Folding bikes eh? Electric bikes eh? Folding electric bikes? No really…

Though I’ve been accused of being somewhat mtb-heavy here on BIKEmagic I thought I’d redress the balance by finding something as diametrically opposed to what I normally ride. Ben from Kinetics happily supplied the rest.

So, it’s a Brompton, a folding small wheeled bike, that’s had an electric motor grafted on cunningly, but very neatly. The battery hides inside the bag on the front and the motor mounts to the frame via a small frame that’s been constructed specially for the job. Flick the handlebar mounted switch and away you go.

So away I went – heading to the post office with a parcel neatly bungee-corded to the front of the bike there was no doubt this thing worked. Electrical assistance only cuts in when the bike is moving, so you can’t use it to pull away (which would do nasty overheating things to the motor, I guess) and as a result it’s an electrically assisted bike rather than a feet-on-the-top-tube job. But that’s fine. Bromptons are one of the more rideable folding bikes around, with rear suspension, three gears and a decent enough position, but best of all a rigid frame that doesn’t whip about like your sisters shopping bike used to.

The ride was fine, the post office appeared and I set off home again, pedalling, but being helped along by the motor. Regretably a previous tester had caused damage to the battery by leaving it discharged for a long time, and so we weren’t able to properly rate the bike for distance. But the helpful people at EV Network and Kinetics will be more than pleased to advise and even offer test rides.