Reasons you ride? - Aside from the obvious reason where riding is your passion.

[m@Robertson]

As an automobile replacement. For me cycling has always been about utility. I have done some recreational riding over the years, but since high school and college when I *had* to ride to get to work, I've been riding to simply go somewhere I need to be.

I have two cars, one of which is a race car I built to tear around the road course tracks in California for a few years (Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Thunder Hill etc.) which is still (visually at least) street legal. But since the 1980's I've been a daily cyclist and my cars are on battery tenders. I recently broke a 3-week stint of no driving whatsoever. I've gone longer than that in recent the past.

Except, about 15 years ago a couple of heart attacks in rapid succession knocked me off the bike for good. Then I discovered ebikes and the ability to finely control my exertion levels, and in short order I was back to daily commuting, then building a proper bike rather than what a manufacturer deigned to tell me was what I needed/wanted. I expanded to shopping which led to a detour into building the ideal cargo bike.

I built a kickass enduro eMTB 29er based on a Guerilla Gravity Smash frame, a Cyc X1 and top quality components... but that was probably a mistake. I never ride it. My days of bombing down a mountainside or fighting my way down the middle of a running stream to see if I can do it are, realistically, over. But thats OK because I was only sort of a mountain biker. Rain or shine, freezing or boiling, I'm good to go on the bike to get somewhere I need to go, and chances are I sat down and thought thru how to build that bike in my garage, and its a better performer than anything I could have just written a check for.

 

[billmeek]

For work I sit and stare at a computer screen most of the day. I’ve had (more) heart issues lately and should be exercising. I need to exercise, not give myself another heart attack riding up the Tennessee hills. Therefore an ebike was necessary rather than a regular bicycle. Furthermore, I wanted one with a throttle so if my chest did start hurting, I could get home without pedaling. Honestly, that part has pretty much gone out the window as on some of my rides I’m starting to push the range to the point to where I don’t think I could get home on battery alone anymore. I did pickup a spare battery, but even with it I will eventually be going further than I can get home on battery power alone.

 

[m@Robertson]

For work I sit and stare at a computer screen most of the day. I’ve had (more) heart issues lately and should be exercising. I need to exercise, not give myself another heart attack riding up the Tennessee hills. Therefore an ebike was necessary rather than a regular bicycle. Furthermore, I wanted one with a throttle so if my chest did start hurting, I could get home without pedaling. Honestly, that part has pretty much gone out the window as on some of my rides I’m starting to push the range to the point to where I don’t think I could get home on battery alone anymore. I did pickup a spare battery, but even with it I will eventually be going further than I can get home on battery power alone.

You probably know this already from personal experience, but for someone like you with a heart issue, torque sensing is the worst thing possible. Cadence sensing is the only type of assist you should ever consider. You have to be able to control your assist effort granularly, entirely independent of physical effort.

 

[billmeek]

No, I did not think torque sensing would be an issue since I'm working on minimizing battery usage on some of my rides and have PAS set to zero about half of the time. I work the gears as much as possible and only kick on the motor for inclines, fighting a heavy wind, or if I get in traffic in town that requires higher speeds. Currently I'm riding a Sondors MXS (hub drive) and have a Sondors LX (mid drive) on order for September delivery. I ordered the LX about a week after getting the MXS as I found the hub motor struggling to get up some of the local hills and thought the mechanical advantage of the gears would help the motor. While many of the hills aren't that long, there are some with pretty steep inclines on the back roads I prefer.

 

[Dallant]

Another reason I ride is to explore other kinds and areas of riding!

 

[m@Robertson]

No, I did not think torque sensing would be an issue since I'm working on minimizing battery usage on some of my rides and have PAS set to zero about half of the time. I work the gears as much as possible and only kick on the motor for inclines, fighting a heavy wind, or if I get in traffic in town that requires higher speeds. Currently I'm riding a Sondors MXS (hub drive) and have a Sondors LX (mid drive) on order for September delivery. I ordered the LX about a week after getting the MXS as I found the hub motor struggling to get up some of the local hills and thought the mechanical advantage of the gears would help the motor. While many of the hills aren't that long, there are some with pretty steep inclines on the back roads I prefer.

