E bike riding in groups

I would have though anyone going on about ebikes and lack of fitness would be road cyclists and not MTBers, much of their journey is downwards with little pedaling. Roadies at least seem to be the fitter of the two.

Along with riding solo and with my wife quite a lot, I do a weekly night ride with a few guys that are absolute beasts. For as long as I can remember I've always been at the back and they always have to wait for me at the top of climbs. Fortunately, as well as being great riders they're also patient and have no issue at all having to wait around for me to catch up.

However, bought an ebike a few weeks ago (along with my wife) - and while I'm still getting used to pointing all that weight down greasy rocky shoots etc it just been a great leveller. Stick it in Eco and I get to spend the evening riding in a group having a chat and a laugh rather than spending the evening trying to catch them 🙂

So many variables in group rides, but certainly works well for me (in our group).

It's slightly different fitness. With roadies, in which I dabble sometimes, it's more about sustained effort over long periods of time with rarely if ever reaching 100% effort. With MTB, cross country anyway, a lot more short sharp bursts followed by rests with frequent short periods of maximum power. I think GCN did a video comparing the two and peak power for MTB riding was higher.

not MTBers, much of their journey is downwards with little pedaling. Roadies at least seem to be the fitter of the two.

Much, or generally about 50% uphill and downhill whatever/wherever you ride unless it's point to point?

Plus a canny roadie doesn't pedal downhill much and hides in the bunch or behind other riders as much as possible, it's all about energy conservation. They're professional skivers most of the time. Allegedly some of them use motors too?

Mixed groups are pretty dull for an ebiker unless out purely for a social ride.
An ebike only ride is bloody brilliant when everyone is pushing on. Just non stop riding, no waiting, no recovery at the top of the hills. Excellent fun.

Says it all, really. If there's no recovery, there's little to no effort.

I got one back in November , All my mates slowly got them so It seemed unless i wanted to ride on my own It was the next step . I've always been fairly fit and could do Enduro size days without much hassle. A couple of days ago we managed 10 descents at Glentress scattered all over the hill. I think it was around 21 miles with 4600ft of climbing. My bike has a shimano motor with a 620 watt battery and I would say probably stuck to Eco for about 70% of the ride. My mates have Bosch motors with bigger batteries and Im way behind on the climbs . My battery started flashing red about 300 yards from the van . Battery management is a massive learning curve I think as for handling It dosent take long to get used to the extra weight on the downs. In fact I think its a big plus as feels more planted over roots and rocks , the other thing is you need to find the right gear for climbing or it really can feel like its switched off. What I mean is the big ring feels kinda pointless in Eco but shift down 3 or 4 and It kicks in but still feels like you are working. I still use my hardtail and gravel bike for local rides as It seems a waste of time getting the E bike dirty when I have to keep it inside. So many sheds and garages locally are getting broken into for Ebikes.
I dont think you will regret buying one but in hindsight I would have went for the Bosch motor and Battery .

I ride in a social group where I'm usually the only non e bike, if I'm holding them back they're very polite about it 😄

Some are more likely to use it as an opportunity to ride a non e bike too.

If I had one too, we might go further as a group, but possibly not.

Main barrier for me is cost and risk of failure/obsolescence.

Having said that we do have one for my wife as it helps level things up riding together that we wouldn't do without it. Unfortunately we couldn't find a size to suit us both so that I could use it too.

More fun running up the down escalators on the Underground whilst half cut late at night – good fitness test esp if it’s a long one…

Think I'm getting this right... Basically, ebikers must sit on the handlebars and ride backwards?

Agree 100%

The past couple of weeks I've got back into a few group rides.

I was the first e-bike adopter out of the people I ride with and granted the groups now have a different make-up of people with some of the core riders still there. 80% are now on e-bikes though

They are always led by a standard bike to set the pace and none of the eebs are jostling to get to the front - occassionally the non-eebs will sit aside for the eebs to nail technical climbs. Overall it's really chilled and you generally wouldn't know that it's a predominantly eeb ride other than the guys using their legs cursing ocassionally when they are shattered 😉

It's all about the people you ride with as to how the ride is approached I guess

Yeah, as above - not that I was part of the group, but I was out on my own and got slightly lost, so this group of about 10 riders invited me to hitch along with them. I was chatting to the chap at the back (easily the oldest of the group, if thats relevant), he mentioned my bike, I looked down and he was riding an ebike too. I was quite surprised cos he was just riding along at their speed, having a nice day out in the hills.

Be interesting to get an update from the OP 🙂

Be interesting to get an update from the OP 🙂

There was another thread a couple of months ago or so about mixed riding groups getting fractious, but I couldn't find that one

If you're concerned about fitness and have the space, get an eeb and sell your current bike for a S/H Gravel bike for fitness and solo rides.

That's exactly what I plan on doing in a year or three when I've dropped back down to a healthier weight, for now I'm riding a big heavy alloy specialized enduro about for all of my riding, trail centers, singletrack, gravel, xc routes, off piste, road etc. The amount of effort I'm having to put in means my legs are screaming and my hearts racing by the time I've done 12-15 mile and 1600-2000ft ascent, I've found as I've already lost 1.5 stone that it's not getting easier as I'm just going faster instead, average speed has gone up from 5mph to 6.5mph.

