[Closed] E Bike riding, am I doing it wrong?

Sorry for repeating myself 🙄

I found similar with my Orbea Wild FS, sold it and eventually bought a Spesh Levo SL, so much lighter and less assist. Ride it on trial mode almost all the time, which is equivalent roughly to Eco on regular ebike.

Yep a lightweight normal bike doesn’t feel the same as a 20kg ebike.
It’s an interesting question, I reckon if you can bash out 30 miles on the ebike, you could probably manage it on a lightweight normal bike.
I’d rather ride the lightweight tbh.

I reckon I did a good 90% in Eco Mode only using E MTB for short nibbly bits or when I wasn’t feeling it.

How would you feel on the 10% without assistance, would just slogging it out for those bit have ruined the rest of the ride?

It’s an interesting question, I reckon if you can bash out 30 miles on the ebike, you could probably manage it on a lightweight normal bike.

It's not just about being able to bang out 30 miles, even in eco mode you'll still do the ride quicker than a normal bike.

Ebikes can either help you keep up with mates, increase your mileage or just do more in less time depending on how you're using it.

Your bike is already analogue. You provide some input and the motor gives an analogous amount of power output

With that out the way I ride mine in eco alot so I can get some big 50-60 mile rides so you must have had loads of battery left. The question is whether you could do that same 29 mile ride with assistance, and whether you enjoy it more with the assistance or with the lighter bike

Does seem like a Levo SL style ebike may be best though

There is no right or wrong way to use an eeb.
I also ride mostly in eco, just using trail for steeper climbs and turbo for stuff that's just stupid steep tech.
However the last few rides it's been that hot I've been using mainly trail and a bit more turbo just to stay a little cooler from the resulting extra speed.

kerley you make an interesting point about the other 10%

Although eco feels as if its only compensating for the weight of the bike, if you were riding with others who were not on ebikes you'd probably find you'd be going faster than them...even in eco. It doesn't mean the ride wouldn't be doable on a non ebike, just that it would be slower and as already said that extra 10% could be the difference between you enjoying the ride/completing it or not.

Not that I'm a good authority on the issue as I spend 90% of my time in Turbo!!

Although when you're riding it it feels like eco is just compensating for the bike weight it's definitely doing more than that.
The reason why I know this is that I managed to climb Bull Clough out of slippery stones (cut gate) in eco fairly easily a month or so back. I have only ever managed this once before when I was at my absolute fittest - I'm nowhere near that fit this year.

That was interesting, because it immediately made me realise the value of the lighter eebs for a more normal feeling bike, with a little bit of shove. I hadn't ever really seen the point in them before. If/when I get another eeb I'll give it more consideration for sure.

And yeah agree no right or wrong way to use an eeb. I like sticking it in emtb and smashing out local tech as fast as I can for an hour or 2. I also like sticking it in eco/trail and doing longer rides with more climbing/descending than on a normal bike

My girlfriend has had an e bike for about 18 months. Only really uses it on eco untill she is struggling then ups the mode till she can keep going. This is riding with me on my G16 and a few fiends on mtb bikes. She loves it and rides even more now than before.

The other week I hired an xl e160 from FOD, as my bike was in bits. Oddly and I’ve still struggled with this since riding it. It rode amazing. I loved the weight of the bike downhill, gripped and turned to the point I couldn’t work out why I liked it so much more.
Rode it in eco all day unless I need an a bit more power towards the end. I managed up finding so many more tracks I sort of new about. Did an extra 10 miles than normal, and burnt the same amount of calories as I do in the mtb bike at the end of the day.

To me that was one of the best all round days riding in a long time. Came home knackered as well.

I’m a weekend warrior sadly, closest decent riding is an hour away and work 6 days a week.
I don’t really need an e bike but it made me realise it certainly has a place. I like the idea you use the power as and when you really need it not all the time. So begs the question do you really need one.

It appears that you can ride e bikes in all manner or styles dependent on your self, no right or wrong.

Different circumstances to you - as really ebikes let me ride normally again - can only ride very short, flat distances without assistance.

However, I think from the sounds of it a lighter ebike would work well for you - one where you didn’t necessarily need to use assistance all the time but would have it in reserve and a bit of a ‘bypass’ option to get through sloggy sections.

I have a YT decoy at mo, am thinking of changing it for a Orbea Rise….

Yeah would agree to that certainly, but why the grip and turning was brilliant and that’s obviously down to the weight and position of it all in the Whyte e160. Obviously all bikes handle differently e bike or not.

Also why have the lighter one, when you can adjust the power of the full fat e bike via an app.

It opened my eyes certainly.

