Moving Away From Heavy E-Bikes

[PDoz]

• It is a great bike maintenance tool. If you care about it, you know how many km you have ridden on a given chain, cassette, chainring, brake pads. For any bike you own.

You do not need any mobile reception for that. The ride data are uploaded to Strava post-ride, at any convenient moment.


Why your EMTB forum fascination?

You almost had me with the maintenance point, then I realized not all km are the same! I've had single day rides that destroyed a set of disc pads vs the months I usually get. I guess by the nature of mtb riding , km become less relevant than conditions.

I think we have a different use for tracking - for me, a tracking device is for safety, it records and transmits my position during a ride. The main purpose is so my wife / emergency services know where to start looking if I don't return as planned. Similar to being able to use " find my phone". I have limited mobile reception where I ride , so strava isn't any use ( my garmin inreach mini uses iridium sat phone signals )

Emtb fascination? Nah, not me. I very much prefer this place for the entertainment / people here. But unfortunately when I need advice re mountain bikes I need to visit a more mtb specific forum.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Your choice.
My feeling is MTBers are indeed solitary people (but I could be wrong).

I personally have no need for Strava and manage fine without it. That being said, if it works for others then all the power.

As for MTBers being loners, that all depends. My winter rides are mainly solitary for the exact reasons @PDoz mentioned (no commitments or expectations) or with a couple of buddies on the local singles during the summer months. As a trio, we’re pretty much all at the same skill level which bodes well for our expectations of each other. I’m also a member of a group based out of Calgary, AB called the Shred Collective that organizes group rides (many at night) in the mountains of Bragg Creek, Canmore, and Banff, AB. I have yet to join in on one of their wintry get togethers as most up to now have been focused on fat biking in some pretty rad locations plus it also involves sometimes up to a three hour one-way drive to the trailheads for me.

With longer days from here on in I look forward to connecting with the group not only for the comradery but it’s also helpful to ride with others who are familiar with the trails. Safety in numbers as they say particularly when it comes to back wood rides.

Edit: I realize this thread is about moving away from heavy ebikes but I merely wanted to make a point.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

You almost had me with the maintenance point, then I realized not all km are the same! I've had single day rides that destroyed a set of disc pads vs the months I usually get. I guess by the nature of mtb riding , km become less relevant than conditions.

Fair enough! Strava is more a place for roadies, gravel cyclists, adventure riders, runners, hikers and skiers but also (surprise!) windsurfers. People riding bicycles for distances certainly appreciate the maintenance log. Of course, one of the primary functions of Strava is tracking performance & fitness data, which is meaningless for e-bikers. As all the functionality of Strava I need is free, I actually cancelled my subscription there. (I started a subscription of RideWithGPS for its perfect Route Planner and its advanced options).

Just for a mention: many people spend their winters e-cycling, that is, virtual group rides on their own bikes set onto a modern trainer and running software such as Zwift. Strava records their effort but separates it from outdoor riding, (The thing is not for me).

Still, it is so nice to see one of the EBR Forum member bravely pedalling his Vado SL almost unpowered (with all the BLEvo data); another member riding distances and heights on his ultralightweight road bike daily. Canadian members on their eMTB rides. A forum complainer actually riding his Vado at high speed. Another complainer who gave up bicycles but is pedalling on a trainer. The active Forum member who is constantly riding, alone or with his wife. A former Forum member who noticed the return of ospreys to his city just yesterday. And so on.

Forum members come and go; some die. If you see a person on Strava, you know they are alive and active. I learned about the bad accident of the most funny former member of EBR from Strava. I could see how he was recovering, how he regained his strength by growingly long lightweight traditional bike trips; how he bought a DTC e-bike; how he recovered the premium e-MTB damaged in the accident, had it repaired and started riding it again. He will not return to the Forum. We talk everyday on Strava.

I think we have a different use for tracking - for me, a tracking device is for safety, it records and transmits my position during a ride. The main purpose is so my wife / emergency services know where to start looking if I don't return as planned. Similar to being able to use " find my phone". I have limited mobile reception where I ride , so strava isn't any use ( my garmin inreach mini uses iridium sat phone signals )

You live in an unusual country. Where the mobile coverage is good... My brother made a sharp turn on his e-MTB on wet pavement by the Warsaw Mermaid and crashed. His Garmin worked: The son called my brother: "Dad, are you alright?"

Emtb fascination? Nah, not me. I very much prefer this place for the entertainment / people here. But unfortunately when I need advice re mountain bikes I need to visit a more mtb specific forum.

The reason I'm these Fora is a big group of nice people riding e-bikes. The thugs are all on Ignore I learned a lot from EBR Forums, taking advice also from you. You might be interested to know my brother is passively reading the EMTB Forums, using an online translator. He's learning there, too!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Edit: I realize this thread is about moving away from heavy ebikes

It is always the same trolls who derail my threads Not you or PDoz of course.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Using % is great if you only have 1 or 2 ebikes with same or similar capacities. Otherwise there is math going on in your head which might as well be voltage

I have proved my different e-bikes of the same brand provide accurate information about the battery consumption per a ride disregarding the battery number and charge.
How would you interpret the voltage information for the 100% charged battery I showed before? Perhaps I can learn something from you.

