'There was nothing on the market': Company turning bicycles into e-bikes has expanded to Calgary

Electric bicycles are becoming more popular and while there are many brands of purpose-built e-bikes to choose from, many conventional riders don't want to get rid of their perfectly good human-powered two-wheelers.

Enter Okanagan Ebikes.

Owner Russ Tresoor says the company specializes in turning regular bicycles into electric bicycles.

"Our target market is 50 to 85 years old and in order to get up those hills, they need enough power in the motor to help assist them," he said.

"And there was nothing on the market until we ran into the Bafang mid-drive motors."

The aftermarket motors and batteries, installed, cost between $1,600 and $2,200.

Tresoor says he was first looking at e-bikes for himself and his wife seven years ago and wasn't happy with what was on the market because of their weak hill-climbing abilities.

"I bumped into someone who had a bike with this Bafang mid-drive made in China, so I had an opportunity to take one for a demo ride and was sold," he said.

"I had a lot of friends who wanted to try our bikes and once they tried the bike, it was, 'Hey can you build me a bike?' So after a few builds, my wife and my son sat down and said, 'Hey what if we start a business doing this?"

The company has been in business for five years and is now expanding into the Calgary market and Tresoor says there are no other bike companies in the Okanagan or Calgary doing what he's started.

"You love the bike you have and it's a really well-made bike, typically. Why should we bring in something inferior?" he said.

"There are a lot of new bikes on the market that are sort of in that $2,000 price range, but they're not really a very nice bicycle and they're heavy. We thought we might as well take a really purpose-built bicycle you had invested money in and we'll just put a motor on it and just call it an electric bike."

Galen Macdonald heads the Calgary operation that opened for business in April.

"Our system is based around the bottom bracket, it's a mid-drive system so this can actually just be plugged into your existing bike," he said.

"It's a simple plug-and-play system and it's very easy to deal with."

In Kelowna, the team is converting about 300 bicycles annually and Macdonald says there are various-size batteries to fit a rider's needs.

"Our 15- and 17-amp-hour batteries will last between 60 to 92 kilometres depending on how liberal you are with the battery," he said.

"Then, our 21-amp-hour battery will last up to 120 Kilometres if you are nice enough to it, so to speak."

He says that goes a long way toward making riders comfortable that they're not going to run out of power halfway through a commute.

"A lot of people in this new electronic transportation age are facing what we call battery anxiety or range anxiety," said Macdonald.

"These bikes completely circumnavigate that. You could ride to and from work, even on the outskirts of the city, probably for two to three days consecutively without even having to worry about recharging your bike, which is great."

Doug Clark, vice-president of Bike Calgary, says e-bikes can make all the difference for riders.

"It's allowing a much larger cross-section of the community to ride, older people, maybe people with young kids in a cargo bike," he said.

"Being able to do grocery shopping or whatever with their bikes, they're hauling a little bit more and that extra e-bike boost allows them to make those trips much more comfortably."

He says safety is key.

E-bike riders on the Calgary pathway system are required to have their bikes governed to go no faster than 32 kilometres per hour.

"A helmet is actually also a requirement," he said.

"Even though on regular bikes, adults over 18 don't have to wear a helmet. If you're on an e-bike, you do have to wear a helmet."

Learn more about Okanagan Ebikes at okanaganebikes.com.