Flattening The Hilly City
At the start of Cycle September, it’s important to recognise that the cyclist who’s just cheerily pedalled past you on a 12% gradient with a basket on the front is not breaking any rules.
“When people have said I’m cheating, I just smile, and say yes, I’m getting a bit older now,” said Dr Ollie Hart, before surging up Sheffield’s notorious Bishopscourt Road on his e-bike.
“Using an e-bike is not cheating. Going to work in the morning is not a race,” said Gavin Holliday. “Going out with your friends for a bike ride at the weekend is not a competition.”
Like many in the cycling industry, Gavin, from JE James Cycles, believes e-bikes are about to change urban transport for good, as long as national and local government get with the programme.
The demand for e-bikes has rocketed until the company, established in South Yorkshire for over 50 years, now sell more pedal-assisted electric bikes than any other kind of bicycle.
“This is absolutely the way for people of any age and cycling ability to successfully ride a bike in Sheffield,” Gavin said. “But we’d like to see more emphasis from government and others to promote e-bikes as a direct alternative to a car, in ways that a conventional bike would never be for some people.”
Dr Ollie Hart has been using an e-bike instead of a car for all his GP work for a year, and has already inspired several colleagues at his Heeley surgery, the Sloan Medical Centre.
“I’ve been riding to and from work for six months now, and the e-bike has made that possible,” said practice manager Paul Roberts, whose daily journey involves a 400 foot ascent to get home to Gleadless on the edge of the city.
“It’s still hard work, and it’s helped me lose weight and feel a lot fitter, but I wouldn’t have made it without the e-bike.”
Ollie said there’s no going back for him now.
“I don’t even think about getting in a car in the morning, this is the way I do things,” he said. Using an e-bike involves moderate rather than strenuous activity, and by riding every day he doubles the UK government target of 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, he said, as well as setting a good example, and arriving to see uphill patients fresh rather than flustered.
Colleague and fellow GP Margo Duncan said people are sometimes afraid to exercise, but an e-bike overcomes that problem by offering a low intensity background fitness regime while just getting around.
“The atmosphere is changing about cycling, and you see a lot more people on e-bikes now,” she said.
“It’s a real enabler that turns Sheffield into a flat city,” said Ollie Hart. “Give it five years, and I reckon there’ll be more e-bikes on the road here than cars.”
Customers of all ages have researched the financial and fitness advantages, and are saying it’s worth paying a bit more for a bike that will flatten out the Outdoor City’s hills if it will also save them on fuel costs, bus fares and car repair bills, said Gavin Holliday.
A £1,500 e-bike might cost £45 a month on a discounted salary sacrifice scheme over two years, and easily pay for itself in fuel, repair or public transport savings in a year, he said.
At the start of South Yorkshire’s free Love to Ride ‘Cycle September’ month of cycling, Gavin urged Sheffield companies and individuals to think again about how cycling can help them and their city.
“E-bikes are getting people onto two wheels who wouldn’t otherwise be thinking about it,” he said. “If that’s cheating, let’s bring it on!”
What is an E-Bike?
A cycle with a small home-charged electric motor boosting pedalling, usually to help riders go further or to get up hills.
Modern e-bikes have variable power settings in mountain, road, touring, commuting and folding styles looking very similar to conventional cycles.
E-bike technology is progressing with automated gear changing and wireless monitoring of distance, speed, destinations and health data.
Reasonable quality e-bikes generally have a recommended retail price of over £1,000, but switched on companies can now access tax break salary sacrifice schemes such as the Green Commute Initiative to give employees 30%+ discount for e-bikes retailing for anything up to £10,000.
> More on the South Yorkshire Love to Ride programme: www.lovetoride.net/southyorkshire