Did a hard ride on my regular road bike..Ouch!

[Douglas Ruby]

A few days ago, I posted the following on a different thread regarding the benefits of riding an e-bike and how I do it:

".....I cannot believe that at age 65 I have ridden 1200+ miles since I purchased my Turbo. You are exactly correct, that you don't work less hard, but instead, enjoy the work more. I am so motivated by the fun factor of enjoying nature and the beautiful area I live in while riding my e-bike.

I have found the following two "ride profiles" motivate me:

1. I can ride much further, and at a pace that works with my 36 yr/old daughter who plays ice hockey 3-5 times per week. She likes to go on 30-50 mile rides and my Turbo allows me to do that. At ECO40, the pace is just right for her (with me leading at least 50% of the time). We average 14-17 mph and climb a fair number of rolling hills. I would NOT be able to do this on my unassisted bike.
2. At full Turbo or ECO70, I can ride by myself at a near 20 mph average with stretches at 25 mph and enjoy the speed at about the same level of effort as the long slower rides with my daughter. It is particularly for this kind of ride that I would like the 691Wh battery. A 30+ mile ride at "full boogey tilt" would be really great.

Also, for me, as a former heart attack patient, there are a few additional benefits.

1. I have always found it pretty easy to take my body to the 90% level and hold it there while riding a bike. This is particularly good for a heart patient. Aerobic exercise that does NOT put me over the edge has a fairly quick recovery. However, if I push too hard (lifting, straining, riding at the wrong cadence and beating the pedals), then I "bonk" and it is NOT good. It can take several days to recover.
2. I ride with a Garmin Edge 1000 with heart rate, cadence, GPS, and speed monitoring. I pay a lot of attention to the heart rate monitoring. Since I take beta blockers, my heart rate is pretty low. It is rare that it hits 100 bpm when doing other kinds of exercise (shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, etc.). But when bicycling, I can work my heart rate up to the 100-110 range (peak at about 125-130) on the monitor and hold it there for hours. As long as I average around 100 or slightly less for the ride, my recovery is fairly quick.
3. The e-bike, in particular, gives me a "bail-out" mode, where I can just hit the Turbo button (climbing a hill or when over tired) if I feel myself too close to the edge of over-exertion. A regular bike invites me to keep pushing and hurt myself...."

My Specialized Turbo was in the LBS for a wiring problem that caused it to shutdown so I ended up riding my 1974 all-Campagnolo custom road bike. This ride with my daughter (see above) ended up being 23 miles in preparation for a long ride she will be doing this next weekend.

While the vintage bike is still a good ride and has a 14-32 6 speed rear cluster with 42-52 chainrings, it is not endowed with an overly low climbing gear. About 9-10 miles into the ride we started a 3+ mile long climb. I was grinding out the climb in my 42x32 low gear (34.5 gear inch). I kept thinking I was nearing the crest, only to find yet another climb over the hump. At mile 13, I ended up pulling over to rest realizing I was going to crash if I didn't. I later found out that my heart rate had peaked at 144 (NOT GOOD!) with an average over 115 for the ride. I hurt myself...drat! (see para #3 above)

I was able to recover with food and gatorade and a rest, and the rest of the ride went well. We even did a 3+ mile slight downhill stretch where I was able to cruise in 12th gear (98 gear inches) at over 28 mph.

When I finally got home and shut down my Garmin, it told me my recovery time would be 47 hours! Guess what, it was!

Doug

 

[Eric R]

Hi Doug, congrats on the 1200+ miles, that's something a lot of people couldn't say! I'm sure a lot of us share your sentiment here, and I've personally seen a lot of people who ride e-bikes for the same types of reasons. Thanks for the story, and enjoy those 47 hours. Maybe even make an extension to 48

 

[Nutella]

My Specialized Turbo was in the LBS for a wiring problem that caused it to shutdown so I ended up riding my 1974 all-Campagnolo custom road bike. This ride with my daughter (see above) ended up being 23 miles in preparation for a long ride she will be doing this next weekend.

While the vintage bike is still a good ride and has a 14-32 6 speed rear cluster with 42-52 chainrings, it is not endowed with an overly low climbing gear.

While I'm sure it's a beautiful bike (I have a fondness for nice vintage bikes) I don't know how we rode gear ratios like that up anything, maybe we were all supermen back then? No wonder it kicked your butt. My low on my road bike now is 34 up front and 36 in the rear, which even then has had me searching for another gear from time to time.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

While I'm sure it's a beautiful bike (I have a fondness for nice vintage bikes) I don't know how we rode gear ratios like that up anything, maybe we were all supermen back then? No wonder it kicked your butt. My low on my road bike now is 34 up front and 36 in the rear, which even then has had me searching for another gear from time to time.

In the day, a "wide" ratio rear cluster was 13-26 or 14-28 with 5 cogs. A 28 tooth rear cog was the largest you could handle with a Campy Nuovo Record. I happen to be using the 1st generation Campy Rallye derailleur which allows me to run the 32 tooth cog on a 14-32, Ultra 6 cluster. That I can get "12 speeds" with ratios between 34.5 gear inches and 98 gear inches on a classic 120mm dropout bike (the old 10 speed) is pretty cool. But it does beat me up!

 

[James Kohls]

My old 80's Nishiki road bike is up in my attic =) I haven't been up there since I bought my Turbo X. Maybe I'll take it out for a jaunt again some day, but for now it is my "emergency backup." Of course, as you know, Turbos are so much fun, its hard to bring myself to drag it down the stairs. Makes me wonder if something will come along in the future that will cause me to put my Turbo X up there