Emma Cooper

I’ve been meaning to blog about my electric bike for ages, so Emma’s call for Write Club entries has spurred me on to getting finger to keyboard.

Although I like cycling I have some health problems, including a weak lower back (yes, this can affect my gardening addiction too, most annoying). Peddling puts pressure on the lower back and I found I had to stop cycling when back pain kicked off. These meant that I was more likely to wimp out and use a car, even for short distances. However, in 2009, being aware of the negative environmental impact of cars, particularly over short distances, and having made the decision to move back to Oxford, my partner and I took the leap and sold our car. We used the proceeds to purchase my electric bike.

I have now had an electric bike, a Smarta LX, for over two years now. I’ve now done close to 1,700 miles in that time, mainly around Oxford, though some longer trips, and I have come to rely on it utterly.

For a start, only when my back is really bad do I have to stop cycling. But at that point I have to stop most things. For the rest of the time, using the battery takes pressure off my lower back and means I still use the bike. But it is not just for health reasons that I’ve come to love my electric bike. Psychologically it is totally changed my responses to getting out and about.

For example, BE (before electric), I might not have gone out because it meant going home in the dark when I was tired, AE (after electric) I felt liberated knowing that if I was tired I could rely on the battery to get me home. BE I found going food shopping a pain, as it was hard to carry the shopping back, AE, food shopping is a breeze as I can fill the bike panniers and it takes the extra weight no problem (even with the battery weight).

BE, I found normal cycling a drag in inclement weather. I would more likely not want to go out, or would have to either use a bus and take ages, or get a taxi and pay lots of money. AE my attitude seems to have completely changed. I can get around quicker and it seems less of a bother to dash about between showers. I even cycled through much of the less snowy weeks of last winter.

It has also made getting to/from work easier, and opened up options for work. I freelance for Barracks Lane Community Garden, and as a freelance project manager in publishing, so it’s convenient way of getting to and from the garden and clients. Ok, you can do that on a normal bike. But it’s easier with electric, and having my bike has helped open the way to me setting up my own small gardening advice business, Oxford Sow & Grow. As I want to try and make gardening my whole life but don’t want to go back to having a car, the electric bike makes visiting clients and carrying around my tools straight-forward.

And since getting the electric bike, I cycle at least 10 times more than I did with a ‘normal’ bike. It’s more efficient, cheaper, and healthier. Healthier, you ask? But you have the battery to do the work! Ah ha – yes, I have the battery, but I don’t just rely on it; you can peddle at the same time or peddle without. So because I use the bike so much, often 20-30 miles over a week, I’m doing a lot more exercise than if I didn’t have the bike, because I’d end up just catching a bus and sitting around more.

I’ve found the electric bike to be very practical. The battery can be lifted on and off for easy charging. It’s great for getting up hills, no more getting off my bike and pushing it up a hill whilst my partner cycles by and waits for me at the top. I now cycle by him and wait at the top! It’s good for going longer distances. This wouldn’t apply to lycra-clad cyclists who would clearly go further and faster than I can on my electric bike, not the least because they are fit… But it has encouraged me to do more distance cycling, day trips and short cycling holidays because I know I can rely on it when my energy runs low later in the day and up the hills.

There are a couple of minor cons to an electric bike, such as if you get a flat tyre not every bike shop knows how to fix it. Electric bikes are not fast, I’m always being over-taken, though I suspect that is also because I’m a slow cyclist anyway. And for now you cannot charge your battery whilst peddling (I get asked that all the time), the technology isn’t there yet. And I admit that there are some things I cannot do with my electric bike. Even with our bike trolley, it’s hard to carry more than one large compost bag home from a garden centre. But we solve this problem being members of the Commonwheels car club, with pay-as-you-go driving, which we use occasionally when we have this need.

Getting an electric bike has made a massive difference in my life. I’m not ‘religious’ about not having a car. For a lot of people, living in smaller towns, villages and rural areas, you need a car just to get about daily life, as public transport is so bad or non-existent. But in urban areas I think an electric bike is an excellent transport alternative that people really should consider. I’ve read that the average non-electric bike only travels 100 miles in its lifetime; I don’t think electric bikes will suffer from the same problem. So my rallying cry, “go electric!”