Gadgets with get up and go - the new generation of electric bikes

Electric bikes used to be ugly, heavy and poorly engineered. In a word, clunky. But the latest generation of advanced Japanese electric bikes has hit the streets, and they're set to take charge of the emerging ebike market.

June 26, 2004 -- The very latest electric bikes combine essential features like long battery life, lightweight, folding frames and eyecatching looks. Now they're set to claim a big slice of a market that's still dominated by clunky, overweight monster machines.

The last generation of e-bikes were often little more than cheap bicycle frames that happened to have motors and batteries bolted on. Trying to carry one of these unweildy machines up a flight of stairs might lead to you taking a trip inside of an entirely different sort of motor-powered vehicle - an ambulance.

Fortunately, Japanese manufacturers quickly saw that building a better electric bike would prove popular with the thousands of people who want to get back into cycling, for their commute or just for fun.

In 2001, Honda announced their Step Compo bike, a "neat, light and devastatingly stylish" machine according to AtoB magazine (www.atob.org.uk) that draws on motorcycle and aviation technologies. Its eyecatching looks and light aluminium alloy frame put it years ahead of other electric bikes and thousands of Japanese commuters use them to whizz through their busy cities.

Since then, there has been rapid and radical progress and now 50cycles (www.50cycles.com), a London-based company with a firm grasp of what's hot in e-cycling, has introduced the latest and greatest folding ebike to the UK market - Panasonic's WiLL electric bicycle.

Tim Snaith, UK head of 50cycles, explains what sets this 2004 model apart: "like all next-generation folding electric bikes, it's light, compact, attractive and enormous fun to ride. But unlike any other production model it comes with a Lithium ion battery - just like the long-lasting batteries you'll find in modern laptop computers, but even more powerful.

"It'll take you twice as far as our Honda bike, despite weighing ten kilos (about 22 pounds) less than even the lightest old-style machine."

"It's an electric bike you can take everywhere," he concludes.

As a one-time commuter himself, Tim Snaith is a firm advocate for quicker, more enjoyable ways of getting from door to desk that avoid the London Underground network during the rush hour (or during a strike). When you weigh the price tag of 995 (and the few pennies of mains electricity it takes to recharge) against the cost of motoring or using public transport in a congested city like London, regular electric cycling soon pays for itself. And the health benefits and sheer thrill of saving time and reclaiming your freedom are hard to quantify, but just as important.

So next time you're stuck on the tube or bus, with only your 3G surroundsound ipod-enabled videophone for company, think about this: the gadget you really need has enough get-up-and-go to free you from the stress of public transport and congestion forever.

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