Kalkhoff Pro Connect S DualDrive and Pro Connect Deore LX electric bikes, plus other news

We nearly missed how good it is - the Kalkhoff Pro Connect
9 speed Deore LX

We've really not made enough noise about one of the most interesting models to join Kalkhoff's 2010 line-up - the new Pro Connect 9-speed Deore LX.

In truth, we didn't spot its potential at first and have only ordered relatively small numbers this year, which is unfortunate as it has all the makings of an absolute classic.

Much like its big brother the Pro Connect S Deore XT, Kalkhoff have built on the established Pro Connect Alfine's lean and responsive design by adding Magura hydraulic rim brakes, suspension forks and 9-speed derailleur gearing.This last feature actually makes it a little less expensive for Kalkhoff to build than the Alfine version.

So we're very keen to have some out on the roads and to hear what owners think of them. Which means we're able to offer this model, initially to subscribers only and until numbers dwindle, at a price of £1,845 (website price £1,995) using code pcs9g150. That's an extra gear and nice springy forks, yet less expense than the regular £1,895 2010 Pro Connect. Very tempting indeed.

Our production lists show that the Pro Connect 9-speed Deore LX is already available in good numbers, so your pre order will benefit from a short lead time on this occasion.

Sssh! secret Yakkay cover offer. Use code yakkay5 at checkout to save £5 when ordering a helmet or cover
Model of the month II Pro Connect S DualDrive We should also mention that a second version of the exciting Pro Connect S is available for the first time this year. It has all the performance of the Deore XT version, possibly more, but with SRAM's 27-speed DualDrive II gearing system. This combines a 9-speed derailleur with a 3-speed hub. Only available in very small numbers from this Spring. Early pre-orders are advised so that we can reserve some for our customers.	NukeLight & Winkku offer The Nukelight is going to be one of our most popular 50cycles products in 2010. We're very keen to have more of them lighting up the nations roads right now so we've slashed the price from £48.95 to £39.95. Nukelight it's a beam come true. We're also selling the Winkku for £25, down from £29.95. Go get 'em.	Further reductions We've shaved a further £100 off the Tasmans in our sale. Fully kitted out with hydraulic brakes, 8-speed hub, lights, built-in wheel lock,fully enclosed chainguard - these are very tasty electric bikes, tough enough to take out of town for rides in the wild (a couple were used to mark out a Pennine run last Spring!). We also have a few 2009 Pro Connect S 60cm and Pro Connect Alfines in three gents sizes on offer. Once they're gone, they're gone and it will be 2010 prices all the way.

An Electric Bike is put to the test !

This is one of the best pedelec articles I have read to date.






http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/electric-bike-test/article-1762698-detail/article.html

Think of your first go on your first bike. The first proper one, without stabilisers. Close your eyes, take deep breath, and unwrap the memory of that Christmas past.

Your dad holds the handlebars steady as you climb on. Then he puts his other hand on the back of the saddle, gives you a push, and whoosh! you're away – with the pedals twirling slightly faster than your legs feel they want to.

That's the sensation you get from an electric cycle. It's just like riding a bike – only dad's been motorised by Panasonic.

That was my overriding first impression, anyway.

Last week, Loughborough's 50cycles.com lent the Mercury a brand spanking new Kalkhoff Pro-Connect E-bike – canny marketing shorthand for electric bicycle – to road-test for a few days.

The idea was to find out whether the new breed of E-bikes was any good and examine their eco-credentials.

Electric bikes, at least in the UK, were never what you might call cool. Riders tended to be of a certain vintage, mainly elderly ladies in brown brogues and felt hats – the too puffed or posh to push. That was the stereotype.

Not any more.

The recession, global warming and huge hikes in petrol prices have put an entirely different demographic behind the handlebars.

E-bikes have taken off in a big way, particularly in London, as a low-cost way of commuting to work. The attractions are obvious: no tax, no MOT, no need for a driver's licence, free parking, and because the motor does much of the work, you don't arrive at the office sweating like a swamp donkey.

"Our sales in December were up 60% on the year before," says 50 Cycles co-owner Scott Snaith. "From March to the end of October, our busiest season, we sell about 100 a month.

"Electric bikes used to be for more of an elderly market. Proper cyclists wouldn't touch one. That's no longer the case. They look good and the performance is good. A lot of younger people are going for them now."

Old motorised bicycles were essentially bog standard bikes with what looked like a lawn-mower engine attached. Every time you got to a hill, you switched on the motor and it coughed and spluttered you to the top.

If it worked, that is. Often it didn't.

However, the eight-gear Pro-Connect, made in Germany, works on different principles.

It is a so-called Pedelec, which means the discreet, Panasonic crank-drive motor – powered by a fairly hefty lithium battery mounted on the frame – only kicks in when you're pedalling.

