©Daniel Simon/Westend61/Corbis
Cycling is a great way to get around and stay fit at the same time. It’s economical too – you supply all the energy yourself. There are days when that’s not as much fun as it should be though. Whether you’ve mixed up your ambitions with your abilities on a long track, or bought too much at the shops, sometimes there are some real aches setting in by the time you make it home. That’s when you wish you had an engine stashed away somewhere to give you a bit of a break or help you up the final hill (is it just me, or does every cycle trip seem to end with a steep slope?) Good news – now you can have one.
Electric bikes aren’t new. The first one was patented in 1897. They never really went anywhere though – in more ways than one. Electric motors are simple enough but there was a big problem with battery power. If you wanted to store enough juice to get more than a few hundred yards the weight of the batteries quickly got too much for the bike to carry, so their performance was so limited there wasn’t really any point. That all changed when lithium ion batteries became affordable – they pack a lot more energy into less bulk and weight, so finally a bike can carry enough power to really get somewhere.
Modern electric bikes have conventional gears, with a compact electric motor built into the front hub. That lets you pedal normally, with the option of switching to electric power when you want a break or you’re facing a long slope. Some of them let you keep pedalling to add your own power to the motor. The rechargeable battery is integrated into the frame and is usually recharged with mains power, although some can be topped up with solar panels. The latest technology is regenerative braking, where the motor’s inertia is used to slow the bike before the brake pads engage and the electricity this produces is fed back into the battery. That doesn’t just extend the life of your brake pads; it increases the range of the bike as well.
The range of an electric bike varies depending on the battery capacity, the slopes you’re going up and the weight of the bike and rider, as well as aerodynamics. A good average seems to be 7km going uphill on battery power to 70km with the motor just used for occasional assistance, but that can vary a lot between models. It’s also increasing every year as the technology advances. Of course unlike an electric car you’re not stuck if the battery goes flat unexpectedly; you can just cycle home normally (although there’s still that last hill to climb…)
As well as the standard front wheel drive models there are some rear wheel drive ones coming out now. These get round one of the things that bothers some cyclists with front wheel drive – the bike handles differently when the front wheel is being driven. That can take some getting used to, and I came close to falling off a couple of times the first time I tried an electric bike. By using the motor to drive the rear wheel through modified gears the handling goes back to something very close to pedal power, so you’re a lot less likely to give yourself a painful surprise first time you come to a sharp corner.
Front wheel drive does have one big advantage though. If you’re basically happy with the bike you already have,but want electric power, you can buy a conversion kit and fit it yourself. These are pretty simple – a new front hub with the motor inside provides the power, a battery gets fitted somewhere convenient – usually either in a pannier or in a holder strapped to the frame – and a control unit mounted on the handlebars lets you work it all. The cost of a conversion kit is a lot less than a full electric bike – in fact you can get a decent new bike as well and still save money – and it really is easy to fit them. Adding electric power to my old town bike took less than an hour and, amazingly, everything worked first time. It’s the same old bike as it always was, but now if I’m flagging a bit on the hills I just turn on the motor and keep going.
Everything electronic seems to get better by the month, but electric bikes are good enough right now. They don’t take away any of the fun you get from a good bike, and they add a whole lot of possibilities of their own. Cycling is great exercise but there are times when I feel I’ve overdone it a bit. With my electric motor hopefully there won’t be as many of those from now on.
