Rode an ebike for the first time
 

I've always thought that one day I might want/need an ebike so have been curious to try one. Recently my Sister and her husband got ebikes they mostly use when they are traveling in their camping trailer. These are folders made by Lectric. Hub motors, pedal assist or throttle with 4 electric speeds.

I was disappointed in how they worked. I thought that pedal assist meant the motor assistance would increase based on how hard you were pedaling but with these it was basically the same as using the throttle. Once it recognized you were pedaling, the motor turned on and ran at whatever speed it was set for. Essentially the same as if you just turned the throttle, which is really just an on/off switch. The lowest motor speed was 7MPH and I think the top was 18, with a couple of speeds in between.

Not sure if they all work that way but it didn't appeal to me at all. Hopefully I won't feel the need for one for many years to come.

Inexpensive hub motor bikes.
I was leading a ride where a guy showed up with a throttled hub motor bike. He was either zooming ahead of the rest of the group or lagging far behind. It was a PIA, considering it was a "no drop" ride. One of the other riders was on a Trek e-bike with a mid-motor and no throttle. Other than seeing the larger downtube/battery and mid motor area, you wouldn't know he was on an e-bike.

I now see little kids on ebikes made for kids. So freakin' sad.





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Your expectation is how pedal assist does work. Sounds like you sister's bike doesn't work that way. I suggest you go to a bike shop and test ride more conventional ebikes to get a sense of how they really work.

One of the guys down the hall has an E-bike.
I had a bit of a look at it, and it seemed to be pretty nice.
It hefts around 25 lbs including battery and motor.
The standard bicycle parts on it were pretty good- most of it looked like high end Shimano to my eye.
27.5" tires that appeared to be about 32-35mm.
Couldn't have much of a conversation with him- between my hardness of hearing and his lack of english.
Talked to another guy riding a high ender in assist mode, and he was really up on the experience.

Most of what I see here is people riding their E-bikes in full throttle mode.
I really don't think I'm missing much, but the idea of true pedal assist is a good one that hasn't seemed to have landed here yet.
I'll with-hold my possibly unfair opinions for now- they don't really matter much in the big scheme of things.
I can see pedal assist working against a strong head-wind, or helping with those harder steep climbs.

-D.S.

That is unusually light.

The better ones do what you are thinking in terms of pedal assistance, and many of these are mid-drive.

I've ridden the bike-share e-bikes... the pedal assist pretty much made up for how heavy the bikes are - but they also made those long slog climbs pretty nice.

I'm toying with the idea of an e-bike to pull a dedicated trailer - that way I can use it to get groceries and take my dog to the park and busk at the farmers' market. That ought to cut my driving in half.

Top tube had a metallic feel to my bare hand. I'm guessing aluminum. Wide bladed fork most likely c/f....

-D.S.

Sounds like my wife's Cannondale e-bike, except it is about 40 lbs.

My lightweight custom steel (non-e) bike with a carbon fork etc. weighs almost 22 lbs. The Trek Domane full carbon (non-e) bike weighs about 20 lbs.

Sister and hubby were riding what kind of bikes before they went electric?


edit: There is such a variety of electric powered bikes that if your relatives were not actively riding a bike in the same 'category' as yours, then their needs for electric power are completely different. Hence, your opinion of their e-bikes is kinda meaningless.

My adult son rides mtb, i ride roadies = we don't enjoy/appreciate each other's bikes much. So what.

The thing i don't get is ebikes for kids with throttles and 30+mph speeds. Strikes me as less than sensible. Probably dangerous, even with a helmet.

