Originally Posted by
boomhauer
It still requires the same amount of overall HUMAN energy (watts) no matter how many gears you have! Get it? Bone up on your physics.
I'm totally with BigAura on this one.
Hopefully, e-bike touring weenies will start their own forum. This is insane.
Maybe I'm just a masocist but my strongest memories of touring involve going up 7+mile mountain passes and feeling pretty good about myself. Not sure what you do with a 40 lbs e-bike when the battery dies half way up. I guess the suffering really kicks in.
OK, why do you have gears then? Answer: it makes your power input more efficient, i.e., giving you an advantage.
Instead of starting an ebike touring weenie forum, can we start a "gotta do it my way or hit the highway" (pun not intended) touring forum? Half the reason I argue vehemently about stuff like this is because not long ago, I was the one with no clue taking advice from bikers like BigAura, and I nearly said screw the whole sport because of it. Outside of the rather unrealistic situation of an ebike beating you up a hill and taking the very last campsite at the campground you were heading for a mile down the road, what in the heck does it bother any of you so much that you act so strongly against people using a device that is available to enhance their enjoyment of the sport? Seriously, I don't own one and have no desire to, but I am having a hard time understanding why anyone cares how others tour, or how they should stop calling what they do a particular phrase because of your own personal preferences.
If we're going by who is most macho, I ask again: my favorite bike is a 10 speed, gaspipe, nearly 40 year old Schwinn. Why do you very likely have something half the weight, with more gears, and more technology?