwent Walk-part of the C2C) down through the Derwent Valley near where I live. There are lots of cyclists who commute between Consett and Tyneside using this route and it is a very popular route for recreational riders as well.. Mind you I tend not be out when cyclists would be commuting, far too early in the day for me, so I couldn't claim to be well informed anyway.

It would be interesting to see some industry figures on sales vs Last year on units to see if the market is demanding more.

 

The fact they ran out of stock could be to poor planning. We have also had a very mild april and the weather is picking up again this week. All these will contribute to more people venturing into Ebikes.

 

Not to mention the ever rising petrol / diesel cost.

 

Are there any industry sales on cycles that are open to the public ?

I've found this link:

Bike Europe - Facts & Figures - Market Reports: <b>United Kingdom 2010: </b>Storming Year for the UK Bike Trade

which gives a generic view of bikes sales up to 2010 but no great details of electric bikes other than to say sales had not taken off contrary to expectations. Scroll down to the last paragraph for further comment. Maybe 2011 will be the year!

 

There's some interesting comment on the Cycle to Work scheme as well.