Electric bicycle rider taken off roads for one year

SDK^ said:
You said his lightweight bike was easier to pedal up a hill than your powered bikes on full assist.
Basically, the assist provided by your bikes isn’t enough to overcome the extra weight. [I’m assuming here that his bike weighs less than your bikes?]

You then said, if you could afford a bike like his (lighter) then you wouldn’t need motors (heavy)

If so then what I posted above makes perfect sense - yes? :p
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Eeeeeh - maybe :)

The thing is that the majority think that as soon as you put a motor on, it will be way easier than a normal bike (which it is like for like).

eg Take my Trek 7.6FX, as soon as I put a motor and battery on it, I needed to put it on pedal assist 2 so it felt the same to ride.
Of course if I then go higher it makes it more easier as though the bike is getting lighter but even on assist 5 it is harder to pedal than my brother in laws £6000 Cervallo (!) so I'd have a better time just buying a very expensive bike and pretending I'm on pedal assist 7.
The only thing is I would break his bike on my commute, I won't ride my road bike on it.
 
I doubt his £6000 Cervelo is really much faster than a £600 Carrera. It's more about the rider on it when you start comparing the same type of bike.
 
Lethal` said:
I doubt his £6000 Cervelo is really much faster than a £600 Carrera. It's more about the rider on it when you start comparing the same type of bike.
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Yes exactly this. A little extra weight doesn't make all that difference to pedalling effort and speed (£6k vs £500). However, bikes with batteries are at least 2-3x heavier than bikes without, which does make a big difference, especially on long hills.
 
SDK^ said:
Yes exactly this. A little extra weight doesn't make all that difference to pedalling effort and speed (£6k vs £500). However, bikes with batteries are at least 2-3x heavier than bikes without, which does make a big difference, especially on long hills.
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I think 2 to 3 times heavier is a bit of an exaggeration. 2x would only be true if you added a kit to a 6k carbon road bike - and who would do that?

A crank drive kit with battery adds about 7kg.
So I added 7kg to my 10.5kg commuter, so only about 1.65x heavier. I added the same kit to my 13kg full suss bike so only about 1.5 times heavier.
 
amigafan2003 said:
My 7.5fx with kit weighs 17.5kg.
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From my point of view i would rather take a bike up to 9kg without assistance as that would be faster. I totally get the point of powered bikes though, for people who don’t have the time for training every week.

For reference you can buy a 7.6kg carbon road bike (Canyon) for about £1.2k.
 
SDK^ said:
From my point of view i would rather take a bike up to 9kg without assistance as that would be faster. I totally get the point of powered bikes though, for people who don’t have the time for training every week.
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Are you sure? ;)
 
amigafan2003 said:
I think 2 to 3 times heavier is a bit of an exaggeration. 2x would only be true if you added a kit to a 6k carbon road bike - and who would do that?

A crank drive kit with battery adds about 7kg.
So I added 7kg to my 10.5kg commuter, so only about 1.65x heavier. I added the same kit to my 13kg full suss bike so only about 1.5 times heavier.
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Plus a bike is a small fraction of the total weight, 7kg is about a 10% increase in weight, and the total energy needed to climb a hill increases linearly with weight, so if you add a motor to an existing bike it's gonna climb a hill faster easily.

On the flat, weight has a much smaller effect on the power needed to maintain a velocity so the motor makes more of a difference, a headwind can easily slow you to a crawl whereas having 250W of extra power is gonna make a big difference.
 
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arknor said:
what if your legs put out more than 250 watts and technically your body runs on electric impulses
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Your legs do put out more than 250 Watts. Pedal power will get you faster than a 250 watt motor.

The 250W limit is stupid.

Ebikes should be more like age restriction of 17, 25mph speed limit with throttle, 750W motor, max weight 30kg or something. That's more reasonable.

As it stands ebikes that are legal are pretty useless, no throttle means it's very difficult to start a 25kg bike up a hill, low motor power means hill climbing is a struggle, and speed limit of 15mph means the power is constantly stopping and starting which makes riding unbearable.
 
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Lethal` said:
The typical e-bike cyclist is unlikely to be putting out 250w for an extended period of time.
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That's true, but the ability to output over 250W for a more limited period of time is essential for hill climbing. On my 250W ebike, I would get maybe 6mph up a 20% hill on full motor power, total weight of about 100kg.
 
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