Bernard Ginns: Here’s to the bike that ensures you never run on empty

“YOU should try an engine,” I said, grinning broadly as I powered past the exhausted cyclist who was struggling up one of Yorkshire’s steepest hills.
Celebrations to mark the announcement that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014Celebrations to mark the announcement that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014
Celebrations to mark the announcement that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014

This being a family newspaper, I couldn’t possibly publish his louder-than-expected, two-word reply.

Still, his lack of enthusiasm didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the electric bicycle as I topped the Chevin in record time.

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I have done a fair amount of cycling in recent months to combat the spread of middle age and introduce some thrills to the morning commute.

Celebrations to mark the announcement that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014Celebrations to mark the announcement that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014
Celebrations to mark the announcement that the Grand Depart of the Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire in 2014

I know some of the pleasure and pain involved in cycling up and down hills in God’s Own Country. But there is something undeniably satisfying about letting a machine take some of the strain.

Ian Morton, one of the entrepreneurs behind Otley-based e-bikehire.com, loaned me the bike. Mr Morton, who spent 25 years running a successful interior design business, discovered the joy of electric bikes while on holiday in the Canary Islands. Electric bikes are commonplace in many parts of Europe. Cycling infrastructure tends to be much more advanced on the continent.

In the Netherlands, 175,000 e-bikes are sold a year and one in eight bikes sold is electric. In Germany, 300,000 electric bikes are sold each year, compared with 20,000 in the UK.

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Outside Europe, China has a strong e-bike culture where millions have been sold. Meanwhile, in the UK, we seem to be more excited about e-cigarettes.

Mr Morton and business partner Lee Robinson have invested £60,000 in their retail and rental enterprise in a bet that this will change.

The forthcoming Tour de France is sure to inspire more Englishmen and women to follow in their tracks. Their company has established a network of tours around the Yorkshire Dales. I can’t think of a better place to go cycling.

Mr Morton lent me his top-of-the-range Haibike, powered by a Bosch engine, equipped with the latest gear and retailing at a cool £2,750.

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The marketing material claims it is “a true game changer in the world of e-bikes, an amazing ride, equally at home on the dirt or flying through your city streets”.

I certainly had a lot of fun on it, particularly on the turbo setting, and got covered in mud.

I did feel a little self-conscious at traffic lights with a large battery between my legs, but no more so than I would in head-to-toe Rapha like some of the cyclists out there.

• I am tapping this out on the train, heading south towards London for dinner at the Hilton hotel in Park Lane and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

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I will be sitting at a table with James Lambert, the chairman of R&R Ice Cream, who as one of the shortlisted entrepreneurs is representing the North of England.

Having seen the embargoed press release, I already know that he will be winning the top award, the first Yorkshireman to take the UK title since the EY programme was founded 15 years ago.

I will have to feign surprise when the host, BBC presenter Jeremy Vine, announces the winner.

What an achievement. The R&R story is well versed in these pages, but bears repeating: it tells of a bull semen salesman – Lambert – who takes over an old Victorian dairy in North Yorkshire and transforms it into a £750m European giant.

Yorkshire can be proud of this son of the Broad Acres.

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Sir Nigel Rudd, who led the judging panel, said: “James has extraordinary vision and ambition.

“He has built a regional family business into a true global contender, through acquisition at home and abroad – he is even selling ice cream to Italy.”

In person, Lambert is a larger-than-life character with a colourful attire.

This can be a disarming combination.

But beneath the charming exterior is an extremely shrewd businessman who is capable of taking tough decisions.

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• SOMEWHERE at home I have the first edition of Crap Towns, an endearing little book that chronicles the worst places to live on this septic isle.

The latest edition has just been published and has shuffled the top rankings. I was amused, and a little saddened, to see that London made the top of the list.

I spent many happy years living in the capital, but have become dismayed at what London has become.

Which is a city of gilded millionaires, oppressed slave workers and increasingly little in between.

Life is far better – and richer – in Yorkshire.

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