I’ve found i just use the Eeb for specific days, but still 80% pick the manual. I’ll be using both this weekend, the manual on Sat and the eeb on Sunday as an uplift bike.
That's interesting, ta.
Does it feel like you're turning anywhere into an uplift venue? I do like the idea of that 😀
Does it feel like you’re turning anywhere into an uplift venue? I do like the idea of that
Yeah deffo. FoD/Dowies/Shutcastle has turned into a bit of a blast fest in some ways. Just head there, loop, loop, loop x 5-6 then head to the Fountain for beer. Not every day has to be a day out slogging (or not) trails and covering 40 miles for me, i'm more than happy doing 2 hours quick blasting trails, then hit the pub/cafe (or more often than not back to Pedalabikeaway to uplift the boy in the van)
Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?
I do a hundred miles a week on the road bike, so no. With regards to handling I had a few wee episodes at Tarland where I couldn't bring the rear around as quick as my old full sus. However that passed and I am getting the hang of it now. For multiple days/camps/getting to hills I will take my hardtail. Otherwise, it is the ebike.
Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)
I'm definitely riding more.
Tuesday and Thursday rides are for the hardtail and weekend tends to be an ebike ride where I can explore a bit to find new trails on my own or if in a group we'll go for a big ride.
Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?
No more rides but an e-bike ride will include more laps of fun downhill bits. I don't think there is much impact on my fitness either way but I don't solely ride e-bikes.
Does it feel like you’re turning anywhere into an uplift venue?
Pretty much that
I guess a 625w battery with Bosch CX line motor would be more than adequate for a 78kg rider who’s not averse to pedalling anyway?
Depends how far you like to ride but I would think so. I have a 750 battery in mine and its range is better than I expected. I wouldn't go any smaller on the battery
Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?
Depends. I’m sure you will have the honeymoon period where you are hammering the ebike & neglecting everything else, then you will slowly migrate back to a more balanced mix.
Personally, when I am time crunched, it’s the ebike for for me. I am fortunate enough to be able to do enough fitness stuff around work in the week that I am not really having to go out & do all day epics at the weekend, nor do I have the time to, as we both ride & need to fit it around childcare, etc.
You can work yourself as hard with one & not lose fitness, but I’d say 90% of people don’t. Sometimes I do, sometimes I’m cooked from a heavy week & just want to get out and smash some laps, so I let the bike do the work. It’s nice to have the choice.
Actually, it is rather up to you. I've happily stated what I do but I do know others whose ebike just means they aren't last up the climbs on mixed group rides and I'd suggest their fitness has slid a little further as a result. If they still have regular bikes in their garages that tends to be where they stay, gathering dust.
“Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?”
I don’t think it’s one or the other, I think it’s how you choose to ride the ebike, if you keep riding your normal bike and if you do any other fitness stuff. I’m sure it’s possible to keep your riding fitness by just riding an ebike and I’m sure it’s possible to lose most of your pedalling power and endurance from riding an ebike.
I don’t ride any more than before I got an ebike but I haven’t lost any fitness because I don’t want to lose any fitness (I’m trying to rebel against this annoying idea of getting old, I’m really not up for it!)
For my first few years of ebike ownership I used it for the vast majority of my rides, and it’s only recently I’ve gone back to riding a normal* hardtail for my local-ish group rides.
*If a singlespeed MTB is ever normal!
My experience is you have less of a say over what the bike does, but you get away with more, so it evens out
@oldfart … get the E-TUBE app and reduce the aggressiveness while keeping the max torque up in the boost setting. Better for setting off and to ramp in the assistance rather than getting caught out with initial pedal strokes in more technical stuff.
For full fat? If it’s “not steep enough” it’s hard to adjust to how the bike can slow when you choose not to pedal for corners or obstacles. Not keen. And when it’s “too steep” you soon feel the full effect of all the weight. Eep! Not for me for tech steeps… but you might be a far stronger bike handler than me… that’s not hard.