Well, if you are ever in a situation where exertion induces chest pains, then you need to lay off. The throttle will do that for you, but its better to be able to dial up the assist, which turns your effort more and more in the direction of ghost pedaling. As you ease off and recover, you dial the assist back down. Using this technique with cardiac issues, you can slowly increase your fitness and strength while maintaining persistent cadence - without the need to become a passenger. I know of other cardiac patients who use cadence based assist expressly to allow 'bicycle riding' (vs. throttling) with minimal pedal effort when they can't dial down and increase pedal effort period.

You can do the above by mixing in throttle with your pedaling but a cadence sensor is a much less intrusive method with much finer control.

Your MXS is pretty much perfect for this. My first ebike was a Sondors fatty and its what I used to erase about a decade effects from no riding. I put a second motor on the front of the thing and that gave me 10 levels of assist (5+5) along with a system powerful enough so the cretins on analog bikes who thought they needed to challenge my use of an ebike were so outclassed they stopped annoying me.

 

[Dmac]

For work I sit and stare at a computer screen most of the day. I’ve had (more) heart issues lately and should be exercising. I need to exercise, not give myself another heart attack riding up the Tennessee hills. Therefore an ebike was necessary rather than a regular bicycle. Furthermore, I wanted one with a throttle so if my chest did start hurting, I could get home without pedaling. Honestly, that part has pretty much gone out the window as on some of my rides I’m starting to push the range to the point to where I don’t think I could get home on battery alone anymore. I did pickup a spare battery, but even with it I will eventually be going further than I can get home on battery power alone.

I too sit in front of a computer all day. Pre-pandemic I could walk much more but I have foot issues so biking is better. Now with working from home I can throw my bike in the car and ride a lovely trail by a river. It’s nice for unwinding and I get a good workout that doesn’t bust my feet. It also has allowed me to bike despite my knee issue (brought on by the now corrected foot issue) and this had built up strength while allowing the knee to heal.

 

[stw]

Long-time cyclist, and daily commuter, I got an e-bike out of sheer curiosity and because I didn't want to wait until I required an e-bike to start learning about them. You all knew this already, but I found out e-bikes are plenty interesting on their own and take nothing away from the joy of cycling.

 

[JASmith]

Don't have an e-bike yet, just regular bicycles but going to pull the trigger and order mine this weekend. Just practicality, a bit of fun, and exercise. From a practicality standpoint, going short distances doesn't use a lot of fuel especially on a motorcycle so that's not really an issue, but its bad for the long term health of a internal combustion engine to frequently do short trips since the engine doesn't get up to operating temp. We're also going minimalist with big time spring cleaning and that includes our vehicles and have agreed to consolidate to just two cars (Mercedes crossover and likely a new Maverick when they come out shortly) and two e-bikes, and are selling the car, the three motorcycles, and two or three bicycles depending on if we decide to convert one or not to an e-bike.

 

[kahuna40]

Maybe an odd thread, but I was wondering how many are on this forum where riding an e-bike is is perhaps done for other reasons than riding being your primary form of exercise and recreational enjoyment?

I will start. Riding an e-bike for me has these drivers, in order.

1 - To get me to my tennis matches, which is my primary exercise and recreational enjoyment. The locations where I play, both happen to be around 3 miles away and an easy bike ride.
2 - To avoid buying another gas guzzler and expensive car as we have 4 drivers in the house and 3 vehicles.
3 - Small errands like quick runs to the grocery store.
4 - Then, the enjoyment and exercise of riding a bike, as time permits.

Likely I am in somewhat of a minority as most people here seem to be avid riders which is great. Appreciate all the informed input and lessons learned from you biking road warriors.

Last, don't get me started on my visits to local bike shops in Cary NC to find an e-bike.
Since I wanted an e-bike and not a 'regular' bike, that was already a 'knock' against me, with several making comments like - "Oh you don't want a bike, you want a scooter". Ugh.
Then, when I told them I mostly wanted to use it to get to tennis, and GASP, I might use a throttle on occasion, I was treated like a pariah.

Appreciate this forum, lots of great people with great information and a wonderful community feel.

"Oh you don't want a bike, you want a scooter".

It is funny because even people on this forum have said that to me when I criticized the lack of power the 250 Watt 40 NM Trek Verve has.

 

[Cramer Long]

I ride so I can post in the forum and give fooferdoggie anxiety about the #1 lol /JK