The Buzz
of the e-Bike
EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO, WEST ASHTON RODE AN ELECTRIC BIKE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. THE MEMORY OF BEING ON A DRAGSTER AT SIX IGNITED SOMETHING IN HIM HE COULDN’T IGNORE. NOW, THE NORTH MANLY LOCAL HAS OPENED ENERGY ELECTRIC BIKES IN BROOKVALE, AND HIS CRUISIN’ COMMUNITY HAS ARRIVED.
West Ashton was getting his daily coffee fix at Fuel Espresso Bar in Brookvale, when the universe sent him a sign. It read, ‘For lease.’ “I used to come to Fuel every morning on my way to work,” the Channel 7 cameraman tells COVERED. “One day the shop next door to Fuel came up for lease and I thought, I’m going to give this a try. If something gets in the way, I’ll stop, but if not, I’m going to find affordable electric bikes and give people a chance to experience the same buzz I did the first time I rode one.” Like many of us, West’s passion for bike riding started as a kid. “I grew up in Perth and got a Dragster when I was six years old. I had that bike until I was 17. I rode it everywhere and spent hours fixing it, changing it, altering it,” he recalls. When West moved to Sydney in 1995,
he avoided investing in two wheels because of the hills. Little did he know an e-Bike would change all that. “A year and a half ago, I rode an e-Bike for the first time and I felt like a 15-yearold kid,” he laughs. “I had this unlimited power and energy and after that, I became obsessed with buying one.” As is often the case with entrepreneurs, West went on the hunt for his new bike only to discover a contemporary industry that was lacking something special. “I started shopping and two things happened,” he explains. “One, the customer service was terrible. And two, all the e-Bikes I found were $5,000! That’s when I thought, I could do so much better. I could find bikes that are affordable and get people really excited like I was.”
