I’ve gone electric!
I have a lovely touring bike and I’ve used my tourer to access the landscape on numerous occasions but often the effort of dragging equipment (along with myself) distances is tiring and I need my energy for concentrating on the ever changing light when working en plein air. I recently borrowed an e-bike from my friend’s wife and Nigel and I used the e-bikes to cycle down to a small bay from his home in Coldingham, in the Scottish Borders. We finally did some en plein air sketching on the dramatic coastline north of St. Abbs. We had been promising or threatening to do this for some time. The light was a bit flat for our tastes but experience of riding an e-bike was far from flat! I realised that an e-bike could open up all sorts of possibilities for me. A period of intense research followed and I narrowed my choice down to one bike; the Kinesis Range 50 Adventure Bike… a sort of gravel bike with the Fazua electric motor. The Kinesis Range is designed to take mudguards and a pannier rack which is perfect for me to carry my art equipment into the landscape. Its “off-road” capability ensures that any rough tracks that might thwart my tourer are now open to me to explore. Today was my inaugural ride on my new steed and it seemed appropriate to take a sketchbook with me.
Back at “the office” today…sketching wind swept clouds on top of Winter Hill. Nearly 28 miles ridden with over 3000 feet of climbing ably assisted by my new Kinesis Range 50 e-bike. Big shout out to Kinesis bikes and Fazua electric motors for such an awesome road/off-road machine, Green Machine Bike Shop for sourcing everything, Ortlieb for the panniers (got to keep my sketchbook dry!), Torq Fitness for the delicious organic carrot cake flapjack and Ken Bromley Art Supplies for the Conte a Paris pencils.
