The Cyclamatic Power Plus
For quite a few years we were a two car family, Both me and my wife had a car which we used mainly for travelling to work and back. I live approximately 4 miles from where I work and decided that keeping a car solely for this journey was getting very expensive and was a pain to insure, mot and service both these cars each year.
As I was getting slightly unfit I decided that a good thing to do would be to cycle to work, I already had a bike which I rarely used so started using this to get to work and back. The only problem with this was that the journey to work was not very nice when it’s really windy or rainy, and the journey back home was up a steep 2 mile steady incline. Not the think you want to face and peddle up on a cold rainy dark evening after a hard days work. I did stay with this for a few months and certainly got fitter, but it got to the stage where I wasn’t enjoying it and it had become a horrible chore and getting really sweaty on the way into work in the morning was no fun. Also when I got home after the 45 minute ride back I had to just collapse on the sofa for half an hour to recover.
I investigated the alternatives to this, and tried using the buses for a while. But I just liked my independence and having to wait an hour sometimes when the buses decided not to turn up wasn’t good.
I always fancied the idea of an Electric bike but I was never really sure about them, and they always just seemed like an expensive gadget. But I needed to do something, or it would have to be another car for us.
Most of the Electric bikes which I found to buy seemed very expensive in the 1000 pound range, It may not be that expensive to some but to me it is. I did come across one bike though, the Cyclamatic Power Plus from The Sports HQ which seemed to be an ideal starter electric bike. There wasn’t much information about it available but I thought I would take a chance on it. I think I got it in the end for about 349 Pounds. It would have been nice to have tried the bike before I bought it but as this was a mail order purchase and the company was quite a way from me this wasn’t really possible, If you are close to them though I would advise to go and have a look before you purchase just so you can see it in action and get a proper feel.
The Controls
When I received the bike it was mostly already built, and just required you to clip in the wheels and fasten a few things like the brakes to make it road worthy. Nothing really more than what you would have to do with a bike bought from a normal bike shop. I adjusted the bike for my sitting position, the angle of the handlebars and it’s height can be adjusted by using allen keys. And the seat has a quick release to allow you to adjust it’s height. If I’m honest I would have to say the bike is slightly on the small side for me, I knew this beforehand though from other peoples reviews but thought I would take the chance.