by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The ONE BIKE EVERYONE NEEDS but DON'T EVEN KNOW they want!
Today electric bicycles, and the only ones that are actually, in the UK, at least, are considered as standard bicycles are pedelecs, that is to say electrically assisted pedal bikes, but, as far as I am concerned those have several serious drawbacks. True E-bikes and so-called speed pedelecs are considered in the UK as motor vehicles and require at least a moped license and thus also a license plate.
But back to the drawbacks of pedelecs (and they also apply to the other types).
Firstly they are much more difficult to maintain. Not at the general stages as they are more-or-less bicycles, as far as fixing a tire and such are concerned, but when it comes to the electrical bits you will, more than likely, need the help of a mechanic who is converse in the workings of one of those, ideally of the one you happen to own.
Then comes the battery. You have to charge it and maintain it and it has a limited range. In addition to that you may need a new battery in at worst every 3 years, at best every 5 or 6 years, which will set you back about a third of the purchase price of a new bike of that kind. The cost of the battery generally covers the purchase of a new slow bike any day, as the cost is between £350 to $800. You get some good slow bikes for that kind of money.
Charging the battery, although not all that expensive, over time adds up. Having a limit to your range with most of them on low power being around 35 miles and at high power around 15 miles only is also a limit. This, therefore, this limits the use of such a bike to really only a short distance runabout and does not make for a bike that you can go touring with unless you carry a couple of spare batteries.
The only advantage over an ordinary, often referred to in England, push bike, is that you have the power assistance (your speed in the UK is limited to 18 mph) which makes for easier cycling in hilly areas, for sure.
However, alone the purchase price of a pedelec (I will keep calling it thus and will not use E-bike) is anywhere in the region of £1,000 and upwards. Some of the better ones are in the region of £7,500+. Now for that kind of money you get a lot of slow bicycles.
So, what is a slow bicycle? Well, to say it simply, it is an ordinary bicycle with or without gears or speeds. Having a slow bicycle that only has one speed – which about equals the so-called second gear on the Sturmey-Archer/Kienzle kind of system – is the best as it is a lot easier to maintain with a lot less to go wrong.
The advantages of a slow bicycle outweigh any disadvantages and the advantages start at the cost and continue over ease of maintenance (all of it if you read up on it or watch some YouTube videos).
OK, you need to pedal a little harder to get up a hill, even if you have a slow bicycle with gears, though my recommendation is to have a single speed free wheel one, and any of the geared ones can be converted to such, even without changing the back wheel, as long, that is, that it has a horizontal dropout and and not a vertical one. In the latter case you will need a chain tensioner but they can be gotten quite cheaply. You will have to shorten the chain to the correct length when converting a bike but the chain tool required for that is quite cheap and will always come in handy.
But let's return to the hills. If you can't pedal up it then you can get up and push. I found that frequently when I used to do just that – I normally always did – I was overtaking, on foot, those that were struggling to get up the hill cycling, like the maniacs, in the lowest gears. It is called a “push bike” after all, that's why I push when it gets too difficult. We always did also as kids when there was but one speed on the bikes.
The slow bicycle has a great deal going for it and it advantages very much outweigh its disadvantages. The greatest advantages are the costs – they are cheap in comparison to pedelecs – and the easy of maintenance and repair.
Personally I have acquired so many normal, if I may call them that, bicycles, though often mountain bikes with 15-21 speeds, found abandoned in the park, which I then have rebuilt, always converting them to single speed. Thus most of my bicycles have cost me nothing but time to work on them and maybe a new innertube or such.
© 2025