After a week riding ebikes in the South Tyrol, I returned a changed man 🙂 At some point I'll list all the things I may have been wrong about, before my conversion to the Church of the E. Collected this at 2pm yesterday, two rides since, 1750m, 40km, significant giggling, ready for another ride tomorrow. It's like being 25 again. As a non e bike zealot until - well about last week - this is a bit hard to reconcile, but honestly I'm just having way too much fun to care:
I did look at the updated Orbea Rise (LT) as the one I rode on hols was pretty good. I really wanted something that would be like an e-5010. I did not want a plough heavyweight. After much dithering bought a Whyte eLyte RS from a local shop and two rides in I'm absolutely loving it.
The uphill stuff is obviously fantastic and I can't see when it'd get old. I've been maxing out my HR on climbs I've ridden 100s of times. Also ridden stuff I'd just avoided as it meant a repeated long climb that wasn't much fun the first time. Downhill this is such a fantastic bike. I kind of thing I prefer it to my Bronson which is a bit of a shock! Might be new bike glasses tho.
I do feel a bit guilty about "giving up" and I've no intention of selling my collection of none eBikes. Although that does mean I need to ride them. No way I would have ridden last night and today (and I'm pretty fit for my age) knowing there is a big ride tomorrow on a non E. Kind of game changing there.
Anyway after the first ride I was elbows deep in a decent red and wrote this. It's somewhere between a rationale for buying an E and some existential dread 😉 https://www.pickled-hedgehog.com/father-time-is-calling/
TLDR: Did not want an ebike. Rode an ebike. Bought an ebike. Currently. no regrets.
Nice bike
Kind of a similar route to them for me. Mate got one and kept on at me to get one but I didn’t until he let me borrow his for a couple of weeks. I still get out on my normal bikes a lot though and pretty pleased that out of the 2000 miles I’ve done so far this year only 500 has been on the ebike, so don’t give up on them just yet.
Nice one. You have been on a trajectory most of us on ebikes have been on, from an anti perspective to trying one and realising that actually they are great fun.
Nice ebike. Welcome to the e club.
You're not giving up, you're just riding bikes more.
Yeah defo there's some of that. I feel I can ride every day at the moment. More worried about my liver than my legs. And I'l ride the Whyte for a month then I'm going to get back on my non Es and give myself a reality check. On today's ride - according to my garmin - my average HR was the same as for a non E ride. But we'd ridden twice the elevation and distance.
I totally accept I'll lose some of that bottom gear grinding stuff that is mostly leg strength. Right now that feels like a decent bargain because I'm having so much fun 🙂
Also I'm at the Gym 5 times a week. Strength/Core/Yoga/Cardio classes. So I kind of feel this is the right way to mix it up. Other opinions are obviously available 🙂
Just incase you don't know!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Dylan_controversy
Your garden has loads of trees.
The green paint sparkles. 🤩
"Did not want an ebike. Rode an ebike. Bought an ebike"
Amen
Your garden has loads of trees.
The green paint sparkles
Our garden does. That is not our garden 🙂
The paint is amazing. I like it so much I'm going to risk my marriage by asking my better half to help fit the invisiframe kit !
Hah, found it: https://www.pickled-hedgehog.com/plugged-in/
Four years ago my mild polemic on all that's wrong with ebiking. Oh how the mighty have fallen 🙂
After a week riding ebikes in the South Tyrol, I returned a changed man 🙂 At some point I'll list all the things I may have been wrong about, before my conversion to the Church of the E. Collected this at 2pm yesterday, two rides since, 1750m, 40km, significant giggling, ready for another ride tomorrow. It's like being 25 again. As a non e bike zealot until - well about last week - this is a bit hard to reconcile, but honestly I'm just having way too much fun to care:
I did look at the updated Orbea Rise (LT) as the one I rode on hols was pretty good. I really wanted something that would be like an e-5010. I did not want a plough heavyweight. After much dithering bought a Whyte eLyte RS from a local shop and two rides in I'm absolutely loving it.
