Fifteen seconds was all it took to snap everything into place.

One moment it lay folded neatly, the next - like a magic trick - it was ready for the road. A little lever here . . . a tug on the saddle there . . . a press on the button to start it.

That was the easy bit. Now, try to imagine you are sitting on a bar stool that suddenly takes off at 10mph.

The wind blows your hair and forces your face into a grin that resembles something between joy and terror. And then, gradually, the grin turns into a smug smile.

I have just become the first British journalist to road test the YikeBike, billed as a mini penny-farthing for the 21st century.

It might look like a collision between a praying mantis and a child’s scooter, but it’s the result of five years of work to reinvent the wheel, with one important addition: an electric bike motor.

It’s a electric bicycle, but not as we have come to know it. For a start, you sit cocked and beacon with your easily at your side.

Your feet remain static on the folding electric bike footrests and your fingers work the controls, principally an accelerator and a brake.

The seating arrangement and dimensions mean you don’t so much ride it as wear it. Crucially, you can fold it into a bag and carry the whole 22lb package anywhere.

True, it takes a little while to get acclimated to benumbed it, abnormally if you’ve been aloft on the affectionate of agreement that has so far accepted altogether able for anybody from Miss Marple to Sir Chris Hoy.

But there’s one chat which summarises the awareness of blatting forth so bound and so calmly on this rather able allotment of engineering: Yikes!

Traditional cyclists move cautiously to one side as I approach. One of the Lycra brigade gives a snooty look as he whizzes past on his racing bike, but I can’t help noticing he’s sweating a lot.

I’m wearing a linen suit and I’m perfectly relaxed.

One of the most compelling examples of urban transportation we’ve seen in recent times, the Gocycle is a lightweight electric bike developed with professionals and families in mind which brings a number of style and performance firsts to city-specific two-wheelers. Gocycle’s design engineer and founder of Karbon Kinetics Limited (KKL), Richard Thorpe, cut his teeth working in lightweight vehicle design for companies such as McLaren and turned his attention to bicycles in an attempt to break the mould of conventional design - and with its lightweight magnesium alloy construction, push-button access to electric propulsion and an innovative enclosed multi-speed chain-drive, the Gocycle does just that.

Functioning as a normal pedal powered bike, the Gocycle can switch to instant electric power at the touch of a button located on the handlebars. Its entire frame and wheels are injection-moulded in light-weight magnesium alloy in a process called Thixomoulding - a type of injection moulding for metal, which is more durable than plastic and commonly used to create magnesium casings of products such as laptops, digital cameras and mobile phones. This delivers the smooth, seamless attending and achievement of carbon fiber, but at one-tenth of the amount and allows the Gocycle to be produced at a abundant cheaper amount than commensurable carbon cilia bikes according to Thorpe.

Gocycle’s electric bicycle motor and controller are packaged in the easily replaceable front motor fork assembly and the motor is hidden away in the cycle’s front hub. The addition can bound ability 15mph and a distinct charge, which takes about three hours, will accommodate a biking ambit of up to 20 afar depending on pedal ascribe and terrain. The Gocycle is additionally the world’s aboriginal assembly bike to affection a absolutely amid multi-speed chain-drive with side-mounted wheels. This patented 3-speed Cleandrive system means no grease and grime on your clothes, and the side-mounted and interchangeable PitstopWheel means fixing a flat tire is easy. The unit is also designed to be easy to store, disassembling to a size of 65×54x26cm for packing away into a soft bag or hard case.

In another first, Gocycle will be introducing a virtual business model to the cycling industry to cut out the middlemen and deliver the Gocycle directly to the customer. While specialist high-end retail partners will also deliver a traditional face-to-face consumer service for those that prefer to buy the old fashioned way, Thorpe says he wants to, ‘bring Apple design and Dell distribution to the current two-wheeler marketplace,’ so the Gocycle will be available online as well as through in-store displays at Gocycle Certified Dealers. KKL additionally offers absolute backup of genitalia beneath assurance and banal fulfilment of in-store purchases aural 24 hours to UK acreage and two to three canicule to Europe.

Electric bicycles are big business in Asia and parts of Europe, but as urban commuters contend with ever stagnating traffic in major cities and government attempts to reduce traffic congestion around the world, KKL research predicts that the electric two-wheeler market is expected to have double digit growth in the next decade. KKL’s attempt to harness this market opportunity with the Gocycle provides a city-specific transport solution that is designed to be not only cost effective, but also fun – and really, is there anything more fun than cruising past backed up traffic on a bike? I think not.

You can argue persuasively that the electric bicycle is the first roadworthy electric vehicle (EV) to reach fully commercialized sales volumes. These EVS are being integrated successfully into the general marketplace. For the electric bike utility, they offer significant public relations potentials, perhaps profits for a nonregulated subsidiary, and leverage for electrotechnologies in general.

Why the electric bicycle? First, look at its benefit for other electrotechnologies, particularly regarding the bike’s positive effect on battery technology. Although assorted analysis efforts accept produced avant-garde batteries for EVS with ever-improving achievement and weight/energy densities, the commercialization of some technologies falters due to ambiguity about the approaching of the electric carswhich aggregate by far the better abeyant array market. But electric bikes can advice advance and aggrandize the array bazaar by accouterment a accepted bazaar for several hundred thousand batteries per year and conceivably several actor in the abreast future. That able near-term bazaar allows array producers to calibration up accomplishment and assembly processes with aplomb and activation on analysis and development. The learning curve developed from these smaller evs will accelerate the economies of scale needed to open the electric car market.

What is that market? Worldwide, bicycles and scooters are the number one mode of transportation. An estimated one billion bicycles are in daily use, and more than 100 million new bicycles enter the world market each year. China, for example, has 34 bicycles per 100 inhabitants and has a market for more than 30 million electric bicycles annually. Riders in the European Union breeze up added than 16 actor bikes anniversary year-for every 4 bodies in the Netherlands, for instance, there are 3 bikes.

Electric bicycles have been put to use and received enthusiastically by industrial users, couriers, commuters, and recreational cyclists. The bikes have appeal to law enforcement officers as well. With the aforementioned advantages as a cop on foot, a cop on an electric bike can get to an emergency in beneath time and access after activity ragged. “It’s energy-efficient and added adaptable than a car so you can get through traffic,” says Dennis Cothurst, a convoying administrator in Sebastopol, CA.