Since moving back to Bath some two and a half years ago I brought three bikes with me. I live on Combe Down, which is only accessed from the city of Bath by climbing a hill. Even with my old Ridgeback Supernova complete with mountain bike gears and an extra ring, the climb back to Combe Down had become too much of an effort. In fact it was acting as a deterrent to riding into Bath.
Therefore back in April 2023 I purchased an electric conversion kit from Swytchbike. Once I had fitted this kit to my old Ridgeback I was able to ride up Ralph Allen Drive with ease, even with a full load of shopping. I did have some problems with the selector, but Swytch replaced two defective selectors with one which has worked well.
I have for some years owned three bikes. The oldest a Ridgeback Supernova, which I have ridden around the “boot” of Italy during five touring holidays, a Brompton Folding Bike, which I once took on trains to the French Mediterranean Coast at Sanary-sur- Mer, where my two gears were not a disadvantage. Neither were they when we moved for a week in Aix-en-Provence. The Brompton also went with me on our sojourn of three months in La Force in the South of France in 2016.
My third bike was a Genesis Croix de Fer, which I bought as a lighter bike, with drops, for when I used to ride regularly with the “Thirty Mile Thursday” group. Since electrifying my Ridgeback I have hardly ridden the other two bikes.
Consequently I recently decided to sell the Brompton and the Croix on eBay. This took a little while, but I have now sold both of these bikes, the Brompton to someone from London. I delivered the Brompton to him at Didcot Parkway Railway Station, as I was travelling to Abingdon for a Culham College reunion Christmas Lunch and the Croix was bought by a young man from Bristol, who collected it two days ago.
You can then deduce that from owning three bikes I am now down to owning a single bike. Not so! I was tempted by seeing a folding electric bike, produced by a small British company called Pedibal Bikes. The money from those eBay sales just about covered the cost of the Pedibal Navigata MarkII, which have had for about two weeks. It is amazing
Hello, I'm Roger Symonds and I have created this blog to highlight local and wider cycling issues. Given the incredible interest and increase in cycling we must not miss this opportunity to provide the the infrastructure that gets even more people out on bikes in a safer environment.