Bianchi Impulso E-road £4,000 | 12.89kg

Rupert Radley’s pedal-assisted commute puts him on a power trip

“A quick pedal had me darting around and between cars”

First things first, I’m something of an e-bike newbie, but that doesn’t mean I’m anti e-bikes. I can see their benefits quite clearly: non-sweaty commuting and injury rehabilitation are just two that spring to mind. I took the former to the very max and commuted the 75km from our Farnborough offices to my home in London, backpack, laptop and all.

On this mega commute, I learnt a lot about e-bikes. Like how, if you ride over the 25kph threshold they just become REALLY heavy, or how the acceleration is so powerful you feel like you’re sliding off your seat.

So, it’s a very big bike and an extremely heavy one too, weighing in at 12.89kg without the battery.

That battery takes around four hours to charge when plugged into the mains and lasts an impressively long time. I rode my 75km at assistance level four out of five and only lost a nugget of battery life. On these higher levels the accelaration from 0kph is quicker and it gives you greater assistance up to and at 25kph. Up front, there’s a dashboard that shows your battery life, trip distance or current/average speed.

An e-bike’s motor unit only gives assistance up to 25kph, which is amazing on steep hills and you’ll be (illegally) snatching Koms all over the place. However, beyond that point it just becomes a heavy bike. I found that it rocketed up to speed very nicely depending on what level of assistance you set, but after that it was almost impossible to push the speed above 27kph.

After about 15 of my 75km I started riding very differently. Instead of pushing to ride at around 30kph, I instead learnt to feather the gas around 24kph for constant assistance. It made the ride slower, but a lot easier.

On the downhills the additional weight really works to your advantage. With the Polini unit sitting under the bottom bracket, it weights the bike very nicely for descending, picking up momentum really quickly and feeling really stable at speed.

Weaving through the London traffic, the benefits of motorised acceleration became clear. A quick pedal had me darting safely around and between cars and moving through gaps I previously would never have been able to make. Push the assistance levels up and the Impulso had me darting off the line faster than the rest of the traffic. If I was commuting in London, I’d consider getting an e-bike for this reason.