Next time you are struggling up a hill in your car keep an eye out for Annika Korsten and her retrofitted electric bike.
Ms Korsten's 10-year-old mountain bike can now transport her up Baldwin St at a comfortable speed.
"Going up hills feels like cycling on the flat,'' she said.
Ms Korsten picked up her retrofitted bike last week from Valley Anvil engineer and bike fitter Steve Ward, based at the Valley Community Workspace, in Northeast Valley.
Ms Korsten commutes from Osborne to Dunedin most days and she said the $2400 cost of making the bike electric was ``absolutely worth it''.
"It makes sense on many levels.
"Environmentally, physically, emotionally.''
The 300W battery that powered the bike cost 16c-20c to charge and lasted about 50km between charges, she said.
While the powered bike did not completely eliminate the need for people power, it made her daily commute ``much much easier''.
"I show this bike to my friends and people have this notion that it is somehow cheating.
"You're not getting enough exercise type thing, but once people sit on it they are blown away.''
Ms Korsten believed retrofitted bikes would take off in Dunedin.
"I really wonder if the cycle networks in town will be able to keep up with retrofit bike developments.''
Mr Ward said he had converted about one bike a month since the start of the year.
"The number of retrofit bikes in the city has definitely gone up in the past two years.
"I have done some pretty wacky conversions, too.
"A rickshaw, recumbents, a Rally 20, which was a completely wacko one, and a Chopper.''
Retrofit conversions started at $1200 while the most expensive conversions cost about $2500, he said.
Mr Ward said that he gave most of the money from conversions back to the community workspace.
An ideal bike for a retrofit was one which was of a "reasonable'' quality, had a strong frame, good suspension, good brakes and was liked by the main rider, he said.
