My Mum has a mountain bike, a very old basic Saracen one.

She has used it very occasionally over the last 5 years, but she says she would use it more, but she lives at the top of a hill and can’t cycle back up. To be honest I also think that she couldn’t really cycle that far, and it’s more of a thought thing than a doing.

However I imagine some form of electrically assisted bike would at least get her out in the fresh air, with my Dad on his Boardman.

Are electric bikes any good, can you get one that a 5ft retired lady would want to ride, that is actually capable of getting up relatively steep Tarmac roads, doesn’t weigh a tonne, and can easily be put in a car.

Is all this possible, or is the technology and in fact the size of bike not there yet?

Have a look at Haibikes, they do a hard tail electric mountain bike. They work pretty well but are “pedal assist” rather than a motor. A few guys turned up to some local races by me and raced on them, they were a lot quicker up the hills than down them.

We have a kalkhoff. It was my dad’s but when he died I got a step through frame from the uk dealer and swapped the components for my wife to use.

It’s good but the RRP is horrendous. The technology is improving all the time so a cheaper one from a more mainstream brand now would probably be just as good if not better (this one is now probably 4.5yrs old).

They are chuffing heavy though (45-50lbs at a guess) and I wouldn’t choose to heft it in and out of a car if I could help it. On the road the weight is more than made up for by the 250Watts of power assistance it provides. We live in a village called Steep – the roads are! With it my wife can cruise up the hill relatively easily seated next to me whilst I’m out of the saddle working pretty hard.

My LBS is selling loads of them. i borrowed one of their demos for a laugh while my haibike road bike was being fixed and had the best fun in ages.The one i borrowed was a full sus mtb which was about 40lbs i guess. From what i can gather its best to spend a bit more for a decent one rather than buy the cheap chinese stuff. They still have some demo bikes http://www.bikemotion.co

Electric bike = heavy

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Nicolai have some really comfy-looking ones.