The top of the line $9000 Trek e-bikes weigh "approximately 26 pounds". With a tiny, high tech harmonic wave motor, and high end carbon frame.
Their $3500 version with a hub motor weighs 31 pounds -- very good.

~~~
For local errands, I ride the local bikeshare ebikes. The non-e versions probably weigh 50-55 pounds, and the e-bike ones are over 60 pounds. But they have extremely durable tires and frames, and a big rack mounted battery on the back. They can climb very steep grades, but top out at 16 mph, great for casual bike share riders. The assist is limited by pedaling cadence, and the 3-speed grip shifter. So at 16 mph, a faster cadence just cuts off the assist, and the rider has to work hard to go any faster.

Yes. Trek Domane+ runs about 27#. The Domane+ feels exactly like a high end carbon fiber bike with the e-assist. With it turned off, It has no parasitic drag and rides just like a normal road bike, albeit heavier. I've ridden my Domane+ with a group on a flattish 45 mile ride with the assist turned off. Very expensive bike, though.

Those super-light ebikes are not what most people are buying. Most people like the cargo/hybrid style bikes which are much heavier, but also generally cheaper and their motors do the bulk of the work. It looks to me that a Trek Domane requires a little more leg work to maintain momentum.



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My wife got an REI ebike last year. She's 68yo, two hip replacements and bad knees, but not eager to get them replaced yet. She likes the ebike (previous bike was a TS Isaac custom frame from the late 70s I retrofitted with 650B wheels), pedal assist works as expected. Most of the time she leaves the motor completely off, only engaging it only for hills and headwinds.

Cannondale Quick Neo is one of the lighter casual type E bikes @ approx 35 lbs - significantly less than most of the casual / lower cost E bikes

Cannondale Topstone Neo probably somewhere around 35 - 40 lbs (?) - depending on model


https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/revie...quick-neo-sl-2

https://roadbikeaction.com/cannondal...xtra%20%243000.


Trek Domane + mentioned above by Trsnrtr is a significant step up

I’m not surprised you were not impressed with the e-bike you rode because it sounds like it was a a lower quality rear hub motor model with a throttle. I expect you would have a much more favorable view of e-bikes if you tried a good quality pedal assist mid drive model powered by Bosch. The Bosch powered e-bikes have exceptionally good torque sensors that provide assistance based on how hard you pedal. Of course a Bosch equipped mid drive e-bike will cost 2 or 3 times the price of most lower priced e-bikes with hub motors but you most definitely get what you pay for.

That would not appeal to me either. IMHO, a throttle controlled "ebike" like that isn't really an ebike. It is an electric motorcycle. I would have zero interest in that.

But there are true ebikes out there that do exactly what you want. My buddy did the Tour of Southern Utah with me, and he was on a beautiful Cervelo ebike. It functioned as you expected, and while the boost he got was adjustable, it was zero if he did not pedal, and greater as he pedaled harder. I kicked my arse trying to keep up with him for the 500 or so miles of the tour. I'd test ride on of those .... they are likely right up your alley.

Truth.

and later people have "strange ideas" about ebikes ....
"proper" ebike (I mean MTB - in my case), with Brose/Bosch/Shimano/TQ/Yamaha/Panasonic/Fazua system, are designed to give yo maximum control and feeling as close as possible to a peasant bike.
those systems are designed to provide you power in a smooth way (unless you change settings to get max. power almost effortless), all those things you can configure and you have a few modes that you can change under your thumb.
Of course they cost 3-4 times more than cheap hub based system.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fb409c6292.jpg

Those barely qualify is bikes. They're closer to mopeds than they are to bikes.

I have both a Domane+ which is the e-bike version of the Domane and a Trek e-caliber MTB. I use both on recovery days from riding my acoustic bikes. What I will say, is the true e-bike version of the acoustic bikes are seriously a game changer and they are a TON of fun. The Domane+ can be ridden without boost and there is no discernible drag. I've ridden it 20+ miles without boost and just added it when my legs were toast.

FWIW, World Tour riders are starting to use e-bikes on rest days. MTB competition riders use them all the time in training.

J.

I took my sister's ebike for a short spin and it worked like that. As you put more energy into pedals, it increases the assist you get. I believe it was rather on the expensive side of ebikes but fairly heavy, you wouldn't want to ride it without the assist. It had three or was it four assist settings and even on the lowest, when it saves your battery the most, it provided so much boost to your pedaling that you can't compete with it on a normal bike even if your mum was riding it LOL, unless maybe you would be very serious accomplished rider.

I got passed on a bigger hill by somebody on ebike going much faster but then in a rolling terrain, I caught up to him and passed him and he never caught up with me after that. I think he likely needed to save battery, so he wouldn't get stuck on the road without the assist.

I sort of fail to see the point of those very expensive ebikes, like the one posted above here by razorjack
The assist you get is so large that the bike just doesn't need to be light, especially as the rider is typically not light at all. It does increase the distance you can go on a single charge and maybe it can be reasonably ridden without assist when you run out of charge, but it costs you disproportionally more... only for those who can well afford it.
And it is not just the initial purchase but some years down the road when the battery needs to be replaced, it will cost you arm and leg...

It might be like with today's power tools, it doesn't pay to buy new batteries for it, you just buy new tool that comes with the battery, hopefully double pack and on sale. Already we see hybrid cars for resale that nobody wants to buy, because the battery you will need to replace in it is very expensive.

My wife has an ebike, and the bottom line, is she would not be able to ride without it. You pretty much can't go anywhere from our house or get back to it, without climbing. She's 68 and has some lung capacity issues. Her bike is heavy, like 60 lbs heavy, and I think is rated for 80 miles or so. Obviously the terrain and speed affect that. She's never tried to go that long on a single ride. But does take advantage of not having to recharge between every ride.

I think she sometimes turns off the pedal assist on the flat. And uses various amounts of assist. I think she has something like, eco, tour, sport and boost modes. Each is some fraction or multiple of the power she puts in.

I can easily out pace her on the flat, mostly because she simply doesn't like to go much above 15 MPH. On average hills, she easily passes me, unless I'm giving it a good hard effort. With a full gas effort, I can still beat her up a hill. And there are even some hills she can't get up, even in the highest boost mode. I would guess her maximum power is maybe 100 W that she can produce for any length of time.

The ebike just flattens the hills. Like anyone, she can push as hard as she wants to get the level of effort she wants. And her cycling fitness has increased as a result.

In my experience, most people that ride e-bikes are new at riding bikes, based on how they ride, by breaking all kinds of rules of the road. I've seen very few people ride the Trek/Cervelo type ebikes that look much like high-end road bikes. I imagine those people are aging cyclists of many years. Most ebike consumers are NOT going to buy those bikes, they're too expensive and I imagine those bikes would require much more leg power from the operator.

I would be really interested to hear what type ebike the OP tested out.





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I think you're right about this. But the good part of this is ebikes bring cycling to more people. Some, like my wife who could just not do it otherwise, and others who find it uncomfortably difficult to begin, but ultimately may help them transition to a standard bike at some point.

I agree that ebikes are getting more people on bikes. However, the number of people that make a transition from ebikes to traditional bikes, I believe will be very minimal. This isn't like training wheels. I think most people will be more apt to look for an upgrade to their ebikes and a traditional bike would only be seen as a major downgrade.

I also wonder how these ebikes for kids will affect the kids desire for physical activity as they grow.

I'm not optimistic.



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