Oddly enough search did not produce a topic about electric bicycles. I have seen few in traffic now, from youtube I have seen quite wild bikes, but those on streets seem to be bit less wild. Today there was a fat bike with electric motor I caught up, greeted the guy, but he just kept staring forward and started accelerating. As there was a nice uphill, I went to time attack mode and that cyclist was far behind, not really sure if he gave up or something. There has been other occasions I have seen these electric bicycles and so far I have been able to be faster than those, but then again I have no idea if they have been even trying. I know I can hold my own against active cyclists quite well, have trained many years. But I don't know how fast those electric bicycles really can be, I know they have 250W and 25kph limit, but don't know if common guy would try to pedal hard on such, would he be faster than I am. Probably I would get one some day, but there is quite few different approach in motor placement as well as several manufacturers etc. Anyone has experiences or knowledge from such bicycles? How well they hold up when diving in snow?
Electric Bikes are illegal where I live (Stupid NY government), but from what I've seen elsewhere, people tend to ride them like normal bikes, and the electric motor is used solely as assistance. Thus, the body is the most important part of said bike, and the riders get tired as always. In regards to snow, the fat tire bikes are your best bet. Not really sure about the others, as I've never rode my bike in the snow due to the threat of rust.
Many can basically be ridden as a low hp electric motorcycle, 250W is plenty to move a person, in snow, I think they have enough torque to spin back wheel so might want to pull off under pedal power, but otherwise shouldn't be any different from a normal bicycle. Flat out pedaling you can do but alot of those bikes are setup to have regenerative braking which tends to kick in and even if you don't have that, you've got extra weight
I'm spinning rear wheel almost every uphill, despite having almost 400 metal spikes on tire, so kinda used to not having enough grip These middle mounted engines seem to be quite popular (those with wheel mounted motors seem to be quite low quality bikes, at least in my price range), but I'm kinda worried that snow gets into that motor, melts and makes a mess of electrics: http://www.fullycharged.com/ktm-macina-force-271-ebike This kind of thing might be quite nice, but 5000 dollars is bit much: I tend to sink my equipment to swamp water, swamp mud and snow, mostly and I have seen warnings that those kind of bikes should not be ridden when weather is wet. Also I'm not sure about performance, maybe those riders have not been pushing very hard, but they do look quite slow. These would certainly fare better, but just guess what they cost: https://www.stealthelectricbikes.com/stealth-b-52-bomber/
Electric MTB are quite controversial. Mostly due to land access rights, lots of people are worried that E-MTB's are gonna get all MTB banned from certain places. Cause they can go faster (with anyone of any skillset sat on them) and they can also tear up the trails more than a normal bike. Plus many people have campaigned to keep motorbikes off many of the dedicated trails for years (cause they really tare stuff up) and are not happy to see their efforts circumvented like this. Usually the motor is middle mounted, so you get gears, pedal assist etc as well as weight distribution, potentially less rotational mass too. There are a couple of mostly standardised major platforms that are used across all the bikes (motor + electronics + battery + cranks + gears etc all come as one package). Personally I wouldn't recommend one, cause they are banned in many locations and mtb trail centres (for above reasons). and if you are gonna strap a motor to it, why not just buy a motorbike instead, it'll probably be cheaper. Also, if you use an E-bike with Strava, there is a special place in hell just for you xD
Why are they illegal up there (IIRC you are in upstate NY)? I see them often in the city. Usually nearly running over me, but bicyclists here are all maniacs regardless of power source. Can't tell you the number of times I try to look past a parked car and nearly get my head taken off by a speeding bicycle blowing past a stop light.
Motorbike needs insurance, licence etc. It does not help to burn fat on unplowed bike paths, tempo training is fun, but should be able do base training too, which during the winter is kinda hard because of snow and rolling resistance. Indoor trainer is then too indoor. Your trails in US are bit different from some places where all paths in forest are allowed to ride (trails are not built, but formed), I don't think quite same things apply there. I have seen people using plane with Strava, which is kinda ridiculous.
