E-BIKES
experience MY FIRST E-BIKE
E-bikes and numerous new cycle trails are transforming the way active seniors explore their country. Like many retirees, Charmian Smith takes up cycling again after several decades.
SOME
years ago we we were intrigued by the cycle trails being built around the country and wanted to explore them. Despite not having cycled for more than 30 years we bought bikes, got a bike rack for our campervan, and set off. It was great. We rode parts of the Central Otago rail trail, whizzed around the Hawkes Bay vineyards and coast on their lovely flat trails, and explored the scenic the Karagahake Gorge rail trail. However, Lloyd would speed ahead, wait at the top of a hill while I was pushing my bike up, then zoom away while I stopped to catch my breath. So I suggested I go first and set the pace. That worked fine until we came to a hill and I’d have to stop part way up to get off and push. He would almost crash into me and have to get off and push too which frustrated him. We used our bikes less and less. Then I bought an e-bike. Lloyd, being tough, said he didn’t need one. I loved my first e-bike, a pale green step-through comfort bike with adjustable handlebars so I could sit upright. It looked like the kind of bike we used to ride when I was young.
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issue 32 • spring 2021
You had to pedal to make the motor work but switching to high power would allow me to stream past Lloyd on the hills while pedalling easily and I could go much further than before. Sure, it was a bit heavier than my old bike, but if I did need to get off and push there was a button I could hold down and it would power itself along slowly. Now I’d wait at the top of hills for him to catch up as he ratcheted down the gears, puffing with the effort. And when there was a headwind I’d be way ahead while he struggled into it. We gained confidence and tackled some rougher trails, like parts of the A2O from Mt Cook to Oamaru, one along the Clutha river from Wanaka, and attempted part of the Roxburgh Gorge trail. Our bikes didn’t feel too safe on the thicker gravel with sharper bends and steeper stretches. And when we went over rough ground, like the rutted road to the Wairau Bar in Marlborough, the bumping didn’t do my dodgy back any good at all. Then we went on a trip with my sister and brother in law who had recently bought their own motorhome and upgraded to e-mountain bikes with all the bells and whistles - rear suspension, seats that rose and lowered at the touch
of a button, powerful motors and fat, knobbly tyres. Lloyd tried Mike’s bike and was immediately won over - e-bikes were’t just for sissies! I tried Sharon’s and loved the comfort of the rear suspension and the way it felt so stable on rough ground. We thought about it. To get rear suspension and knobbly tyres suitable for gravel we had to get mountain bikes. These e-mountain bikes are not cheap but we decided we might as well get them while we could enjoy them or we might be too old to use them in a few years. These are the sort of bikes (without the batteries) you see in ads with youngsters flying through the air over bumps or spraying up the dirt careening round sharp corners. Not that we intended to do anything in that realm. We stick to the easy trails. One of our favourite types of ride is to cycle eight or 10 kilometres to
