Electricity comes to Harrogate - Corcoach Bikes

So when someone got in-touch with me and said would I like to work with them to get more people cycling in Harrogate. As you can imagine I was interested.

Cor Coach bikes have been selling electric bikes down on Waterloo St near the fire station for a year now. On monday I went over for a chat, a coffee and a play on the merchandise.

Two local brothers  Andy and Richard Crawley, who are both keen cyclists and keen on cycling as transport, wanted to start a business selling bikes in Harrogate. Thing is Harrogate has lots of good bikes shops so they looked for a niche and Electric bikes is where they ended up.

I had a chat about with them about what Cycle Harrogate is about  and the local cycling scene and it seems like we have a common interest in getting people moving on two wheels. We may have come up with some ideas on how we could work together more on that later

So what were the bikes like? Well I had a go on two. One a sort of city-bike sit up and beg style number at just under the £1000 mark (so would work on the cycle to work scheme). Firstly they are not as heavy as you imagine despite the battery and the motor in the rear hub, barely different to a "normal" bike. Secondly they don't replace pedalling they assist you, so as you pedal the motor kicks in and without to much drama you are going faster and pedalling with less effort than normal. It was fun and it was easy. I was pleasantly surprised

The Ghost Bike

Range reckons to be  30 to 50 miles it depends how hard you pedal and how many hills there are. Recharge time is three to five hours and 1500 recharges from a battery. With an equivalent cost to a petrol car of roughly 1000 miles to the gallon. If you have a slightly longer commute or you are not the fittest cyclist in the world. One of these could be a way to get on your bike and save yourself lots of money over the running cost of a car, or more likely a second car.

Finally I had a go on £1800 pounds worth of Ghost bike a mountain bike with a motor and a drinks bottle shaped battery. It was lighter with a battery than my own bike is without and it was a real blast you could have some serious fun on one of these.

All in all an interesting trip and food for thought.