My electric bike journey
Volunteer Ride Leader Alan Taylor shares his experience of getting introduced to e-bikes. If you’d like to try one check out the Bike Library at Lang Toun Cycles.
My background is that I have always cycled, ever since I was a toddler. I built my own first ‘real’ bike from parts of other bikes when I was twelve and once I started working I saved up to buy a ten-speed racer road bike, which I’d use to cycle all over Fife.
I must have travelled long distances without a thought, but I do remember once there was a strong headwind when cycling home which wasn’t much fun!
Many years passed, and I eventually progressed to a lightweight hybrid road bike, followed after a couple of years, a lightweight mountain bike. These were good fun, but somehow many years passed without really using them very much. I started to hear about electric bikes when they started to appear a few years ago, but I wasn’t interested enough to investigate further – probably as they were really expensive!
I started cycling with Greener Kirkcaldy on Sunday social rides about three years ago when I learned about an e-bike try-out event. I was a little nervous, but I signed up for it as I told myself it would be a good way to find out about these e-bike things!
Unfortunately the ride was cancelled but I was able to hire one of Greener Kirkcaldy’s e-Bikes for four weeks for free. This was brilliant! It took about three or four rides before I realised that you still had to be in the correct gear and have the appropriate motor assistance level selected but it was great fun! All of a sudden Kirkcaldy’s hills were no longer an obstacle to going out for a cycle!
Once the hire period was over, I decided that this was going to be the way forward for me. I researched bike magazines, through Which? consumer magazine and on YouTube. The consensus seemed to be that you decide which motor / battery / controller manufacturer you wanted, then looked for a bike manufacturer who used that system.
I wanted a mountain bike, and for me, the Trek Rail ticked all the boxes. The closest dealer is in Leuchars, and he offered me a test ride on one. He encouraged me to bump up kerbs, which was great until I went up one at an angle and the bike and I hit the pavement! Luckily the bike was ok, even if my knee wasn’t. However, I was soon sent off to Tentsmuir Forest to explore the trails and after that I was sold!
Once I got my own bike (the cheapest one in the range as they all used the same motor and battery) I found it to be amazing! It’s a real ‘go anywhere’ bike, just what I wanted. I still had to learn about being in the correct gear, but there is an automatic motor assistance level, which has a really natural feeling – just like having really strong legs.
I can travel roughly 45 miles on a full battery charge, which is more than enough for me. Even when the battery is flat it can be pedalled like an ordinary bike, albeit a really heavy one!
I’m so grateful to Greener Kirkcaldy for leading me on my electric bike journey. I see more and more electric bikes when I’m out cycling now. It’s definitely NOT cheating and if the weather is even half decent, I’m always out cycling again. Even headwinds now are no problem!
Alan Taylor, Volunteer Ride Leader
|