I live in the UK. And the snow is just part of the fun. (and the bike hasn't been laying on it's side in any of those pics, just "normal" riding) Equally, motorbike probably doesn't need insurance unless you are using it on roads. More importantly, an e-bike isn't going to do much to improve any training or fitness compared to a normal bike. Just go cycling 2-3 times a week (or more!).
My training is 2 hours a day as an average, during summer 4 hour rides are not uncommon (not quite daily though, need that recovery time to build up). Most of this is hill climbing, we are talking about more than 3000 meters vertical in a week. However I would need to increase 100-120bpm zone time, during winter that is really impossible to do for me, I would need to go so slow that it would be as walking or less and that is so boring that I rather sit at front of the screen at that point, which is not good. Most of my rides currently end up being 90-95% of maximum achievable HR as an AVG HR, there is this danger of over training and all that. I really need to lower intensity somehow while increasing amount of time I'm exercising. Not exactly young anymore, so should start to consider that too, I guess. Now dirtbike is fine form of exercising, but you can't take that to woods without permission, you would need place to store it, also way to get to place where riding happens, I'm not allowed to have a license anymore and I carry bike to apartment these days. Next country that I will try will not have snow, that is for sure, I have had my share of that.
Good balance practice though, just think how good you will be at track stands after pedalling slowly through all that snow xD
I’d love to have an electric bike, but right now I couldn’t dream of affording one. Where I live, it’s winter pretty much 6 months of the year, usually with 6+ inches of snow on the ground at any given time, so bike riding a bit difficult. Plus, my $75 dollar bike (I bought it new, though the gears were all messed up and I couldn’t shift hardly at all til I fixed it.) has already begun to rust after less than a year, being kept in a climate-controlled garage and not being ridden in the snow.
The reason it's rusting is because its a $75 "bike". No bike in that price range is going to last particularly long in harsh conditions (or normal ones) or ride well in any conditions, as well as being more or less unsafe to ride on anything but smooth pavement. To be fair, for people who only use a bike twice a year for a small recreational ride that is probably fine, and it probably will survive some very light off road use. But if you intend to cover any amount of miles per year, you will need to spend a little more than that. Cheaper bikes tend to be made with much cheaper metals, hence they rust a lot. With a more expensive bike (even steel ones) tend to rust less, of course alloy bikes don't tend to rust so much, but can often be more easily damaged, they are also much lighter which is nice. Hence why more expensive bikes tend to be alloy or aluminium. Carbon fibre is generally way more expensive, and lighter. However in many cases carbon isn't inherently better, it's just a different compromise, therefore the bikes geometry and design is more important to ensure it makes best use of those limitations. I would hasten to add, if you are spending under $500 do NOT buy a full suspension bike, get a hardtail instead (front suspension only), it will be better made and have better components, since full suspension bikes have a lot more parts, many of which are parts that may fail on a cheaper bike. Now to be fair, this video isn't representative of what most people use a bike for, but it is entertaining. It does also illustrate where cheaper bikes tend to fail if ridden hard, as well as providing a fair representation. I would also hasten to add that supermarkets do actually sell some own brand bikes that can stand up to that sort of treatment, they are usually in the >$300 range though.
Yeah my bike is from circa 2006-2007. But it was a premium bike when new and is aluminium frames so can't rust. Parts have broken but it's been downhilled hard for a decade
Hehe, I wish, it tends to go more like this and do note, I did TRY to go slow: That was 87% from my max achievable HR, I did run out of gearing quite few times, so I guess that did lower HR average below 150bpm. About 50% pavement, rest was packed snow or with thin layer loose snow over packed. Sadly I had no time for longer ride that time. I just like the speed, but I do like to do little track stand now and then, it is really useful skill when riding on root infested technical stuff, not so much need for legs on such, also not much use for electric motor, but core and arms, nudging over that root or rock, you need to have good stamina or it becomes boring real fast. I have heard 1000 for hard tail 1500 for FS but preferably closer to 2000, that is if going for a bike for active sports, 500 HT + 100-150 for swapping few parts (if swapping parts yourself) and that can be very close to 1000 bike. However good to avoid bikes that have more relaxed riding position, that means they are more upright and not so good for trail stuff. I'm really thinking of going full rigid from HT, it is not once or twice that front suspension has had something to do with killing my momentum, it has not really been useful on riding I'm doing, so full rigid would probably do just fine and provide bit more control on slow stuff. Today I was overtaken by a girl, it was not too steep uphill, I thought that I would cool off that hill, but she did overtook me, then flag dropped, horns emerged and off we did go, I will most definitely overtake anyone who overtakes me, it is a thing, so just for sportsmanship and good fun put next mile or so at 100%, sadly I did not get a race, but she said to enter a race next autumn. Well, it will be busy season, if health just stays on better side as it has been now, then maybe I try a race or two. Electric bike for my liking would have narrow wide oval chainring with possibility swap it easily for different sizes, 32T to 43T at least, it should have middle mounted motor that can be sunk into swamp, because at some point it will happen, no matter what, also it should not cost arm a and leg, so at least for now I'm still just wondering and trying to keep up what is happening on market.