The uphill stuff is obviously fantastic and I can't see when it'd get old. I've been maxing out my HR on climbs I've ridden 100s of times. Also ridden stuff I'd just avoided as it meant a repeated long climb that wasn't much fun the first time. Downhill this is such a fantastic bike. I kind of thing I prefer it to my Bronson which is a bit of a shock! Might be new bike glasses tho.
I do feel a bit guilty about "giving up" and I've no intention of selling my collection of none eBikes. Although that does mean I need to ride them. No way I would have ridden last night and today (and I'm pretty fit for my age) knowing there is a big ride tomorrow on a non E. Kind of game changing there.
Anyway after the first ride I was elbows deep in a decent red and wrote this. It's somewhere between a rationale for buying an E and some existential dread 😉 https://www.pickled-hedgehog.com/father-time-is-calling/
TLDR: Did not want an ebike. Rode an ebike. Bought an ebike. Currently. no regrets.
Noice.
Well already a mate has asked if I want to sell him my 5010 as "I'll never ride it". My plan is to pre him wrong!
Third consecutive ride today. Going to be a long one. Be interesting if my range calculations mirror the real world.
My take is your better on any bike than no bike and getting fresh air and exercise.
I just think if your young and fit or need to get fit they aren’t the best choice but if it’s the only way to motivate yourself to get out the door then :-).
Anyway I think we’ll all end on up on one as it beats sat in a chair watching daytime TV.
It’s not a for or against thing it’s a when thing 🙂
I've been riding my Druid a lot since I got the e-bike and it's still my favourite bike.
The e-bike helped drag me out of a major slump and get me into the routine of getting dressed and leaving the house.
My barrier to riding is more mental than physical and the e-bike gets me out on days when I would just wallow in my pit.
How’s the clearance on the BB/motor area? I looked at one of the Bosch SX e-lyte bikes. Quite fancied it, but the on sale bike I was looking at was sold before I had made my mind up!
@bonni - it's not great! I bashed it twice today on stuff I know is low. I think I can learn to ride round it, and it's sacrificial plastic so if I need to buy another one, that's okay as long as I don't damage the motor.
The low CofG thing tho is brilliant. It's such a natural bike to ride. We did 55km and 1400m of climbing today (E's and non E's) and I had 40% left so any range anxiety has gone!
I am also not close to death which is how these rides normally leave me. So I'm going to ride again tomorrow. Cannot remember when I rode 4 days in a row except on riding hols with uplifts or T2 gravel tours 😉
You don't have any non boost wheels for sale do you?😁
@Merak, sadly not, I have many wheels but all of them are boost!
A final update. 5 rides in 6 days. 4 of those with just other ebikes. One entirely in turbo for the climbs. Which was the furthest from my previous MTB experiences as you can get. Personal uplift vehicle. 10 runs across both sides of the (small) hill in 1hr20 riding time. Be lucky to do half of that on a non E.
The bashing of the motor skid plate has become less of an issue now I've set the sag at 28% not 38%. I misread the deliniations on the shock shaft 😉 It's firmed up the back end noticeably. but it's still both comfortably plush and impressively supportive. Esp since it's a "cooking" shock in terms of RS version.
Had one incident while attempting a powerful pedal stroke while rear tyre was on a damp root that had me exiting via the back door. Downhill I'm really enjoying it as well. That low CofG thing is giving me plenty of confidence in the corners.
Ordered the updated display from the place I bought it as a very fair discount. Swapped the DB8 pads for Epic Bleed e-bike specific and one ride in, they've improved feel and power. Not XT/MT5, but not so far away I'm going to change them for a bit. Would like to try it with my spare wheels shod with a Mary/Betty Combo but even tho they're all SRAM. the whyte is HG and the others XD! Hunt do a freehub that'll sort the problem.
Plenty more new trails/locations coming up in the next month. Then I'm going to get back on a non E bike to see how that feels. Probably on my own so my suffering will not be visible to others.
TLDR; it's ace. I'm back to loving riding even tho there's still a little bit of me feeling like I'm cheating.
