Advice for someone who is bad at hills and has limited servicing options - budget under $4k

[Jeremy McCreary]

haha that sounds good. At the moment with my normal bike and me being so unfit I end up walking up most hills

Just wanted to add a word of encouragement...

When I bought my ebike in October, 2022, I'd been away from cycling for 25 years and was just coming off a medication with the side effect of turning muscle into fat in all the wrong places. Walked a lot every day but wasn't in any kind of cycling shape.

I recall how discouraging our many short, steep hills were at first — even with assist. But I rode every day, pedaling as much as I could at the lowest possible assist while keeping the fun/pain ratio just high enough to keep coming back for more.**

The chainring reduction I mentioned earlier played a key role in this scheme.

Six months later, most of the lower body muscle mass lost to that medication is back, most of the fat it put on is gone, and the hills I used to dread are no big deal. They're still work, mind you, but they're no longer barriers — even at low assist.

You'll get there, too.

** IMPORTANT ADDENDUM: Ebikes make it easy to dial in the right fun/pain ratio for any occasion.

 

[CannotDoHills]

Just wanted to add a word of encouragement...

When I bought my ebike in October, 2022, I'd been away from cycling for 25 years and was just coming off a medication with the side effect of turning muscle into fat in all the wrong places. Walked a lot every day but wasn't in any kind of cycling shape.

I recall how discouraging our many short, steep hills were at first — even with assist. But I rode every day, pedaling as much as I could at the lowest possible assist while keeping the fun/pain ratio just high enough to keep coming back for more.**

The chainring reduction I mentioned earlier played a key role in this scheme.

Six months later, most of the lower body muscle mass lost to that medication is back, most of the fat it put on is gone, and the hills I used to dread are no big deal. They're still work, mind you, but they're no longer barriers — even at low assist.

You'll get there, too.

** IMPORTANT ADDENDUM: Ebikes make it easy to dial in the right fun/pain ratio for any occasion.

Thanks for the encouragement!

This has been a big problem for me too. Had bad back pain. Dr put me on nerve pain tablets and then I put on 40lbs in a couple of months from the tablets amd stopping doing pretty much everything. Then later on it turned out I didn't even need those tablets

Started to get fit again and then got patellofemoral pain in both legs for well over a year. Finally getting rid of that and now have tibalis anterior tendonitis - just seems to be one thing after another!

Good to know that it worked for you. That will be my plan too. Use it at first until I get fitter and need less