Stillhart
New Member
- Region
- USA
Hey folks!
Just wanted to pop in and say hi and introduce myself. I created an account to ask for advice on what bike to buy, but I ended up buying a bike before my account got approved. lol
Here's a story: I, at a relatively young 44 years old, was recently diagnosed with larynx cancer. I smoked for about 8 years and quit about 15-20 years ago but that was enough it seems. With my upcoming treatments, I've been told that fatigue will be a thing, but I should try to keep active if possible. Running is the easiest, but I've always hated running and much preferred biking. But my current bike is a very aggressive road bike with skinny tires and drop bars and no suspension I was thinking I'd need something a bit more laid back for this.
So I went to my LBS to see what was new in the world of bikes in the 15 years or so since I last shopped for one. As it turns out, a LOT. I ended up riding a Trek Verve+ 2 and was pretty much sold on getting an electric bike. It was everything I wanted with a more upright seating position, comfy wide bars, bouncy seat post, fun modern stuff like hydraulic disc brakes and of course electric assist. The only reason I didn't just buy it right away was because 1) I always do research before spending $3k on something and 2) they didn't have my size (I test rode a medium to get a feel for it, but I wouldn't buy a medium as I'm 6' tall).
Well I started researching and found about a zillion bikes in the $1200-$2000 range that seemed to be similar, the main difference being hub drive vs mid drive. Plus the hub drive ones are all class 3 and can just drive on electric power with no pedaling if you want. Also I saw these crazy super duper fat tire bikes that don't make sense without electric assist but seem to be pretty good option with it. I went to my local Pedego and tried out a few hub bikes (Interceptor, City Commuter) as well as their fat tire bike (Trail Something-or-another).
Here's where things got weird for me. I don't know if it's a Pedego thing or a hub drive thing, but "pedal assist" seems like a complete misnomer on those bikes. As far as I can tell, you set the assist to a certain speed (say 12mph) and then when you turn the pedal cranks at ANY speed, the bike will accelerate to 12mph (e.g.). Like, it does it regardless of whether you spinning the crank is actually helping anything or not. It was always either on 100% or off 0% and nothing in between, which felt really weird even if I set my gear and my cadence just right to float at around 12mph (e.g.) so it felt more like the Trek.
The Trek, on the other hand, felt more like actual pedal assist. I pushed down and it multiplied the force of how much I pushed, no matter how fast I was going or what gear I was in. This is what I expect from something called "pedal assist". I gather this is a function of the mid drive motor with torque sensors and powering the crank before the gears.
Anyways, I'm still confused about whether all hub bikes have that shitty excuse for pedal assist or not, but since I wanted the bike for exercise, not for an electric moped, I decided to nix the idea of the hub bikes and focus on the much more expensive mid engine bikes.
My next major discovery was that the COVID shortages have affected bikes along with seemingly everything else (I still can't get my hands on a RTX 3080, been trying for 6 months!). That Trek wasn't something I could find in my size, and it was backordered until April 2022! I called something like 8 bike shops around town until I found someone who not only had some ebikes in my size in stock, but they had one I wanted too! Knowing that my choices were limited, I jumped on the opportunity and ended up purchasing a brand new Giant Roam E+ GTS.
I test rode the Talon E+ they had in stock (basically the mountain bike version of the Roam) and the motor felt like the Trek, which is what I was hoping for. The Roam isn't quite as upright as the Trek, but it has a front suspension, it has a slightly more powerful motor (50Nm vs 40Nm) and it was a tad cheaper so I'm okay with that. I may splurge on some higher bars or whatever if I feel like it's too forward later.
It's weird that my choice basically came down to "whatever I could actually find in my size in stock since everything else was backordered for weeks or months or more" but I'm really happy that I found something pretty much what I was looking for and in my budget. I think everything worked out about as well as I could have hoped (other than the cancer). I start treatments next week and I'm hoping this bike helps me heal in some small way.
