Motorcycle Sport & Leisure Magazine 677 - September 2019 Edizione posteriore

In this issue we have gone big on electric bikes. I appreciate that it will divide opinion, but it felt like the time was right to have a good long look at what's happening on the greener side of the fence. Some will find it interesting, others will call it sacrilege – personally I haven't yet decided which camp to join.

But I know we’d better start swimming or we'll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin'. Over the last few years electric bikes have developed at a staggering pace.The batteries have got smaller, the range bigger, and the overall riding experience more akin to what you would expect from a motorcycle rather than a milk float.The latest electric bikes – the ones we’ve tested for this issue – even look good. It feels like electric bikes are (almost) there.

Another big boost for e-biking comes from the men in suits, armed with red tape.The European emissions regulations are getting ever more draconian, while towns and cities are starting to introduce penalties for vehicles running on fossil fuels – in some places you get a lot of stick for running old cars and bikes.

Call it taxing, highway robbery or environmental planning, the fact is that many big cities will be no-go zones for old vehicles that can't meet new emissions standards. Electric bikes benefit from financial incentives
too, such as the government grant for buying a new electric motorcycle. It's a significant help (up to £1500), but the prices of electric bikes are still so high that it seems like a drop in the ocean.