Mopeds are rarely thought of as anything other than a stepping stone towards car ownership for teenagers or a death-defying way of delivering a pizza before it gets cold, but an appetite for good-looking electric vehicles that can be bought today and won't break the bank is breathing life into the low-powered, two wheeler market.
The Juicer 48 pictured right is a custom-built electric bike and a moped in the classic sense – a low-powered motor and pedals to help get the machine moving at low speeds.
The bike has been built very deliberately with styling as a priority – its appearance borrows heavily from American motorcycles of the 1920s.
The bike can manage 13 miles at 20mph, but can reach an unrestricted top speed of 46mph.
Many electric mopeds or e-bikes are lighter and offer a better range, but unfortunately mopeds are subject to different classifications and a bewildering array of regulation depending on where you are in the world. For example, any power-assisted bicycle capable of more than 15mph must undergo the onerous task of being registered as a motorcycle. By contrast, a good-quality road bicycle – without an electric motor – can cruise easily at 25mph but is not subject to the same regulation.
It seems likely that the government will heed advice from the ETA and other organisation's to remove the 40kg weight limit imposed on electrically-assisted bicycles, thereby allowing cargo-carrying bicycles to benefit from electric motors.
A spokesperson for the ETA, which insures conventional and electric bicycles, said: "The promotion of electric vehicles is back to front; the government appears blind to the wider benefits of electric bicycles and mopeds that do not need the investment in technology and infrastructure required by electric cars."
Bicycles currently represent the most efficient and realistic application for electric motor technology; battery-powered cars and motorcycles are heavy and troublesome to charge without widespread charging points, but e-bikes are light enough to be carried into a house to be re-charged. Furthermore, the electrically-assisted bicycle is the ultimate hybrid; if the battery runs flat, the rider can switch to leg power in an instant.
Christmas shopping for kids these days can be a complicated proposition for technologically challenged grandparents who don't watch a lot of cartoons on television.
There are so many battery-operated whiz-bang toys on the shelves, many with hefty price tags. These gadgets light up, transform, require additional games and cartridges, and in some cases are so complicated that you almost need an engineering degree to put them together.
That's why I had to chuckle when a friend passed along a story written by Jonathan Liu on a website called GeekDad.
Liu listed the five greatest toys ever made. Because this was on a website read by, well, geeks, I assumed it would list the latest computer games or kids gadgets.
The five greatest kids toys of all time included a stick, a cardboard box, string, cardboard tubes and dirt.
How many Christmas mornings have you watched your kids tear through a cornucopia of expensive gifts, only to set them aside and play with the wrapping paper or create a fort out of a big box?
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