By Chloe Sipeki
What comes to mind when you picture a bicycle? Maybe it’s the provider of your daily exercise during your work commute. Perhaps, more likely, it’s that thing covered in cobwebs in the back of the shed.
Or maybe it’s a bicycle/motorbike hybrid flying down the road at speeds of 30km per hour. The electric bicycle. Created with technology that becomes more advanced every day, it seems our push bikes may be of better use to the spiders in the 21st Century.
In urban areas it’s not hard to spot the sleek carbon-fibre frames of a modern electric bike, and the futuristic appeal goes further than the exterior.
Manufacturing brands like Yulu are leading the charge in e-bike technology with innovation such as smart-phone controls, precise location tracking and the in-depth data engineering which Yulu says makes their bikes, “The future of urban mobility”.
E-bikes became available commercially in the 1990’s, their pedal-assisted motorisation making them an attractive alternative to human-powered bikes. Indeed, hills were no longer the enemy.
The environmental, financial, and physical benefits of riding bikes over driving cars, especially in cities, have propelled the popularity of e-bikes and has seen the beginning of another tech revolution.
Featured image: An electric bike on the TAFE Ultimo campus in Sydney. Picture: Chloe Sipeki