Help deciding when to switch to an ebike?

[Gionnirocket]

I was just thinking yesterday on a ride against the wind how the wind is a non factor for the most part on an ebike.

And the same goes for the heat and humidity of mid summer. You can ride 1 or 2 gears higher letting the motor take the extra load and the reward is a much more effective cooling breeze at a higher speed while still getting exercise.
I can't tell you how many people I pass who look just miserable in the mid summer... Red faced, dripping and struggling on every incline at a cadence of a drowning mouse and the speed of a gimp'd turtle

 

[E biker]

I can adjust the assist on mine ,I have it set at 1 it let's me get a good workout or 3 helps pedaling against the wind, so don't worry about the bicycle doing all the work, as some people think. I'm thinking about getting a good regular bike but I i can't lean into handle bars,do to my hands getting numb.

 

[spokewrench]

I got an e-bike at 73 because I remembered how easy it was to roll up 50 miles a day on a 3-speed in utility use 60 years ago. Now I found that there are few roads around here suitable for bicycling. There's more traffic and it's in a bigger hurry, which means I'll quickly have traffic waiting to pass me. My rides are short. I may ride 50 miles a week, not 50 miles a day.

Those miles take a lot more energy these days. My bike and I are heavier. The pavement here is so rough that I use brakes descending hills instead of picking up speed to help me up the next hill. Nasty headwinds are more common here than where I grew up. I don't use PAS, but I'm glad a half twist throttle is available.

Short rides at low speeds have made a difference for me. I was 75 when I had 12,000 pounds of pea gravel delivered to my driveway. Moving it by wheelbarrow would require 40 loads of 300 pounds. Each load required 300 pounds of shoveling, perhaps 100 pounds of handle-lifting as I pushed it across 100 feet of lawn with 200 pounds on the wheel, and 300 pounds of shoveling gravel into a void in an abandoned septic tank. Most laborers would want frequent rests. I kept going comfortably. I guess pedaling an e-bike at low speeds had conditioned me to keep muscle supplied with oxygen and sugar.

 

[RunForTheHills]

I was 75 when I had 12,000 pounds of pea gravel delivered to my driveway. Moving it by wheelbarrow would require 40 loads of 300 pounds. Each load required 300 pounds of shoveling, perhaps 100 pounds of handle-lifting as I pushed it across 100 feet of lawn with 200 pounds on the wheel, and 300 pounds of shoveling gravel into a void in an abandoned septic tank. Most laborers would want frequent rests. I kept going comfortably. I guess pedaling an e-bike at low speeds had conditioned me to keep muscle supplied with oxygen and sugar.

Damn, I want to be you at 75.

 

[mschwett]

I’m a 70-year-old road cyclist still riding a analog bike and trying to maintain or improve fitness. Typical rides are 40–60 miles with ~3,000 ft of climbing.

I’m intrigued by the latest generation of lightweight e-road bikes (TQ40 drives, smaller battery packs) but worry they might not push me as hard as a regular bike. At the same time, longer or harder rides are starting to leave me pretty wiped out for the rest of the day.

For those of you who were strong riders before switching:

When did you decide it was the right time to get an e-bike?
Did you wish you had done it earlier, or were you glad you waited?
Did switching make you ride longer, harder and make you fitter (or just gave the feeling that you were?)

those are nice rides. my experience is a little different in that i was always relatively fit/athletic but have a heart condition which strongly encourages me to limit activity. so i actually started with ebikes, then decided i didn't need them and went to an analog bike (s-works aethos) but eventually the cardiac issue re-asserted itself and so i had to cut way back and mostly switch to the e-bike. i've had a lot of experience modulating how much work i'm doing vs how much work the bike is doing, and i can say that it really is up to you with the type of bike you’re looking at.

i wish i had started riding an e-bike earlier, period, but i probably should not have switched to the kind of big efforts i was doing on the acoustic bike. i could pretty easily do 200w actual average rider power for 4-6 hours, which is a big ride for anyone. i did all the big climbs here, mt diablo, mt tam, hawk hill twice a week, etc. 500+ miles a month. i did those rides both before the acoustic bike and after, and i had gotten to a point where i used so little motor power on the creo that when i got the aethos it actually seemed EASIER most of the time, because it's a lighter, faster bike all around. ride with your bike‘s motor off whenever you can, and use it whenever it gets harder than you like. most keen cyclists will end up pushing themselves to use less rather than more motor.

the new TQ HPR40 road bikes look absolutely amazing, i would 100% get one if i was you, and i would keep pretty careful track of your heart rate, your own power, and the motor power. use the motor sparingly up hills, into headwinds, or if you bonk. you can turn those 60 mile 3,000' rides into 70 mile 4,000' rides in the same amount of time. see some new places, do big rides when you're not feeling quite as strong, and keep your own effort at the highest level you can without being miserable about it. you'll enjoy the rides more and be able to ride longer.