When Sara Robinson wrote in the Western Mail about buying an e-bike, she did not frame it as a neat lifestyle upgrade or a shiny new purchase.

She framed it as a decision to act.

A former councillor, Cardiff-based active travel advocate and passionate campaigner for better, fairer ways to move around our cities, Sara had been thinking hard about the gap between what people say about climate, transport and everyday behaviour — and what they actually do.

Her column, titled Actions, not words (and other reasons why I bought an ebike), was sparked partly by frustration. Frustration at political voices who talk about public transport, climate action and active travel without always understanding how people really move through cities. Frustration, too, at the idea that change is something to be endlessly discussed rather than personally attempted.

As Sara put it in her piece: “Actions, not words.”

A few days later, she took action herself and bought an e-bike.

From sceptic to converted rider

Sara is honest about the fact that she was not always an obvious e-bike convert.

“I’d written them off, if I’m honest,” she wrote. “In my head, ebikes were for retired couples with matching waterproofs and mildly dodgy knees, pottering along the Taff Trail.”

Then she tried one.

“Within about 30 seconds, I was seven years old again, whooshing along with the wind in my hair, legs spinning, grinning like an idiot.”

Sara bought her Estarli E20.7 from The Electric Bike Shop in Cardiff, a brilliant local retailer and a team we know and love. For her, the decision was not casual. An e-bike felt like a significant purchase — even a luxury item — and she wanted to be sure she was making the right choice.

Several things helped get her there.

The fact that Estarli bikes are British-made mattered. So did the independent reviews, third-party videos and real customer stories she found while doing her research. She watched other riders talk about how they used their bikes in everyday life, and those stories helped her imagine how an e-bike might fit into her own.

As Oliver Francis from Estarli says:

“It was particularly encouraging to hear that seeing other customer stories helped Sara make the decision. That matters to us, because people do not just want a list of specifications. They want to see someone like them using the bike in a way that feels familiar, practical and achievable. Sara chose the Estarli E20.7 — our most affordable e-bike and the entry point into the range. It’s there to widen the net: compact, practical, reliable and accessible to more people who want to make everyday journeys differently.”

For Sara, that has meant commuting, meetings, shopping and moving through Cardiff — all without breaking sweat. She has since ordered a range extender too, an additional detachable battery that doubles the range, citing the reason as:

“I underestimated how far I’d like to go on the bike and how much fun it would be.”

That is the kind of sentence that says more than any product claim could. The bike did not just replace journeys Sara already knew she wanted to make. It expanded her idea of where she wanted to go.

One less car journey at a time

In her column, Sara wrote that she had replaced every car journey she could that week with her new bike.

“It’s quicker,” she wrote. “No circling for parking, no sitting in traffic wondering what the point of it all is.”

The bike also changed her commute. With the motor taking the strain, she could arrive at meetings with a loaded backpack and, in her words, “without so much as a light sweat.”

“Revolutionary.”

Then there is Joni, Sara’s chihuahua, who has taken to riding in the basket with, as Sara puts it, “the enthusiasm of a dog who was meant to live like this.”

Ears pinned back. Wind in her face. Apparently insufferable.

It is a funny detail, but it is also part of what makes Sara’s story so compelling. This is not an abstract argument about modal shift. It is a real person, in a real city, making real journeys — to work, to meetings, to shops, through traffic, along the bay, with a dog in the basket and a renewed sense of what local travel can feel like.

That matters, because one of the strongest points Sara raised in conversation with us was that cycling is still too often seen as a middle-class activity. In reality, bikes are essential transport for huge numbers of people. In parts of Cardiff, and in cities across the UK, cycling is not a lifestyle statement. It is how people get to work, get to appointments, visit family, carry shopping and move through daily life without the cost of running a car.

In her column, Sara asked whether one less car on the road was a small thing in the context of the climate emergency. Her answer was yes — but also no.

“Small things done by enough people stop being small.”

Thank you Sara, here’s to small changes becoming something much bigger.