Sunday 9 October 2011

Kalkan and the electric bike


I'd love to be back in Kalkan, but as my credit card bill is as long as Gatwick airport runway I need a plan to help me get there.  I have given it plenty of thought and believe that I could have an answer to end my money woes and take me and my idea to my favourite Turkish place.

So, for the moment, please consider yourself a critical friend - a gentler version of Alan Sugar if you like - as I present my plans for - The Kalkan Electric Bike.
cycling downhill is fun.  Going up is err more challenging.  So get an electric bike!


Kalkan nestles between the Taurus mountains and the Mediterranean sea in Southern Turkey - a beautiful location, but clearly one that involves very steep hills.  I've researched this and discovered that in general the downhill sections are brilliant.  People smile and chat as they walk through the little streets of the Bazaar, stopping to buy an ice cream or an Efes - generally ambling happily around. 

But what goes down must come up again (hmm something like that anyway...) and this, according to my research, is where the problem lies.  A steep hill in the heat, after the aforementioned Efes is an exhausting process. This is where my brilliant idea comes in; electric bikes stationed all around Kalkan.

Shamelessly borrowing Boris's ideas I would have half a dozen bike parks, where the bikes could be charged up.  Imagine it.  You wouldn't need the motor on the way down hills - just freewheel your way down to the harbour, park your bike, wander around a little choosing a boat trip for the following day - maybe eat and drink your fill - and then when you're ready you can leap back on your bike without that feeling of impending cardiac overload, start the motor and be gently carried back to your starting point. 
Kalkan harbour - at the bottom of a hill, strangely


And electric bikes, unlike motor bikes, do give you the option of keeping fit.  You don't have to use the motor all the time.  A good pedal could help shift the pounds that the Doy Doy dinner threatened to add to your stomach.  Or not - your choice. 

So this is my plan A.  I have a plan B forming and indeed a plan C in the wings.  Just as a more secure backup though, I'm off to buy a lottery ticket now...





 

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