Tern GSD Review

I have been using a Tern GSD electric cargo bike as my regular means of transport for a few years now, and now seem a good time to reflect on how that has been. It is a second generation GSD and is the R14 model, which has quite a few upgrades relative to some of the other models in the tern range. Most importantly it is fitted with Rohloff hub gears which cover a wide range of ratios, and a belt drive that does not require any regular maintenance. Mine is also fitted with quite a lot of accessories, and it is these that allow the bike to be put to a variety of different uses from transporting kids to carrying heavy or bulky loads.

The accessories do add significantly to the total cost of the bike, but seem good value given that they increase its usefulness as an everyday vehicle. A lot of the journeys that I make don’t actually require the load carrying capacity of the bike, but having the ability to carry things easily on the bike does make using it as my everyday transport much easier. Most of the journeys that I make on it are no more than about five miles each way, and many are much shorter. However, they are all journeys that most people would just use a car for without thinking about it.

It is a very big, heavy bike, and it really does need some electrical assistance to make it rideable, and that is noticed most when accelerating. However, I find that riding it on the flat doesn’t usually really require any more than the lowest assistance level, although smaller riders might not feel that same about that. Being an electric bike if you are in a hurry, or there is heavy traffic on the route, or you are going up a hill, or the weather is bad, or the shopping that you are carrying is really heavy, or you are just too tired to want to be cycling, you can increase the level of assistance to help you. This means that you can often travel at about 15 mph regardless of the conditions.

Obviously the electrical assistance comes at a price, and the bike does need to be charged from time to time. The cost of charging the battery is currently about 25p, and in normal use I get an average of about 80 miles of riding between charges, although I always recharge the battery before it is empty. That is probably about two thirds of the “potential” range quoted by the manufacturer. It works out at around 0.3 pence per mile, which is about one tenth the cost per mile of charging an electric car and using it under good conditions.