Freesky Alaska has never even stood near an e-MTB
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Can anyone see the difference? An E-MTB is in the 50 lb range, has a mid-drive motor from a respected brand, mountain gearing and certainly does not cost $1,300
Hey, Stefan! Go easy on the new guy, huh? I know you don't mean it, but just suggesting he didn't pay enough money and doesn't have a name brand bike may not be the best way to help him out just at this particular moment! Note that Bama did not claim his bike was an eMTB, only that it was listed as one.
Having said that? Stefan does kind of have a point-- not so much about the money or the name brand, but about taking a 90-pound bike up steep hills. It probably is prudent to sound a note of caution here. If he's got experience with motorcycles, and is younger, maybe it makes sense for him to keep trying with the bike he has, learn what trails he's likely to be riding and what his approach to the sport is going to be, and then decide whether he wants to get a second bike.
I rode my first eBike for nearly a year before figuring out the kind of riding I was likely to do. And I loved having two bikes.
Bama, if you're older, and not used to a heavy bike, just be super careful, because odds are, you're going to go down on some of the steeper stuff. Having laid my bike down a couple of times on Hell Hill (feel free to search for "Hell Hill" here for a detailed account of my multiple assaults on a nasty, low-traction hill on a bike very different from yours) and also flipped my bike riding stupid? I'm happy my bike weighed only half what yours does. Because it did land on top of me, and both of us are fine (though I still have a crick in my neck 8 months later.)
What you don't want to happen: An uncontrolled backwards zero-traction slide. When this happened to me, I had no control at all. Brakes, handlebars, feet on the ground-- none of that had any impact on how the bike was moving. It was like wiping out surfing-- when you lose it that bad, you almost have to throw away the bike, protect your head with your arms, and just roll and hope for the best. Oh, and I also wear body armor.
I ride at PAS 1/9 over 95% of the time. Use the throttle only for brief bursts of speed on starting and in traffic.
First, I swapped the stock 42t chainring for a 38t. With the stock 9-speed, 11-34t cassette, that took me from a 34-105 inch to a 31-95 inch gearing. Much better, but 1st gear still wasn't low enough, and I wanted my 105 inch top gear back.
So when the derailleur and chain had to be replaced a few months later for an unrelated reason, took that opportunity to upgrade to a 10-speed, 11-42t cassette while going back to the 42t chainring. That left me with 27-105 inch gearing — almost perfect for this ebike in this land of many short, steep hills. (I define "steep" as any grade over 7%.)
Changing a chainring is cheap and can often be done without changing anything else if the rest of the drivetrain isn't too worn. Changing a cassette is also inexpensive if the existing derailleur can handle the new one. Your LBS can help. Not much labor involved.
This is great advice, IMHO. What I might add: What might be easier about having lower gearing (e.g., more teeth in back and/or fewer in front) is that you have a the option of higher cadence for pedaling, which can give you more control for traction.
I agree with Jeremy to downshift early. For me, I find that keeping cadence high gives me more control, so I can make micro-adjustments on the fly-- say, backing off for a split second to regain traction when the tires start to spin-- which is harder to do in a higher gear with a slower cadence.
Experiment with shifting your weight as well. Again, on a lighter bike, a more conventional eMTB, this might work better, I don't know how yours is balanced, but generally, getting out of your seat and leaning forward going up the hill may help.
For me and Hell Hill, it took about a dozen tries to get up without stopping or dumping it. For tire pressure, yes, generally, one would want to go lower. However, the day that I did get up Hell Hill, my pressure was on the higher side, probably 47 PSI. Why that worked on slippery Sierra sand, I can't tell you.
If it's a really nasty hill? Think in advance where you are likely to dump it if you don't make it, try to lay it down in a controlled way on the left side. I did that a couple of times without a scratch on me or the bike.