Surprising thing is, I’ve found my knees to get stronger and bother me less, after switching to SS

And you might wonder why so many people switched to e-bikes because of knee issues
A friend of mine who is just 41 and cycling said she had big issues with knees and had to stop her cycling for a month. I offered one of my e-bikes to her to resolve the issue. Her answer was:

• I'm not riding e-bikes; it's the ideology thing for me
• It is not about pedalling but the road vibration on my legs.

Sorry, I could not help her.

 

[PDoz]

I personally have no need for Strava and manage fine without it. That being said, if it works for others then all the power.


View attachment 150358

Night riding in the snow.....bliss or insanity? Certainly inspiring.

We don't get a lot of opportunities to do that around here - it's a couple of hours excursion to find white stuff that is legal to ride. So most of my snow riding is on the motorbike , and the night ones are usually a group ride that goes wrong - mechanical or medical adventures delaying pub oclock. I also struggle to navigate in the snow at night - the trails start to look the same, signs are non existent..and most of our bush tracks are poorly documented on gps.

 

[kevinmccune]

You almost had me with the maintenance point, then I realized not all km are the same! I've had single day rides that destroyed a set of disc pads vs the months I usually get. I guess by the nature of mtb riding , km become less relevant than conditions.

I think we have a different use for tracking - for me, a tracking device is for safety, it records and transmits my position during a ride. The main purpose is so my wife / emergency services know where to start looking if I don't return as planned. Similar to being able to use " find my phone". I have limited mobile reception where I ride , so strava isn't any use ( my garmin inreach mini uses iridium sat phone signals )

Emtb fascination? Nah, not me. I very much prefer this place for the entertainment / people here. But unfortunately when I need advice re mountain bikes I need to visit a more mtb specific forum.

I carry my ancient IPhone, most places it will work if I disappear my daughter knows the general vicinity to begin looking for Me at least.

 

[SC00CHB00CH]

Super light and fast has always been my go to build style. After loading in my Mother's 80lb ebike into her SUV the 10th time. I soon began my ebike journey myself looking for a lightweight fun ebike that ideally would be fold-able , fast , climb hills in my mountainous region with ease. My new project is a Tern X18 ,that weighs in at a starting weight of 23.8lbs/10.8kg. It will be mostly a street build but with added thicker tires , not much room there for thicker tires it will be capable off road too. My previous folder did surprisingly very well off road with skinny tires. I had 20X1.5 on there at one point and they did amazingly well off road.

My previous build even with a suspension stem and a heavier brooks spring seat weighed in at 40lbs with just the saddle bag battery. I could've slimmed it down a little with a lighter cambium seat and remove the suspension stem. But the bike was already a wheelie machine that the added weight of the 13.5ah frame battery helped with the high torque. A really really fun bike. The guy who purchased it is an airline pilot (private airlines) and now takes the bike in a large duffel bag on his plane. He loves it. The bike goes 36mph on a pure flat road throttle only. 40lbs in the normal bike world is heavy but ebikes ,not too shabby.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Just show me your Strava profile.
Indeed, people recording on Strava are more credible because they can prove they have gathered necessary experience.

So RideWithGPS doesn't count? Or Komoot? There are lots of tools that do basically the Same Thing if all you are asking for is recording rides.

For that matter, gadgetry from Garmin, Wahoo, Hammerhead, and Suunto all comes with apps that record your rides. There are a lot of tools out there and nobody is required to use any of them if they do not wish to.

Oh, and technically Hammerhead does not come with an app. You connect it directly to the internet (by setting up wifi or using an internal SIM card) and it interacts with its web API. You use a web site to up the device and load routes into it.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

There are lots of tools that do basically the Same Thing if all you are asking for is recording rides.

RWGPS or Komoot play no social role. There is only one friend of mine on RWGPS (it is @RabH) while everybody else is on Strava. I keep a double (parallel) record of my rides (Strava, RWGPS) fed by my Wahoo. I also know an Android app to transfer the data between different sports trackers (the name is SyncMyTracks). That's how I transferred all my rides from the defunct Endomondo to Strava and RWGPS.

RWGPS does not recognize e-bikes. Strava recognizes and separates bikes, gravel bikes, MTB, e-bikes, and e-MTB. There even are Strava E-Bike Segments!

For that matter, gadgetry from Garmin, Wahoo, Hammerhead, and Suunto all comes with apps that record your rides.

Currently only Wahoo ELEMNT fully supports Specialized and Giant e-bikes, including SL e-bikes with Range Extender; Mahle X... e-bikes are partly supported. Garmin Edge works OK with the same e-bikes, only it does not understand the SL Range Extender. The latest attempt by Hammerhead Karoo2 brought a solution similar to Garmin Edge (Range Extender not recognized). Does Suunto connect to e-bikes?

All bike GPS computers send recorded rides to plethora of sports trackers.

 

[PCeBiker]

Who on earth would need the voltage display?

A voltmeter is all you need.