A small LED controller on the handlebars allow you to set the level of automated help required: low, auto or high.

A sensor then detects how hard the rider is pressing on the pedals (if you're going uphill, this obviously increases) and the motorised assistance is adjusted accordingly.

"When you get to a hill, the motor turns it into a flat," says Scott. "You'll feel as if you've had three Shredded Wheat for breakfast. The motor counteracts the hill and gives you a boost."

The proof of Scott's claim would be in our road-test.

So how did the Kalkhoff perform in the to and fro of a daily commute from Syston to Leicester and back?

It's a 13-mile round trip I make on my normal push bike every Monday to Friday without too much trouble.

Last week, though, the Kalkhoff would have it all to do. I was pathetically enfeebled by man-flu as I got ready for my first ride home. The last thing I felt like doing was throwing my achy limbs over a bike frame and trudging it up the Melton Road into a head-wind.

Yet, unbelievably, it couldn't have been easier. The bike really does do all the donkey work.

Imagine being on a tandem with Chris Boardman. He's on the back, doing most of the legwork. You're at the front, coasting along.

The tilting scenery told me I was going up a hill, but the bike glided along like the incline was a figment of my fevered imagination.

Leicester to Syston is hardly the Pyrenees, but even the sharp gradients of footbridges were effortlessly levelled out by the appliance of German engineering science.

Fellow cyclists, puffing and panting, gawped in disbelief as they were effortlessly outpaced by a podgy bloke who wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Solid, comfortable and well built, the Kalkhoff rides like a bike that can handle a much tougher and longer commute than mine.

Scott says the E-bike can cover up to 40 miles on one charge and (after the first night when I drained the battery by constantly fiddling with the settings) I couldn't dispute that.

Syston to Leicester and back only knocked one light off the power indicator, suggesting there was plenty of juice still in the tank.

The motor worked without a problem and getting to grips with its operation took little time – once I got used to the slightly strange sensation that the bike wanted to run away with me.

The first question, then, has been answered conclusively in the affirmative. This is a very good bike indeed.

Now for the second one – the eco-conundrum. Is it environmentally friendly? Can you put a motor on a bike, one of the greenest forms of transport available, and still make a claim for it being green?

Scott insists you can. Electric bikes might not be as eco-immaculate as their entirely pedal-powered rivals, but they are cleaner than almost every other transport alternative.

Recharging the battery from flat would take about five hours, says Scott, but if you keep it recharged it takes nothing like that.

"You're looking at a couple of pence to recharge the battery, possibly 4p, depending on your electricity supplier," he explains. "This bike is not a huge drain on electricity."

At £1,595 for a 2009 model and £1,895 for the latest incarnation, the Pro-Connect's not exactly cheap.

"It's still cheaper than running a scooter," says Scott, "and it's a lot cheaper than running a car. We think these bikes pay for themselves in about 10 months in terms of money saved on petrol."

Now for the big question. After trying an E-bike for a week, do I want to buy one? No, because I enjoy getting to work entirely under my own steam and the hour's daily cycle is just about the only exercise my increasingly flabby body gets.

You could always switch the motor off, but the temptation to let it do all the hard work would be difficult to resist.

If I was a bit older, I lived a bit further away from the office, or there were a few more hills between my home and office, I would definitely invest in a Pro-Connect. And I definitely wouldn't come out in guilt bumps about it.

www.50cycles.com

Sting operation sees stolen electric bike returned to owner

December 10, 2009. Staff at 50cycles.com, a national electric bike retailer based in Loughborough, had a customer service dream come true when they were able to find and return a stolen electric bike to its rightful owner.

The story began several weeks ago when a customer in St Albans, Herts reported that his bike, a Kalkhoff Agattu supplied by 50cycles, had been stolen. “We went into bike recovery mode there and then”, says Lloyd Clarkson, customer service and sales manager at 50cycles.

Within a couple of weeks, someone who lived less than half a mile away from the owner of the stolen bike contacted the firm to ask which charger would fit his newly-acquired electric bike. "His explanation for why he needed an extra charger was pretty vague”, says Lloyd.

“He wasn't a customer who was known to us and didn't seem to know a lot about the bike. We keep records for all owners and soon established it was pretty suspicious. He decided to buy a charger from us and gave us a delivery address - and so the trap was set!"

50cycles contacted the bike's original owner to tell him that it was likely his bike would soon be returned to him. Lloyd and workshop manager Simon Sanderson (both pictured above) then travelled from Loughborough to deliver the charger in person.

A game of cat and mouse ensued as the gentleman seemed reluctant to produce the bike. Eventually, the 50cycles team persuaded him that they needed to check that the charger and bicycle would be compatible to avoid causing irreparable damage.

