[Closed] More on eBikes......

People ride bikes to use up energy and effort? Nah, I ride mine for fun. When it goes flat I put another battery in and do more runs. Then I go home in the car.

It's a fair point, I had an ebike for commuting for a year, and in that year lost a lot of fitness compared to when I commuted by regular bike fewer days per week.

I was initially just looking at it on a calories burned basis, 2 days on the regular bike was about 5 days on the ebike, but my commute had steep hills that would really get my heart rate up.

On the ebike I didn't break a sweat, my legs were never strained, so when I came to ride at the weekend on my regular mtb, I just didn't have the strength I once did. Use it or lose it.

I must be using mine incorrectly as I am absolutely stuffed after a 20 mile ride, which is around my battery limit.

With the Specialized e bikes you can tailor the settings to make it as hard or as easy as you like

For a quick 1 hour blast of fun i chuck it in Turbo with it set to 100% assistance and ill use all of the 700wh battery in around 10-20 miles depending on the elevation

If going for a long XC type ride then ill stick in eco and set the assistance to 20% and can get upto 50 miles, again depending on the elevation

As for the power meter, they are built in to the motor and can you can see how much power you are putting in and how much the bike is giving you by using a garmin connected to the bike or with aftermarket apps

“On the ebike I didn’t break a sweat, my legs were never strained, so when I came to ride at the weekend on my regular mtb, I just didn’t have the strength I once did. Use it or lose it.”

It’s all down to your personal choices. There’s nothing stopping you from pedalling as hard or harder when riding an ebike. Sometimes I chill, sometimes I pedal as hard as I can. Sometimes I’m in turbo mode, sometimes the power is off.

Obviously if you only ever pedal softer and don’t raise your heart rate then you will lose fitness - but the same could be said of going on a turbo trainer.

One of the YouTube hipsters Cameron Jeffers has just done a very unscientific experiment on this with a road ebike. I wish I could link to it, it’s called “Can you really get fit on an electric bicycle?”

His conclusion was the same ride gave him the same training stress on both bikes, but ebike was faster.

so why were the two ebikers I saw today wearing insulated jeckets?

“so why were the two ebikers I saw today wearing insulated jeckets?”

Because they were choosing to pedal softly and let the bike do a lot of the work. It’s a personal choice.

^^^this

so why were the two ebikers I saw today wearing insulated jeckets?

Maybe you should have asked them instead of people on a forum.

I ride my normal bike in an insulated jacket when sometimes. When I ride the wife's Powerfly I normally wear shorts and Tee shirt. Make of that what you will.

murder us up hills

I'm a MOUNTAIN BIKER!!!. I don't waste my time fannying around on mere hills!!!

Why does anyone care what or how someone else is riding whatever bike they have? these threads really are odd.

If it helps, OP, I ride regular and ebikes a lot. My commuter bike has electrical assistance, and I can't remember last time my HR ever got much above resting on it. Great!

My last 'proper' ebike ride was 3 hours long and I burnt 1500 calories - fairly similar numbers to when I ride normal bikes for that amount of time.

Please, don't worry about the fitness of others and how they get their exercise - ebike or not.

Why does anyone care what or how someone else is riding whatever bike they have?

Because the moral balance of the universe is thrown off when people don't earn their fun by pedaling up the mountain.

If I'm on my own on the eBike I pedal hard - Heart rate around 170/180bpm. Generally do a longer ride than I would on the normal bike, but about the same time 2-3 hours. As I'm doing more descents on a heavier weight bike that's about my limit for tiring myself out with muscle strength.
I also pedal harder as I don't need to save myself for upcoming climbs knowing the motor will bail me out if I'm knackered.

If I'm with my mates (none of whom have eBikes), I stick it in eco and pedal along with them. But I'm not working as hard as them. Though I do hit the descents hard as I'm not tired out.

“My question is, assuming you are going out to arrive home with no juice whatsoever left in your battery, how much further do you have to go to get use up the same “energy/effort” as us mere mortals pedalling our knackered hearts out? And how do you measure it anyway, will those pedal power meter things work on eBikes?“

You could ask this question about any rider on any bike; we’re all different levels of fitness, ride different trails, and have different levels of stamina.

If you want to, you can absolutely shred yourself on an e-mtb ride, or you can take it easy ... same as on any bike. But yes, you can go further and faster whilst shredding your legs on an e-mtb ...and if you do bonk, getting those few miles home is a little easier 🙂

yourguitarhero
Member

If I’m on my own on the eBike I pedal hard – Heart rate around 170/180bpm. Generally do a longer ride than I would on the normal bike, but about the same time 2-3 hours. As I’m doing more descents on a heavier weight bike that’s about my limit for tiring myself out with muscle strength.
I also pedal harder as I don’t need to save myself for upcoming climbs knowing the motor will bail me out if I’m knackered.

If I’m with my mates (none of whom have eBikes), I stick it in eco and pedal along with them. But I’m not working as hard as them. Though I do hit the descents hard as I’m not tired out.

Spot on analysis, that’s about the same for me.

I'd hardly ridden anything else while I had the ebike and wasnt even riding that too much.

Decided to get the HT out 3 weeks ago and done 100 miles on it since and loving it.

Definitely going to make sure I use both from now on. You can get a good work out on the ebike, but it doesn't condition the leg muscles like a normal bike