You lost me at “I don’t bike” Commuter cycling for the modern woman. A blog series by Charlotte

Zooming along on my ebike often turns heads. With your car window down I hear you telling to your passenger “Look at that girl with her motorized bike!”. I see your look of amazement as I zip past you on the streets. I acknowledge the smile on your face with a smile of my own, as I gently sail through Hagley Park. I’m glad you noticed me!

I often get asked ‘why choose an ezee electric bike over a regular bike?’ I think my answers would be close to yours: You rather cycle casually then race, you prefer not to don lycra and don’t own a pair of polarised sunglasses. You prefer meeting up with friends for drinks over sports and you are almost always running late, except you rather not be late. You care about the community and the environment enough to want to make a difference but cycling day in and out just seems too hard a task to enjoy.

Living 7 years in Shanghai without a car has made me realise that cycling doesn’t need to be strenuous, stressful or dangerous. In fact, it elevates you away from the very stress and danger that driving causes yet purportedly promises to get rid off. An electric bike is still very much normal albeit assisted cycling. Its real advantage in a city like Christchurch is that you can not only get from one end of the city to the other within half an hour whilst still breathing normally but you can do all of your daily trips in the city without getting off the bike with jelly legs. Its is a very modern form of mobility yet retains the quintessential poetry which only cycling can give.

Of course we at Action Bicycle Club encourage using a regular bike as much as you can but an electric bike is a great option especially on days when you think you might almost get blown away by the many faces of the Canterbury gale or on other days when too much heat, cold or rain might be just that little too much to get about on a regular bicycle. You’ve weaned off your fossil fuel dependence but you also deserve to take a break from regular biking, so just enjoy the light heartedness of electric bicycling!

As part of our campaign to promote biking to work, we’ve decided to do a little experiment to compare getting to work using a car, an electric bike and a regular push bike. See our infographic here.

Happy cycling!

Change doesn’t happen overnight but Christchurch has come a long way. This blog series is an exploration of that change as we gain confidence, why fashion doesn’t need to compromise and our own dedication to commuting in Christchurch.

Charlotte is Creative Wheel at Action Bicycle Club – She believes bikes are like handbags. A woman can never have too many. She is here to create a good looking cycling community in Christchurch.