It tends to be that a good hardtail will cost over £800. Obviously you can drop £1k on a hardtail frame alone, and quite easily spend over £2k on a hardtail. For example, this beauty will cost you £3100 But a good £300 bike is good enough for anything that an intermediate (or non competitive) rider will encounter. Sure, it won't be as good, comfy, or fast as a proper £800 hardtail, but it should get you to the bottom in one piece just fine (as long as you aren't riding it too hard*). However don't expect the suspension to be in any way plush etc. *cause £300 hardtails tend to have the cheaper SR Suntour suspension forks which can bend if hit too hard, equally they don't really work all that well. Since they don't do much damping at all, mostly just strapping a spring to the fork and hoping that it sproings before your wrists do. If you want an actually good/comfortable riding experience you will ideally want something with air suspension, even if that is only an SR Suntour Raidon. If you are finding that your front suspension is bogging you down, you may wish to adjust your sag slightly or firm it up a bit. Adding volume spacers could also help to make it more progressive. Of course all that is assuming you have an air shock, if its a coil spring you may not have so many options, but possibly still a variable lockout which *might* help a bit. Not sure how well an oval chain ring would work on an e-bike. Obviously its personal preference as far as your legs are concerned, but with an electric motor you might get some odd results. But I have no idea about that. One thing you will have to double check is that any bike you buy is able to take one, some bikes are not compatible with them since they can rub against the frame due to the larger diameter. Bike geometry is a funny subject. The current trend is to go as slack as possible, since it provides the most stability and gives confidence especially in downhill sections. A less slack geometry will provide a twitchier feel. So older second hand bikes will tend to be less slack, while newer bikes are slacker. For reference, the late 80's early 90's rigid frame bike that I am currently riding is very not slack. Another trend is that older bikes were much smaller, while newer bikes are much bigger. This isn't just in wheel sizes 26" -> 27.5" -> 29", it's also in frame sizing. With modern bikes you are sat much further 'in' the bike rather than on top of it. Just take a look at the angles of top tubes for reference, on the above bike it is very slanted, on older bikes it is often flat or even pointing the other way. As for riding position, some riders prefer to be in press up position, some prefer to be a bit more upright. Long story short, try before you buy.
Wow, good thing I don’t ride my bike hard at all. I have noticed the handlebars moving in the past, I had to tighten em up. From the store, the bike was hardly in working order. I’ve popped the chain off a few times too, and the most serious riding I ever do is on a gravel trail. I’d never dream of taking it down a mountain trail. Though, for my needs, and that price, it worked out pretty well. It does have “suspension” (compressed air on the front that I’m pretty sure is just a sales gimmick) though I hardly ever feel it. My other bike, this yellow cruiser from the 70s is even worse, though. Rusted, dented, paint’s chipping, the brakes scream, the chain slips, the tires are bald and cracked, the handgrips don’t stay put, 3rd gear doesn’t work, but I still love it. Never really ride it any farther than up and down the street, but it’s fun to ride.
It's more likely to be a coil fork than an air fork, since even the cheapest of air forks alone cost considerably more than your bike. When it comes to cheaper bikes, there are many things you can look out for which provide information on how they are actually intended to be used. This video does a great job of providing information:
