Stromer ST3 electric bike
Price £6,690, urbanebikes.com
Top speed 45kmh
Weight 29kg
Range up to 100 miles
Battery 983Wh
Recharge 6 hours
If you are a cyclist, look away now. This review is not for you. If, however, you are a motorist who is open to the idea of spending less time in your car (for the health of yourself and the planet, but probably not your wallet – this is a very expensive bike), then you might be interested to meet the Stromer. It’s a phenomenally fast, dizzyingly innovative and dangerously addictive ride that’s part bicycle and part rocket booster. At the end of my week testing it I couldn’t decide whether I was relieved to hand it back or if I’d ever want to ride my normal bike again.
The game-changing brand – which I find impossible not to call Stormer – was founded in 2009 by Thomas Binggeli, and opened the doors to its solar-powered, state-of-the-art factory in Oerwangen, near Bern, in 2013. From the off, Stromer positioned its electric bike as a car-alternative (maybe that should be a “carlternative”). It wasn’t interested in wooing cyclists into abandoning their traditional steel steeds, it wanted to help motorists get to the office on vehicles which were not filthy fume-spewers. To make the point, Stromer uses taglines like: “Because the Swiss don’t build cars” and the “Swiss Driving Experience” to describe its bikes – which makes them sound like Switzerland’s answer to BMW and its famous claim to be the: “ultimate driving machine”. The level of ingenious technology on display makes me think it would be more accurate to call the Stromer “Switzerland’s two-wheeled Tesla.” And why not? Millions of us commute relatively short journeys to work – a trip of 15 miles or more is totally achievable on the Stromer, and the more people who get out of their cars, the less pollution and congestion there will be on our roads and in our cities.
The bike is classed as an S-pedelec. Pedelic is shorthand for “pedal electric cycle” or e-bike, and the “S” stands for speed, so these bikes are often also called speed-pedelecs. This may sound a little bureaucratic, but currently the law states that e-bikes in the UK must be pedal assisted and not throttle-based, they must have a power output of 250W or less, and the speed limit for assistance must be 25kmh. Speed-pedelecs, however, can travel at up to 45kmh. For those not familiar with cycling, that’s about twice the average commute speed. The average overall speed of riders in the Tour de France is about 40kmh. So, unless you are very experienced or racing, it’s a level of velocity that sets you oscillating between screaming exhilaration and abject terror.
It won’t surprise you, therefore, to learn that S-pedelecs are legally classed as mopeds. You have to have a driving licence or take a CBT to ride one. The bike has to be registered, taxed and insured, and you have to wear the correct safety equipment. This means the Stromer has a number plate and you have to wear a crash helmet – which feels very weird. It also means you can’t use cycle lanes and have to stay out of some bus lanes. This is a long way from ideal and left me, for one, feeling exposed and vulnerable – the exact opposite of what I want to feel when I’m on two wheels.
But, and it’s a huge and delirious but, the Stromer is an astonishing ride. The power is instant. Turn the pedals and it arrives in a giant swoosh of momentum. The 983Wh battery has one of the largest capacities of any e-bike. To minimize clutter, all the tech is neatly integrated. The touch display on the top tube connects to an app and you can control all aspects of your ride from your phone, from battery life to theft protection and even scheduled maintenance. On the handlebars there are little rubbery buttons allowing you to control the lights and click through the three torque-assist levels. The bike has fixed lights. You can dip the front one and the rear one also acts as a brake light. It’s all very clever. What’s not so clever is that the bike is sold as a commuter solution, when what it craves is the uphill thrill of an open mountain road.
How smart car technology could help you sleep
Buy a new car today and you’ll find yourself actively assisted on the road by a host of intelligent vehicle aids, from clever self-parking systems to automatic braking and even dynamic cruise control.
One of the most popular of these new gadgets is the Lane-Keeping Aid. This uses a range of front-mounted cameras to scan the road markings ahead and then it actively supports you by ‘nudging’ the steering wheel in the correct direction to stop you inadvertently straying out of your lane. It’s a useful piece of kit that helps keep us all safer on the road.
Now the engineers over at Ford have started wondering if the same technology could be used to make other areas of our life more harmonious. And they hit upon the Lane-Keeping Bed. And for anybody who shares a mattress with a nocturnal space invader or sneaky cover snatcher, this could be a way of giving you an unbroken night’s sleep.
Ford’s engineers have built a prototype bed that uses pressure sensors to detect when a heavy sleeper is straying from their side of the bed. The system then triggers an integrated and totally silent conveyor belt to gently tip them back to their side. It sounds like a dream come true…
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter@MartinLove166