I was speaking to a chap at our local trailhead about all sorts just before christmas when I was having to push up most of the hills I ride up now, he was on a lovely Santa Cruz Bronson and being jealous after asking him about it I said to him I plan on getting down from 22.5 stone to 17 stone which is an okay weight for me, and then I'll treat myself to an ebike and his response was "What's the point of losing all that weight and doing so much for your fitness to then go and make it all easier for yourself and potentially lose all your hard work?" and it got me thinking, in my case he's probably right.

I still get jealous when I'm killing myself and cursing the planet for creating hills and making working against gravity so hard when some little skinny lads are flying past me having a jovial conversation not even breaking a sweat on Ebikes. I think about how fun it will be to not have to beast myself on climbs anymore when I get one subconsciously so I end up working harder to burn more calories to lose weight faster so I can justify one, so upon reflection already knowing I've got poor willpower not to use turbo all the time that I'll need to find a way to maintain my fitness when I do get one, which I'll be getting a gravel bike for.

I don't tend to ride in groups though I always ride solo, due to my weight and how slow I am compared to other people I see on lung assisted bikes like mine it puts me off wanting to reach out to ride with others incase I hold them back and slow them down

The ebike enables me to spin faster. Instead of climbing in 1st gear at sub 30 rpm on the steep stuff, I can keep a normal cadence when on the ebike. Which is probably better for my legs.

Obviously that means I go faster as the ebike has a slightly longer 1st gear. And sometimes I even get in to 2nd gear.

Much, or generally about 50% uphill and downhill whatever/wherever you ride unless it’s point to point?

Plus a canny roadie doesn’t pedal downhill much and hides in the bunch or behind other riders as much as possible, it’s all about energy conservation. They’re professional skivers most of the time

By distance maybe, by time it's got to be more like 66/33 or 75/25.

My favorite local road climb is ~22min (KOM is about 13min) at ~13mph. Descending though is mostly a 30mph cruise, unless you get into a group and go through and off at which point it's just as exhausting as the climb but with 30s sprints and (slight) recovery in-between.

It’s slightly different fitness. With roadies, in which I dabble sometimes, it’s more about sustained effort over long periods of time with rarely if ever reaching 100% effort. With MTB, cross country anyway, a lot more short sharp bursts followed by rests with frequent short periods of maximum power. I think GCN did a video comparing the two and peak power for MTB riding was higher.

Depends who you measure.

Pro XC Vs Pro Roadie, I'd absolutely agree.

'Average enthusiastic amateur' on the other hand, not much of a comparison. I could be at the front of the Tuesday night MTB ride casually having a conversation, then a couple of days later get shelled out the back of the Thursday night "social, no drop" roadie ride on every climb.

Also anecdotally, with the demise of hardtails and the desire to climb on singletrack (Vs modern "winch and plummet" on a FS) the inbuilt advantage of MTBing being a series of short sharp accelerations has diminished.

All the non ebikes just want to moan about it because they don’t understand what ebike riding is about. Just going round a field or a car park and saying it’s too easy is like driving a car to the shops and saying people who drive are lazy.

TBH, most people who drive to the shops ARE lazy, it's just socially acceptable.

A better analogy is farting in a lift. Yes you might feel like you have to do it due to the limitations of your body, and you travel the same distance as everyone else, but it doesn't mean the rest of the group isn't looking at you disapprovingly.

I had my first experience of riding ebike group riding recently. It was great! Basically felt the same as going for a bike ride with a similar group on normal bikes - we just got the climbs done quicker. Also tried to ride up some silly steep stuff because we could.

"Says it all, really. If there’s no recovery, there’s little to no effort."

There's plenty of recovery after a tough climb when you've been going for it on an ebike - but you don't need to stop, you can let the motor take the strain whilst your lungs recover.

"If you’re concerned about fitness and have the space, get an eeb and sell your current bike for a S/H Gravel bike for fitness and solo rides."

I ride a singlespeed hardtail on most group rides - the Levo is mostly for lapping the steep stuff or gnarlier trails where I want travel at the back too.

I'm planning to join my local roadie group ride this weekend, on my e-converted old hardtail. Not sure what the reaction will be from those in their sleek shiny road machines.

I tried going out with them last year a handful of times but was always struggling to hang on at the back and ended up suffering with my replaced knee and angina for a few days after each ride so stopped.

I usually ride alone as I've not found any similar riding buddies since moving to where I am, so going on a group ride means a social occasion for me. The E will just mean I can enjoy riding in the group and the chat with out wondering if I need to trouble the NHS afterwards.

The conversion has been really useful for me, so much so that I'm wondering whether to get another kit to fit to my 2019 ali Topstone, I won't stick out so much then on a road group ride! 😂

longdog
Free Member
I’m planning to join my local roadie group ride this weekend, on my e-converted old hardtail. Not sure what the reaction will be from those in their sleek shiny road machines.

I’d imagine they’ll likely just be concerned that you’re going to get blown out the back. Will they not be shifting at over 15mph, or do you not have a limiter?

The group I used to go with are usually around 14-15mph as their social ride pace and it's the social ride I want.

I do have the limit turned off, but realistically even then my max seems to be about 22mph in turbo without killing myself.

I'm a fair old size so, oddly enough, it's ease/speed on the hills where I need it most. On the flats I had no real issue on my road bike.

How many threads are there on this now?

How many threads are there on this now?

On the whole internet?