My commute is about 25 miles each way. I normally get the train which is about 1:15 door to desk. I try and ride once a week which ends up more like 1:45 door to desk, including time for a shower. I’d ride more but it’s bloomin’ tiring, especially as the trip home is usually into a headwind, and also time consuming.

I’ve got to thinking about ebikes. Shoot me now.

The way I see it, with a bit of pedal-assist, I could maintain a much higher average speed, especially on the one big hill I have to get up. Problem is, all ebikes I can find are either MTB, or city/hybrid. Does anyone make anything resembling a fast road bike? Ideally with an Alfine hub for better commuting durability.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree, and ought to be looking at election motorbikes or scooters?

I think cube do, but they may be 2018 models and not out yet.

Giant. https://www.giant-bicycles.com/gb/road-eplus-1-2016

Not Alfine, but they go up hill at a decent rate! (Got passed by a mate going up to Emosson).

I suspect the problem with a fast road e-bike will be the 15mph assist limit to be legal. Handy for hills but a lot of dead weight the rest of the time. A dodgy chipped one would be great though

Does anyone make anything resembling a fast road bike

Yes but it’s a bit pointless as you’ll be above the assistance level for most of the time and pedalling a heavy bike.
Just get a nice relaxed hybrid and get comfortable.

New Orbea Gain, what I will be commuting on in a few months. Looks normal, takes a decent size tyre, light weight and low resistance motor so above the 24kmph limit you can actually ride it.

What they said. I used to have a 7 mile commute with two steep climbs – the legal ebike took 10 mins off that going to work and but coming home I almost never was below the 15 mph to get assist – only setting off from traffic lights

A legal ebike would not be much use to you

Might be a good job for one of those stealth e-doping motors. They are a bit smaller and lighter and you can turn it up to 11 without anyone finding out.

I do think e-bikes are the future for short journey utility transport, but perhaps not for a 25 mile journey.

Would it be more economical and make the journey quicker if you invested in a decent course of EPO instead?

http://road.cc/content/tech-news/228810-orbeas-gain-e-bike-looks-just-normal-road-bike-packs-250w-motor

Though as others have pointed out it will only help you on the hills as given your commute time you won’t get any assistance most of the time as you’re going too fast.

The 15mph limit seems a common issue.
Bumping it the legal limit to 25mph would help a lot

i think that e-bikes should be encouraged for this sort of application.

however the 15mph limit really limits the potential.

assuming the OP is reasonably fit he should be able to average more than 15mph.

know of someone who uses an e-bike to cover his 35km commute. he has a chipped bike and has sold his car. the advantage here in Germany is that there are plenty of bike paths. on the other hand, this being Germany he is up shit’s creek if he gets caught.

20 mph limit for ebikes would be good to match the 20 mph urban speed limits. 25 would be too fast imo

I agree – 20mph would be fine – though I have a feeling lots of people would think that too fast for a bike 🙄 . Isn’t 15mph an EU thing anyway, so after Brexit we’ll be fine 😆

Hi, my wife has a giant Road-E 2. I find it quite easy to exceed 25kph on the flat and down wind. Normal gearing being a significant advantage over the Bosch setup. While it does not feel like a big heavy bike it is heavier than your normal road bike. If you want to try it out Paul drop me an email, I live in Stocksfield.

Grim

Cheers all.
I usually average around 28kph for the commute. I didn’t really understand the speed limit thing, I’d presumed it was a power add-on, limited, but available at any speed. I don’t want to achieve silly speeds, I just want to get up a 100m/1.5km climb at the same sort of speed I can get on the flat if not the descent.

Time to google chipping e-bikes…

I really like the look of the orbea, too expensive for me mind

I normally average 15mph, but I think the sections where I’m flogging myself and doing 10-12mph up hill would be much nicer spinning up assisted at 15mph, I’m happy powering a slightly heavier bike at 20+ mph on the flat.

If you can afford it go for it and let me know how it goes

Hmmmmmm, could be ideal for my commute, which is 20 miles but over a big hill, same struggle both ways. Research needed…..

I see a guy on an ebike if I drive to work (as it’s later, don’t see him.when I bike in) that must be derestricted, as he sits at 25-30mph without pedalling, on a slight uphill.

Theres a GCN video where they take that giant e2 out on a fairly big ride. Trounced the normal road bike

Op I’m in a similiar position – Bafang / 8Fun 750w mid mount motor to convert your current bike is what you want. No 15mph speed limit, appear to be reliable with good spares/forum support.

double post

Mrs BigJohn has a Giant dirt-e. Smashing bike but the assist turns off at 16mph. Which isn’t a big deal.
But it has a sensor on the rear chainstay that picks up from a tab on a spoke. If I removed the tab would it simply turn off the speedo, thus allowing it to power it at all speeds or would it stop the bike working?

You could attach a small button neodymium magnet to the rear of the crank arm, it will sit very securely against the pedal axle and is very unlikely to be knocked off or you may wish to apply a small strip of gorrila tape for extra security. You could then remove the sensor on the inner rear chainstay and move it to the upper side of the chainstay so that the magnet attached to the rear of the crankarm passes close enough to make contact with the sensor, tape sensor securely in place using gorrila tape and pedal off into the distance with no speed restriction apart from the gearing your bike has, I can just about manage to get 24mph for a very short sprint out of my fecked legs but that’s spinning at 110rpm which is unsustainable for anything more than a few hundred yards on the flat or downhill given my current condition.

Obviously the speedo and distance will read wrong but I’m not bothered about knowing how far/fast I ride, I ride purely because I enjoy it.

Seeing as I used to be able to do a sub 23m 10mile TT I doubt any kittens will die with my current “fettled” Bosch setup

That might be a good idea. She likes being in a big gear do I might be able to move the sensors from spoke to crank.

Leave the wheel magnet attached to the wheel and Use a 10mm x 3mm magnet from here as that size fits perfectly onto the face of a pedal axle where it shows on the rear of a crank arm, they come in packs of 20 so you’ll have plenty of spares to play with.