A Road-Cyclist Thoughts On E-Bikes

[john peck]

My brother and I spoke with road-cyclist Marcin we made friends with on a long and steep mountain ride. Marcin expressed his thoughts on e-bikes:

1. Many people just can't ride traditional bikes. E-bikes gave them a new life;
2. Wifes often don't ride together with their husbands because they feel weaker physically. Once the husband bought an e-bike to his wife, he often considers e-bike purchase for himself.
3. And when someone has spent money that could buy a car instead, it's such a waste not to ride the e-bike! As it is so much fun, e-bikes are ridden more frequently than traditional bikes.

Notice these words were expressed by a road cyclist who might be upset we were overtaking him uphill regularly. Yet the guy was reasonable, pleasant, and thinking. He didn't mind someone else having fun from riding just different type of bike. And he was completely unbiased.

My brother (who actually needs no e-bike but rides them anyway) told me later:
— The whole fun of mountain road-cycling is the downhill ride. Why to suffer on the ascent at all?!

Thoughts?

Personally, I think I´m completely entitled to ride an ebike, dirty looks from spandexters be damned.
I´m 72 years old. My list of past injuries if military would warrant numerous purple hearts. I smoked
for 35 yrs. & drank heavily for 25. I am very fortunate just to be alive let alone on a bike.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

that’s interesting, i thought the motor contribution was based battery draw, not output, but it makes more sense to be the way you describe. i’ll have to look more closely. should be easy to observe, since the mission control readout is input power. i wonder if specialized is smart enough to scale the factors a bit based on varying motor efficient at different cadences!

100% turbo, 300w battery draw, 240w “output,” 133w rider power. (240/1.8)

at 50% setting, to achieve 300w battery draw, 240w “output” requires 267w rider power. (300 x .8) / (1.8 x .5) = 267

Although you will readily agree with me by reading the measured battery power figures in the MC, I have to agree with you the useful motor output is lower than I expected.

 

[mschwett]

a little experiment to verify the interpretations above: https://electricbikereview.com/foru...gs-work-creo-sl-maybe-all-the-sl-bikes.44992/

i cannot find any current reference to it actually being 1.8x rather than 2x; all specialized literature i can find says 2x... rounding, perhaps, but the data looks like it's 2x.

 

[Bikeknit]

I still don't have an ebike though I'm shopping. There are a lot of reasons to get an ebike - commuting, physical limitations, fun, being able to ride with stronger riders. All good reasons. I have only 2 issues. Many new ebike owners are riding faster than their skills allow, often a safety issue for them. And some ebike riders, as well as analog riders, are not respectful of slower riders or pedestrians. I love my analog bike and am looking forward to an ebike for riding in my humid hilly city. I'm clearing some stuff out of my garage so I can have both!

 

[BEC111]

I still don't have an ebike though I'm shopping. There are a lot of reasons to get an ebike - commuting, physical limitations, fun, being able to ride with stronger riders. All good reasons. I have only 2 issues. Many new ebike owners are riding faster than their skills allow, often a safety issue for them. And some ebike riders, as well as analog riders, are not respectful of slower riders or pedestrians. I love my analog bike and am looking forward to an ebike for riding in my humid hilly city. I'm clearing some stuff out of my garage so I can have both!

You present an interesting conundrum. One I appreciate from personal experience. All I can say is that my Vado SL’s lower torque and wattage makes me less prone to riding too fast.

Unfortunately, I still do ride faster that may other folks on my rail-trail. But so do many road bike riders. My ride today was for 13 miles at about 13.4 mph. I do this route fairly often at average speeds between 12 and 16 mph. On my previous analog bike my speeds were only one or two mph slower.

You appear to be fit, so a lower power bike like the Vado SL could be ideal.

 

[mschwett]

I still don't have an ebike though I'm shopping. There are a lot of reasons to get an ebike - commuting, physical limitations, fun, being able to ride with stronger riders. All good reasons. I have only 2 issues. Many new ebike owners are riding faster than their skills allow, often a safety issue for them. And some ebike riders, as well as analog riders, are not respectful of slower riders or pedestrians. I love my analog bike and am looking forward to an ebike for riding in my humid hilly city. I'm clearing some stuff out of my garage so I can have both!

your points are unfortunately very valid! but you don’t have to behave as badly as few others do.

i’m a big advocate of eBikes as health equalizer, range extender, hill flattener… climate neutralizer. i definitely avoid using my motor in circumstances that would expand the envelope (speed or mass!) beyond what is possible for a very fit person in ideal conditions or reasonable for a responsible and experienced rider. that said, i have a lot of fun on my 250-300w bikes. they’ve been transformative for my family.

