Possibly our greatest motorhome Accessory.
Today is March 11 2022 and I am sat here drinking great Spanish coffee in a superb Aire called Nomadic Camping Car in Valencia, nestled into what is merely a compound in an industrial area, filled with an eclectic mix of campers , all high on life and reflecting on a memorable day in Valencia. For me I realised that this memorable day was facilitated due to a pair of electric bikes we bought four years ago , and it lead me to think whether these bikes are the best motorhome accessory we have ever bought.
Four years ago , after mountain biking for many years we decided to purchase two electric mountain bikes. Before we made our decision though there seemed to be two questions that needed answering.
They are expensive so what value will they bring,
Electric bikes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes which sort shall we purchase.
The context of this decision was that we had, in the previous year, made the transition to a Motorhome from a Caravan and were concerned about the loss of the car in terms of getting around places. We had normal bikes which we semi regularly would ride 50 miles plus but advancing years meant that we needed a day off the next day and didn’t see those bikes giving us the daily transport need we required. So deciding the investment was worth it and convinced we would use them the next question is what type. Hybrid , road, cyclo cross or mountain bike , all with their strengths and compromises , a bit like Motorhoming and Caravanning when you think about it. Deciding to stick with mountain biking , but full suspension or hard tail ?. We decided to buy two Trek Mountain Bikes , hard tails as we wanted the 29” wheels that come with the hard-tails (at the time the full suspension wheels where 26”). They also came in his and her models and although both the same model, Helen’s was the newer version.
We bought these bikes from Keswick and stuck them on the cycle rack on our then Bailey Motorhome and took them off to the Highlands to try them out. 1000 charges is the capacity on average of the lithium battery and we have now ridden them for approaching 3,500 kms but they are still going strong. They have been ridden on dedicated mountain bike tracks in Wales, the Lakes and Scotland , across the planes of Spain , through the Dolomites , the Venetian Lagoons, the Tuscan country side, to the north face of the Eiger and the downhill slopes of Wengen in the Alps . They have been ridden on the Southern and Outer Hebrides including Mull, Islay, Lewis , Harris , Barra and the Uists. But they also been ridden through cities , Valencia yesterday being the latest , to fetch bread from the boulangerie and more recently to carry our new pooch.
So attached are we to these bikes, that we decided on our latest motorhome purchase that we needed a boot big enough to accommodate the bikes from which we will surely never be parted.
Knaus Live i 700 MEG
But are they the best motorhome accessory we have ever bought - probably YES.
Below are a few images from our favourite biking memories.
