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Last year, we got quite into cycling — I guess we’re at that age where tour-cycling is considered fun and good exercise. We used our basic bicycles (mine doesn’t even have multiple gears!) but we managed to go 30km in a single day. We also considered the possibility of getting e-bikes so we could range further, but we thought we could just rent ’em if there was a part of the country we’d like to explore on bicycle.

But then in June, when we were on vacation in Denmark, we got infected with COVID-19 and that was basically the end of it.

This year, as the weather got better, our thoughts turned to cycling once again. But going 30km seemed like a large hurdle — maybe an e-bike would help there after all? But e-bikes are expensive, and could we justify spending that kind of money on it? And we would need to get a special bicycle rack if we wanted to take them anywhere — ebikes are heavy and our Prius doesn’t have a trailer hitch to put a rack on…

So the idea was to get a foldable e-bike. After a thorough search, our choice was the Urbanbiker Mini, a Spanish model that is street-legal in the EU. I ordered one, it came in, we tried it out, and then I ordered a second one. It has the right kind of range, and we cared a lot about having 20″ wheels and hydraulic brakes. And the price was really good as well.

We can chuck these in the car and just go somewhere. In fact, with a bit of wriggling we can put them on the backseat, leaving the trunk for other luggage. So we can (and have!) take them on holiday.

With the normal road bikes, we have to start and finish at home, limiting our range — and we’ve seen most of the nice paths and routes near home already. It’s kinda dull to have to go through a part of the route that you have done 20+ times already before you get to somewhere new. Last Sunday, we put the bicycles in the car, drove 12km and did a tour of 30km from there — it’s expanded our range tremendously.

We usually ride with only minimal support, just to overcome the size difference of the tires with a normal bike. We don’t have to zoom around at 20km/h! And this also means that we do some actual cycling, not just perfunctory rotating the pedals to activate the motor.