Chancelucky2
Well-Known Member
In 2018, my assortment of 3 conventional bikes had mostly hung in my garage other than occasional outings of about 12 miles on my hard-tailed mountain bike. 2 of the bikes were 30 years old; I was keeping them around for purely sentimental reasons. All my bikes needed maintenance. My love of gadgets got me fascinated by e-bikes. I finally got to rent a Pedego when we were in in San Diego for a few days and went 30 miles and climbed a fairly big hill at Torrey Pines State Park a couple times. I was hoooked, except for the fact that I didn't necessarily want a Pedego: it wasn't just heavy it was back heavy and even I knew that 35 miles of range might not be enough. I happened upon an e-bay posting for a new BMW e-bike which also just happened to be from the BMW dealer two miles from my house. It was 50 pounds, had a range of 50 miles, was mid-drive Bosch, and was a lot less than the Pedego. I started riding most every day. My mother was dying at the time so instead of driving to her assisted living facility, I would ride the bike, visit, then take some long detour home. Those rides were terrifically therapeutic. On at least one occasion, my 3 mile trip to see Mom turned into a 40 mile ride.
In 2019, I started longing to do some longer tours on my e-bike. The problem was that a 50 mile range is really closer to 40 miles for various reasons and a second Bosch battery was going to be almost two thirds the cost of the bike. In addition, the BMW e-bike looked nice, but it had no rack mounts. I started hanging out here more as I looked for solutions. I came to the conclusion that I would need a different e-bike and a second battery. I was leaning towards the Trek Crossrip +, but it was simply going to be too much money. Serendipitously in March 2020, another member here who lived about 100 miles away posted to sell his Crossrip + with 2 batteries at a very attractive price. I sold the BMW with 1400 miles on it at too low a price (wife refuse to let me keep 5 bikes in the garage) and bought the Crossrip, but there was one issue keeping me from doing a tour: Covid had started. I figured give it a few months and things would be back to normal. I now had the bike and batteries that would let me do a 100 mile day. It even came with a rack. The only problem was that bathrooms, water, places to stay were all going to be iffy. In the meantime, I rode the local bike trails/routes everyday. I noticed that my 20 miles rides on the BMW routinely became 30 mile rides on the Trek. The Trek was about 7 pounds lighter than the BMW and had lower gearing a 42 tooth gear in the back, so I found myself doing bigger portions of my rides without power.
At this point, the saga takes a curious turn. While there are lots of places to ride where I live, doing the same rides constantly can get a little old. I found that if I did the same ride on a different bicycle, it made the same topography feel different, so I began alternating e-bike rides with shorter conventional bike rides. My road bike, a 1987 Bianchi Campione D'Italia, had 80's gearing 52x42 with 11x24 in the back. There was a reason I was dreading hills on that bike. I spent the money to drop the gearing to 48x34 14x28. fwiw, dropping the gearing had many of the benefits of going to an E-bike without the jump in speed. My conventional bike rides got more frequent and thanks to both the new gearing and my improved conditioning from the e-bike riding, they got a lot longer. I got a front derailleur problem with my mountain bike fixed (finding the right bike shop turned out to be the difference) and I did a full restore of my 1986 Univega touring bike. I went from doing one out of four rides on my conventional bike to one out of five local rides on my e-bike. My normal conventional ride is now about 25-30 miles.
When I first got the BMW e-bike, I thought I would eventually get rid of my conventional bikes. As it turned out, the e-bike led me back to traditional biking. I still love the e-bike, but currently reserve it for longer more adventurous rides. For instance, I'll use it to explore more or when we're up in the mountains. I also like it for "rest days" and those times when I ride with someone younger/stronger. I see the e-bike vs. conventional bikes as closely related but distinct activities. It's a bit like having a Mercedes and an old MG in your garage. One is heavier, more powerful, and more indifferent to changes in terrain or speed. As a baby boomer, I also find pleasure in feeling like I'm riding around on some futuristic device. With the other, much of the pleasure comes from feeling the limits of what you can do and pushing them. There's also a sort of satisfaction that comes from not being helped by a motor and riding around on tech that hasn't changed much in 100 years. As I get older, I suspect the ratio of e-bike rides to conventional rides will swing the other way again. In the meantime, I like having a foot in both bicycle worlds and when I get my second COVID shot, I'll finally be doing my longer tour on the E-bike.
In 2019, I started longing to do some longer tours on my e-bike. The problem was that a 50 mile range is really closer to 40 miles for various reasons and a second Bosch battery was going to be almost two thirds the cost of the bike. In addition, the BMW e-bike looked nice, but it had no rack mounts. I started hanging out here more as I looked for solutions. I came to the conclusion that I would need a different e-bike and a second battery. I was leaning towards the Trek Crossrip +, but it was simply going to be too much money. Serendipitously in March 2020, another member here who lived about 100 miles away posted to sell his Crossrip + with 2 batteries at a very attractive price. I sold the BMW with 1400 miles on it at too low a price (wife refuse to let me keep 5 bikes in the garage) and bought the Crossrip, but there was one issue keeping me from doing a tour: Covid had started. I figured give it a few months and things would be back to normal. I now had the bike and batteries that would let me do a 100 mile day. It even came with a rack. The only problem was that bathrooms, water, places to stay were all going to be iffy. In the meantime, I rode the local bike trails/routes everyday. I noticed that my 20 miles rides on the BMW routinely became 30 mile rides on the Trek. The Trek was about 7 pounds lighter than the BMW and had lower gearing a 42 tooth gear in the back, so I found myself doing bigger portions of my rides without power.
At this point, the saga takes a curious turn. While there are lots of places to ride where I live, doing the same rides constantly can get a little old. I found that if I did the same ride on a different bicycle, it made the same topography feel different, so I began alternating e-bike rides with shorter conventional bike rides. My road bike, a 1987 Bianchi Campione D'Italia, had 80's gearing 52x42 with 11x24 in the back. There was a reason I was dreading hills on that bike. I spent the money to drop the gearing to 48x34 14x28. fwiw, dropping the gearing had many of the benefits of going to an E-bike without the jump in speed. My conventional bike rides got more frequent and thanks to both the new gearing and my improved conditioning from the e-bike riding, they got a lot longer. I got a front derailleur problem with my mountain bike fixed (finding the right bike shop turned out to be the difference) and I did a full restore of my 1986 Univega touring bike. I went from doing one out of four rides on my conventional bike to one out of five local rides on my e-bike. My normal conventional ride is now about 25-30 miles.
When I first got the BMW e-bike, I thought I would eventually get rid of my conventional bikes. As it turned out, the e-bike led me back to traditional biking. I still love the e-bike, but currently reserve it for longer more adventurous rides. For instance, I'll use it to explore more or when we're up in the mountains. I also like it for "rest days" and those times when I ride with someone younger/stronger. I see the e-bike vs. conventional bikes as closely related but distinct activities. It's a bit like having a Mercedes and an old MG in your garage. One is heavier, more powerful, and more indifferent to changes in terrain or speed. As a baby boomer, I also find pleasure in feeling like I'm riding around on some futuristic device. With the other, much of the pleasure comes from feeling the limits of what you can do and pushing them. There's also a sort of satisfaction that comes from not being helped by a motor and riding around on tech that hasn't changed much in 100 years. As I get older, I suspect the ratio of e-bike rides to conventional rides will swing the other way again. In the meantime, I like having a foot in both bicycle worlds and when I get my second COVID shot, I'll finally be doing my longer tour on the E-bike.
Awesome!!
