Join Lui Batchellor and the participants of the e-bike adult cycling training on the Kent County Council’s course. Discover what they enjoyed about the e-bikes and the training.
To find out more, visit www.kentcycletraining.co.uk.
Instrumental I’m here at the KCC cycle training centre, to find out about their beginner and refresher courses and in particular, their new e training sessions. Let’s find out what our participants thought Going uphill was just a breeze and so much easier. It’s effortless, almost like it’s taking that extra pressure off of you. You can still breath when you get to the top of a hill. You’re just coasting which is quite nice. Rather than putting maximum effort in and not being able to breath. I started off with the power off because you can just ride it like a normal bike if you want with no assistance. It’s just like riding my old bike, really hard work. Then you can go up to eco, which is gentlest on the battery and a little bit of help. Then it goes up another three settings. When you lock into the top setting which they’ve beautifully called turbo it does feel like it. You feel like you’re shooting away and it’s amazing. Obviously that uses more battery, perhaps you might want to be more wise. Certainly up a hill, you get to the top and rather than collapsing into the grass verge, you can just sit there on your bike and think, where’s the next hill? The switching between it being off, you could feel that you are using your legs a lot. As soon as you switch the power on, you’re still pushing but you’re not having to push as hard. It was a lot easier but a lot more fun because it moves faster. It would possibly help with confidence. My mum’s nearly 70 so it would actually make her more confident in riding and it would be less pressure on her but she would be still able to go out and have a ride. I would recommend it to my parents for sure. A nice luxury to have when i’m going out on these family rides and even if I am on my own, at least I can use it if I need to and use that extra power, the power assist as they call it. If I had one, which I might try and aspire to, I think I would be more likely to start using it. For going to work and things because you wouldn’t arrive to work in a sweaty heap, think you’d get there quite fresh and you’d be keeping up with traffic. I think it’s a definite consideration on your Christmas list maybe. If you’re a basic rider, this is perfect for just around town riding really. If you’ve got any hills and yeah it helps. I think it will be a struggle for anyone getting on that bike, to say that they wouldn’t like one afterwards. I think they are good to have that extra help and the training is such a good programme as well. With the positioning and things like that to tell you where exactly you need to be where other car users need to be behind you and them properly lined for when you go around corners etc. yeah it was really good training today, it’s really appreciated If you’re looking to gain the skills to get out on two wheels KCC are currently offering a 50% discount on their training courses using the code EBIKE50. You can find out more information via www.kentcycletraining.co.uk and if you would like an affordable way to give e cycling a try then check out the affordable bikes page on the Explore Kent website, www.explorekent.org/active-travel Instrumental