Is this our future? The end of human powered travel… « Cycling Around The World – the Blog

I live in the Netherlands where in the past years the elctric bicycle has become more and more popular. On a recent bike and camp trip around the Norhern provinces of my country we were overtaken several times by speeding seniors on their powerbikes! Although we were working hard on our heavily loaded bikes and riding 20 km per hour average.

Of course you will still have to pedal because, at least here in the Netherlands, electric support stops when you reach a speed of 25 km per hour. Beyond that speed you enter there range of small “motorbikes” with other legal requirements.

Browsing the web I stumbled upon the power bike made by Optibike. See  the stunning video on this page where a rider conquers Pikes Peak in the USA climbing 7000 feet /  2130 m in 19 miles / 31 km just in one hour and 30 minutes!

Also have a look at this video (language is Dutch) were a electric bike simply beats a whole pack of hard core racers on one of Belgiums infamous cobble stoned climbs.

And then finally there is Guim Valls Teruel, He’s aiming to be the first person to ride around the world on an electric bicycle. OK, he’s probably carrying a ton of batteries and a heavy solar panel but now I’m very sure that the electric bike will change the future of around the world cycling!

You may think that it still will be difficult to recharge your batteries in faraway places? Yeah, I guess  you’re right now. But when I started cycling around the globe I had almost no electric equipment with me. And nowadays I carry two digital cameras, a mobile phone, and a lot of other stuff that runs for weeks or even longer without recharging! So that will also change for the elctric bikes!

electric bike around the world

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