An electric bike is keeping one septuagenarian in his touring saddle; he shares his story below.
Pedelecs forum member, 5threeone, now 76, diarises his cycling youth, when he would think nothing of 140 mile round trips, to telling us how he made the switch from manpower alone to ‘going electric’ this year in order to continue his passion of touring.
Alan recently joined the Pedelecs forum to join in the chat; although a vastly experienced cyclist, like many others, he wanted to discuss his planned purchase and his subsequent experience of the Qwic Smart 4 Urban 7 model he settled on. Alan tells us how his passion for cycling began, where his adventures have taken him so far and the broader horizons opening up again now he has an electric bike.
Although I now live in Swansea, which is much blessed with cycling routes, I am originally from North Devon and still have pangs of homesickness! I can still see Ilfracombe from Mumbles.
My cycling started in 1952, when I was 13. I attended Barnstaple Technical College and lived near Northam. Some of us decided to ride to school and, for me, it was 12 miles each way. Over time, cycling became a very social thing – a daily ritual of leaving early, meeting up and ‘beating the bus’ with its frequent, long stops.
In the summer months, coming home from college, we met many touring cyclists from all parts of the country. The stories they told of their touring adventures sowed the seeds.
I started doing long rides on days off; to Plymouth and back, Exexter, Taunton, over Exmoor and a thorough exploration of North Devon and North Cornwall.
Sometimes I came home by very ‘round about’ routes, taking the long way home. At 15 I rode to London via the whole of the South Coast from Bournemouth and back again through Oxfordshire and Somerset.
That baptism into cycling was on my first bike. It was a second-hand 3-speed Hobbs of Barbican. I bought it for £18.00 and paid my dad back his investment by working in a chip shop peeling the spuds every evening from 7 to 8:30pm as well as a 3 hour Saturday morning shift, until I left school for a full-time job.
Working at a company of silk printers while lodging with relatives in South Wales meant 6 miles each way, but I rode back and forth with long, exploratory detours during the evenings.
The money earned meant that in 1958 I could afford a new Jack Taylor for £54. Fifteen gears, dynamo and fully styled for touring.
For many years I simply rode to work and on occasional days off went out as far as I could get by 2 o’clock and then turned for home.
There were occasions when that would give me a round trip of 140+ miles. I don’t think I realised how fit I had become. Someone encouraged me to do some time trialling. So I took off some of the weighty bits on my Jack Taylor, raced and did well. But I didn’t enjoy it. I was praying for it to end and remember thinking that when I was just riding and touring, I actually did not want it to end. So, just like that, I gave up racing.
Where did my touring take me? I have written skeleton records of more than 140 tours or long rides between 1960 and the present date. Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and best of all thirteen excursions on nearly all the islands of Japan including Okinawa.
The most recent was June 2014 to Shikoku and Kyushu.
A lot of the French trips were made in conjunction with my being involved in founding Audax UK in 1975 (the long distance cycling association) initially as an offshoot of Audax Club Parisien. That led to riding to and then participating in Fleche Velocios, ParisBrestParis and numerous other events.
My last sortie was when I was 73 and, as a member of a French team, we rode a 401kms Fleche Velocio in 24 hours from near Dijon to finish near Nimes.
I sold my long-serving Jack Taylor in 1976 and Bryan Warnett in Cardiff made me something very similar which I used until 2000, when I collected a Gilles Berthoud from near Macon and rode it home.
I had also bought a Moulton AM 7 in 1977. It had sporadic use. But I found a way of completely dismantling it, wrapping it up safely and took it to Japan in 2001, which started an almost yearly visit. I explored using a small tent and camping wild: Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawaa.
All unforgettable and wonderful places to cycle, where being on a bike is a pleasure. There are dedicated paths everywhere as well as convenience shops for food at sensible prices.
However in August 2014 I started to have difficulty cycling up hills and even gentle slopes. Checks found my lungs, heart and muscles all still at 100%, but some constriction in my pulmonary tract seemed to be the trouble.
So….ELECTRIC to the rescue! I had seen and been passed by people using electric bikes. I had talked to some of them too.
On what basis did I make a choice? The lessons of convenience learned from the Moulton pointed me towards a folder. I scoured the internet for just a few hours. I was looking for top end quality components and wanted to say ‘goodbye’ to a derrailleur gear in favour of a hub.
Although costing a little more than others, I settled on a Qwic Smart E4 Urban 7.
My findings to date are as follows: In the 12 days up to July 12th I have ridden 276 kms.
What has been my experience? Top of the range, quality components are very evident. I’ve cycled about 110 kms on a charge (2 bars left) over mixed terrain with quite a few hills. However I have made some changes:
1. I swapped the handlebar stem for one that puts me forward by 80mm. (£15.00)
2. I took off the folding pedals and fitted road pedals with short toe clips, but no straps.
3. I added a front carrier using the ‘v’ brake mountings. (cost £9.00)
5. I fitted my Brooks B17 saddle, and for the future…
4. I will change the 16 sprocket on the Nexus hub for an 18 tooth and thus lower the whole range of the 7 gears. The highs are much too high for me.
Overall, so far a faultless machine and worth the extra outlay and I have no regrets.
Compared to regular cycling, I find the assistance puts me slightly ahead of where I was without it. I can go out now, not worrying about the recent grovels home that I have had.
Over a regularly used route I am also getting home without worrying cries of “where have you been?” which is definitely a bonus.
I also plan to have some ‘day out’ rides from Barnstaple in the early part of September. The destinations will make them round trips of about 50 miles. Between now and then there are plenty of other local places to go that will again be about 50 miles each round trip.
To sum up, the continuing freedom to see the world around me on my new Qwic was well worth the investment.
Our thanks to Alan for sharing his story. If you are also thinking of taking the plunge into the world of electric bikes, please also feel free to join our friendly forum to ask others for their thoughts and advice, or read our first timers and buyers’ guides here.
