1. News
Please send us your
news, observations,
experiences - and if you
can include photos,
please do!
You can send by email to
tony@stoneleisure.com or by
post to Electric Bike Magazine,
Andrew House, 2a Granville
Road, Sidcup, Kent DA14 4BN
Bad Bike
This is a bit different! Bad Bike from
Naples, Italy sent us details of their rather
extraordinary range of e-bikes. Perhaps
the most interesting are these two - a fat-
bike electric folder and a cruiser with
sidecar! As far as I tell they have no
UK dealers as yet. More on their
website: www.bad-bike.it
E-bikes go north
From The Orcadian comes news that the e-bike message
has spread to the Northern Isles: Orkney council has at-
tracted up to £50k of funding towards the cost of purchasing
electric bikes for hire to the public and visitors in Kirkwall.
TETS Cambridge
The Electric Transport Shop have moved their Cambridge
branch to a brand new showroom in busy a high street lo-
cation (118-120 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8HE).
Tel 01223 360208 or see www.electricbikesales.co.uk
Momentum
Manufacturer Momentum Electric have moved premises
(they’re still based in London), and they now have a new
phone number: 0333 011 7777. They have also an-
nounced that one of the company’s co-founders, Andreas
Törpsch, has left to take on new challenges. www.mo-
mentumelectric.co.uk
50cycles (London)
50cycles have announced that they will moving their
Hampton Wick showroom shortly to a larger shop in
nearby Sheen, with easy access to Richmond Park for test
riding. The address is 345 Upper Richmond Road West,
East Sheen, London SW14 8QN and they’re open right
now. www.50cycles.com
AMPS set up as
FreeGo and Wisper separate
After eighteen months of trading together as the FreeGo
Wisper Group, the two brands have decided to separate.
As of early May, Wisper will operate as Amps Electric
Bikes Ltd, run by David Miall. Miall, who has been a lead-
ing figure in the UK E-bike industry since 2005, will be
concentrating on medium to high end product, developing
and marketing the Wisper range word wide. Amps will
continue to distribute high end bikes from German com-
pany Riese & Muller, including blueLABEL and Birdy
brands. Tel 01732 762 393 or see www.amps.bike
FreeGo will operate as FreeGo Electric Bikes Ltd from
their offices in Southampton: Tel 02380 465977 or see
www.freegoelectricbikes.com
CycloTricity move to UK manufacture
CycloTricity have announced the launch of an assembly line
for their full range of electric bikes in Britain. The project has
been ongoing for over a year, setting up facilities, processes
and machinery to turn their premises in Aldershot into an as-
sembly factory for electric bicycles. Whilst many of the com-
ponents in the bikes continue to be selected and bought from
suppliers around the world, Cyclotricity will also manufacture
some key components in-house with the help of small British
engineering firms. Founder Rami Akily said “We are now ex-
ceeding the quality of most imported electric bicycles, and
can even compete with electric bikes from the Far East price-
wise!” Tel 1252 757 368 or see www.cyclotricity.com/
Some interesting bikes
have just been launched
in Europe under the name
BESV, although it’s a
major Taiwanese manu-
facturer of computer key-
boards behind it
apparently. There seems
to be a mixture of direct
drive and geared hub mo-
tors, typically 36V, 11Ah
batteries, and some radi-
cal frame shapes in alu-
minium and carbon, often
with built-in lights. Will
that, a clever control al-
gorithm and the slick
presentation be enough, I
wonder, to tempt buyers
away from more es-
tablished brands?
No details or
timescale for
UK distribution
as yet. See
www.besv.com
BESV
Welcome Top Gear Penryn
Hello to Top Gear Ltd Electric Bikes in Penryn,
Cornwall, with bikes from KTM, Freego, Ba-
tribike and more. Tel 07966 425774 or see
www.cornwallelectricbikes.co.uk
Chester eRoads & Mold eTrails
Welcome to Chester eRoads! They currently sell
bikes from Benelli, Kudos, KTM, Bergamont,
EBCO and Batribike Electric Bicycles. The shop
also has a sister business, Mold eTrails, who offer
guided tours by e-bike of the nearby countryside,
as pictured. Tel 01244 280500 or see
www.chestereroads.co.uk and
www.moldetrails.co.uk