Alien electric bikes

For anyone considering an electric bike, this company is well worth a
look.

www.alienbikes.co.uk

We bought the Gents Special back in November, to help my husband get
back on his feet after smashing his pelvis in a road accident.

He's very impressed with it. The complete bike was £550. It's not
onerously heavy. The battery is a Lion and fits discretely under the
rear carrier, locked in place with a key, and has a carry-handle and
integrated charger so you can remove it and take it indoors to charge or
keep safe.

The motor is in the front hub and controlled by the righthand twist grip.

The bike came with a feature whereby the faster you pedal, the more the
motor cuts in to assist you. This feature can be disabled and we
disabled it so that you pedal on your own unless you twist the
twistgrip, so full manual control.

The centre stand is very useful and easy to use, especially with limited
mobility. The built-in lights also run off the battery and are bright.

Performance-wise, it has the usual huge range of derailleur gears. Using
the electric motor alone easily gets it to 15mph.

The battery is good for a non-pedalling, totally freewheeling range of
about 30 miles, but as we bought it for pedalling with a little bit of
assistance every now and then, we can go further.

A full charge is 4-6 hours.

It has been a godsend, enabling hubby to get out and enjoy cycling
again, which is helping rebuild his muscles and loosen everything up,
safe in the knowledge that he can always get home if things start
hurting, and he doesn't have to hurt himself by pushing up hills as the
motor can be used to cut-in and take the pain away.

I met a woman yesterday with a similar setup. She was also very
appreciative of it, saying it gave her back her mobility and freedom as
she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis in her knees.

They also sell conversion kits to fit to your existing "normal" bike but
seeing the Gents Special at £550, we opted for that instead.

http://www.alienbikes.co.uk/page5.htm

And they do tricycles too, for people with more limited mobility and
balance problems.

Wonderful inventions!