A well-known name in Cumbrian tourism has launched a new business offering visitors the chance to explore the South Lakes and Morecambe Bay on electric bikes.

Mike Turner is probably best known as the founder and former owner of Treetop Trek, based at the Lake District Visitor Centre at Brockhole.

Mike sold the business last June and this summer launched a new venture, Ease E Ride, based at Arnside, alongside former Treetop Trek colleague Phil Latthem.

During his time running Treetop Trek, Mike says he was also considering the

potential to develop a business based around E-bikes. Phil was an early adopter of E-bikes and also had a huge experience of the area through this work at the attraction.

"I had been party to a lot of the Lake District partnership working and there was a constant drive towards sustainable transport and equal emphasis on reduction of car usage,” he says.

“It was clear to me that one of the things that can have an impact is electric bikes.”

He says while electric bikes are available to hire from bike shops and centres in the Lake District, there was the opportunity to start a pure E-bike rental business, specifically centred on the South Lakes and the Morecambe Bay Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Ease E Ride have designed and purchased a fleet of 30 bespoke electric bikes and acquired a property next to Arnside train station to hire them out.

As well as being able to pre-book E-bikes to hire from Arnside, people can also do the same from the National Trust’s Sizergh Castle, near Kendal and Holgates Caravan parks located around Morecambe Bay.

Ease E Ride is compiling lists of selected routes which customers can follow to enjoy a day out in the area and take in some of the main sites, beauty spots and local businesses and attractions.

"We've focused on the AONB because that area is just perfect to explore by an electric bike," says Mike.

"From Sizergh people can explore all the way around to Kendal and the South Lakeland area – again perfect for E Bikes. We're also pinpointing local businesses they can go and visit so there's some partnership working there as well."

It is also beginning guided bike tours for groups.

"Everyone who has used the bikes so far has loved them," says Mike.

"The thing is trying to convince more people. That isn't as straightforward as it first sounds."

He says the barriers to people using traditional bikes tend to be based around fitness and comfort or fears about safety.

To try and assuage these fears, the bikes, which are all a distinctive yellow, come with comfortable seats and a motor to ease the physical exertion for riders, as well as chunky tyres to withstand any adverse Cumbrian weather. The suggested routes take in extremely quiet roads with little traffic.

The pair opted for a quiet launch in June but are beginning to increase the amount of marketing they are doing to grow the business.

"We're trying to do as much collaboration as we can and we're visiting local pubs and businesses so we can put them on our routes and so they know who we are,” says Mike.

"The perfect model would be that people would arrive by train and hire them for a day or multiple days. We can pick up their luggage and deliver it to their accommodation and they can pick the bike up at the train station and then tour.”

Mike and Phil are in the process of talking to train operators Avanti and Northern about how to build connections with their services and other stations in Cumbria and the Lake District.

"We're also talking to parish councils to see if there is a way of adapting a local usage model as a parallel to the commercial business," says Mike.

Mike says his time working in the Lake District taught him how challenging it is to get people to leave their cars at home, especially in an environment where public transport struggles to compete on convenience or cost.

“It doesn’t matter what initiative you run or what moral stance you take, it’s very hard to remove the car completely,” he says.

However, he hopes Ease E Ride will provide one way for people to leave their cars at home at least some of the time while they are on holiday.

"The perfect thing is if one day people come on the train and they will have a week on the bike without their car,” he says.

“We will actively pursue that goal. But a more likely scenario is that people will come for a week and if they can hire an E-bike and their car is off the road for a day and they are doing something healthy, which is better for the environment, then that's a winning business."