Adam Detillieux averages anywhere from 25 up to 50 kilometres a day on his bike.
It’s all with a little help, because Detillieux owns an electric bike.
“Getting the electric bike really allowed me to have a similar life as when I had a car. Now, I can cover the same kind of distance and it doesn’t even take much longer than a car,” Detillieux said.
WATCH BELOW: Electric bikes trending in Saskatoon
Two months ago, he decided to purchase an electric bike after getting rid of his car.
“I figured out that I’m saving about 360 bucks a month. You have to pay for parking downtown, gas, insurance, etc. It’s really expensive, so this bike is going to pay itself off in six months of not having a car,” Detillieux said.
The brains behind Detillieux’s bike is from Saskatoon. Roshan Thomas started Biktrix, an electric bike company in 2014.
“I was building an electric bicycle and then I ended up building four or five of these. When I was riding one of them down 8th Street, a lot of people asked me about it and they wanted to buy it,” Thomas said.
From there, Bixtrix took off. The bike company operates mostly online, shipping across North America.
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As for here at home, Thomas said the trend is starting to take off.
“Three years ago, none of us were selling electric bikes. There were some bike shops selling some conversion kits and we were doing a little bit of conversion kits, but now there’s a lot of people riding electric bikes,” Thomas said.
Thomas opened a showroom in the Riversdale neighbourhood a few months ago.
“In terms of sales, we’ve been doubling every year. This year will be our biggest year. We’ve already surpassed what we did last year so far and we have another four or five months left,” Thomas said.
Thomas said Biktrix now has nine models of electric bikes and three different models of electric kits.
The business also operates a factory warehouse in Saskatoon where the bikes are assembled and shipped.
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