A bike for all seasons and reasons

THE future is electric.  And ‘Yeswebike’ of Santa Ponsa is at the forefront of this revolution. It’s been quite a few years since we regularly used bicycles to get around.

This looks like it is just about to change as a new and sustainable form of transport opens up the possibilities of power-assisted pedalling.

The two branches that Oliver Wienrich and his knowledgeable and enthusiastic team have in Santa Ponsa and Playa de Muro are well stocked with bikes for rent or sale. Here’s what happy customer John Shuttleworth had to say about his experience:

“So we found ourselves in a superb electric bike sale, hire and repair centre, a couple of pensioners on a short break to the island.  Melissa has been thinking about an electric bike for a while and hiring seemed the ideal way to try before we buy. How would you like to make a review of your experiences, we were asked?  Tell it like it is!

In short, it has been a great experience, a brief introduction to gearing up (and I do not mean lycra… although we did enjoy overtaking a number of people so dressed on the uphill sections – to heck with preserving battery life – click into turbo). 

Our Bosch-battery powered general purpose bikes have a range of up to 160km in ‘Eco’ mode (perfect for flat terrain).  The range reduces as you thumb-click for increasing amounts of power assistance either for more speed on the flat or for extra support when going uphill.  There is still a respectable 80 km if you were only using the most powerful ‘Turbo’ mode.

There’s even a walk button which gives help when you’re pushing the bike along.

As to the cycling experience  it (almost) feels like the hills of Mallorca have been reduced to the flat of the Netherlands.  I can well imagine that the bike would be the perfect vehicle for coast hopping or touring inland in all seasons, especially when the summer weather is too hot to consider any other form of cycling.  Parking and access present no problems at all.

There’s no question about the fitness value of cycling and you could opt for more pedal power as you get stronger.  It’s really about the ease of getting out and about that makes this attractive  knowing that if you overdo the exercise on the way out  you can up the power-assist on the way back.  

The evidence is overwhelming according to Oliver: there is a direct correlation between e-bike usage and reduced National Health costs between countries. 

Would we buy the bikes if we lived here?  Yes we would.  A definite preference over, say, a motor scooter with the issues of insurance, tax and IPV.  Will we rent bikes again when we visit?  Yes we will!”

You can find details at www.yeswebike.es