by Sara Darling
There’s something quite refreshing about zipping along the promenade with the wind in your hair on a lean, mean electric bicycle machine, and that is what I have been doing for the past three weeks!
Fully equipped with my flowery helmet, to protect me from the high speeds I was anticipating, I was quite looking forward to tackling the terrain on the Fly bike from E-Trend. Arriving in a man size cardboard box, this nifty little fold away number gave a whole lot more welly than it looked like it should!
Thankfully I am not commuting up and down to London or on and off trains on a daily basis, so once I had secured the click clack frame into lock mode, my bike was a permanent fixture ready to ride away (ensuring that it was topped up with electricity first). Four hours charge to the lithium ion battery provides 36v of assisted power to the 250-watt motor, allowing for lots of short, nippy journeys around the city- arriving quicker than you would in a car!
A tad erm, mature for an e-scooter, I had always fancied bombing around on something fancy (that is not a car so I can do my bit for the environment). My Fly bike certainly ticked the ergonomic box and the matt black design made me feel like Knightrider – albeit on two wheels!
Learning all about the world of pedelic (pedal electric cycle), the electric motor only provides support when you pedal yourself- so if you don’t pedal, you’re not going to move- there is no such thing as an easy ride! In fact pedal free cycling would turn your machine into a moped, which is a different kettle of fish. Powered by a modest motor of 250w was perfect for me as a newbie, and meant I could use bike lanes without cheating. You can definitely cruise in open spaces, as the clever sensor tells the battery to kick in to support your legs when needed, which was a godsend on windy days on the seafront, and extremely useful considering all of Brighton’s hills! Interestingly, there is a minimum age of 14, so perhaps it is the next step up in the world of e-transport…?
Traffic is notoriously bad in Brighton, and if you’re a driver and have ever felt frustrated with traffic lights or parking or what you’re doing to the planet, I would highly recommend an e-bike to zip around town. The model I tried would get me up to Rottingdean and back on a full charge from Seven Dials- it was touch or go whether I would make it up the hills on the homeward leg without running out of juice but I did!
Perfectly designed for someone to whizz up to their workplace, this foldable bike means that you can halve its size, remove the seat and take the power pack out for storage/transportation- my advice would be to keep the charger with you though as you don’t want to be caught short on your journey home.
Buy yours here www.e-trends.co.uk