Pashley’s new eCargo trike

Perhaps it’s slightly baffling that Pashley is not best known for its long-standing tradition of producing practical utility bikes for business. Arguably that reality jars with its traditional sit up and beg bike reputation and its ‘oldest British bike manufacturer’ reputation.

The bike maker has resolutely avoiding being pigeonholed hinder its business development. Having supplied the Royal Mail’s famed red postie bikes, Pashley also makes bikes and eBikes for two of the UK’s biggest hire bike fleets – the Santander sponsored Bike Share scheme in London and West Midlands Cycle Hire, operating in and around Birmingham. Few bicycle brands can match that level of success in serving business fleets.

Now Pashley’s new eCargo trike is entering full production, named the ALECS (Articulated, Lightweight, Electric, Cargo Solution).

Designed to carry 110kg securely at 25kph and with a patented tilting front section that means its rides like a bicycle but with the stability of a tricycle, it’s squarely pitched at the last mile delivery market in our towns and cities, particularly those trying to solve congestion and pollution by cutting access for vans and trucks.

The ALECS is just 80cm wide so it can utilise bike lanes and faster routes – and it doesn’t require a licence or road tax to ride.

It is the culmination of four years of development at the Pashley factory in Stratford-upon-Avon, where all its cycles are made.

Having successfully completed exhaustive real time safety, durability and rider ergonomics testing, production of the ALECS is now underway with a demo fleet being made available for businesses to trial it in their own delivery operation. Pashley’s new eCargo trike can be customised to customer’s individual requirements of colour, box size and branding as required.

“The response so far has been excellent,” Adrian Williams, Pashley’s Managing Director said. “From small businesses needing a delivery solution or a better way to get equipment to their customers, to large organisations like Royal Mail, who have been involved in our development programme for the ALECS.

“Pashley identified a real need to answer the rapidly growing demand from cargo delivery companies and businesses that are now servicing urban areas where vans and trucks are not allowed. There are wide ranging uses and applications for our ALECS vehicle, and we have over 90 years’ experience of working with customers in this sector.

“It’s been a huge team effort and we’re immensely proud of the solution that our innovative electric cargo trike provides – and that it comes from the longest established bicycle maker in England.”