I recently hired an e-bike for the month of October have had been testing it out to see how it meets my various different cycling needs.
Aberdour Climate Action Network (ACAN) had arranged with Lang Toun Cycles and Greenery Kirkcaldy for a demonstration of a range of e-bikes. Anyone could come along to Aberdour and try out any of the e-bikes along a traffic free stretch of our local cycle path, including mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, town bikes and folding bikes.
I had originally gone along just to support the event, but whilst there I discovered that I could hire an electric mountain bike (eMTB) for £70 for an entire month and use it anywhere in the UK. To give an idea of how much of a bargain this is, my husband and son go mountain biking a lot and it would usually cost £70-100 per day to hire a full suspension eMTB.
Fife Easy E-bikes
Easy by name and easy by nature. It was a very easy process to hire the bike – I booked the bike online on the Thursday evening, then turned up at Langtoun Cycles on the Friday morning at 10am and collected the bike. It was fully charged and came with a gold secure bike lock, charger and full set of rechargable lights. The staff explained the different settings on the control panel and I was off and running……well, pedalling.
Commuting – using an ebike as an EV
The bike ride home from Kirkcaldy (8.8 miles) was very pleasant indeed. I stuck to the road from Kirkcaldy to Burntisland, then hopped on the off-road cycle path along the coast to Aberdour. That is probably the best thing about bikes – the freedom and flexibility to choose the route.
A week or so later I used the bike to cycle from Aberdour to Coorie by the Coast in Limekilns (11.5 miles) to meet a friend for lunch and I used it a few times to commute to work in North Queensferry (7.8 miles) and for doing some shopping at the supermarket in Dalgety Bay (3.5 miles).
More miles, more often, more fun!
I have to say that in each case if I hadn’t had the bike I would have driven for all of these journeys. Although I’ve been cycling for decades my level of fitness isn’t what it used to be and the thought of doing these journeys on my non-electric bike would just have put me off. It would have taken too long, I’d have been out of breath and sweaty and have too much heavy stuff to carry on my normal bike. I just don’t have the fitness or confidence for a lot of the journeys that I used to do. Having the e-bike meant that I was happier to cycle further, carry heavier loads and not be put off by steep hills.
More savings, less emissions
Let’s imagine a daily commute of 10 miles, giving a round trip of 20 miles. An average car that gives 25 miles per gallong would produce 1,300 kg of CO2 for this commute. Even when accounting for the emissions produced from the electricity generation to charge the e-bike that 10-mile daily commute would result in roughly 100 grams of CO2, which is less than 40 kg of CO2 for entire year….less than 3% of the cars emissions. And this is just the energy used to charge the bike/fuel the car, not the embedded energy used to make and maintain them.
Compared to a car, the ebike is so cheap to run. The 400Wh battery costs around 10p to charge and can give up to 50 miles depending on how you much you use the battery. From a cost point of view that commute would cost the cyclist 20p/week, or £10/year. Taking a rate of 7 miles per pound for a petrol Ford Fiesta (from Parkers guide) that would be £714 per year for fuel…..1.5% of the fuel costs without even talking about insurance, road tax or maintenance. I have a Renault Zoe that Parkers estimates gives 11 miles per pound so even driving that would be £454/year for this commute.
More exercise
Contrary to popular belief riding an ebike is not effortless. The ebike has a range of settings, including eco, tour and turbo. As the bike I hired had a Bosch battery it also had an eMTB setting where the power output of the battery adjusted itself automatically which I really loved. The different settings mean that you can get as much or as little exercise as you like. No matter what the setting you still have to move the pedals to get the battery to work. The different settings just change how much of a boost the battery gives you. I kept the bike in eco or eMTB mode almost all the time so I was still getting plenty of high intensity exercise. If I was on a steep or long hill then I’d increase the power to turbo for that extra bit of assist.
More confidence
The one bonus that I hadn’t expected from the e-bike was that it gave me much more confidence to cycle on the roads, possibly because I could maintain enough speed to not cause a build up of impatient drivers who then take stupid risks to overtake. I’m also lucky to be living in Fife where traffic isn’t too bad.
