OUT AND ABOUT WITH RALPH: Plugged into the electric revolution
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After hundreds of thousands of miles cycling, Ralph finally gives into the temptation of an e-bike, taking the sting out of the hills and wind
Riding a bike is a great way of experiencing the outdoors, exploring and getting exercise. I never cycled until I was aged 26 but since then must have covered a couple of hundred thousand miles.
For many years I rode 30 to 40 miles a day, commuting from home to Dounreay in all weathers, summer and winter. Only the most extreme gales or severe icy conditions would stop me. I was never fast on a bike, but could keep going.
A massive heart operation 10 years ago reduced my power and stamina, add to that the problems of increasing age and now an average speed of 8mph (not including stops!) over a maximum distance of 50 miles is about the most I can manage.
So I have finally given in to temptation – I have purchased an electric bike.
I’d tried an e-bike before, and was amazed at how it takes the slog out of cycling. You can still pedal hard and fast, but the electric assist turns the steepest of hills into a level road and completely removes the sting from head-winds.
Without the two cycling banes of wind and hills, you can just enjoy the ride! You get the same exercise but now travel twice as fast and twice as far.
I set out towards Halkirk for my first ride on the new e-mountain bike on a bright, cold, January morning with a slight frost whitening the roads. When I reach the main road there’s a mile uphill before I turn right, the time-triallers will be averaging 20mph here but I can barely manage six, and so spend far too long on the busy A9.
With electric assist my speed was more than doubled and a freshening breeze from the south was no problem at all.
Through the village and out along the familiar Calder road, I reached the loch in a time I hadn’t managed for 20 years, and turned off towards Dorrery. Pedalling up the hills as if they weren’t there, I soon reached the end of the road, aiming to try the bike out on the track up the hill.
It is many years since I last managed to ride up Dorrery Hill, the upper part of the rough track has a gradient of about one in four. This is when you set the bike on "turbo" mode, the assistance is then like a hand pushing you from behind as you pedal up the steepest slopes.
I didn’t even need bottom gear, and only had to negotiate the stones and icy patches as if on the level.
Almost effortlessly I reached the summit with its fine views out over Shurrery Loch and the Caithness Flow Country, and could then enjoy coasting downhill most of the way back to the Dorrery road junction.
I’ve taken the Broubster road hundreds of times on the way to work, and know well every hill.
Now the Brawlbin climb passed unnoticed, soon I was over the top and coasting down to the Shurrery Road then on past the old Broubster Square, over the Forss river and down and up to Shebster at a speed I hadn’t managed since the days I was fit.
The Achreamie Road has been ruined by the Baillie wind farm but I took it for nostalgia’s sake, enjoying the sensation of speeding up the steep hill from Shebster, the downhill coast past the wood where you can’t see the turbines is, however, as good as ever.
The main A836 I only used to take in bad weather as the shortest route home, a head-down push into a gale and a long slog up through Forss to the top of Scrabster Brae. Now it was a fast, enjoyable ride before the usual speedy descent of the brae into Thurso.
The climb from Thurso to my house is one of the biggest in the county, a total of about 500 feet.
It’s a hill I’ve cycled over 4000 times, enough to take me twice to the International Space Station. But only once before, when I had a 70mph wind at my back, did I have that sensation of a big hand pushing me up the steeper climbs! A little detour to the top of the Sibmister road for the fine view out over the sea to Hoy was now no extra effort at all.
I’d ridden for about three hours, covering twice the distance for the same effort. While you are fit you don’t need an e-bike. But once the thought of the hills and winds starts putting you off, I can certainly recommend one.
