I think I'm done with my riding group and its down to ebikes.
Three of us ride regularly together, known each other for 20+ years etc. We all have both ebikes and real bikes and used to ride almost exclusively on normal bikes, but increasingly its ebikes or nothing from them. I'm fed up. Fed up of getting fat. Fed up of being told what to ride. Fed up that my riding is being compromised.
I'll happily admit that I was the first in the group to buy one- I was a smoker and the least fit. I bought it to do big days in the hills that my ravaged lungs and slovenliness didn't allow me to do. Thing is, I'm now a non smoker (7 years) but 12Kg heavier and sick of it.
I'm done. I want to sell the ebike. I wont but I want to.
Time to call it and ride solo?
How much can you tune your support down? I reckon 10-15% on my Levo is equivalent to riding a non-assisted bike. Ride it switched off for a real workout.
I could I suppose, but in reality I like piddling alonig at a slow pace chatting and enjoying the scenery. Climbs on the ebike are now a sprint to the top.
And normal bikes are just nicer to ride everywhere else...
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Time to call it and ride solo?
Seems like two different questions.
Ride with a group
Ride to improve fitness/lose weight
For the group ride if the general consensus of the group is to do stuff you dont like and you cant persuade them otherwise then its time to leave. Maybe try and debate it a bit more but if you lose then its time to ride solo or find a new group.
The latter is far more messy about whether an ebike holds you back. I think it is safe to say that side by side then its harder work on a normal vs ebike (above 15mph not sure how it works out?).
However you also need to consider time whether if you didnt use the ebike you wouldnt bother/cycle a shorter distance?
Riding solo is not the end of the world.
Just go out and do whatever you want.
I like riding my ebike at a similar pace to my normal bike, average speed is a little bit up obviously but not massively.
A mate has just got his first ebike and after years of pacing the rides he was on so he wasn't struggling on his normal bike, he now wants to blast everywhere as fast as possible. It's made me not want to go out with him so much to be honest
I like riding solo anyway and the majority of rides are on my own.
Is OP trolling ?
ebikes don’t have to be ridden in a certain way. It is possible to loose weight riding them (I have)
Talk to your so called mates and ask them to ride differently?
I agree with Dissonance, this is two seperate issues.
If you prefer riding normal bikes that's fine, you will need to find some other, increasingly rare riders, who also do to ride with.
But if it's more about your weight, it's your diet/drinking that needs to change.
Studies show that us humans are mostly poor at using exercise to lose weight. Too often we reward ourselves afterwards with more calories than we burnt.
If you think you're getting fat because the ebike is, doing too much of the work then turn down the assist so that you can still keep up with the group but you get forced to put more effort in.
I ride a bike and also run if I've done hard work and my 56yo legs are tired I ride my ebike. If I feel good I turn it down if I feel tired or want to do some quick stuff I'll go full blast.
If I'm with a group I ride with them sometimes turned down to lowest setting if I'm on ebike.
Same as when I was fitter/younger if I was with a group, and ebikes weren't a thing, it wasn't always a race to the top. (That's not true it's always a race even if no-one else knows it's a race)
Just wait til you find out about e-kayaks...
If you want to ride at a different pace, but still want to ride with your mates, get there early, ride at the pace you want then meet the others mid ride.
I used to do that when riding with less fit mates.
You could do the same with the normal bike.
Ive joined e-bike rides for a while, without one, just bow out if the pace gets too high and do your own thing.
Although proper mates will ride at the slowest riders pace.
12kg after stopping smoking is much more likely down to diet than exercise. I used to exercise 4-6 times a week, trying to get under a weight category for sparring.
The only difference I managed to make was by eating / drinking differently.
I agree with Dissonance, this is two seperate issues.
If you prefer riding normal bikes that's fine, you will need to find some other, increasingly rare riders, who also do to ride with.
But if it's more about your weight, it's your diet/drinking that needs to change.
Studies show that us humans are mostly poor at using exercise to lose weight. Too often we reward ourselves afterwards with more calories than we burnt.
Yep you can’t out exercise a bad diet.
Just get into a habit of riding the non-ebike solo for exercise and the ebike for your social rides until you can find someone to ride non powered days with.
And lay off the pies and work out your calorie consumption and see how many hours you have to ride to burn off some calories and get your head around it.
Enjoy your rides with your mates thou and plan cheat days around that.
Do you actually enjoy riding with them? If so just stick at it but do something else as well. But mostly just eat less.
If you don’t enjoy riding the e-bike and they won’t ride real bikes, then the answer is simple.
I rode for years with a lad from work and enjoyed riding with him. When he got an e-bike I went out with him for the first two rides and absolutely hated the experience, I haven’t ridden with him since.
To me, they are two different sports/pastimes.
Do some more intensive solo rides, indoors or outdoors and keep the group ebike rides for recovery?
On a normal bike, obviously the interval effort will be totally down to you, but it's perfectly possible to do z4/5 intervals on an ebike if you have a heart rate monitor and/or power meter even at maximum possible assist. Just as you can barely put any effort in and let the ebike motor take the strain at whatever speed you are happy to ride at.
So far this spring I've not done any interval efforts I can recall outdoors on my ebike, as my fitness took a nosedive mid Feb to mid March, but I can't wait to try climbing my local 3%+ hills again this year with turbo assist and my heartrate up around my threshold of ~160bpm for 5-15mins.
Cheers Folks- got out today on the normal bike with one of them who was on his eeb. He was happy to go at my pace and it was a good day out. Planning a big solo self indulgent ride next weekend- they're both away so I'm free to choose. That feels strangely good.
Fully agree with those mentioning diet as the main cause of weight gain though. Funnily enough I used to ride more as a smoker, 3-4 times a week and now its down to 1 maybe 2. That needs to change, but life has become more busy and gets in the way...
I was meant to go for a ride with a mate at the weekend, me on my ebike and him on his normal mtb. He's a roadie and lot fitter than me (I've got less fit since working from home and no longer cycling to work everyday, and stopping smoking brought my appetite back) but there'd be a point where he'd be tired from the climbs and I'd still want to crack on. I would have happily rode at his pace but was secretly relieved when he cancelled as it meant I could get the miles and elevation in.
On the flipside, I have another mate with a derestricted Amflow and we're supposed to be organising a ride together soon, but am dreading it a bit as I know he'll just want to blast around in full beast mode and I won't be able to keep up with only 85Nm and a 630Wh battery.
So yeah, company on a ride is nice but ultimately I think I just prefer being out on my own.
1 ride a week is not really enough for fitness and weight loss anyway. Need to supplement bikes rides with something else more regular if cycling isn't possible as often.
Don't discount social interactions for mental health though, group rides are great with whatever bikes.