You can see the remaining capacity if you stop pedaling (remove the load from the battery) and see what the voltage is.

You can check the health of the battery by watching how far the voltage drops under load and how fast the capacity drops as the battery is draining.

New batteries, bigger batteries, healthier batteries have less voltage sag and drop in capacity than older, smaller, worn out batteries.

You just stop pedaling (to shut off your motor) and watch how the voltage rebounds to show you your capacity.
A newer, larger, healthier battery will rebound faster and further than old worn smaller batteries.

Cold batteries have less capacity as well.
All that can be observed by watching your voltmeter.
They are slow and sluggish to rebound but are faster to drop in capacity and have greater voltage sag.

 

[Captain Slow]

Wow, this thread sure took off quickly. I just noticed it and it's not even a week old and up to 9 pages.

In any event, I am what Stefan describes in the first post. I had a full power Juiced CCS. That was a great bike and I enjoyed it. A friend was eyeing it and really liked it, so I sold it to him. I got a Creo which I liked, but didn't like the proprietary spacing on the wheels, nor did I like the 1X drivetrain on the road, so I don't ride it much anymore. In fact it's been lent to friends for most of the last six months.

I now primarily ride my 2011 Cervelo RS (work commuter) and my Specialized Aethos. At times I do miss having a motor and I'm pretty tired at times.

I will come back to an ebike in the future, but I'm hoping all the R&D going into electric cars will yield big improvements in battery technology, allowing for a lightweight ebike at a reasonable price. Right now, there are ebikes that are pretty light, but boy are they expensive.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

RWGPS or Komoot play no social role. There is only one friend of mine on RWGPS (it is @RabH) while everybody else is on Strava.

This is highly region-dependent, and also highly dependent on the activity and your in group.

Where I live, nearly everyone uses RWGPS and routes are commonly shared via RWGPS.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Night riding in the snow.....bliss or insanity? Certainly inspiring.

We don't get a lot of opportunities to do that around here - it's a couple of hours excursion to find white stuff that is legal to ride. So most of my snow riding is on the motorbike , and the night ones are usually a group ride that goes wrong - mechanical or medical adventures delaying pub oclock. I also struggle to navigate in the snow at night - the trails start to look the same, signs are non existent..and most of our bush tracks are poorly documented on gps.

Conquering the dark abyss of winter isn’t as daunting as it seems but, like anything else, it does require a bit of preparation. Naturally proper studded tires and having a good lighting system that lights up the trail goes a long way in making the ride enjoyable. I’ve also ridden the trails around here long enough to know each route intimately.

On the other hand, I’m not sure how I would deal with the searing temps that you blokes have to endure down under so my hats off to you. I’m somewhat of a wimp when it comes to heat or humidity.

 

[Captain Slow]

I've never been a fan of fat bikes, but if I lived in Calgary I might buy one so I could do night rides in the snow with that group. That looks really cool.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I've never been a fan of fat bikes, but if I lived in Calgary I might buy one so I could do night rides in the snow with that group. That looks really cool.

For sure. Some of their rides are awe inspiring and enticing to say the least. But it’s not all fat biking as the group’s attention turns to mtbs in the summer months. Some of the members ride emtbs/e-fat bikes exclusively during the entire year which got me interested enough to finally sign up. It was actually @RandallS who provided me with their facebook link last year. I was amazed at how large a following they have.

Prairie Mountain, Bragg Creek, AB

 

[PedalUma]

I normally ride solo but group rides are nice too. With groups the pace is set by the slowest rider. This little guy plugs into the charging port of a battery to display voltage. Older batteries start to sag faster than newer batteries. Anything is derailing if it does not have to do with how Stefan is the greatest. Spandex in highly flammable.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Spandex in highly flammable.

Good to know. I have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to shorts on fire.

 

[PSm]

Wow, this thread sure took off quickly. I just noticed it and it's not even a week old and up to 9 pages.

In any event, I am what Stefan describes in the first post. I had a full power Juiced CCS. That was a great bike and I enjoyed it. A friend was eyeing it and really liked it, so I sold it to him. I got a Creo which I liked, but didn't like the proprietary spacing on the wheels, nor did I like the 1X drivetrain on the road, so I don't ride it much anymore. In fact it's been lent to friends for most of the last six months.

I now primarily ride my 2011 Cervelo RS (work commuter) and my Specialized Aethos. At times I do miss having a motor and I'm pretty tired at times.

I will come back to an ebike in the future, but I'm hoping all the R&D going into electric cars will yield big improvements in battery technology, allowing for a lightweight ebike at a reasonable price. Right now, there are ebikes that are pretty light, but boy are they expensive.

+1
Got 12k miles on my Juiced CCA, and now it’s gathering dust. Found lighter weight bikes that much more enjoyable and nimble.

Hoping for the next gen of battery and motor technology. In the meantime, since I stick to paved roads and trails, finding that using very low rolling resistance tires and lightweight TPU tubes to provide the best and most affordable upgrades to performance and ease of riding.

 

[SC00CHB00CH]

Trying to source a light FAT bike and found these. Pretty nice 23lb/11kg FAT bike