Off Road/cycle paths
Why did I end up on the roads on not the cycle paths? Rule 101 of designing safe traffic management systems is to separate pedestrians from vehicles. Bikes are vehicles. They need to be separate from pedestrians.
I can’t think of any cycle paths in Scotland that aren’t shared by pedestrians and it’s ridiculous to think that painting a white line down the middle is going to keep pedestrians out of the cycle lane. It is human nature, and it has been my experience over the last month of cycling, that when people go out for a walk with their friends and families and dogs that they walk side-by-side, sometimes 4-5 people abreast as they want to be able to talk to each other. They don’t walk single file. They often have dogs either off the lead altogether or on extendable leads that can be like a trip wire stretched across the entire width of the path. Those who are out walking on their own often wear headphones and don’t hear a cyclist ringing their bell no matter how often or how loud.
To be fair to the pedestrians and dog walkers, most people are very considerate and will try to move to the side and to call their dog to their side if they see or hear a bike coming. However, on a busy path it can be very frustrating for both sides. Cyclists become frustrated at having to slow right down and weave their way in and out of pedestrians and dogs, or having to stop altogether to cross road after road. Walkers become frustrated at having to constantly move to the side and often feel that the cyclists are travelling too fast. They’re probably right, but that’s because cyclists and pedestrians should be kept apart as we do for every other vehicle…….and I think that’s probably the end of that rant!
The other problem I discovered with the cycle paths is the lack of maintenance and poor signage. I had intended taking the cycle path home from Kirkcaldy when I first hired the bike, but missed the sign and ended up on the road so carried on. When I cycled to Limekilns I found myself on a cycle path (route 76 from the A985 down to the shore) that was so bumpy from tree roots. I was glad it was an eMTB I’d hired! This path is also full of blind bends where I could easily have ridden straight into anyone coming the other way. On the way back from Limekilns I again missed a sign and ended up lost in a housing estate and resorted to come back along the road. The A985 is a very busy and fast road but I still felt safer there than on the cycle path. (I should point out that I used to be a Sustrans ranger so it’s not that I’m against cycle paths, I’d just like useful ones).
Downhill mountain-biking
The main reason I hired the bike was to take it on a family holiday to ride the mountain bike trails at Bike Glenlivet. My son has a full suspension eMTB (from Ryans Bike Surgery in Inverkeithing) and my husband hired a full suspension e-bike from Bike Glenlivet for £70/day. I hired mine for £70/month – thank you Greener Kirkcaldy!
Why hire an eMTB rather than just use an acoustic (non electric) MTB? Because you can use the battery to do all the slog of climbing to the top of the slopes and save your energy for the fun downhill bits. The eMTB means you can probably do the downhills at least twice more than you can on a normal MTB….it’s a bit like having a ski-lift for skiing. If you’re less tired on the downhills you’re more in control, safer and probably more likely to try more adventurous tricks and increase your skill level.
The eMTB that I had hired from Lang Toun Cycles was a Lapierre Overvolt HT 5.4. This is a hardtail MTB which means it only has suspension on the front forks and not on the back.
I’m by no means an adventurous hard core downhill biker and this eMTB more than met all my needs. It handled all the green and blue trails at Bike Glenlivet, and I was happy “rolling” all the jumps on the orange trail. I dare say the bike was capable of a lot more than I was prepared to attempt. If you are a hard core MTBer you probably want a full suspension bike. But that’s the beauty of this rental scheme – you can try before you buy.
Final thoughts
I loved the e-bike and I especially loved only paying £70 for the month. You can also rent for 3 months for £200 and they have other models for less than this. I was very sad to take the bike back. This experience has gotten me back out on my bike, improved my fitness and confidence seen me break out of my comfort zone on the MTB trails. Going forward I will probably try renting a hybrid as it has a panier rack and is more suited for commuting and carrying groceries.
If you’ve never tried an ebike then it’s worth giving it a go. If you’re in Fife then Lang Toun Cycles is the place for hiring them and Ryans Bike Surgery has a great range to try if you want to buy one, especially if you want full suspension. Ryans also offer a really good service programme. If anyone knows of other good value rental schemes please add them in the comments.
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