"Once I was able to see the bike and confirm the serial numbers matched up with the stolen one, we confronted him with the evidence and gave him two options: he could either explain this to the police or hand over the bike immediately”, says Lloyd. “Straight away, he conceded that the bike was not his and agreed to give it up. So we left with the bike and returned it to the very grateful owner, who lives a few streets away"

"We always knew we might be able to locate a stolen bike if we had a suspicious enquiry about a charger” explains Tim Snaith who, along with his brother Scott, owns 50cycles. “It's very satisfying that it went so smoothly in practice. Thieves need to know that our electric bikes can be traced and linked back to the owner in a number of ways.”

The plan wouldn't have worked without Lloyd's persistence in dealing with the thief. “When I explained the situation, the look on his face was priceless”, he recalls. “Do you know what the funniest thing is? He's looking for a refund for the charger we left him!"

About 50cycles

50cycles has given many thousands of cyclists their first taste of electric cycling. We've won a reputation for supplying the very best electric bikes with an after-sales service to match. Our website is now one of the most popular on the subject in the world and our bikes have won races, as well as glowing reviews from the press and enthusiastic feedback from customers.

50cycles Ltd is the UK distributor for the Kalkhoff range of bikes and has warehouses and offices in Loughborough, Leics and London.

For more information on 50cycles and its product range contact:

Tim Snaith, 50cycles Ltd, +44(0)203 355 8850 or email tim@50cycles.com

http://www.50cycles.com/ and http://twitter.com/50cycles

Our end-of-season electric bike sale continues this week

• £500 off our Can-Do folding electric bike
• up to £300 off our renowned Kalkhoff electric bicycles
• free Spooklight with the Agattu in this sale
• we've slashed the prices of two IZIP models
• and shaved £10 off Casco's E.Motion helmets

visit the 50cycles Winter Sale Page to see all the offers

Magnificent Christmas gifts or thrillingly substantial end-of-year treats for yourself? You decide. Current offers end at noon on 17th December (the last date for Christmas delivery) or until we sell out of each model.

New Casco Ciao, Mini Pro and Warp II helmets now online

This newsletter is also available as a good old fashioned web page We're capping off the year by adding more Casco helmets to our accessories range - a very smart range for grown-up city cyclists called Ciao, four fun styles for smaller but no-less adventurous children and the incredible Gold Medal winning Warp II you may have seen in action in Athens and Beijing. Our attitude to cycle helmets is this: too many helmets look cheap and nasty. In fact many resemble a mushroom that lost a fight in a paint factory and offer similar protection from the unkind British weather. This is neither desirable nor necessary. Our Casco helmets each prove you can be safe, warm and effortlessly stylish at the same time. Casco Ciao Helmets Casco Mini Pro Kids Helmets Casco Warp II Track Helmet And of course, there's our established range of Casco all-round protective helmets Casco Spirit Range Casco's Masterpiece range Casco Champ Range Comfort and protection Casco E.Motion Range£10 off Heading to the future, fast Update: the Nukelight has proved to be our fastest-selling new product ever. Even faster than the little Spooklight that was so eager to fly off our shelves. If you'd like to order a NukeLight in time for Christmas, we'd advise doing so soon because they will surely run out at this rate! That's it for now, thank you for reading The 50cycles Team

NukeLight focused photonic technology launches

Most bike lamps on the market rely on a reflecting light cup to focus the beam, but this only focuses the central part, leaving the remaining light energy to disperse uselessly.


We set ourselves the task of producing the ultimate light beam from a light, convenient, rechargeable unit. First we experimented with a single lens but the performance was still not good with shadowing and dimming around the edges. Next, we tried many lense and LED combinations before finally succeeding with a novel photonic arrangment of 6 lenses. This removed all the faults and produced a an intensely perfect beam with even lighting across its width.


Incredibly, there is only a single 3 Watt LED at work here but the light intensity emitted through our lenses reaches up to 540 lumens within 1 meter. We've also maximised performance and battery life by using a novel heat-sink structure around the LED, which promotes optimal energy efficency and maximum light output from each charge.

Together these advances make the NukeLight uniquely compact, powerful and (at around the half the price of lamps of comparable brightness) relatively inexpensive.

50cycles Kalkhoff electric bike spares shop opens

50cycles electric bikes have just launched their new Kalkhoff electric bikes spares shop on their website featuring all the products you'll need to keep your Kalkhoff electric bicycle (or, indeed, your Gitane, Giant Lafree, Monark, BH E-Motion, Helkama, Rixe, Focus, Gazelle, Biketech Flyer, or Rixe electric bike) on the road.

There's free delivery for all customers on the UK mainland and different rates elsewhere. Take a look to see what's on offer.