If you have an electric vehicle that needs restoring, Luke Lindo will likely have a solution. Diagnostics and repairs, emergency charging, and lithium battery repairs and replacements are on the list of services he offers as Dr EV.

The business has been 100 per cent mobile for the past year but Mr Lindo will open a storefront in Flatts on October 26 with Robin Warren and Matthew Davidson on-board as his team.

Apart from the mechanical work, Dr EV will sell and rent a range of electric bikes that Mr Lindo believes are top-of-the-line.

“When E-bikes started coming around, when the lithium battery started to get really good and reliable, I would say about eight or nine years ago, I was very curious,” he said.

The purchase of his first E-bike took him “kind of through the moon”.

“I always loved cycling. After I turned 18 and I got my first moped, I didn't cycle for a few years after that.”

E-bikes sparked an interest in “the systems and how they worked” and got him back out pedalling on the road.

“I prefer to ride my bike instead of taking the van. You save on gas, you get to move your legs, you get a little bit of exercise. Plus, you're getting the fresh air. So, it's a fun way to transport yourself and be a bit more eco-friendly,” he said.

He loved as well that as it was possible to hitch a cargo trailer to the bikes, that they offered more storage than the average motorbike and that they are not as dangerous to ride.

While some have a top speed of 30, most E-bikes can only go about 20 miles per hour.

“You're not going as fast. The power-to-weight ratio is a lot lighter. So even if you do get in an accident, it's probably not going to be as life-threatening,” he said.

Mr Lindo did a few workshops in the US and took some courses with the Light Electric Vehicle Association, an organisation in Florida known as Leva.

“And then I went to Barnett Bicycle Institute, where I did the beginners in pro class of bicycle maintenance and repairs.”

Confident in his ability, he helped a friend, Michael Paynter, to launch Pedego Bermuda, an electric bike rental business in the East End. Mr Paynter, 36, died last year.

“I was at Pedego for the past six years or so and I did repairs on all the electric bikes there,” Mr Lindo said. “It’s what made me realise the potential in this niche market.”

He will do the same at Dr EV, aided by Mr Davidson, a junior mechanic who is also Leva-certified. The Flatts store will allow people to rent from an existing fleet of bikes or buy a new Legion of their own.

“You kind of want to stick to a name brand, to a reputable company where you can get parts and whatnot, in case of a failed component,” Mr Lindo said.

“These are bikes that I feel confident as a mechanic bringing them in because they're on the upgrade path. There's a lot of things you can do to these bikes to improve them or custom make them to your needs.”

The Legion “looks like an old school café racer” and comes with “full suspension”. An added bonus: the bikes come with an auto locking system that requires a passcode to break.

“It has all the bells and whistles of an auxiliary cycle with horn, lights, indicators, brake light, everything that you need for it to be TCD legal, but you don't have to actually get it licensed through TCD,” Mr Lindo said.

He thinks that Dr EV will fill a market niche. At the moment, there are a lot of people who are interested in riding E-bikes but “there's not many people doing repairs on them”.

“So the problem is when a person would import a bike off of Amazon, you have no after-sales support when it comes to that particular model, you have to outsource the parts yourself,” he said.

“It's a headache. And there are so many bikes that are just sitting in people's garages and houses, that are not functioning simply because they don't have a place where they can take it or because the parts are limited for that particular model.”

• Luke Lindo intends to celebrate the launch of his business with a group ride that is open to all of the island’s cyclists and E-bike owners. For details contact him on 519-2899, 261-2899 or dr.ev.bda@gmail.com. Follow dr.ev.bda on Instagram and dr.ev on Facebook