 

[mlk88]

My brother and I spoke with road-cyclist Marcin we made friends with on a long and steep mountain ride. Marcin expressed his thoughts on e-bikes:

1. Many people just can't ride traditional bikes. E-bikes gave them a new life;
2. Wifes often don't ride together with their husbands because they feel weaker physically. Once the husband bought an e-bike to his wife, he often considers e-bike purchase for himself.
3. And when someone has spent money that could buy a car instead, it's such a waste not to ride the e-bike! As it is so much fun, e-bikes are ridden more frequently than traditional bikes.

Notice these words were expressed by a road cyclist who might be upset we were overtaking him uphill regularly. Yet the guy was reasonable, pleasant, and thinking. He didn't mind someone else having fun from riding just different type of bike. And he was completely unbiased.

My brother (who actually needs no e-bike but rides them anyway) told me later:
— The whole fun of mountain road-cycling is the downhill ride. Why to suffer on the ascent at all?!

Thoughts?

Remember when you were a kid and you rode your bike everywhere with your friends. You did it because it was more fun than walking. You were not thinking about the health benefits. That is why I ride my bike...pure FUN!

 

[Hefeman]

I've had a Domane+HP for 3.5 months. Kiox says I generally supply 60-80% of the power and I rarely use any setting above Eco unless I just want to ride as fast as possible (like rain clouds menacing overhead). This changes based on whether my ride hits lots of steep hills. Other than back issues that flare up the more I ride/climb, I'm in decent shape at 59. I'll occasionally climb some steeper hills without assist, mostly to prove to my neighbor I ride with that I still have fitness. Not to mention I feel pretty good about hauling a 38lb bike up a big climb. If I'm riding around pedestrians, the motor is always off. Considering the weight of the bike, I do pretty well on the flats without assist. I will note that it can feel really weird transitioning from assist to no assist. I assume my legs are confused and the motor is not impeding me somehow. All in all, I feel like I'm getting a good workout on the ebike. The motor simply allows me to control how much suffering I experience. Beats handfuls of Ibuprofen and a heating pad.

 

[Bikeknit]

You appear to be fit, so a lower power bike like the Vado SL could be ideal.

The Vado SL looks very tempting. I understand that the battery can't be removed. Besides the obvious, and probably surmountable issue that you have to park the bike near an outlet to charge it, I have another question that may have an obvious answer that I'm not seeing. What happens if the battery is bad or wears out before the bike?

 

[Deacon Blues]

The battery can be dropped out the bottom of the bike.

 

[john peck]

I still don't have an ebike though I'm shopping. There are a lot of reasons to get an ebike - commuting, physical limitations, fun, being able to ride with stronger riders. All good reasons. I have only 2 issues. Many new ebike owners are riding faster than their skills allow, often a safety issue for them. And some ebike riders, as well as analog riders, are not respectful of slower riders or pedestrians. I love my analog bike and am looking forward to an ebike for riding in my humid hilly city. I'm clearing some stuff out of my garage so I can have both!

I treasure my old ¨vega, but it´s not getting much use the days. I tried to electrify it, but frame´s too narrow.

 

[john peck]

I've had a Domane+HP for 3.5 months. Kiox says I generally supply 60-80% of the power and I rarely use any setting above Eco unless I just want to ride as fast as possible (like rain clouds menacing overhead). This changes based on whether my ride hits lots of steep hills. Other than back issues that flare up the more I ride/climb, I'm in decent shape at 59. I'll occasionally climb some steeper hills without assist, mostly to prove to my neighbor I ride with that I still have fitness. Not to mention I feel pretty good about hauling a 38lb bike up a big climb. If I'm riding around pedestrians, the motor is always off. Considering the weight of the bike, I do pretty well on the flats without assist. I will note that it can feel really weird transitioning from assist to no assist. I assume my legs are confused and the motor is not impeding me somehow. All in all, I feel like I'm getting a good workout on the ebike. The motor simply allows me to control how much suffering I experience. Beats handfuls of Ibuprofen and a heating pad.

I put 4k mi. on mine* before ever trying modes 3,4, & 5. This bike´s a monster; who knew? ( not a domaine)*