Once considered the reserve of the frail and elderly, we believe there’s never been a more exciting time to hop on an electric bike and blast up the biggest hill you can find.
With slicker, smoother technology than ever before, and some truly beautiful e-bike designs (such as that of the Whyte Coniston), you’ll be seeing a lot more of these around in the very near future.
Why? Because apart from anything, they’re really, really fun (see blog: I’m a fit young lad who owns an electric bicycle). So we’re inviting you to swing by one of our shops to try one out whenever suits you, or book ahead to take one home for a couple of days.
Be the first to have a go. The revolution might be motorised.
ALL ELECTRIC BIKES
TAKE HOME AN ELECTRIC BIKE TO TRY OUT
E-BIKES: OUR FAVOURITE TWO FOR 2016
While we’ve been championing electric bikes at the Bike Co-op for the best part of 20 years, for spring 2016 we want to draw your attention to a couple of game changers – the latest e-bikes from Whyte and Giant .
GAME CHANGER #1
1. WHYTE CONISTON
The Whyte Coniston is one of the first bikes to take advantage of STEPS (Shimano Total Electric Power System). Shimano invested three years’ intensive R&D in the creation of STEPS before releasing it to selected bicycle manufacturers. Shimano are so confident of STEPS’ reliability, they back it with a 2-year warranty (a first for e-bikes, as far as we know).
When you add Whyte’s mastery of bike frame geometry and their knack for designing bikes made to withstand the worst of British weather (see our Why We Love Whyte blog), you’ll understand why we are confident that the Whyte Coniston is going to be the most reliable e-bike to date.
Even more important perhaps, the Whyte Coniston fulfils the e-bike promise of being a blast to ride. Its ability to get you up a steep hill at 24 KPH with minimal effort will have you thinking, ‘now that’s how if feels like to ride like a pro’.
A stand-out feature of the Coniston is that, automatic power assist aside, it rides more like a normal bike than any e-bike we’ve ever tested.
Proof of the pudding is the fact that the Whyte is the first e-bike bought by one of our own staff. Even more impressive, it wasn’t one of our old codgers like Mike or Ged who bought the Coniston. It was our achingly cool 30 year old webmaster, Simon, whose main motivation was to make his daily ride to work more congenial and so effort free, he no longer needs a shower after his 20K commute.
GAME CHANGER #2
2. GIANT ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN BIKES
Just as the Whyte Coniston rides like a Whyte Caledonian hybrid bike with free power assist, the Giant Dirt E+ is like a Giant Talon hardtail with extra oomph to make steep climbs almost as much fun as the downhills.
And to make the downhills even more of a blast, you’ve got to sample the Fox shock-equipped Giant Dirt Full E+ 1, which is every bit as able a full-susser as a Giant Anthem, but a lot less of a sweat, thanks to its Yamaha 80Nm torque motor – the smallest, lightest, quietest and highest power motor Giant have ever used on an e-bike.