Five seconds into this week’s review, I knew I was onto something that could change my life. Or it might have been four seconds.
That’s two seconds for the electric motor to kick in on the e-bike I was pedalling, and another two or three seconds for my brain to kick in and process what had just happened.
Here I was, pedalling up a steep(ish) hill on a bicycle, and it was like I was riding on flat ground. Here I was, pedalling up a hill with the sure and certain knowledge that, for the first time in my adult life, I wouldn’t feel like puking when I got to the top.
In the two seconds it took for the little motor to kick in, and the two or three seconds that followed, I calculated I would be able to commute to and from work every day, more or less free of charge, taking the safe route I have hitherto avoideddue to its steep hill and my usual, aforementioned desire to puke at the top of it. What’s more, I would be able to get to work on a bicycle and not need to sit in front of a desk fan cooling down for the first 40 minutes of my working day.
Oh my!
This week’s review is of an electric bicycle known as the Reptila 1000, made by the Hungarian bicycle maker, Gepida. But really, due to this being our first ever review of an e-bike, it’s about e-bikes in general, and about how they could change your life too, especially if you’re someone who has always wanted to ride to work but lives either a little too far away or in too hilly an area for it to become a daily habit.
The Reptila 1000 has a 250 watt Bosch electric motor attached to its pedals, which combines with the unspecified watts generated by your legs to positively power you up hills. Now, 250 watts isn’t a lot of power – it’s about the equivalent of a 4cc petrol engine – but it’s the legal limit for a bicycle in most Australian states and in Europe and, in the case of the centrally located Bosch engine, it’s enough to get you up a reasonably steep (15 degree) hill at 15km/h or so, according to our tests, without too much effort on your part.
Now, 15km/h isn’t all that fast, either, but it’s a hell of a lot faster than: a) creeping up the hill in top gear at 3km/h, so slow you can barely keep the bike upright; b) eventually having to get off and walk; your lungs are burning so muchand c) sitting at the top of the hill recovering for 15 minutes.
Which has been my usual experience with the hill in question. Compared with that, 15km/h is lightning fast. On the flat, though, the Reptila isn’t all that fast. The same laws that limit e-bike engines to 250 watts also limit their speed to 27km/h before the engine cuts out and you’re pedalling on your own on what is, in the case of the Reptila, a very heavy bicycle.
On more than one occasion in Sydney’s busy traffic, the engine cut out on me going up a slight incline at 27km/h when I would have been safer riding at about 35km/h. With the heavy bike, it was just too hard to pedal up to that safer speed. But even with that gripe, the e-bike still feels a lot less dangerous than a regular bicycle, if for no other reason than it allows you to choose the safest route, not just the flattest.
For me, that’s enough to change my entire approach to transport, and to living in a hilly city.
Because, really, that’s what was going through my head in those first seconds on an e-bike. At long last, I could live in Sydney and not wish I was living in Melbourne.
Source: http://www.afr.com/f/free/technology/digitallife/bike_experience_makes_living_easy_qEagiyqFMsOvV73kX6ziNL
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