Except for the intriguing red button on the handlebar, the Gocycle looks and feels like a conventional bicycle, albeit a curvy, minimalist one produced in white or black for the iPeddle generation. It is certainly not obvious why its South African-born British designer Richard Thorpe (pictured) needed eight years and several million euros to develop it.

You only find this out when you hold down the red button. After a pause there’s a growing tug of power from the 250-watt motor mounted inside the front wheel, like an invisible elastic band pulling you strongly towards the horizon. It’s completely mesmerising, and is accompanied by an audible and rather cool-sounding whirring. Release the button and you coast.

To start off the Gocycle has to be pedalled, but Thorpe claims that beyond 3km/h it can go for 30kms on battery power alone. It takes three hours to charge fully and costs less than a euro cent. BMX tyres offer a magic-carpet-ride quality. It weighs less than many German or Dutch sit-up-and-begs and can be easily carried. Like countless urban bikes before it, the Gocycle has three gears.

Thorpe, 41, designed the Gocycle in 2002 at his London flat to address all the issues that had frustrated him as a cyclist: “Arriving at the office sweaty; having to

change in the toilets; getting chain grease on smart clothing; combining smart clothing and riding.”

Drawing on his experience as a race-car engineer steeped in composite technology (hence the name of his company, Karbon Kinetics), he initially designed the Gocycle to be made from feather-light carbon fibre, compensating for a heavy battery. The penalty was very high cost. He later found a cheaper alternative: an injection-moulded magnesium frame. Wheels were created using thixomolding, where instead of melting the metal, pellets are thrown together under pressure until they meld. This uses far less energy and the resulting material is as light as carbon fibre. The Gocycle is very strong but light and “breaks traditional value-cost trade-offs”. Nevertheless, the Gocycle still carries a €1,800 price tag. So far 3,000 have been made at a UK facility, half of them snapped up by tech-savvy Germans.

Thorpe says that most e-bikes are regular cycles with a motor slapped on, and are often ugly. The Gocycle is clean-sheet design: its chain is completely hidden; it can be adjusted to suit a wide variety of riders; there is an integrated cable lock; the battery slips out of the frame easily for recharging and the rear wheel absorbs bumps via a suspension resting on three spherical elastomer cylinders. Finally, it can be dismantled rapidly and stowed in a large bag.

Thorpe says higher production volumes will slash manufacturing costs and that a second-generation version should be available for less than $1,000 by 2015. But his horizons are much wider than pedelecs (the technical term for an electrically assisted pedal bike). He says only the uneven global regulatory environment for e-transport is holding him back from developing e-scooters with much longer ranges. He believes he is competing with the likes of Daimler Smart, VW or BMW, who have all unveiled e-bikes, and says he would welcome the free publicity he may receive indirectly from these lifestyle branding exertions.

Whether these machines are the future of urban transport partly depends on how many governments will treat powered bicycles as mopeds, with all the burden of registration, tax and insurance. For now though, if you think of the Gocycle as a moped without costs, it’s a bargain.

TECH SPEC GOCYCLE

History Available since April 2010
Cost €1,800
Colour White or black
Frame and wheels Moulded magnesium
Engine 250-watt electric motor Recharge time  3.5 hours at the mains
Range 30km/h Top speed 24 km/h EU; (29km/h UK)

POWER CYCLES

SMART e-Bike
History Launched September 2010
Cost: TBC
Colour As shown
Frame and wheels Unknown
Engine 250-watt electric motor
Recharge time Three hours
Range 90km
Top speed 25 km/h EU

VOLKSWAGEN Micro Mobility Concept
History Launched in Beijing last April at Auto China 2010
Cost TBC
Colour White
Frame and wheels Composite
Engine Unknown
Recharge time Unknown
Range 20km
Top speed 20km/h EU

BMW Mini Scooter E
History Just unveiled but not yet for sale
Cost €6,000 (estimated)
Colour Custom
Frame and wheels Unknown
Engine Electric motor, power unknown
Recharge time TBC
Range TBC
Top speed TBC