Edinburgh entrepreneur duo launch e-bike tour firm

An Edinburgh firm offering tours around the city on e-bikes has launched, on the back of a surge in interest in cycling during lockdown.

The tours currently include Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns. Picture: contributed.

Entrepreneurs Euan Scott Kelly and Carol Harris are behind EZ Bike Tours, based in Newhaven, and they have bought 12 e-bikes from Rad Power Bikes.The first ten bikes have already been delivered – arriving on 6 August, Cycle to Work Day – with the firm now ready to start taking customers on tours.

These currently comprise one around the city’s Old and New Towns, with a visit to Holyrood Park and the climb up the road below Arthur’s Seat; the other a more extended tour through the Dalmeny estate and out to the Forth bridges at South Queensferry.

The firm is looking to harness a surge in interest in cycling during lockdown. Picture: contributed.

Kelly, a BMX champion who has raced, bought, sold, and maintained bikes for many years in Scotland, Canada, and Sydney, Australia, said: “We’re delighted to have two of Rad Power Bikes’ most recent models for our tours.

“They are the best e-bikes available anywhere, and will give our customers on our tours a memorable experience – enough effort required to count as exercise, with plenty of e-power to help with Edinburgh’s hills.”

Harris, who has previous business experience running the Curves fitness centre in Stockbridge, and as an artist with her own brand of greetings cards, highlights the benefits of the tours for visitors and locals, who can discover new routes and locations.

She said: “We believe there is a pent-up demand from people who have been cooped up under lockdown to get out and about, enjoy some fresh air and light exercise, and discover some of the wonderful bike tracks and quiet roads around Edinburgh.”

Gaining speed

In the first few months, the duo expect their customers to be mainly local people and staycationers, but are looking forward to welcoming visitors from further afield as tourist numbers gradually pick up again. As the business expands, the plan is to add ten bikes a year, and introduce new tours exploring Edinburgh and its surrounding countryside.

The firm said biking lets people exercise outdoors with relatively little risk of infection from coronavirus. It was recently revealed that in June, a Scotland-wide network of automatic cycle counters revealed a 62.75 per cent year-on-year increase in people cycling.

EZ Bike Tours said: “Biking has seen a large surge in popularity, and city councils such as Edinburgh’s have embarked on widescale programmes to introduce bike lanes and encourage biking in general, recognising not only the environmental benefits of people travelling by bike rather than by car, but also the public health benefits from the exercise.”

SCOTSMAN.COM

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