I did the first proper ride on my Rail at the weekend after using the Kenevo SL almost exclusively for the last 2 years and definitely noticed the extra weight over the KSL; the Rail was harder to turn, hold a line and stop. That said, the climbs were much more fun. As to whether or not it's a workout, here's my HRM readout;
I suspect most of the Zone 5 time was fear rather than effort though... 🤣
Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?
Definitely do more rides and often further.
You do lose some bike fitness though, hence I'm making myself go out on a leg powered ride once every week where I can
I’ve rode mine plenty times on all styles of steep techy trails and it coped really well
the weight is something you find is hard at first,braking sooner
most weekends I ride the Tweed valley etc and love the quick climbs and more trails
even rode the Fort Bill DH track on mine
My experience is you have less of a say over what the bike does, but you get away with more, so it evens out
Haha.
Some more interesting comments thanks, it seems like you need to be clear about how it's gonna fit into your riding and whether it's "instead" or "as well".
Personally I'd like to think I'd still keep riding my short travel trail bike plenty, but that my chonky enduro bike might see more occasional use.
I imagine there's more chance of one of the half-fat eebs becoming "instead".
I guess if you always ride a full-power ebike on steep trails which aren't super long then you could let your cardio fitness drop and it not affect your riding significantly. But I think for most of us, even if we were to just ride ebikes all the time, having good cardio fitness makes the downhills more fun too. Obviously that requires putting the effort in to keep that fitness which for some people will outweigh the positives when they've got a motor to get them back up the hill.
“Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?”
I definately ride more. an hour ride is a feasible timeframe for a decent number of laps. rather than 1 or 2 pushups and descent. Previoulsy I wouldnt bother going out for just an hour on the normal mtb. now i do.
I am no less fit from having hte eeb - i was suprised, i built a single speed up in the summer (after about 1.5yrs eeb only) and it was totally fine to ride without being knackered. If you ride hard on the eeb its a workout - the weight helps with this!. even uphill if you pick the techy route up.
I think my trouble with the ebike is a good percentage of my rides are with leg powered (who I struggle to keep up with on a normal bike - regular riding, or not), so the general pace is slow for the ebike and I'm not working myself. I keep dropping the power - 18% assist generally now, but sometimes I'm just turning the pedals while they are blowing
Have you lot found you really do more rides? Or just ride the eeb instead (and maybe lose fitness)?
Na, I ride quite a lot anyway and mostly the Levo gets saved for recovery days, which it's really good for - you can riding interesting trails and stay at a really low HR if you want to. I did a group ride with unassisted mates last year where my average HR was around 105bpm - and days when I just feel a bit lazy.
Then again, I'm not a very typical e-mtb rider. I only have the thing as it was a brilliant training aid when I had long covid, sort of a bridge between walking and riding mountain bikes again. There's an aftermarket Specialized app called BLEvo which allows you to set a HR target and makes the bike automatically adjust assistance levels to keep you in that area - a sight more fun than Zwift.
Tbh, I should probably ride it more often than a few days a month, but there you go. It just depends on you really. The only thing that was stopping me riding was being ill or convalescent, so at that point, yes, the e-bike was the only way I could be out on the trails. But once I was a bit more normal, I just rode my non-assisted bikes. I think I might have said it earlier, but the Levo and Kenevo SLs would probably be more up my street, though I can't begin to justify spending that much tbh.
"I keep dropping the power – 18% assist generally now, but sometimes I’m just turning the pedals while they are blowing"
Maybe you could try treating it like interval training? So reduce the power even further (or turn it off) and then when your legs/lungs are about to give up and you're about to lose the group, then up the assistance to give yourself a rest. You could also have a go at steep/technical climbs that you can do on your normal bike and see how much of them you can do without assistance on the ebike, and just when you're about to stall/fail, then hit the power.
