Hello..should I get an e-bike

[Hiswitsend]

Hi,

Wasn't quite sure what forum to post this in, so stuck it in here.

I'm a keen cyclist and have a 20 mile each way commute that I do a couple of times a week and the other days I take the motorbike or occasionally drive half way and run the rest.

Been thinking I should really be cycling every day and cut down my carbon footprint. Fastest I have done it is in 1 hour and 1 minute - on my good road bike in good weather. My usual bike is my old cyclo-cross race bike and it takes me around 1 hour 15 up to to 1 hour 30 in winter when I fit the Schwalbe Ice-Spikers.

Could an e-bike help cut the journey time down to 1 hour - is it a case of 15.5mph up every hill (there is about 1000ft of elevation gain on the trip) and even faster everywhere else?

Had been looking at an Orbea Vibe, but Ribble do some nice bikes as well, any advice/opinion welcome - as well as whether I should to straight or drop bars

Cheers

Dave

 

[scrambler]

All class 3 ebikes can do 28mph on flat.
Based on that if you calculated you need it to do 15.5mph on hills, you need to try and test one and see if it can do it on your worst hills.
If regular 250W motor ebikes like the bosch and other don't cut it, you can look into ebikes equipped with the Bafang Ultra motor that definitely will

 

[Stefan Mikes]

All class 3 ebikes can do 28mph on flat.

There is no Class 3 in the United Kingdom. UK/Euro e-bikes are 25 km/h or 15.5 mph.

@Hiswitsend:
I understand you are a fit rider, Dave. The 15.5 mph speed restriction makes Euro e-bikes helpful only upwind and/or uphill for a fit rider. You would probably benefit from a lightweight road e-bike with drop bars (to ride in the drops upwind). Such e-bike should not prevent you from riding faster than 15.5 mph unassisted under favourable conditions.

Orbea makes lightweight Gain road e-bikes with rear hub-drive motor and a small battery.
Specialized makes lightweight Creo road e-bike (the cheapest is the E5, or aluminium one) with mid-drive motor and a small battery (with optional Range Extender).

I could mention some full-power/larger battery road e-bikes. These would be stronger uphill but their weight might make them less beneficial when riding unassisted above 15.5 mph. On the other hand, full power e-bike would make you sweat less.

Such choices are very difficult if you cannot demo ride any of these e-bikes though.

 

[ian fisher]

my advice, hire a bike if that is possible and find out if an e bike would suit what you are doing...that would be the cheapest option first, after that, if you are keen on buying, it's then a matter of comparing various models and specs, narrow your search down to a few make/model options and have a look at the used e bike market locally if there is one. Iv'e mentioned in other threads that there are some real bargains to be had in the used e bike market as long as you know what you are looking for. Bike fit and frame size are all important as is cost and how much you are prepared to spend.

 

[Hiswitsend]

Thanks for your replies.

There is a hire place nearby although they don't have a road bike, and another shop with a demo road bike in budget near my work... Will see what demo I can arrange.

 

[Hiswitsend]

Had a demo of a Cannondale Synapse Neo EQ - Quite a burly bike, but only a short demo, have arranged a longer one. It rode ok, but looks like I need to change how I ride - rather than push the pace I should just push enough to get the bike to do the work. It seemed quite tough once motor off or above the level of assistance, but it does have a nice big battery and think it would give more on the days I didn't want to compared to the hub motor.

Also test rode an Orbea Vibe, was able to find a hill I could do reps on - it seemed more sublte, but definitely was helping compared to when I switched it off - minimal motor drag compared to the Cannondale - again a longer test ride of an Orbea Gain has been requested - now to scour the forums a bit more

 

[Hiswitsend]

Short Version:
Just to round this off after a longer test ride of the Bosch motored Cannondale Synapse and an Orbea Gain – neither of which felt right, I bought a Boardman ADV 8.9e! with the Fazua motor

Long Version:
The Cannondale did well on the climbs, but motor felt quite draggy and the weight of the bike was really noticeable once above its cut-off. It could build up and maintain speed on the flat (and downhill), but was hard work slightest rise and was slower over my the half of my commute I tried it on(compared to an average day), despite being a few seconds faster than my best time up the hills. It is also a long bike for a medium, which I really felt when pedalling standing up.

The Gain was a bit of a nightmare: the motor was just not working on the Gain and I got a double pinch flat! The bike itself rode OK, not too much drag, but with the motor apparently AWOL I only had my short ride on the Vibe as a comparison, which did not feel like it was helping much at all – it was, but it was barely noticeable. The other downside was that there is no option for having a second set of wheels if I wanted swap between sets of tyres – commuting and winter studded tyres.

At this point I was not getting an e-bike, but had still to try a Fazua equipped bike…

Cue visit to Halfords as they were able to order up said Boardman ADV 8.9e in for me – the test ride was going to be shorter so found a slope nearby and rode up it on my commuter as a baseline, trying to put a perceived average effort in. Then I tried the Boardman with no assistance, minimum, medium then max, followed by a couple of mixed settings. My legs had clearly had warmed up a bit as with no assistance I was a little bit quicker than my commuter, so not a lot of motor drag. The other 3 modes saw me progressively faster with the last one maintaining 15mph up the slope and you can definitely feel it helping in all modes.