Anyways, that was a super long story and probably very uninteresting but I like writing so if you go this far, thanks for putting up with me. :-D And if you have any insight into the hub motor thing, let me know. I feel like I'm missing something because the pedal assist on them was horrible but people seem to be buying them. *shrug*
Just wanted to pop in and say hi and introduce myself. I created an account to ask for advice on what bike to buy, but I ended up buying a bike before my account got approved. lol
Here's a story: I, at a relatively young 44 years old, was recently diagnosed with larynx cancer. I smoked for about 8 years and quit about 15-20 years ago but that was enough it seems. With my upcoming treatments, I've been told that fatigue will be a thing, but I should try to keep active if possible. Running is the easiest, but I've always hated running and much preferred biking. But my current bike is a very aggressive road bike with skinny tires and drop bars and no suspension I was thinking I'd need something a bit more laid back for this.
So I went to my LBS to see what was new in the world of bikes in the 15 years or so since I last shopped for one. As it turns out, a LOT. I ended up riding a Trek Verve+ 2 and was pretty much sold on getting an electric bike. It was everything I wanted with a more upright seating position, comfy wide bars, bouncy seat post, fun modern stuff like hydraulic disc brakes and of course electric assist. The only reason I didn't just buy it right away was because 1) I always do research before spending $3k on something and 2) they didn't have my size (I test rode a medium to get a feel for it, but I wouldn't buy a medium as I'm 6' tall).
Well I started researching and found about a zillion bikes in the $1200-$2000 range that seemed to be similar, the main difference being hub drive vs mid drive. Plus the hub drive ones are all class 3 and can just drive on electric power with no pedaling if you want. Also I saw these crazy super duper fat tire bikes that don't make sense without electric assist but seem to be pretty good option with it. I went to my local Pedego and tried out a few hub bikes (Interceptor, City Commuter) as well as their fat tire bike (Trail Something-or-another).
Here's where things got weird for me. I don't know if it's a Pedego thing or a hub drive thing, but "pedal assist" seems like a complete misnomer on those bikes. As far as I can tell, you set the assist to a certain speed (say 12mph) and then when you turn the pedal cranks at ANY speed, the bike will accelerate to 12mph (e.g.). Like, it does it regardless of whether you spinning the crank is actually helping anything or not. It was always either on 100% or off 0% and nothing in between, which felt really weird even if I set my gear and my cadence just right to float at around 12mph (e.g.) so it felt more like the Trek.
The Trek, on the other hand, felt more like actual pedal assist. I pushed down and it multiplied the force of how much I pushed, no matter how fast I was going or what gear I was in. This is what I expect from something called "pedal assist". I gather this is a function of the mid drive motor with torque sensors and powering the crank before the gears.
Anyways, I'm still confused about whether all hub bikes have that shitty excuse for pedal assist or not, but since I wanted the bike for exercise, not for an electric moped, I decided to nix the idea of the hub bikes and focus on the much more expensive mid engine bikes.
My next major discovery was that the COVID shortages have affected bikes along with seemingly everything else (I still can't get my hands on a RTX 3080, been trying for 6 months!). That Trek wasn't something I could find in my size, and it was backordered until April 2022! I called something like 8 bike shops around town until I found someone who not only had some ebikes in my size in stock, but they had one I wanted too! Knowing that my choices were limited, I jumped on the opportunity and ended up purchasing a brand new Giant Roam E+ GTS.
I test rode the Talon E+ they had in stock (basically the mountain bike version of the Roam) and the motor felt like the Trek, which is what I was hoping for. The Roam isn't quite as upright as the Trek, but it has a front suspension, it has a slightly more powerful motor (50Nm vs 40Nm) and it was a tad cheaper so I'm okay with that. I may splurge on some higher bars or whatever if I feel like it's too forward later.
It's weird that my choice basically came down to "whatever I could actually find in my size in stock since everything else was backordered for weeks or months or more" but I'm really happy that I found something pretty much what I was looking for and in my budget. I think everything worked out about as well as I could have hoped (other than the cancer). I start treatments next week and I'm hoping this bike helps me heal in some small way.
Anyways, that was a super long story and probably very uninteresting but I like writing so if you go this far, thanks for putting up with me. :-D And if you have any insight into the hub motor thing, let me know. I feel like I'm missing something because the pedal assist on them was horrible but people seem to be buying them. *shrug*
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