Getting on your e-bike
After years of not riding, I thought jumping on a $5000 electric bike in a pair of heels was a recipe for disaster.
And it could have been. But I’m happy to say it wasn’t. In fact, it was almost life changing.
Over the coming months the New Plymouth District Council is holding e-bike tutorials to encourage safe and responsible riding as a part of their Let’s Go project, which aims to get people out of cars and moving under their own steam.
I went along to one of these tutorials to see what all the fuss about e-bikes was. Suddenly it seems everyone is into them. Sales of the zippy pedal-assisted bikes have gone up by 25 per cent in New Zealand in the last two years.
Blair Cox, of New Plymouth’s Mitchell Cycles, hosted the tutorial where he explained basic safety rules like watching speed, keeping left, wearing bright colours, having lights and being aware of the environment before we hit the road.
Cox said he has had a few close calls with e-bike riders on the city’s Coastal Walkway and wanted to help educate others on safe riding so that e-bikers didn’t get an undeserved reputation.
‘‘In the New Year where they do the rock sculptures, I was down there with my daughter and there was a heap of people.
‘‘And two elderly people on e-bikes just went wham through the crowd,’’ he said.
‘‘We know the challenges that the walkway creates for bikers, walkers and runners but it’s a greater challenge with e-bikes and I don’t want people to start saying lets get e-bikes off the foreshore.’’
E-bike riders Diane and Bryan Davis, Av and Dennis Wills and John and Judy Kelly came to the tutorial as well. They were there to learn a bit more about their two-wheeled vehicles before they hit the Otago Rail Trail and the Alps to Ocean trail in February.
Joining such a group confident e-bikers I felt massively out of my depth. I hadn’t managed to get on a bike in years and to jump on a bike that was not mine, that cost $5000 and could potentially reach high speeds meant I was ready to call it a day before we even started.
E-bikes are just like normal bikes but they have the added bonus of an electric motor that can assist you while you pedal. This makes getting up hills a breeze but it also means they can go quite fast with little effort.
Because of this I was nervous as I pulled onto the road but after a wobbly start the bike began to take control as it accelerated at each pedal.
My confidence quickly grew, as well as speed and being able to manoeuvre speed bumps and hills was a simple task.
Hitting the walkway, the only challenge was the amount of people that were using it from Fitzroy beach to Te Rewa Rewa Bridge. You have to have your wits about you.
Applying all the tips from Cox was necessary as there were so many people to manoeuvre around.
When we got back to where we started I didn’t want to say goodbye to the e-bike.
It really got me considering how I could use it to commute to and from work. If only it didn’t cost $5000.
You can get cheaper e-bikes online. A second hand one might only set you back $1000, which when looking at how much petrol I will save, is a bargain.
But it’s still a bit much for me at this stage.
So for now I am only walking (not biking) away with helmet hair and a glimpse of an extremely efficient and enjoyable way to get around.