NORMALLY a road cyclist, I have been taking the route less travelled recently.

Whereas I am usually to be found traversing our A-roads and country lanes, I have instead been heading off into the wilds.

For that kind of trek you need something a little more adept than my trusty Cervelo – something like the Giant Dirt-E+ 2, for example.

The Dirt-E – pun entirely intentional – is a mountain bike with a difference, the difference being it comes with a 500Wh battery.

Having divulged that fact, there will undoubtedly be some among you who will take against me.

While discussing the topic recently, one cycling acquaintance told me: ‘If someone came out riding with me on an electric bike, I’d toss the bike over a wall and then put them up against the same wall and shoot them.’

He wasn’t a fan. To my mind, though, he needs to broaden his horizons.

For while such bikes are not for the purist

they undoubtedly deserve a place in a burgeoning marketplace, and not only for those who due to physical limitations might not otherwise be able to enjoy cycling as the majority of us do.

Putting the motor aside for one minute, the Shimano-equipped Dirt-E is, to all intents and purposes, a proper, go anywhere off-roader.

A hardtail – or a bike with suspension at the front, but not at the rear –it looks full of purpose, especially in the striking black and orange paint job that mine came in.

The angular aluminium frame is connected to 27.5ins wheels, shod with massive nobbly tyres. Internal cabling keeps everything clean and tidy looking and out of the reach of anything that might seek to wrap around them.

The biggest visual difference is the bulbous downtube where the motor is housed. It gives the bike a distinctive appearance, but does not encumber ride quality.

In fact, it is incredibly agile, as I discovered when I had something of a ‘tank-slapper’ during a particular steep downhill forest section. My fears of coming a cropper were misplaced, as I was able to ride it out in one piece.

Set off without engaging the motor, designed in conjunction with Yamaha, and you’ve got an everyday mountain bike – albeit heavier – capable of doing everything you might expect.

Power it up, however, and it really comes into its own.

A so-called command centre is housed on the left of the handlebars enabling you to turn the motor on and off and switch through the three drive modes – eco, normal and sport.

Centrally located, there’s a LCD panel which displays battery level, usage, speed and other information and can be illuminated for night travel.

On the flat and at normal speed it’s hard to notice the electrical assistance, but put the power down or encounter a hill and it’s like being seven years old again and feeling your parent’s hand on your back. It doesn’t so much thrust you up an incline so much as assist your pedalling – to my mind that’s not really cheating.

In fact, all it encouraged me to do was tackle the kind of terrain that I might normally have shied away from, safe in the knowledge I was going to make it to the top.

Over the course of three rides, I completed in the region of 50 miles and despite putting it in ‘sport’ for an extended period of time, still had 50 per cent battery life left.

There will be some for whom this form of cycling will never wash, but after experiencing it for myself, electric is definitely not a ‘Dirt-E’ word.