I’ve always been the sweaty bloater puffing away at the back of our riding group. A 2 year (kids) break hasn’t helped me close the gap on my lycra clad XC mates, so I was thinking about cheating a bit with a retrofitted Heinmann or Bionx system (as on ElectricMounatinBikes.com). It’s a big outlay though and I’m concerned about bike handling (adding 3.5kg to your back wheel and 2 to your back!!). Has anyone got any advice beyond:

i) Get fit you fat get and catch them up
ii) It’s time to hang up your inner tubes grandad
iii) LOL .. I’d pwn you, you gay noob!! (one for the teens there)

you’re pulling our legs, right ??

I’ll take this as a category i) reply..

Just get fitter. anyway it don’t matter how slow you are as long as you enjoy yourself

get slower friends or get fitter. I can’t imagine that 5.5kg on your bike/back is going to be offset by that sort of power, particularly on proper rough or loose trails. It is a biiiiiig investment!

I suppose a compomise would be meEting your riding mates half way round their ride and then being all fresh, might keep up and enjoy yourself more. Its true, when you are hanging out of your arse trying to keep up, it is hard to enjoy it and your skills/handling suffer.

happy fitness-building! (i hope!)

I’ll take this as a category i) reply..

well I half thought you were kidding! It’s crap to be slow, but the answer lies in your own body – just keep trying as hard as you can, as often as you can (and if you’re overweight eat a bit less) and you’ll improve. Relying on artificial assistance will only make you dependent and promote laziness.

The cvable would get caught in the trees, and youd have to go back the same way, and just think of the size of cable drum youd need, a long decent and you run out of cable 50 foot before the end abnd get whipped back up the hill, wipeing out all the following riders,

Best not go there.

Relying on artificial assistance will only make you dependent and promote laziness

.. for me the descent is where it’s at, any assistance on the climbs I’ll take (lighter bike, ski lifts or an electric assist) – if it doesn’t spoil my descent I’ll use it. I’d like to be fitter, yes but it’s not a laziness thing for me (I’m only a bloater next to my lanky race whippet mates): if you look at the videos, the motor’s don’t replace your effort, rather enhance it (they can be set up for climbing torque).

The cable would get caught in the trees, and you’d have to go back the same way

?! erm I’m not sure you understand the concept 🙂

How long is the extension lead you’ll be using?

I knew a guy who spent £2300 on a new mountain bike, and his favourite feature of it was that it was 3lbs lighter then his older one. He was about 18 stone, and couldve just gone on a diet, lost 3lbs, and been £2300 in pocket.

So, you can either waste money, or..

Get fitter.

Buy a proper motorbike.

Forget the electric thing and go for it with your own fitness. The biggest improvements I made to my fitness weren’t physical to begin with, but mental – believing I could do it. The physical improvements followed, and now, sometimes, on some days, I can beast some people…

yes but it’s not a laziness thing for me

from what you’ve said, I beg to differ 🙁

There is an electric bike race at the http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/

Might be worth coming along and seeing what other people have done. Also Soreen Malt loaf and a beer festival if you enjoy non-biking stuff

Just pedal.

Set yourself goals, ie I know I’m going to walk some hills, but today I’m going to ride up that hill, then next time 2, then 3, etc

If you want to go electric, invent some sort of energy recovery device to convert the power from your pedalling to electricity and the sell it to Ferrari as they don’t seem to be able to make one yet!

i too thought it was a joke, i reckon you should get it. i wonder how many they actually sell.

trolling surely?

No one is really going to come on this site and ask about electric bikes, really? Are they?

Well I was surprised when one of the Big Bike Bash sponsors said they wanted an electric bike race but apparently it is a big enough market to make it worth while.

Check out the video bit ion this http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-x.php seems wrong without the WAAAAAAMM, WAAAM, WAAAM but would be nice if the chavs up the woods would steal these instead of moped. A lot quieter

Out of curiosity I followed some links your post led to. Mid Wales is full of all sorts of ‘get away from reality’ kind of freaks so I should not have been surprised to find in your first link somebody had bolted a motor to one of those appalling hummer paratrooper bikes and no doubt enthusing about the possibilities. I am sure there is a bona fide market with the disabled, chronic unhealthy and aged for these bikes as well as commuters but as recreational bikes …. well

Given the nature of off road riding you will be using the power everywhere and the range will be nothing like you would get riding the canal side tow paths in Holland. Before you invest I would talk to your riding buddies, may be they dont want to ride with a rasping arrangement of slack tubes that probably needs a recharge every 20 miles. If so you should look carefully at this link I followed off their site.. http://www.tourdepresteigne.co.uk/ to have an advanced viewing of the kind of people you might end up being obliged to hang around with.

