The church and pedelecs, youth pedelec debate, pedelec and e-bike test ride events, plus LEV Components Special Exhibitions worldwide, seminars, conferences and talks. Hannes Neupert (Chairman, ExtraEnergy and Executive Director, EnergyBus e.V.) looks ahead.
Hannes Neupert (Chairman, ExtraEnergy and Executive Director, EnergyBus e.V.) looks ahead to a busy 2019: "As part of our commitment to driving the development of pedelecs and their uptake, for 2019 ExtraEnergy will once again offer a full programme of activities", said Hannes Neupert (Chairman, ExtraEnergy and Executive Director, EnergyBus e.V.). The next yearbook will be dedicated to the theme of safety, a subject which we already covered in the ExtraEnergy Magazine, Issues 4 and 8. 2019 events calendar January 2019 For 2019 we plan to be at the SachsenKrad event in Dresden from the 11th to 13th January 2019 with the ExtraEnergy test track, and with a parallel team at the CMT show in Stuttgart from the 12th to 13th January 2019 February 2019 From the 21st to 24th February 2019 we are hosted by Fahrrad Essen with the ExtraEnergy test track and the ExtraEnergy LEV Components Special Exhibition. On the 27th February I will deliver a talk about pedelecs to the ADFC BW Members’ Meeting in Heidelberg. March 2019 In March we plan activities at BIKE MOTION in the Netherlands and at the Copenhagen Cycle Show in Denmark, and at the Geneva Motor Show. In addition, the ExtraEnergy test track and the ExtraEnergy LEV Components Special Exhibition will be at the Taipei Cycle Show in Taipei, Taiwan from 27th to 30th March and from the 29th to 31st March at FOR BIKES in Prague, Czechia. April 2019 On the 6th and 7th April 2019 the ExtraEnergy test track will be at Radtrends Bocholt and then on a larger scale at VELO Berlin on the 27th and 28th April 2019. May 2019 From the 2nd to 28th May it’s all happening at the new LEV Show at the Hannover Messe. In addition, the LEV Components Special Exhibition will, as in many previous years, be on display at the China Cycle Show in Shanghai, China from the 6th to 9th May 2019. June 2019 On the 20th June there will be the E-Bike Fachkongress conference in Tirol, Austria (conducted in English) and on the days after that, from the 21st to 23rd June 2019, there will be the Tirol E-Bike Festival, with both the ExtraEnergy LEV Components Special Exhibition and the ExtraEnergy test track. July 2019 From the 30th June to the 3rd July 2019, ExtraEnergy will also contribute to the supporting programme at the Outdoormesse by ISPO in Munich. Subject: electric mountain bikes. September 2019 From the 4th to 7th September 2019 daily presentations and additional activities are planned at EUROBIKE, in collaboration with VDI. From the 12th to 15th September 2019 the test track and LEV Components Special Exhibition travel to Birmingham, UK and then, on the 25th and 26th September 2019, to Bad Soden in Taunus for the VDI Conference. October 2019 Scheduled for October is a test track and LEV Components Special Exhibition at Taichung BIKE Week. November 2019 From the 5th to 10th November the test track and LEV Components Special Exhibition set off to Milan in Italy for EICMA and then for the year’s finale, from the 20th to 24th November 2019, to Leipzig for the TC Touristik und Caravan event. The church and the pedelec The Christian obligation to take responsibility for God’s creation is nothing new, but it’s often been complacently interpreted in line with the phrase “fill the earth and subdue it”. In other words, it is pretty much OK to decimate creation at our whim. But on this subject, Pope Francis has written an encyclical "Laudato si" about the environment, and it is very much worth reading. For many people it will be an inspiration to engage with safeguarding the created world more actively. But please, what does all of this have to do with ExtraEnergy and pedelecs? Well, it is very simple – and starts here: the Church of St. Maria in Stuttgart is currently undergoing renovation. During this process, a group of artists has worked on various installations, making temporary use of the church spaces during the rebuilding. One of the collaborators, Conny Krieger, made use of the church grounds throughout 2017 to stage several pedelec events at the St Maria venue, which is located in central Stuttgart. This included daily pedelec test ride opportunities, offered right there at the church. These will now be provided again, between April and October 2019. There will also be additional Sunday activities involving pedelec test rides being offered after the Sunday service at another church in the Stuttgart region. The motto is now: "Let us safeguard God’s creation, and ride pedelecs instead of SUVs." In addition, we will visit numerous other diverse events, such as i-Mobility Stuttgart, ELTEFA, the Electromobility Action Day of the City of Stuttgart, and the Evangelical Church Day in Dortmund. For the test rides we make available the best and most interesting bikes from the current ExtraEnergy Test, as well as bikes from previous tests which are still on the market. More details shortly via the ExtraEnergy Newsletter. Debate on youth pedelecs Since 2007 ExtraEnergy has engaged with the topic of pedelecs for young people. It’s a controversial subject… Now, together with the Goethe School in Schleiz, the county town of Tanna (where ExtraEnergy is based), we have started a long-term trial of pedelecs for pupils’ journeys to school. It will be conducted with the participation of 60 school pupils, aged between 11 and 16. Over a period of three year we will investigate whether using pedelecs for the school run instead of the ‘mum or dad taxi’ or the school bus increases fitness and academic performance. Numerous pedelec manufacturers are collaborating in this trial, and the project’s media partner, BIKE BILD, will drive public discussion of various aspects of this distinctly controversial subject. Text and photo: Hannes Neupert Online publication: Angela Budde 7th January 2019
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