tomjasz
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Minnesnowta
I think they snorted too much spandex.
First ebike- mixed use neighborhood and mountain trails
- Thread starter M200
- Start date
Well, duh, yea. If you mostly use a throttle with your hub drive, or otherwise put in very little pedal power, you can probably get infinite life out of your chain and sprockets. Heck, you probably replace your hub drives more often, don't you?
m@Robertson
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
Yeah what they said. ^^^ I am at 1300 miles on my Surly Big Fat Dummy, which was a low mileage daily driver and occasional trail bomber. And which is now a wood gatherer in the Lower Sierras when I go camping. So low mileage but high stress. And at those 1300 miles the chain is just fine. And since its a long tail lets not forget its 225 or so links long. So this bike is using two KMC 11 spd e11 chains - the ebike version - attached together.
On my Bullitt I am at about 1650 and same story in terms of wear. Actually to be truthful I haven't checked it since 1300 so I will after work tonight.
So... if road bike riders can't get more out of their chains then they are buying garbage chains. Or they are idiots. Regardless, they are doing something very wrong if they can't manage more than 1000 miles on a piener-wiener analog bike and I can get more than that on a cargo bike that sees cargo duty without seeing wear starting.
And as for your chain... my chains on my hub bike lasted forever, too. Actually it still is. I am at like 6500 miles although its been sitting like that for over a year since the cargo bikes are daily drivers now. A hub bike chain lasts forever because the motor powers the bike thru the axle. The chain is just there to give the rider exercise... and help push the bike up hills the motor can't because its a hub motor. Thats why you see so many ebikes with crap drivetrains that would never survive being on a real bike... they aren't needed and they get light duty when they are used.
What kind of trails are we talking about? If you are serious about mountain biking it is a different story, under current conditions options are limited especially in your price range.
Otherwise Take a look at REI's offerings. The ones with shimano are very nice bikes and great for the price. REI is great at supporting their products.
REI Coop CTY e2.1 $1799
indianajo
Well-Known Member
I ride unpowered 80% summer, 100% winter. Motor is for headwinds, or 60th to 80th hill.
Bikeknit
Active Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Kansas City
I love my Kona Dew-e dl, which is more than you want to spend but the lower cost version (without the dl) looks good too. The tires are wide enough to be comfortable on crushed rock trails and it was the lightest bike I found with a really good range. I agree with indianajo that this bike could fit what you are looking for. Let me know if youhave any questions about it.
For offroad exploring go for 10 or 11spd middrive, they typically come with 11-42 or better still 1-46t cassette. That 42 or 46t low gear is what you are after for those steeper climbs. 80-100mm front fork with fatter tires ie 2.25-2.8". Diameter of tire doesn't matter can be 27.5 or 29".
California Flash
Member
- Region
- USA
Also, you can install a chainring with less teeth to increase your mechanical advantage if you frequently climb a lot of hills. You lose a few miles per hour but unless you are a commuter, who needs to maintain 25 m.p.h.?
AHicks
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
Agreed -but- it may not be that simple. To minimize chain and sprocket wear, you would want to avoid extended use of the 11t (top) gear. Because they are so small with so few teeth, they do not handle big power or a lot of use well. There's just not enough gear teeth to spread the load out enough.
So, point being, the RIGHT ring gear is going to be a compromise (imagine that!). In this case, it's about being small enough for good climbing power, AND large enough to keep that chain off that 11t gear most of the time. Priorities will need to be decided and set....
The smaller sprockets on 11spd cassette canbe replaced individually for few dollars each.
AHicks
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
So can the chain, but that doesn't change the fact that running on/spend the majority of your time on the 11t causes more wear than necessary. Unless you find yourself running granny gear frequently, where you actually need/use the smaller chain ring to get the job done, going with a bigger chain ring at some point may be a good plan.
Do as you like/need. Just tossing the idea out for those that may not have considered it.....
mschwett
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
total nonsense. four times that much on my 11 Speed chain, replaced well before elongation reached the trouble point. and that’s with gravel riding AND a mid-drive. I’m not sure if you have stock in an 8 or 9 speed chain company but you need to stop repeating these outliers or urban myths as if they were typical fact, which they most certainly are not.
Commuting and touring I'm getting 3000-3500kms on 11spd hg701 chain to 0.75 wear mark. Replace couple small spockets on cassette which use around 32kmh cutoff. Replace cassette every 2-3 chain. With gen2 bosch change chainring with every chain also jog wheels on derailleur. If only chain is replaced then new one won't last long.
On eMTB its more like 1200-1500km which is to be expected with lot of offroad riding.
Hello all,
I checked out each of your recommendations. Very much appreciated!. This whole experience made me go back and really identify what is important to me! I got very good input from experienced mountain bikers who ride on the trails I will be riding on. Their advice was to get the bike that matches the most extreme trail I will ride on. They strongly recommended a full suspension bike with geometry for steep hills To be safer. Another comment that mirrors other comments in this thread is that rail trails and the more flat roads do not require e assist. So I ended up deciding to go above my budget and get a decent mountain bike, and then I can find an inexpensive regular bike to ride the rail trails if/when I get tired of riding the mountain bike on them. I also have a number of friends who may assist in maintenance if I get stuck, so the LBS wasn’t as important to me after sorting this all out. So I ended up ordering a Fezzari Wire Peak Comp which came highly recommended and seems to have good specs for the money and I likely won’t outgrow it any time soon.
Hope to have it in a month. Thanks again to all who took the time to give me your input!
M200
I checked out each of your recommendations. Very much appreciated!. This whole experience made me go back and really identify what is important to me! I got very good input from experienced mountain bikers who ride on the trails I will be riding on. Their advice was to get the bike that matches the most extreme trail I will ride on. They strongly recommended a full suspension bike with geometry for steep hills To be safer. Another comment that mirrors other comments in this thread is that rail trails and the more flat roads do not require e assist. So I ended up deciding to go above my budget and get a decent mountain bike, and then I can find an inexpensive regular bike to ride the rail trails if/when I get tired of riding the mountain bike on them. I also have a number of friends who may assist in maintenance if I get stuck, so the LBS wasn’t as important to me after sorting this all out. So I ended up ordering a Fezzari Wire Peak Comp which came highly recommended and seems to have good specs for the money and I likely won’t outgrow it any time soon.
Hope to have it in a month. Thanks again to all who took the time to give me your input!
M200
AHicks
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
I would add that with an e-bike available for your use, an analog bike is going to just sit collecting dust....
California Flash
Member
- Region
- USA
Twelve months ago I had four Trek analog bicycles. Then I purchased a Trek e-bike (Allant+ 8s). I now have one analog bike (Trek 520) which has not been ridden for a year.
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