The new Bike (e-bike)!

For a history of our very tiring day check out HarlingDarling's blip.
I’ll just add a few details.
This is the bike I picked up today at the cycle shop today in town and then cycled home. It's only 13 km but there are two long hills, and the trip finishes with a third, very steep, hill up to our village. (You can see that hill on yesterday's blip!)  Today I cruised home in 45 minutes. How did it feel? Wonderful!
On the slightest downhill I could turn off the electric assistance altogether. Even on the flat I could do without any help but it was a bit of a push and after a while I switched back to the lowest setting to get a little help. Going up the hills I could combine dropping down through the gears in the normal way, with upping the electrical assistance from off, to eco, to normal, and finally to high. I arrived at the top of the steepest hill pedalling fast in a low gear, breathing a little faster than normal but able to give our neighbour a cheery hello as I sped by. On my standard bike I’d have been pushing the bike on foot, panting very hard, and wet with sweat! I still have to work at cycling, but I can decide how much work I want to do, just a bit, or a hard work-out.  The assistance cuts out at 25 kmh so if I want to go faster it’s all my own work!
There’s going to be a lot more cycling from now on.
Swedish bureaucracy excelled itself today.  There’s a government scheme to encourage the purchase of e-bikes, so we send in the details to the relevant department, and get 25% of the price back.  As I’ve already mentioned I bought the bike today. About 4:30 this afternoon I logged into the government scheme, filled in the necessary details on the web site including a photo of my receipt, and the frame number of the bike, and sent it in. I would get an answer within two weeks the website informed me. 3 and a half hours later at 8 o’clock this evening there was a message waiting in my computer - I’d been granted the 25% rebate and the money would be in my bank within 10 days. That’s what I call service!
At around £2000 the bike wasn’t cheap, but getting £500 back from the state helped me decide to buy, and certainly helped me to go for quality from a bike shop, rather than something half that price from a discount store that would fall apart after a couple of years.