SuStainable SolutionS September 2008
50
TRANSPORT
Getting the extra
'oomph' on your bike
in Holland, electric bikes have 6% of the cycling market. are they set to win the uK
market? Geraldine Faulkner reports on the launch of a new product.
51
SuStainable SolutionS September 2008
TRANSPORT
ed up with being a lardie?
Keen to do your bit for the
environment by getting your
bike out of the shed and using
it to commute to work, but worried you're
(literally) going to let yourself and your bike
tires down?
Fret no more. unless you are a hard-
core macho man or woman who insists on
pedal power only, power-assisted bicycles
or electric bikes are the way forward. And
before the petrol heads among you start
to scoff, no, we're not talking about those
annoying high-pitched mopeds or scooters.
An electric bike is simply a bicycle with a
small motor to give the rider an extra 'hand'.
Okay, so they have been associated with
the elderly in the past, but there are a number
of reasons why electric bikes are currently
enjoying a surge of popularity in the uK and
in european countries like Holland.
For a start, you don't need a driving
licence, insurance, MOT costs or road tax
to use one, and best of all, when riding a
power-assisted bike, you don't need to break
out into a sweat and turn up at the office all
hot and bothered.
essentially, electric bikes give you the
option to have that 'oomph' to get up a slope,
hill or extra mile when your leg muscles start
to burn.
Nor are power-assisted bikes new to the
market. They've been around in Britain for
around eight years.
However, with the dramatic hike in
fuel costs, electric bike manufacturers are
obviously keen to pitch their products as eco-
friendly, particularly when they believe they've
cracked the biggest problem of power-assisted
bikes, namely, the dead weight of the lead acid
batteries that powered them when they were
first launched on to the market.
A British electric bike company called
PowaCycle has introduced the first in its