I just wish having seen it all, I could now erase the whole thing from my minds eye

You could save the need for a long extension lead by using a petrol powered generator. Another idea would be to use a petrol powered motor to drive the rear wheel directly. I believe there is a company called Yamaha who specialise in making these contraptions. Perhaps you could give them a try?

Shoot yourself a 9mm should do the job

It’s a good idea. You are going to get superfit by having to pedal 50 odd pounds of bike out off the deep woods when the battery goes flat 🙂

may be they don’t want to ride with a rasping arrangement of slack tubes

…come to think of it maybe they’re riding so fast to get away from MY rasping.

& yeah NC I was asking seriously… I suspect I’m just not hardcore enough.

Tour de Prestigne – tweed here I come: hand me that 9mm….

why not get yourself a nice light hardtail……

oh.. i think you just did….!! ;0)

No don’t shoot yourself, save your energy and let me do it for you.

Buy a road bike. Or a turbo trainer. They’ll get you waaaay fitter than the rambo pack.

What about finding a way of adding 3.5kg to the back wheel of your mates’ bikes?

Bike snobs on STW shocker!

Don’t knock it till you try it….
When the bike snobs are all a bit older I’m sure the STWelitepro will be snapping up electric bikes to extend their cycling careers. They are beginning to look quite elegant now too. (The bikes not the STWers) For short range hooning around I’m sure they would be great fun.

http://www.tourdeprestigne.co.uk

Electric bike show in wales this weekend. Cosybike will be there. Planning ahead for the bike snobs inetivable demise!

Chill out, your mates are faster than you, big deal. Let them get on with it and make your own way along at your own speed.

I’m struggling to imagine how it would be anything other than deeply humiliating. And you know it would just be endlessly going wrong. That said, I have the luxury of being one of the fit guys and never have any trouble either keeping the weight off or motivating myself to train, so I can’t talk. 🙂

Buy a road bike.

Got one..ride to work every day. Just don’t have the time anymore to put the mileage or hill climbs in to catch my m8s (who are still doing triathlons, marathons, fell running etc).

Thanks for the offer to shoot me avdave … you just don’t get that kind of camaraderie on any other forums 🙂

Combination of i) and iii)

I’m sure the STWelitepro will be snapping up electric bikes to extend their cycling careers

well, I shall allow myself a real engine when I reach 90 (if there’s any fuel still available)

Cosybike will be there

doesn’t that say it all ? Slippers, cardi, walking stick, cosy bike 🙁

Bike snobs on STW shocker!

is it really snobbery to say “try a bit harder instead of lapsing into sloth” ?

Stop drinking beer and eating sh!te and the weight will drop off, I lost 3 1/2 stone in six weeks

I lost 3 1/2 stone in six weeks

Prove it, Prove it, Prove it! Photos please lardy!!

I could lend you a gun.

I could lend you a gun.

Crap .. gangsta rappers on ST forums, who’d a thunk it!!

listen mate i’ve been there, really. rode bikes then went to uni and stopped doing anything. anything! well apart from the drinking uni stuff. had a five year break and got to nearly 20st.

but in the end i got to the gym, adjusted my diet and bottom line, worked hard, now i weigh 15st. yes i know still heavy but at least better. now i ride twice a week with lads that are still sometimes 5st lighter than me but i’ve got decent fitness now, enough to give them a run for there money anyway, but its all about the fun YOUR having. It just takes a bit of extra effort to get that but of fitness that will make things comfortable.

if your riding every week with those mates, your the one that will have the most improvement in the shorter space of time anyway, just got to go through the hard stuff first, an electric motor is just a copp out i’m afraid.

Fair comments .. it just feels crap being at the back and feeling like you’re holding up the group. Ride my own ride I guess and build my fitness when the wife and baby occasionally let me out 😉

it just feels crap being at the back and feeling like you’re holding up the group.

get over it – most of us are happy to take an extra rest :o)

… and can remember what it was like to be Johnny-backmarker!

Just lob in some extra 30 minute rides even on road, a few times a week, it’ll up your fitness in no time. With elec assist I guarantee you’ll rely on the extra power to put less effort in rather than use it as added. And then when the battery goes flat you’ll have even more weight to drag about and look even more slow.