Trail Cruiser
Well-Known Member
You can click the button/buttons that apply to you. Key word here is "primary", 90% of the time. Thanks.
How do you primarily use your ebike?
- Thread starter Trail Cruiser
- Start date
mrgold35
Well-Known Member
Two Radrover since Sept/16 with +5600 mile between them. Started out as his/her rovers and ended up just being just his/his. Work commuting between the 50-75 per week range all year switching off both ebikes (skip riding in snow/ice, heavy rain, or windy days of +20 mph). Fun rides with son or son-in-law on single track trails near the river. Just added a Radcity Step-thru for the wife for just fun rides or farmer's market on weekends.
batmick1
Active Member
I use my ebike almost exclusively for commuting. About 35 miles/day roundtrip, just over 3800 miles since I started riding in February. My ride takes me on surface streets in well marked bike lanes almost the entire way. Some city/suburban areas and long stretches of nature. I have a brief section through Torrey Pines State Park without cars but with foot traffic. Almost the entire trip is within view of the Pacific Ocean. I love my commute.
Trail Cruiser
Well-Known Member
Here's the interesting thing, none are riding less than 25 miles per week.
Now compare that to people who own regular bikes. I bet most of them are just collecting dust and only saw action on the first few weeks of bike ownership.
Now compare that to people who own regular bikes. I bet most of them are just collecting dust and only saw action on the first few weeks of bike ownership.
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The one that impresses me is the number of members doing >100 miles per week. That means we have a lot of members putting more than 5000 miles per year on their e-bikes. I suspect though that others (like me) answered based on recent activity, not year around averages. We are still in good weather months in the northern hemisphere, so that weekly distance will soon decline rapidly in many locations.
My answer was the 25-50 category and that is an honest answer for the last couple of months. But come December in Iowa, my average will most likely be 0 miles per week for several months, and there is no way I will make 1300 - 2600 in a year. 500 - 750 miles per year would be a more realistic total for me.
My answer was the 25-50 category and that is an honest answer for the last couple of months. But come December in Iowa, my average will most likely be 0 miles per week for several months, and there is no way I will make 1300 - 2600 in a year. 500 - 750 miles per year would be a more realistic total for me.
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DaveMatthews
Well-Known Member
New to this, but have ridden bikes and motorbikes for years.
I bought a Giant eMTB so that I could do 60% road, and 40% trail, and I wanted the trail part to be great.
All of the riding so far is for fun/exercise, or an errand or two.
That being said, one of my excursions was on the way to work, and I found that I could get there in approx. 30 mins.
So maybe in the spring I can start a commute when I'm back in shape.
I bought a Giant eMTB so that I could do 60% road, and 40% trail, and I wanted the trail part to be great.
All of the riding so far is for fun/exercise, or an errand or two.
That being said, one of my excursions was on the way to work, and I found that I could get there in approx. 30 mins.
So maybe in the spring I can start a commute when I'm back in shape.
Same here with regard to Winter. Right now I ride quite a bit, but when Winter comes, and we have snow and ice on the ground along with freezing temps, I'll be doing 0 miles as well. I've tried riding in "freezing" temps when the roads were dry, but the cold air in my lungs is not comfortable and from what I understand can be dangerous,
So for a few months I'm not riding. What really bothers me is when I can finally get back on the bike, my "butt" hurts the first several rides again. Takes me a few rides to get used to the saddle again. I've tried putting my regular roadbike on a trainer, but that is so boring....
So for a few months I'm not riding. What really bothers me is when I can finally get back on the bike, my "butt" hurts the first several rides again. Takes me a few rides to get used to the saddle again. I've tried putting my regular roadbike on a trainer, but that is so boring....
christob
Well-Known Member
I'm in the >100/wk response -- for now. But like others, my winter riding will drop dramatically. When I started out in March, it was still very wintery here -- not snow much, but cold. I started my first office commutes in April, with the rule "if it is not raining, and above 32 when you wake, bike in." A few of those April morning rides were 34 - 36 degrees still.
I'll see how far into this coming winter I can continue biking; now that I'm 6 months into it I can feel I will want to push the biking season as long as I can! I think I'll end up dropping lots of office commutes eventually (for the cold + ice possibility) -- but then hope to find that on clear winter days, I can consider afternoon (or at least weekend) rides.
EDIT: Today commuting in, I tipped over the 2,500 biked miles mark for this season -- so I won't be hitting 5k this year!
I envy the folks who can ride all year. In my part of Canada, we get a fairly long winter and once the snow hits and stays, I quit riding until spring. I fear the ice patch under the snow and my old bones are brittle and will break easily. I rode until October 30th last year as it snowed and stayed on the 31st. I did 4000 km (2500 miles) last year and am just short of it this year so I should do a bit better. It has been unseasonably cold and wet the last few days so I haven't been out riding. Tomorrow, the sun is supposed to be out but the high is only supposed to be around 34 degrees Fahrenheit (normal should be 66) so I'll be out for 25 miles or so - you can dress for the cold!! I can't describe how much I miss the biking for the 5 months when snow covers the ground so if you can bike all year, realize how lucky you are.
JimFMB
Active Member
Same here.
ebikemom
Well-Known Member
Me, too, though I am going to try to be one of them. We don't get a lot of snow, but we have very short days. I'm going to try to maintain recreational weekend riding, rain or shine, and hope to commute to work one or two days a week on days when I can work from home part of the day to get my commute in during daylight hours.
There are folks around who commute in the snow. There's a woman I know from another online forum who is a transportation-related employee and biking activist in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She does not have a car and uses her ebike year-round. She parks and locks it outside at work, in the snow. She's been doing this for years. Maybe I can get her to come here and give us some tips! Of course, Minneapolis is a Southern city compared to Seattle and anywhere in Canada--they have longer days and more sunshine than we do, for sure. I don't know how long her commute is, but I thought "WOW" when I heard her story. I assume she is still relatively young (at least not retired yet!), so that makes a difference, too. Risks get higher as a person ages, for sure.
ebikemom
Well-Known Member
I don't do anything on the list 90% of the time! My usage is varied...
That makes it a lot of fun, too!we are in the process of selling our boat. It's a big boat that we can sleep on and stay out for a week at a time on the great lakes. We just haven't been using it much the last few years and it's very expensive to keep and maintain. We agreed to sell it but also agreed we'd get something to replace it that we can enjoy together.. Since there are lots of bike trails near us I see us riding together a LOT. I just hope she likes riding as much as I do.. we do short rides on our dino bikes now but I can see some long rides in our future w/o being completely exhausted when we're done. Sadly in northern MI our summer is about over and there's no way we'd be riding here in winter.
indianajo
Well-Known Member
No category for state highways or county roads, which is about 1/3 of my milage. I commute to my summer camp weekly about 60 miles RT. All other errands on the bike on city streets, except errands out near the camp are on state highways/county roads. Fortunately Indiana numbered highways have 11' lanes in most cases. Some highways there is also a 30" berm outside the white stripe. That commute is neither work or school; I'm retired hee hee.
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