History

In 2005 moving to a remote area of the North York Moors. To say bit was hilly was an understatement and my passion was for mountain biking! It occurred to me that the addition of some assistance on top of what I could output myself, could turn my local off-road bike ride, which included over 50% getting off andpushing, into a flowing ride without any pushing at all! (hopefully)

After some research, I realised there were limited complete electric bikes on the market and the few that were, tended to be fuelled by cumbersome lead acid battery packs weighing nearly half a ton, as well as generally being equipped with a shopping basket on the front; not a sporty look at all!. As my interest was primarily in riding off-road, I turned my attention to retro-fit kits and the idea of constructing my own electric bike to suit off-road riding. There were also few retro-fit kits on the market at that time. I tested what was available. Eventually, when after a couple of years l reached my goal, I had found something that withstood a decent amount rough treatment. This was my first E-MTB Bike project, maybe the first anywhere by anyone???? I felt that the experience was such a buzz that I wanted to share my ideas with others. It struck me that it was ‘something other’ than just a bicycle; it was a lot of fun recreationally but I could also see that it could be so beneficial to many people for many reasons. So I used the ‘world wide web’ as a platform to share my ideas (it had been invented by then). I soon received positive feedback as well as requests from people enquiring if I could build something similar for them. This was the beginning of electricmountainbikes.com. in 2008. 

My goal and passion from the outset was to make the electric bikes more attractive, cool and accepted. I felt that unless electric transportation looked more appealing, it had little chance of becoming a popular transport of the future. I thought that each bike I produced that looked good, performed well and was reliable, would be a positive advert for an alternative mode of transport. Now you only need to google electric mountain bike to see there is a lot of choice and they are extremely common place. Most of the big players in the Bicycle industry have several E-MTB’s to choose from, this was definately not the case in 2008.

I also felt passionately that if more people were exercising, having fun and enjoying the pleasures of the natural world, then there couldn’t fail to be a positive effect on their wellbeing. I felt electric bikes was a piece of a jigsaw that could bring happiness, and was not the transport of a ‘lazy person’ as I heard so often in those early days from those with a less broad-minded perspective.

I still stand by these same values now and this is the driving force behind bringing my ‘GOAT Bikes’ brand to the market. I am hoping to set a new benchmark with the GOAT Bikes brand, in what an electric bike can offer, with a clear focus on quality, style and innovation.

In those very early days a lot of serious mountain bikers would scoff at the idea of an electrified mountain bike, and road bikers would roll around laughing at the concept of power from anywhere else apart from their own legs. But I was determined to continue to promote the enjoyable experience that could be had or extended with the addition of a motor, for those that wanted exercise and enjoyment without the pain.