Is the electric bicycle good for your waistline and the environment? TIM O'BRIENgets his motor running for life out in the bike lane

ON A Saturday morning I collected my new electric bike from a shop in Omni Park in Santry, Dublin.

I haven’t ridden a bicycle on any regular basis for 25 years. Plainly put, I am middle-aged and overweight and while I want to save the planet, I don’t want to do so at the expense of a coronary. So an electric bike is ideal, I decided, as I headed off on my seven-speed Giant Hybrid model.

This bike will go a distance of between 50 to 60km/h without having to be recharged. It will get up to a speed of 25km/h, depending on hills, but won’t move at all without the cyclist making some effort with the pedals. The greater the hill, the greater the effort required.

It comes with a neat little basket at the back that carries a lithium battery, which can charge overnight at home in a normal socket.

I took off from the bicycle shop car park, out on to main street in Santry and down to Shantalla Bridge. I’d brought a satellite-navigation device from the car, fondly referred to by those at home as “the alcoholic Mrs Garmin” because of her propensity to be found upside down on the car floor in the morning, muttering “arriving at destination”.

Mrs Garmin reckoned I was cruising at 25km/h through Whitehall and recommended a route along Richmond Road via the East Link towards my home in Delgany, Co Wicklow.

I started to notice things you don’t notice while driving a care, especially the fact that most pot holes, drains and gas mains are at the sides of the roads, where the bikes go.

I rattled and bounced along the East Wall Road to the East Link toll booths, where the positive endorphins – those chemicals the brain releases during exercise to make us feel good – started to kick in.

With a “yee-hah” I surged ahead of all the cars, which must pay a fee, secure in the knowledge that I don’t need a driving licence, tax or insurance to operate my new toy.

On Strand Road, Mrs Garmin indicated my speed was up to 37km/h as I passed a panting jogger. I couldn’t help the “Come on, raise your game” that escaped my lips as I waved. I passed a few serious-looking cyclists and headed for Merrion Road.

Here, I noticed more things about cycling; why do cycle lanes sometimes share space with a bus lane, and what happens when the bus comes along? Fortunately one didn’t and 40 minutes after leaving Santry, I swung into Blackrock, where I paused for a cappuccino.

The journey from Blackrock to Delgany took another hour. Outside the flat city streets there are hills I had never noticed as a car driver. The worst of them is from Kilcroney on the N11 to Kilmacanogue – and it took all the positive endorphins out of the experience, leaving just the potential coronary.

On Monday morning I cycled the 31km from home to work. It rained so much my shoes are soaked. Donnybrook in leafy Dublin 4 has some of the worst pockmarked surfaces in the city and cycle lanes you are only likely to encounter this side of the Moon. Approaching the Hampton Hotel, I got a puncture. The air for a six-metre distance was blue.

But a fellow cyclist who offered me his pump and patches and, failing those, the address of a bike shop on Camden Street, restored my faith. As I walked past the Department of Communications I was tempted to nip in and ask Eamon Ryan for a lend of his bike, but I needn’t have worried; the people in Camden Street had me back on the road in 15 minutes for about the price of a day’s Luas parking and travel.

Will I cycle to work again? Not a chance. But I will drive to somewhere along the Dún Laoghaire/Dundrum axis before unfurling the bike from the boot. I guess it is a game of two halves.

The list price of the bike is €1,300. I negotiated a “recession price” of €1,150, handed over €150, and The Irish Times paid €1,000.

Under the tax-back bike scheme, the Government will waive its tax and PRSI on the €1,000, which amounts to €480, leaving me to pay the company back €520 over a year.

Information on the tax-back scheme for bikes is at www.bikescheme.ie. Information on electric bikes is at www.biketowork.ie