Yeah, eco codger here(even use it off if legs good - I just get to bimble about even more xc countryside and am no longer scared of hills or being knackered and miles from home), on a levo now (after a Scott espark 710), getting very tempted by the levo sl (as I have todo some lifting)but being old and sensible am awaiting hearing from performance bearings saying that the sl motor is fully rebuildable etc after discovering how helpful shimano were.

I found similar with my Orbea Wild FS, sold it and eventually bought a Spesh Levo SL, so much lighter and less assist.

That's nearly true, you sold it cos it was far too much bike for you, and near kilt ye, not the weight. 🤣

Rail 9.8 imminent, I figured if you're gonna have an 18kg ebike, you'd be as well with a 22kg one with moar power.

Agreed

Not as wrong as I was on Thursday - 10 mile road ride home from the beach on my Levo and kept trying to keep up with a group of roadies that came by - damn you 15.5mph cut-out, it might look like I have a motor but all I really have is inappropriate tyres, unnecessary suspension and a load of ballast!

I’ve got a rail and pretty much the same run it in eco almost all the time, I don’t need an emtb, but got it at start of last lockdown, the trails are 30miles away I can eco along the canals blast round the forests then ride home doing 80 miles on the emtb so it’s that benefit, also it’s bigger travel and tbh I miss it when I go back to my stumpy.

Did you enjoy the ride? If yes, you’re doing it right for you. If no, you’re doing it wrong.

And stop trying to downplay your use of the motor like you’re trying to jusify yourself. “I was in eco mode for 90% of the ride”. You’ve bought an eBike, so use the power if you want, or don’t if you don’t want to, either is fine as long as it makes you smile.

👆🏻 He's right you know.

Lets face it, riding down is the fun bit, but to get to the down bit you first must (endure) the up bit, and for me at least,even in my heyday of fitness, the up bit was the killer that took all the energy away from the rest of the ride. It meant I would be cycling less in a day.
Flats I'm fine with and can keep going for miles and miles, but add a few hills in there and I'm looking to cut short the days riding, because I just don't have the energy to keep going.

I used to ride with the guys of RB, which weren't steep technical DH but more long sloping rides of fair distance, but always the big hills at the start and a fair bit of climbing, which totally knackered me and meant i was always at the back, it just killed me for the day.
I think, for me at least as we're all different, with different fitness levels. That assistance on the initial climbs would leave me with more energy to keep going for the full day, and not make it too much of a slog.

Absolutely, being fresher for a descent is a mega bonus.

I can't wait to get this thing, every time I've tried my mates ebikes I've grinned like a absolute eejit.

Aye yer doin it all wrong
Whack in turbo and blast all the trails and repeat and if any battery left
REPEAT AGAIN!!!!
if I’m riding solely with my mates on trail bikes I either ride eco or trail
If I’m out with Ebike mates then it’s emtb or turbo all the way
Still a slog on the climbs as yer pushing hard,but ye get double or treble the riding
What’s not to enjoy
Or if I’m out myself it’s turbo and up and down riding all my local trails in just over an hour
Would take that time just to climb up there,and av rode 6/7 trails by that time

@nobeerinthefridge his loss was my gain once he has another incident on the Levi I’ll be there to eh help him out and take it off his hands hahahaha

He surely can't have another incident Hainman, he's had mair lives than a farm cat!

Lets face it, riding down is the fun bit, but to get to the down bit you first must (endure) the up bit

Maybe for you, but as discussed on another thread, for me the ups are the fun bits.

for me the ups are the fun bits.

A lactic acid addict 😆

@nobeerinthefridge I wouldn’t wish that on anyone BUT I’ll be here to save him if he does 😜

Surely a lot of this all depends what assistance percentages the different modes are set at?

for me the ups are the fun bits.

I assume by that you mean the physicality and technical challenge? You can still have that if that's what you want. You can lower the assistance and get your body working really hard.

The added bonus with an eeb though is that you do a lot of climbs that you might not even have ever considered before on a neeb. It's so fun trying to get up the stupidest, steepest and most technical climbs you can find, and seriously, it's by no means not a physical effort.

As above, they're great for doing extended xc rides with some stupid climbing attempts, xc rides with some dh laps, and pure dh laps.
You're only doing it wrong if you're not enjoying it.

jamj1974
Different circumstances to you – as really ebikes let me ride normally again – can only ride very short, flat distances without assistance.

Sorry to hear that jam. I've just come off the back of a tough chemo regime and told not to push myself for a few months so I bough a Kinesis Range (e-adventure) and loving it. I either ride road with 50psi in the 44mm tyres or head into Delamere forest and ride mainly fireroads at 30psi. I just ride to a HR of 130 on my Garmin and adjust the level of assistance depending on the steepness of the climb.

I'll hopefully be doing a couple of laps of Llandegla Blue next week.