The Piaggio Wi-Bike is a glimpse of how the world should get to work. If you are one of the four million British commuters who travel less than three miles to work by car, and you’re unable or unwilling to ditch four wheels in favour of a conventional bicycle, electric assist offers an ideal alternative.
If you’ve never ridden an electric bicycle, don’t be too quick to write them off. They are comfortable, easy to use and fast. And far from being the lazy option, electric bikes do a good job of encouraging you to ride faster and further. With only moderate effort, a cruising speed of 20 mph is capable for most riders – a speed that makes short work of most commutes. The 250 W electric motor, which is housed in the crank for optimum balance and handling, has three power settings to choose from and a range of up 120 km.
The Wi-Bike features an integrated GPS/GSM system that’s connected 24 hours a day. If the battery is getting low or someone tries to pinch the bike, a message is sent to your mobile phone. On top of that, a code is needed to operate the display, battery and motor. Removing the display renders the Wi-Bike inoperable.
Piaggio Wi-Bike – from Vespa to Volta
When the makers of the world’s best known scooter turns its attention towards electric bicycles, it’s a clue of how urban transport is changing. Whether or not affordable electric or hydrogen fuelled cars materialise any time soon, the crippling effect of congestion remains. And with road user charging as politically toxic an issue as it ever was, urban commuters who don’t want to spend an ever increasing proportion of their lives stuck behind the wheel are going to have to take to two wheels.
Piaggio knows a thing or two about making simple, robust and economical vehicles. Crippled by WWII, Italy was in dire need of modern and affordable transport. The answer was to be a vehicle that was easy to drive for both men and women, could carry a passenger, and would not get its driver’s clothes dirty. The answer was the 1946 Piaggio Vespa scooter – a now iconic vehicle of which one million were snapped up within a decade. Production of the Vespa continues to this day – and at 100 mpg is no less economical – but the world has moved on and requires more than simply fuel efficiency alone.
Electric assisted bicycles have numerous advantages over petrol-powered scooters for the urban commuter. They are cheaper to run, require no license or insurance and are small and light enough to be stored inside the home.
The advantages extend to other road users too. They help reduce road danger by being less of a risk to pedestrians than every other type of motorised transport, are near-silent and eat up very little space for parking.
The ethical choice
The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Over 30 years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance , breakdown cover and mobility scooter insurance while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.
The Good Shopping Guide judges us to be the UK’s most ethical provider.
Derek Cranage
Nice bike but if it does 20mph. It is illegal to use in the uk
15mph max legal speed
ETA
With a little effort every legal electric bike in Britain can do 20 mph. The 15 mph limit relates to the speed it can achieve without you pedalling
Thomas Lankester
Legally there is no power above 15.5 mph so if you are doing 17 or even 20 mph the electrics are irrelevant except that you are shifting an unusually heavy bike. Anyone ‘cruising’ these at 20mph is doing it all themselves.
PS I have a pedelec myself and on the level, cruising at 20mph is not a ‘little effort’, even for a seasoned commuter like myself.
Tony Rome
Thomas is correct, the motor cuts out completely at 25km/h (15mph) and you are then making all the effort yourself to move the bike. Believe me, pedalling a 25kg bike at 20mph is not easy at all! The only e-bikes which can cruise comfortably at 20mph or more are S-Pedelecs, which are illegal in the UK and only allowed in Germany with certain restrictions, such as compulsory insurance, helmet and use limited to streets, rather than cycleways. The article is therefore rather misleading.
The ETA
However much, or little, effort is required above the limiter, the point we are trying to make is that once again, from the perspective of legislation, we are lagging behind Europe. Speed pedelecs may well be illegal in Britain (unless registered as a powered two wheeler), but this is not stopping them from being sold. There are many reasons why we should be encouraging the use of the next generation of electric bicycle, not least air pollution.
tom wells
wrong. The 15 mph refers to the speed at which the motor ought to cut out, whether pedalling or not. One almost certainly would not get to 15mph going up a steep hill without pedalling, and even with pedalling it would be an achievement.
John S
Sweet ride, but i prefer the styling of the Vespa. Why must electric bikes be so plain?
Neil Woolford
Ok. The key question; how much are they going to retail for?
Stato
4 million sounds awfully low to me given that most of us live in cities (where 3 miles is a fair distance) and there are 31 million people working in the UK*. I appreciate this is irrelevant to the point the article is making.
* 4m is for Britain so excludes NI but the point stands.
MatteoB
It will no doubt cost thousands of pounds. For electric bikes to really take of they need to be cheap.
John Stables
Come on piaggio, you can make a sweeter looking ride than this
Reg Coleman
Unlike the Vespa you have no weather protection – you’ve still got to “dress up” unless perhaps you are in Italy!
stuart bines
Love my e bike and have scooter to ,once you try a good e bike your left smiling lol
Matt Hodges
ETA please don’t spread this sort of miss-information. You may be able to cruise at 25 KPH legally with this and many other electric bikes but not at 20 MPH. There are many illegal electric bikes about and their riders are going to get hammered when they have an accident. If this bike provides any electric assistance above 25 KPH (=15.5 mph) then it is illegal to use it on British roads and cycle tracks or Bridleways.
There is a good case for legal electric assist pedal-cycles. Please don’t promote illegal electric bikes. You will only get the good legal ones a bad name.
Alan T Anderson
There is no reason piaggio can’t adjust the software settings of the bike to meet UK legislation for electric bikes but if they get it registered as moped it will be allowed to do over 15mph assisted but you’ll have to comply with the rules of running a motorIsed vehicle. It would be nice if electric bikes were allowed up to 20mph but if you hit someone at that speed or get hit, someone will get seriously injury.
Penny Price
I got my electric bike last year for Christmas, although I work from home, its made me use it much more for short journeys, I live up a very steep hill (1:4) and the bike can just about get me up it with some hard pedaling. I agree though, that on my bike cruising at 20 mph is not possible, that’s only achieved by fairly strenuous pedalling, which is fine with me because it helps keep my fitness up. On my bike the motor cuts out at 24 kph, (about 15 mph I suppose) when you don’t need it. Its a heavy but very well made bike, and coming from a conventional bike background I thought it would feel a bit like cheating, but I m completely convinced by it now having had it nearly a year. I am cycling far more and although I live in a rural area, the travel times are not off putting.
Michael Andrle
Do someone know when is this bike going to be available to buy? I was searching, but couldn
t find antyhing.
Tim Grogan
How much is one of these bikes?