Sakura Electric Chopper
Where Do You Live?
Recently,a friend announced proudly that he was going to buy an electric bicycle. I couldn’t help but give him a hard time.
From his house in Dulwich, south London, to work in Canary Wharf, east London,given that he wanted it to make a modest eight-kilometre commute, it appeared to me to be the height of all laziness.
As someone who commutes twice that distance to work on a pushbike each day there seemed no justification. I struggled to understand why anyone would consider buying an electric bike at all.
Their legal top speed is only 25km/h and the battery only lasts for an hour so surely any lazy commuter unable to face the physical exertion of a genuine bicycle should rather buy a scooter?
Before having to worry about running out of juice ,not only can you go for many more miles but there’s a safety argument as well.
A little acceleration can help to get you out of trouble when you’re weaving through a busy metropolis. Alas,acceleration is not something that electric bikes do very well at all.
Electric bicycles are also very heavy - and when they run out of battery mid-journey (as will inevitably happen to every proud owner one day) it can often be next to impossible to pedal them up any sort of incline.
But in my heart is that they are normally extremely ugly,the main reason electric bikes have never won a place. Hiding an enormous battery pack on the sleek frame of a bike is a serious challenge for designers - one that most do not meet without sacrificing aesthetics.
Having said all this, my opinion of electric bikes has improved over the past week after testing Sakura Battery’s new Mustang Chopper. It comes with all the same operational flaws as every other electric bicycle I have ever come across but it does have one important difference - it looks cool.
It’s modelled on the Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a relatively low (and fairly comfortable) saddle and Harley’s trademark handlebars that still manage to make any two-wheeled vehicle look trendy almost 100 years after they were invented.
Leave a Reply