It still wasn’t a done deal but after much umming and ahhing I bought the Boardman – I like the fact the battery and motor could be removed and replaced by a blanking piece that double up as storage as this is the bike I’ll use for bike touring, as well as liking their whole system concept.

Took the bike out for a trial commute: The hill straight from my door was dispatched with so much less effort it was great and I completed my out and back “commute” (36 miles) in about 5-10 minutes faster (each way) than the previous week and still with 25% battery left – that was mostly done in medium, switching to max about 2/3rds of the way home as I was starting to feel some of the effort. Bike got me home in good time again, despite lack of energy on my part, so will definitely work on the days where I just can’t be bothered and I’ll still pedal rather than take the motorbike. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was that it felt like that there was a bit of drag from the motor when it initially disengaged, but that could be just that my legs are needing to get used to the switch over to providing all the effort and that I was possibly a bit fatigued, there was no problems when going that little bit faster.

Only change on the cards is a bigger front sprocket, the 42 tooth at the front was running out on the flat and never troubled the upper half of the cassette on the climbs. Throwing a 50 in as that still gives a reasonable climbing gear (better than current commuter) as well as better speed gear (Again better than the commuter) – this is also an advantage with the Fazua system, it does not need a firmware update to cope with the change.

Cheers…and well done if you got this far!

 

[scottsdalecommuter]

Short Version:
Just to round this off after a longer test ride of the Bosch motored Cannondale Synapse and an Orbea Gain – neither of which felt right, I bought a Boardman ADV 8.9e! with the Fazua motor

Long Version:
The Cannondale did well on the climbs, but motor felt quite draggy and the weight of the bike was really noticeable once above its cut-off. It could build up and maintain speed on the flat (and downhill), but was hard work slightest rise and was slower over my the half of my commute I tried it on(compared to an average day), despite being a few seconds faster than my best time up the hills. It is also a long bike for a medium, which I really felt when pedalling standing up.

The Gain was a bit of a nightmare: the motor was just not working on the Gain and I got a double pinch flat! The bike itself rode OK, not too much drag, but with the motor apparently AWOL I only had my short ride on the Vibe as a comparison, which did not feel like it was helping much at all – it was, but it was barely noticeable. The other downside was that there is no option for having a second set of wheels if I wanted swap between sets of tyres – commuting and winter studded tyres.

At this point I was not getting an e-bike, but had still to try a Fazua equipped bike…

Cue visit to Halfords as they were able to order up said Boardman ADV 8.9e in for me – the test ride was going to be shorter so found a slope nearby and rode up it on my commuter as a baseline, trying to put a perceived average effort in. Then I tried the Boardman with no assistance, minimum, medium then max, followed by a couple of mixed settings. My legs had clearly had warmed up a bit as with no assistance I was a little bit quicker than my commuter, so not a lot of motor drag. The other 3 modes saw me progressively faster with the last one maintaining 15mph up the slope and you can definitely feel it helping in all modes.

It still wasn’t a done deal but after much umming and ahhing I bought the Boardman – I like the fact the battery and motor could be removed and replaced by a blanking piece that double up as storage as this is the bike I’ll use for bike touring, as well as liking their whole system concept.

Took the bike out for a trial commute: The hill straight from my door was dispatched with so much less effort it was great and I completed my out and back “commute” (36 miles) in about 5-10 minutes faster (each way) than the previous week and still with 25% battery left – that was mostly done in medium, switching to max about 2/3rds of the way home as I was starting to feel some of the effort. Bike got me home in good time again, despite lack of energy on my part, so will definitely work on the days where I just can’t be bothered and I’ll still pedal rather than take the motorbike. The only thing I wasn’t sure about was that it felt like that there was a bit of drag from the motor when it initially disengaged, but that could be just that my legs are needing to get used to the switch over to providing all the effort and that I was possibly a bit fatigued, there was no problems when going that little bit faster.

Only change on the cards is a bigger front sprocket, the 42 tooth at the front was running out on the flat and never troubled the upper half of the cassette on the climbs. Throwing a 50 in as that still gives a reasonable climbing gear (better than current commuter) as well as better speed gear (Again better than the commuter) – this is also an advantage with the Fazua system, it does not need a firmware update to cope with the change.

Cheers…and well done if you got this far!

Congrats on the new bike and safe riding on your bike commute! That’s a really sharp looking bike! I’ve found my bike commute to almost be a form of meditation before I start my day in the morning and before coming home and putting on dad/husband hat at night.

 

[kmccune]

Ebike-life-changing experience.What I have found out on cheap bikes, smaller motors vs more powerful motors. The big question is will it add that much assist in all conditions? I have had 500-watt bikes stall on Hills that a 350-watt bike would "charge up"( my Gold standard is can I sit and pedal up the steep grade,?) for some reason standing and pedaling kills me. When a more powerful motor stalls or kicks out check the controller( had this happen twice) the controller is a real "chokepoint" sometimes a higher amp rated controller will put a lot more "zing" in what you have.
The British Isles always surprise me, I am a Fan of Drew Pritchart's "Salvage Hunter" series to have Homes that last that long amazes Me, plus the History.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Congratulations @Hiswitsend! It looks like a well thought choice! Interested in your future Fazua experiences!