We were in our prefectural town of Alençon today and came across this. It’s a Peugeot e-bike, but fitted out with some style. And those are some serious panniers. The bike has a chain around it, but isn’t fixed to anything permanent. Nor, as far as I could see, are the panniers secured in any way. This makes me think… Read more »
One of the great things about the days getting longer is that, even after a full day’s work (or as close to that as I ever get these days) there’s still time to ride. Of course, having slaved over a hot word processor all day, you’d think that I’d be too tired to go cycling. And you’d be right, except… Read more »
It’s been a while since we hit the voie verte, other than a stroll some weeks back without (gasp!) the bikes. So it was great to be out on the trail again, on such a fantastic spring day and also on a stretch of voie verte we’ve not ridden before. There’s a Eurovélo route (marked EV4 provisoire on my map) that runs… Read more »
Had a brilliant cycle ride on Sunday – my longest yet, at 33km. The weather was crisp and cold – about 6 degrees and sunny. In the morning we walked the dogs around a local lake, cancelling our planned longer hike as I had an upset tummy and was feeling filletted. But the walk made me feel a lot better,… Read more »
One of the revelations that has come from taking up cycling has been discovering more about the area in which we live. We’ve been in this quiet corner of Normandy for nearly two decades and thought we knew it pretty well. But riding the local roads on a bicycle brings you into a new, more intimate contact with the landscape as well as… Read more »
When describing to friends what it’s like riding e-bikes, the phrase “it’s like the world is flat” keeps coming to mind. And yet it’s not true. It’s much better than that. “Hills just don’t exist,” we keep saying. But they do. On steep upward inclines, you still have to work, even on an electric bike. Sometimes you have to pedal so… Read more »
Trish has already posted her review of the Gitane Organ e-bike, and I’ve had mine for less than a week. So this review is really a case of first impressions. I’ll probably write a fuller review when I’ve put some real distance on the bike. When Trish’s bike arrived, a month before mine (grumble, grumble), I was struck by the air… Read more »
It’s now two weeks since I got my bike, so I feel comfortable at giving it a first review. I’ve ridden it on the Vélo Francette greenway, the Véloscénie and various other voies vertes around here, and on country lanes around my home – the kind of riding that I’ll typically be doing on it, and my journeys have graduated… Read more »
Apparently, the Copenhagen Wheel is finally in production and you can pre-order it now. It’s a clever product, but I think its arrival has greater significance than just the availability of a cool new device. It seems that the age of the e-bike is truly upon us. We ordered our Gitane Organ e-bikes in Early August and mine still hasn’t… Read more »
I’ve already explained why we’ve bought e-bikes. But it’s worth expanding a little on why the electrically assisted bicycle (vélo assistance éléctrique, VAE) is something for everyone to consider. There seems to be a little misapprehension, and not a little snobbery, about e-bikes – especially in the cycling world. Although it’s rarely, if ever, phrased this way, the attitude boils… Read more »
As soon as we discovered electric bicycles (e-bikes) we knew they would be an important part of our future. We wanted to get (back) into cycling, and the e-bike will make that possible. I’m a man of a certain age. The age of my wife, Trish, is a secret known only to her and our insurance company. But neither of us… Read more »
