Discount Vouchers for E-Bike Stories — Archive
16/09/2025An E-Bike Conversion Kit for Your Daily Journeys
21/10/2025
I met an unusual character at a dinner with friends. An outsider whom we will call SAM, he came from northern Europe and was passionately committed to protecting the planet. In short, not really my thing!
Even so, the machine he brought to the party immediately caught my attention.
While some people around here arrive in rather flashy cars, he turned up on a bicycle…
The first thing that intrigued me about SAM was his horizontal hairstyle. I later realised that the wind had swept back the hair he had slicked down for the occasion.
Although we initially had little interest in one another, I waited until he had had a few drinks before asking about his bike. He told me it was electric and that this was a common means of transport in his home country. At last I understood why both the rear wheel and the middle of the frame were filled in.
My bright idea that evening was to ask to try it.
“It’s not for girls,” he told me. “It does 60 km/h.”
Well, my friend, you have picked the right person: there are not many tomboys like me. I climbed onto the bike and it was bliss: breathtaking acceleration, wonderful silence, just a rush of air to remind me I was in control of a powerful motor fed by an impressive battery. I tried to go faster and faster — I later learned that I was only in second gear. I overtook cars, left scooters behind when pulling away, drew astonished looks and decided I did not want to go back.
I loved everything about that electric bike. It was simply exhilarating, especially on steep climbs, when the motor pushed to its limit made a metallic “TIE fighter” noise that reminded you it was giving everything it had.
I returned late, with my hair sticking out in all directions.
“I want one just like it,” I announced to SAM. “And if I can’t have one, I want yours.”
Used to such enthusiasm for his bike, Sam paid little attention to my excitement. Nevertheless, he advised me to take a look in the sports shop he jokingly called “à font les formes”. My reply opened the door to the conversation.
“Don’t tell me you bought it there. I can see you built it yourself. There’s tape everywhere and loose wires… You made it.”
The machine was indeed a collection of mechanical and electronic parts, covered in LCD screens. It looked more like the vehicle from Back to the Future than a perfectly conventional, bland bicycle.
I had touched a nerve with its designer, and the conversation got going, helped perhaps by the gathering night. There I was, a young Padawan being introduced to the language of electric bicycles and a custom kit to fit yourself to your own bike.
The message, roughly, was: if you know nothing about mechanics, do not expect to get a bike like this.
“Yes, but SAM, you’re here. I’ll even take an interest in ecology if I have to.”
Then came the question of cost, which he hoped would dampen my enthusiasm. But when I really like something, I am willing to put the money into it.
This is how the evening ended: SAM asked me to write an article about my very limited experience, to help me get started. If I earned the reward — in other words, the discount — Sam from Sweden would help me with the next steps and the assembly. I hoped to live up to my ambitions and, if I won the prize, I would be sure to tell you about my build and my experiences… as a girl.
P.S. Reading other electric-bike riders’ accounts did make me a little nervous about attempting such a build. But I was not backing down: I’m a real SCHAWBLE!
