Sorry, no videos. Here are some pictures we look last year, of same and similar rides. Some of these are in Snow Canyon. Some are in Zion National Park. I was riding the white Trek 8500 and my daughter was on the 8.4 DS, before it was electrified (again, last year).
IMG_20180330_125627122 by
jnjadcock, on Flickr
IMG_20180331_101406657 by
jnjadcock, on Flickr
IMG_20180331_111214633 by
jnjadcock, on Flickr
IMG_20180328_135552999 by
jnjadcock, on Flickr
The last one is one of dad's e-bikes, a Magnum Peak (27.5" MTB). Mom has a Magnum Metro (26" step-thru) that I rode on this year's trip. The 8.4 DS now has a 750W mid-drive kit from Luna Cycles. In general, they all work the same, and all three are pedal assist with a cadence sensor. That is, as long as you're turning the crank, the motor will assist. The Trek is a mid-drive, so the motor is at the bottom bracket and assists through the chain and drivetrain. The Magnums are hub-drives, so there's no torque at all through the chain. All three operate in a similar fashion. There's a control panel where you dial the assist level, from 0 (none) to 6 (max on the Magnums) or 9 (max on the Luna kit). At 0 assist, you're pedaling a really heavy bike. At max assist, as long as you turn the cranks, the motor will be trying to get you to its maximum programmed speed, which is 20 mph as he has them set now (that's programmable, faster or slower). At a middle assist setting, the motor will try to get you to a certain % of the max speed.
For example, assist level 9 on the Luna kit is 20 mph at the moment. So if you start from a stop and start turning the cranks, it'll bring in a certain amount of wattage (all programmable) to get you up to 20 mph. You can pedal it faster than 20 mph, but it's all you at that point. If you're going 25 mph down a hill, pedaling, and you come to an uphill grade and you keep pedaling, your speed will slow down and once it gets to below 20 mph or so, then the motor will ramp back in and try to keep you at 20 mph. It can, of course, fall below that if the grade is steep enough, which happens often in St George.
All three bikes also have a thumb throttle, so you can go completely pedal-less. This is helpful in traffic. Just kick the throttle all the way up and you get max assist from the motor, and then you can resume pedaling at your own pace. You can leave the bike at assist 0 and still use the thumb throttle if you like. Range is about 30-60 miles, depending on conditions and usage. So yes, we got all day on these. Mom and dad regularly go for 50 mile rides. Go out 25 miles from home, have a picnic, then come back.
I never rode e-bikes before last year's trip, and this year's trip out there confirmed what I felt last year: these are complete game-changers for bikes. My aging parents can ride
all day and be active on bikes, without fearing being out and not being able to get back home due to fatigue or soreness. If I lived in an area that had literally hundreds of miles of paths like they do, and if I had more time to enjoy biking like they do, I'd absolutely have a couple of these also!