Hi there,
About 5 months ago, I accidentally found myself at a bike shop with plenty of Demo bikes to try. I had an extra 1/2 hour of time, so I took a few for a spin. Wow! Not really that much too figure out! The Salesperson showed me the button for flipping thru the 4 modes (Bosch) and I turned towards the parking lot instead of the road he was suggesting I ride on. About a minute later I hit the road, and after another couple minutes I was full blast Turbo at 28MPH. I realized an eBike was in my near future.
I'm 70, and lately, I've been riding between 24-36 miles a week: usually sprinting down a modest hill to a small lake--30 minutes of stretching--and then sprinting back to my house for some weights (12 miles round trip). While this ride was modestly scenic along the ocean front, it lacked the solitude and grandeur of former riding I've done (60-80 miles a week) where I would be up 3-4000 feet in the local mountains riding more aggressively, longer, and often seeing few to zero cars and not too many bikers.
The thing I saw about eBikes was that I could put in relatively low (70 year old) amounts of energy: equal to my 12 mile rides, or perhaps a little more, and get WAY more enjoyment: replicating previous years of solitude and beauty by being at higher altitudes with significantly more distance (away) from cars and people... I've had my eBike now for 5 weeks, and it has delivered far beyond expectations. I've gotten 550 miles of fantastic riding on it, having returned to the great bike paths my town once offered me when I was younger.
I went overboard on expense. I spent a couple of months researching the various brands in combination with my intended mission: to recapture former riding territory (not just bicycle but also some of the easier motorcycle territory). The primary thing I envisioned was that I was going to need 2 batteries (long rides with serious climbs), and that I was going to ride on both perfect asphalt, not so perfect asphalt, and fire road dirt at times. I had learned from motorcycles (both dirt and street), that dirty chains are not only the enemy--but costly.
The thought of taking my $5000 eBike into dirt just didn't make sense. It's my belief, that while eBikes are fantastic, throwing an electric motor onto a bike with a cassette and derailleur is a rather rudimentary solution to the combination of current battery/electric motor technology with two wheel transport. IMO, chain drives, derailleurs, and cassettes are already obsolete, though its easy to acknowledge they dramatically help price point. I suspect this will continue for a few years until affordable drive and transmission technology moves ahead (hard to imagine it not being soon, say 2-4 years). Angling your metal chain from first gear to final drive (perhaps across 11 gears), bathed in dirt, sand, and grime is going to get expensive quickly. Some of the Bike Store owners were even honest about this suggesting 2000-3000 miles on a chain which could then translate to 4-6000 miles burning through the teeth on a cassette (with reasonable care).
Personally believing my outlook in the above paragraph--which is also great rationalization (if you need one), I spent another $4K (on top of my $5K budget), and got the coolest, most visionary bike I could find. I got a Riese and Muller Supercharger GX HS with the Rohloff speed hub/belt drive/& electric shift. I am blown away with what an amazing machine it is. I got a large frame: 53" and I'm 5'11" (larger than my height would normally dictate). I'm comfortably stretched out in seated position, while the standing position feels EXACTLY like my motorcycle dirt bike riding position. Coming down steep asphalt hills at 30-35MPH is a Dream...
I have already gotten useful information and opinions from this site before I purchased my bike and I hope to offer thoughts as I have more experience riding. Also, I suspect I get good answers and perspectives on my questions.
--shadowfax
About 5 months ago, I accidentally found myself at a bike shop with plenty of Demo bikes to try. I had an extra 1/2 hour of time, so I took a few for a spin. Wow! Not really that much too figure out! The Salesperson showed me the button for flipping thru the 4 modes (Bosch) and I turned towards the parking lot instead of the road he was suggesting I ride on. About a minute later I hit the road, and after another couple minutes I was full blast Turbo at 28MPH. I realized an eBike was in my near future.
I'm 70, and lately, I've been riding between 24-36 miles a week: usually sprinting down a modest hill to a small lake--30 minutes of stretching--and then sprinting back to my house for some weights (12 miles round trip). While this ride was modestly scenic along the ocean front, it lacked the solitude and grandeur of former riding I've done (60-80 miles a week) where I would be up 3-4000 feet in the local mountains riding more aggressively, longer, and often seeing few to zero cars and not too many bikers.
The thing I saw about eBikes was that I could put in relatively low (70 year old) amounts of energy: equal to my 12 mile rides, or perhaps a little more, and get WAY more enjoyment: replicating previous years of solitude and beauty by being at higher altitudes with significantly more distance (away) from cars and people... I've had my eBike now for 5 weeks, and it has delivered far beyond expectations. I've gotten 550 miles of fantastic riding on it, having returned to the great bike paths my town once offered me when I was younger.
I went overboard on expense. I spent a couple of months researching the various brands in combination with my intended mission: to recapture former riding territory (not just bicycle but also some of the easier motorcycle territory). The primary thing I envisioned was that I was going to need 2 batteries (long rides with serious climbs), and that I was going to ride on both perfect asphalt, not so perfect asphalt, and fire road dirt at times. I had learned from motorcycles (both dirt and street), that dirty chains are not only the enemy--but costly.
The thought of taking my $5000 eBike into dirt just didn't make sense. It's my belief, that while eBikes are fantastic, throwing an electric motor onto a bike with a cassette and derailleur is a rather rudimentary solution to the combination of current battery/electric motor technology with two wheel transport. IMO, chain drives, derailleurs, and cassettes are already obsolete, though its easy to acknowledge they dramatically help price point. I suspect this will continue for a few years until affordable drive and transmission technology moves ahead (hard to imagine it not being soon, say 2-4 years). Angling your metal chain from first gear to final drive (perhaps across 11 gears), bathed in dirt, sand, and grime is going to get expensive quickly. Some of the Bike Store owners were even honest about this suggesting 2000-3000 miles on a chain which could then translate to 4-6000 miles burning through the teeth on a cassette (with reasonable care).
Personally believing my outlook in the above paragraph--which is also great rationalization (if you need one), I spent another $4K (on top of my $5K budget), and got the coolest, most visionary bike I could find. I got a Riese and Muller Supercharger GX HS with the Rohloff speed hub/belt drive/& electric shift. I am blown away with what an amazing machine it is. I got a large frame: 53" and I'm 5'11" (larger than my height would normally dictate). I'm comfortably stretched out in seated position, while the standing position feels EXACTLY like my motorcycle dirt bike riding position. Coming down steep asphalt hills at 30-35MPH is a Dream...
I have already gotten useful information and opinions from this site before I purchased my bike and I hope to offer thoughts as I have more experience riding. Also, I suspect I get good answers and perspectives on my questions.
--shadowfax
