Why Electric?

At Inspiral Cycles, we are e-bike experts, and we love them.  We love normal bikes too, but we especially like e-bikes because they are so easy and so much fun to ride.

Electric bikes just enable you to go further, and they stop the hills from hurting.

If you’re already fit and enjoy putting in the effort to earn the rewards, then you might prefer to keep a normal bike.  But even so, an e-bike could help you to bite off bigger challenges and open up a whole new level of adventure!

To understand what an ebike can do for you, check out these scenarios:

This bike is the Raleigh Motus.  With a 400wh battery and Bosch motor, this bike has the range to easily cover over 50 miles of roads, disused railway lines and canal towpaths at an easy pace when you choose “Eco” mode, which gives a gentle level of motor assistance.  If you’re a heavier rider, choose “Turbo” mode and go looking for the most punishing climbs then you might drain a full battery after only 24 miles.

This brilliant article from Woman And Home magazine explains why an e-bike can change your life. At Inspiral Cycles we’ve got lots of customers with similar stories and we know how important it is for you to have the support and advice of your local bike shop behind you.  

<<pic of Haibike Trekking 6>>

Choosing a bike with a 500wh or 625wh battery gives you more range.  For instance this Haibike Trekking 6 has a 625wh battery and a Yamaha PW motor, and would extend your range to more than 80 miles in Eco+ mode, and approx 34 miles in the highest power mode.

For trekking style riding, this means a 625wh battery could last more than 6 hours of riding time on low power settings, or 2.5 hours at full power – easily enough for a very satisfying day out!

E-bikes make it easier to go further and have more fun, and this is really spectacular with mountain biking.  A full-suspension mountain bike will take you further, faster, with more confident handling and a more comfortable ride than a normal full-suspension bike.

If, on your non-electric mtb, you can enjoy a 10 mile ride around Hamsterley Forest, you’ll typically take in 4 or 5 good descents, and take roughly 2 hours to complete.  In the same length of time, for the same effort, you could cover 24 miles and squeeze in 15 or more good downhills.  But there’s more: because you’ll be climbing at over 10mph, you’re paying attention to your lines and your technique, you’ll begin to find that climbing takes on the same enjoyment as descending. So you get more. Much more. And the hills take far less time to climb so they hurt less. Bigger smiles all round then! For this kind of riding, full suspension is pretty much essential to save your wrists and ankles from a battering, and to help you stay in control when travelling faster over lumpy ground.

These awesome eMTB machines will take you there, and widen your horizons faster than you ever imagined!

Inspiral Cycles shop owner Gary absolutely loves his Lapierre Overvolt GLP2.  This is a top-spec top-performance eMTB that is designed for the very highest level of eMTB racing. The Lapierre Overvolt GLP2 won every round and took 13 of the 15 podium places available at the 2021 EWS-E international race series – a truly outstanding achievement by the Lapierre technical folks and team riders.

Gary competed at the 2021 EWS-E round in Scotland on his GLP2, and the bike got him round the full course in horrendous conditions when several of the worlds most talented riders crashed out and abandoned the race.  Gary also loves this eMTB for it’s ability to cover ridiculous distances and elevations over brutal terrain – the things that make this bike awesome for racing also make it his favourite bike for every other ride!  Pop into shop and have a chat if you’re interested in finding out why and how the biggest and most rewarding challenges are best done by ebike!

The battery and range information in this article is based on our own experience and real-world riding conditions. We also use the Bosch Range Assistant. This can calculate your range, we find that it’s really quite accurate and a very useful tool.

So, in a nutshell, e-bikes are ace – whatever kind of cycling you’re interested in.  If you’re curious, then pop into our shop to find out more.  More than half our staff ride ebikes, and we know what a positive change they can make to your life.

Why Inspiral Cycles?

Because we’re fully trained e-bike experts, and can provide the support and advice and knowledge that you’ll need. We don’t shout about being e-bike specialists or brand ourselves as an e-bike store, because that would be silly:  Normal and electric bikes are more than 98% the same.  Also, according to the latest research, the riders of normal and electric bikes are more than 98% the same too!