I picked it up the new e-bike last Saturday morning and road home from Saltaire via a combination of Hollin Hill, Escholt, Old Hollin Hill and Guisley. I still worked fairly hard but went up the hills at about 10 mph rather than my usual 4 mph on the steeper sections. I assume if I had used a lower gear and gone at my normal slow speed up these hills I would hardly have raised a sweat. As I had hoped, it also meant I got away from junctions and traffic lights quicker and smoother and therefore safer. I’m not able to get out of the saddle for faster acceleration or to get up steep sections of hills because of a knee injury I got many years ago from a motorcycling accident but the electric assist, especially on the sport and turbo modes does the same job for me. According to the control display if I ride it like I have so far (only a hilly 9 mile sample of course) the battery range will be 75 miles. This is better than I expected and means for less demanding terrain when I can stay in eco mode for most of the time I may even be able to get 100 miles, more than enough.

I’ve done two more rides since, a short one to friends Susie and Peter Saturday evening for a BBQ, about 3 miles and arrived fresh as a daisy despite the significant inclines on the way, and to the squash club Monday morning for a regular racketball session. I was very pleased with this as again there were significant hills and using only the eco mode and a touch of tourist mode on a steeper section I arrived in good shape to play.

My bike has the Active Line Plus motor which produces 50 Newton metre torque which I think is something under 2 horse power. The maximum power it an produce is 250 watts and this is used to increase the power I am producing by pedalling. This is provided as a percentage so in eco mode I get a 40% boost, tourist a 100% boost, sport 180% and turbo 270%. The maximum torque provided varies in each mode as well – 35, 40, 45 and 50 respectively. The maximum pedal revs the motor can operate at are 105 per minute which is plenty. However, there is a question about which is the optimum cadence for the motor to produce maximum torque.

So, if I’m producing 100 watts at the pedals (pretty comfortable for me) then in eco mode this is increased to 140 watts, tourist mode 200 watts, sport 280 watts and in turbo mode 370 watts. This is why riding the e-bike makes you feel, in my case, 45 years younger!