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MY RELATIONSHIP with cycling has been complicated – I both love it and hate it almost at the same time. I love the freedom of feeling weightless and flying through the streets as mere mortal pedestrians plod on, held back by gravity.
But I hate it when I feel that gravity myself, as I pedal furiously uphill in the rain to travel at pedestrian pace.
So when I heard about the innovation of electric bikes, I was intrigued. Could they give us the best of both worlds?
E-bikes are not new, but the technology that powers them is evolving all the time. And now they’re more or less ready for the big time.
In fact, the man in the bike shop in Manchester that had the good grace to lend me an e-bike to test this week, Harry Hall Cycles, says they’re selling a lot of them. Mainly to older people who have maybe never cycled before, or are looking to get back into it after some time away.
I’ve been riding a Pulse hybrid bike from Volt, a UK manufacturer of e-bikes that is going from strength to strength.
It makes a wide range of bikes f – from folding commuter bikes, through to hybrids that are best on the road but can also tackle some light off-road surfaces, right up to fat-tyred mountain bikes.
The Pulse I rode is a hybrid, and one of the best-sellers in the range.
And the time I spent with it was an absolute joy – the power system, built by a company called SpinTech, is considerably more sophisticated than I had imagined, and helped me fly when I should have been labouring.
The battery-powered system has three levels of assistance (low, medium and high), as well as an auto mode that monitors your riding and seeks to inject power when it thinks you need it. You can also turn the system off altogether and ride like a conventional bike – the continuous-spin motor ensures there is no drag if you do that.
There’s a handy handlebarmounted LCD control panel that allows you to switch between modes, and monitor speed and distance.
The motor will help you up to 15.5mph with hardly any effort at all – on the flat your biggest problem is likely to be slower cyclists looming up in front of you more quickly than you might like.
Under the LCD screen is a little thumb-lever than you can press to get a little power boost at any time – very useful indeed when getting away from junctions and traffic lights.
But it’s on the hills where the Pulse really comes into its own – the dreaded heavy calves and burning thighs simply never come. Which means you are much more likely to get on this bike in the first place, and keep going back to it for your commute time and time again.
It offers all the fun and none of the pain of conventional cycling, yet you are still getting a workout of sorts while also enjoying the clearing of the head a ride can bring.
It’s all down to the level of confidence that motor gives – confidence that you can get where you’re going without too much fuss, to hear heavy rain in the background as you work.
The noise helps you focus because it drowns out other more distracting sounds.
There are lots of sounds to choose from – the regular “white noise” of radio static makes an appearance, as do other more unusual background noises.
You like to sleep with the sound confidence you can get away from trouble with a little power boost, confidence that the battery will last (80 miles on a single charge) and confidence the bike will handle it if you go off-road and down the canal tow-path (where the front suspension will come in very handy).
It is, in short, a whole lot of fun – you know the feeling you get when you walk down one of those moving walkways in the airport and you’re travelling a lot faster than you should? It’s like that.
The word “boost” has never been more appropriate.
In fact, the only drawback with the bike only hits you when you’re not riding it – it’s very heavy. 23.7kg with the battery. That can’t be helped with technology as it is, but that’s advancing all the time.
Which is why it isn’t hard to imagine these things being ever-more common on our streets over the next few years as we try to move away from burning things to get around. It’s a future I, for one, am looking forward to.
THE Volt Pulse hybrid e-bike costs from £1,599. To find out more about Volt e-bikes visit voltbikes.co.uk
THE full range of Volt e-bikes are available at Harry Hall Cycles, 67 Whitworth Street, Manchester M1 5WQ. 0161 236 5699. harryhallcycles.co.uk. of an aeroplane interior mid-flight? That’s no problem.
You grew up next to a train line and the sound of engines passing by helps you relax? You can have that, too.
The app is customisable in a way – you can change the colour scheme and icon – but also offers more useful features, like a timer, a widget for easy access, and a place to collect your favourite sounds.
The developer also promises more features are coming soon – so this is not an app that’s going to take your money then disappear.
APPLE AIRPODS GO PRO
FOLLOWING on from the release of its stellar new iPhones, Apple has updated its wireless earphones with the awkwardly-named AirPods Pro, bringing a wealth of new features – not least a snugger fit with a choice of three sizes of silicone tips (useful for people with mutant ears like me who can’t use regular AirPods because they just fall out).
That new fit also allows the new active noise cancellation, to prevent external sound polluting your tunes.
An outward-facing mic listens to what’s going on around you, and the earphones produce “an equivalent anti-noise” to cancel it out.
Even more other-worldly – the AirPods Pro have Adaptive EQ, which actually alters the low-and midfrequencies of the sounds being delivered according to the shape of the listener’s ear.
There is, of course, an option to turn the noise cancellation off in situations where you might like to hear what’s going on – listening to train announcements, or staying safe close to traffic, for example.
This mode, which Apple calls Transparency, is activated by a little squeeze on the stem of the AirPod – the “force sensor” there is also used for answering calls and skipping tracks.
Inside, there is a powerful chip that handles the noise cancellation, and also powers Siri, which is accessed by a simple voice command and can be used for all the things Siri can do, as well as controlling audio volume.
Battery life is good, with 4.5hrs on a single charge, up to 24hrs of listening via the charging case (which is compatible with Qi chargers), and an hour’s listening on just a five-minute quick charge.
All this, of course, comes at a price. Available now, the AirPods
Pro cost £249. The standard
AirPods are still available at £199 with a wireless charging case, and £149 with a regular charging case.